Children of Men: Day Five

[lesbiassparrow]

NOooooooo. Do not let the government do it! Better to go down fighting - you know the 456 will be back again. And again. THEY'RE JUNKIES. THAT'S WHAT JUNKIES DOOOOOO.

In conclusion: Send the files! It would be better to die as a species than kill off the weakest members of your society like that.

ETA: I can't believe the PM is really pushing for Frobisher's kids. DO YOU NOT THINK THIS WILL COME BACK TO HAUNT YOU? EVEN THE WORM TURNS SOMETIMES.

ETA 2: Frobisher! Oh my bloody god. This show certainly isn't scared of going dark. Just when you think it can't get worse, it does.

ETA 3: YES YOU DO HAVE A CHOICE. IT'S JUST FUCKING EASIER TO THINK OTHERWISE. AND IT ALLOWS YOU TO FORGIVE YOURSELF AFTERWARDS.

ETA 4: If these episodes have taught me anything, then it has taught me that a) Torchwood is useless and b) Captain Jack is all talk but is also useless.

ETA 5: I HATE YOU JACK. IT'S ALWAYS ABOUT YOU AND YOUR FUCKING MANPAIN AND I DON'T BELIEVE THAT THIS WAS THE ONLY WAY TO DO IT.

ETA 6: Jack? Eternity as the Face of Boe is what you deserve. If only that horrible woman in the cabinet could be there with you.


I am not sure I can watch this any longer. For real.

This is perhaps the darkest and best SciFi I have ever seen. It's unspeakably horrible and brilliant and marvellous.

Comments

[kalliopeia.livejournal.com]

It's horrifying, isn't it? I'm so torn about it because it was utterly brilliant, but it left me depressed and feeling kind of like I'd been kicked in the gut.

The first time I watched Day Five, I shook, literally, through the whole damn thing. It just kept getting more and more horrifying. I mean, I was a wreck anyway after Ianto dying, I probably should have waited longer to watch it. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it for three weeks. I gotta say though, Jack Harkness is now officially one of my all time favorite fictional characters.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I can't deal. It's so horrible. It just gets worse and worse and everyone is so horrible and compromised and FROBISHER SHOOTS HIS FAMILY.

[kalliopeia.livejournal.com]

I know. I knew that was coming, I'd read the spoilers, but I was still sitting there shaking going "Oh god, oh god, oh god." And the shots...I just about jumped out of my skin, even knowing it was coming. I don't know. Gwen and Rhys and Ianto's sister and brother in law trying to outrun the army with those kids and they start catching them....god. It was all so brilliant and horrible.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

And everyone is just insisting that they have no choice because you know they'd like to think that because it is easier for them. IT'S UNSPEAKABLY HORRIBLE.

This may well be the most painful thing I have ever watched.

[kalliopeia.livejournal.com]

I agree. And you know, I deliberately don't do intense, painful tv. I don't watch things like Oz or whatever. But I had to watch this because it was Torchwood, this thing that I loved so much, and it was just, like you said, unspeakably horrible.

That Prime Minister was REPTILIAN. And that cow that is all "Oh, I'll be taking charge of a lot of things from now on" was JUST AS BAD. They have you on video too, you bitch! Argh.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I WANT THEM ALL TO DIE IN A FIRE. BUT SLOWLY. THEY ARE ALL SO FUCKING HORRIBLE AND SHE WAS THE ONE WHO CAME UP WITH THE PLAN.

[kalliopeia.livejournal.com]

I did manage to spare a choked cheer through my tears for Bridget Spears though, right at the end. Maybe she'll nail that one horrible woman, too.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I can only hope there is a long range plan. That woman was equally as bad.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

And...you know it would pan out like this: we'd be more than happy to give them our low achievers and justify by saying that it's good for the world in the long run.

[kalliopeia.livejournal.com]

I know! THat's why it's so sickening....you're sitting there going NO NO but part of you is thinking that this is exactly how it would play out.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

And you see how everyone creates their own stories that lets them sleep at night.

I HAVE NEVER HATED FICTIONAL CHARACTERS SO MUCH. And I am glad Ianto died because no one should have to watch this happen to anyone.

[kalliopeia.livejournal.com]

Oddly, I can't hate Jack. I remember John Barrowman saying he was really worried that people would hate Jack after they watched this. I have a weakness for utterly broken characters, I guess, I ended up loving him more than I ever had.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

My sister is the same; she promised me I would not hate him at the end of this. And, yet, I can't help it: he was part of the first deal in the first place. Gah.

But he is at the end of list of other people. I've never seen so much innocuous looking evil on the screen at once. RTD must have spent a lot of time watching documentaries on the Nazis for this one.

[kalliopeia.livejournal.com]

I think I'm just so fascinated by Jack. Just, the inherent tragedy of what he is, and he's not a superhero, he's just a person who fucks up a lot. I don't know. I just can't help but love Jack, I just HURT for him so much.

And who'd have ever believed it would be Torchwood that did this? I loved the show, and I find it hard to believe.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I agree with you on Jack - I think with this they really did do something with exploring the character. What is it like to live forever when all you remember is an increasingly horrible past?

And, yes, if someone had told me before this that Torchwood was capable of doing this, I would have laughed at them. But, even though I never want to see this again, I want to buy the DVDs. Does that make sense?

[kalliopeia.livejournal.com]

It totally makes sense. You want to have this thing, even if you can't watch it, because it was so masterful. It's weird because I watched it all the week it aired in the UK, via downloads, and have been able to watch every episode again this week, even Ianto last night (though I did dissolve into choking, snorfling tears again, I won't lie), but I couldn't watch tonight's. I turned it on at the very end, right as Stephen is dying. I wanted to see the last scene again, as I think it might be my favorite scene from any tv show ever. John Barrowman was completely brilliant.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I feel bad for you re. Ianto but in terms of the character I think it would have killed him to see Jack make that choice. It was one of those shows where you think the dead are the lucky ones. In the end I kept thinking Gwen would be better off not facing the future, even with baby.

[kalliopeia.livejournal.com]

You're probably right. I just can't help but think....if Ianto hadn't died, Jack wouldn't have given up completely like he did (for awhile), and maybe might have had time to think of another way. But, maybe not.

I wish that Dekker guy would have died. How unfair is it that HE was the only one from Thames House to live?? HIM and not Ianto!

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

With Dekker I was thinking that it was true to life: it's not decent people trying to do the right thing that survive but the bureaucrats who disavow all responsibility. Because they never risk themselves.

(Also: I have been watching Spooks/MI-5 and a mad virus would be a great relief for Tom Quinn and Lucas Shaw's manpain. They'd probably welcome it.)

[kalliopeia.livejournal.com]

It was totally true to life, it just pissed me off. :) He was so vile, almost gleeful about the prospect of Stephen dying.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

A bit like how that horrible woman was when she came up with the 'solution' for where to get the kids. I have an intense hatred for so many people in this it scares me.

[queenthesixth.livejournal.com]

I thought the mini-series was brilliant. I mean, I was sitting there horrified and afraid of what was coming next, but with a lot of shows, that reaction would have made me turn over in haste. But this...this gripped me. I had to watch to the end to see how it ended. And the cabinet meeting about the school league tables was so cold. Because in the end, human beings are just as scary as the big bad aliens. Personally, I love a show that has the balls to go all out and have the hero sacrificing someone or something close to them, obstensibly for the greater good. If it had been badly handled or acted or directed, it would have fallen flat but I think they did fantastically with the material.

I like Jack but I've always thought him a very ineffectual leader. Season 1 of Torchwood always bothered me because he never seemed to step up and really lead his team. Whether that was intentional or just how I percieved it, I don't know. So I wasn't really surprised to see him do a bunk at the end.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Because in the end, human beings are just as scary as the big bad aliens.

Yes. They weren't shy about just piling it on - you kept thinking that someone would say something -anything - but it never happened. Not even when they discovered that essentially they were shipping the kids off to be drugs. Which means that the 456 clearly would keep coming back and they'd be doing this over and over.

I like Jack but I've always thought him a very ineffectual leader.

He's always just got by on charm and bravado. And then with this one you see what an utter bastard he has been (handing over the initial 12, for one) and is. Which was brilliant - he's supposed to be the hero but he always ends up sacrificing someone else, not himself.

[sassachusetts.livejournal.com]

You know, I wasn't at all sold on Torchwood: No, It's Actually Really Good, No, It Is, Stop Laughing, but then I saw the last hour. Wow.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

When people were going on about this being really, honestly good I kept thinking "you mean good for Torchwood." The last hour was just horribly brilliant TV.

[aikakone.livejournal.com]

You know, I was all excited because I thought you were posting about Children of Men, the awesome Clive Owen movie from a few years back.

Curse you for tricking me with your whiles! *shakes fist angrily*

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Sorry about that - I keep forgetting that this was called Children of Earth. Anyway, it was still amazing; I highly recommend it.