The new season of Torchwood, the American version, kicks off tomorrow night. I have mixed feelings about the show’s new season. I’m looking forward to another series of sci-fi episodes mixed with a nice dose of guy on guy sex. I’m not looking forward to a new season of Captain Jack sans Ianto.
I’d heard about Torchwood, vaguely, for several years but nothing was so enticing that I just had to rush out and find copies of the first three seasons. But then while in Siem Reap browsing through a pirated DVD shop I found the first two seasons, offered at less than a buck a disc, and thought I should give them a try. First season, first episode, one of the main characters, Owen, uses an alien gas to nab a fish for the night and then sprays her boyfriend too, deciding a bit of man meat might also be in order. I was hooked. And the sci-fi end of things was pretty cool too.
For Americans who have not seen the show, it is a BBC spin-off from the long running Dr. Who series. Captain Jack runs Torchwood, a semi-secret agency separate from the government (blah, blah, blah) tasked with dealing with all the aliens who slip through the rift into our world. Well, into the Welsh world of Cardiff at least. Jack is omnisexual, though as the show progresses his sexual escapades are mostly with guys. The show is produced by Russell T. Davies, the man responsible for Queer As Folk, though the queer folk in Torchwood are treated as routine characters; there is no big brouhaha made over same sex dalliances. That attitude, along with the aliens, make the show enjoyable to watch.
If you have not seen the previous seasons, then I’m going to ruin a major plot line for you. Live with it. The show’s hero, Jack, ends up in an almost committed relationship with one of the Torchwood crew, Ianto. When we first meet Ianto he’s a straight laced lackey, kinda serving as a butler to the group. Young, tall, dark, handsome, and a dour sense of humor, the first episodes in which he plays a central part involves his girlfriend. Kind of. Not the introduction you’d expect for a gay character. As time goes on, he and Captain Jack begin a bromance that ends in romance until the end of the third season when Ianto gets killed by a group of aliens, the 456, who try to abduct the children of the earth to use as a party drug. Yup, the 456 would have a happy home in Pattaya.
Fans were outraged over Ianto’s death and demanded he be brought back to life. Davies said that would not happen as it would demean the character, ignoring that Captain Jack dies and lives again at least once in almost every episode, Owen died and then played out the next season and a half, and even the first Torchwood dead body, Suzie, was brought back to life in a subsequent season. I’m still pissed, too. Ianto was cute, his relationship with Capt. Jack adorable. The same dramatic effect could have been achieved by knocking off the gap toothed fish, Gwen, instead.
So the new season is set to start, Ianto-less. And the British TV show is now being filmed in the U.S., a co-production between the BBC and the American cable network Starz. It’s no longer based in Cardiff either. While the producers rave about a bigger budget, helicopters, and explosives, fans worry that the flavor of the show will change and that the show’s gayness will change along with it.
According to John Barrowman, the out actor who plays Captain Jack, the opposite is true. “I’m naked in one episode – I am full-on naked. I am bumping and grinding in this one. I am having man sex,” he reports adding that some of what they filmed is too racy for broadcast on the BBC, but is fine on a pay premium like Starz. “One day, I get to shoot a helicopter and save the world, and a couple of days later, I get to have sex with a 24-year-old. It’s the most perfect job in the world.”
“Jack’s still omnisexual,” Barrowman says, “but people will watch this series and think he’s completely gay.” That’s good, but it is the kind of gay that concerns me. Gay characters on TV are not unheard of, there are several shows on now that feature gay characters in major roles. And that’s nothing new. The gay press goes gaga over any show that includes recurring gay characters, regardless of how those characters represent us. Unfortunately, the majority are stereotypical gay portrayals that promote the gay as a queen school of thought. Sure nowadays they always make sure to stress the underlying dignity of the character, but it’s still a case of presenting gays to the general public as flamboyant fems. And the general public is comfortable with that. Especially when the part is played for laughs. I don’t think that is really scoring a point for gay pride.
Ianto and Jack’s relationship, on the other hand, was about two men – I mean real men – attracted to each other and in love. Their interaction with each other was intimate and cute. And not in the least bit fem. It was an honest portrayal of two guys who just happen to be in love with each other. And they actually had sex, which is often never mentioned with most gay characters on TV.
Jack’s other gay interludes on the show also followed a similar vein, masculine characters who just happen to like a bit of man meat. So there is hope, even with Ianto gone. It’s nice to know the new season will not shy away from Capt. Jack’s gay leanings, I just hope they stay true to what has come before and don’t water down new gay characters to the type of queen American audiences have come to accept as the norm.
Stry said:
I only saw a few episodes of Torchwood (a few years ago), so I can’t add to, or disagree with, anything that you have said. Having read your review of the series here, I might go back now and look at the whole series.
In general, I have not tended to enjoy the American remakes (or versions) of British television series, as much as I liked the originals (I should say, of certain British series). I really did like the British series SKINS (teenagers going through puberty/last year of “highschool”), especially the first season and did not like the American version at all (almost from the first episode….I only watched a couple). I also liked the British series BEING HUMAN (ghost, werewolf, vampire living together), again especially the first season, but just couldn’t get it up for the American version.
It’s not so much that I think that I’ve seen the stories before (a well done remake can be enjoyable). It’s just that when certain shows are done over with “American sensibilites”, this often means that much of what I enjoyed in the European version, ends up watered down (diluted; not the same) in the American remake.
You hit it right on the head with your assessment of the way that Gays are often portrayed on screen in the US. There are a lot more gay roles in the movies and on television now, and that’s wonderful, and as it should be. But I would like to see more roles where the gay dude is just a “regular man”, that happens to like to get it on with other “regular men” (and who doesn’t fall into any of the other stereotypes that are often hoisted onto gay characters). “Gay character” shouldn’t automatically mean “gay stereotype”.
Another difference between European and American “sensibilities” on screen that peeves me: The comfort level with nudity (particularly male nudity), as just a natural part of the story (and of life). Casual nudity is a lot more common now on screen (in America) than it was years ago, but it still often seems to be there for the “shock value” of the moment. (The abundant male nudity in Queer As Folk and Sex In The City not withstanding.)
Thanks for a good, thought provoking post.
dropdeadguys said:
Thanks for your thoughts Stry,
I’m with you; the Americanized version of British shows seldom measure up. I’m hoping in this case, since it is a continuation rather than remake, they get it right. My only problem with British shows is that I have to watch with subtitles on; you’d think by now they’d learn how to speak English. 🙂
“Gay character” shouldn’t automatically mean “gay stereotype”. Nicely done, succinctly makes the point I rambled on over.
Thanks!
Jeffrey Monsoon said:
I’ve got to say, I didn’t much care for the first episode. I thought the Mekhi Phifer character was way over the top, (here in LA, if a black guy showed his CIA ID and tried to take a cab from an asian cabbie he would be run over). I wanted to give it a chance though, because I’ve loved the previous seasons so much. I cried like a little girl when Ianto died, and one of my favorite TV scenes of all time was the bar fight/make out session with James Marsters.
(spoiler alert)
Now that I’ve seen the second episode, I’ve got to say I’m getting the good feeling back. Jack being mortal is a nice plot line, Mekhi seems to be calming down, and the female CIA agent with her head on backwards is pure Torchwood comic relief. I did want to see the Flight Attendant naked, but I guess I cant have everything. I read or saw an interview with John Barrowman where he says we’ll get to see plenty of Capt. Jack action, and it’s on Starz, the home of Sparticus, so I’m counting on it.
dropdeadguys said:
Glad to hear you are behind the show Jeffrey. I’m stil waiting. Two episodes down and no male on male action yet – they’re slipping. And Mekhl really needs to quit emoting so much. I keep expecting him to stop and do a Jon Lovitz: “Acting!”
But the seeds are there: Snipping all the neck cords on the bombed & flattened not dead guy was priceless . . . you knew the head would still move, but part of you still was saying, “Nah, they wouldn’t.” And Bill Pullman is great, creepy, and I start smiling everytime he comes on the screen.
(I cried when Ianto died too . . . don’t tell anyone!)