Rate and Discuss 4.4: Escape to L.A.

[Anthony Williams]

Welp, it's aired over here in the US, so I'm opening up the discussion for this episode now

[Awesome Wells]

*MASSIVE IMPROVEMENT ON PREVIOUS EPISODE KLAXON*

Easily the best-scripted episode yet. I laughed out loud several times during this episode; most notably (and oddly) at "It's a woman ... she's on a rampage ... a crazy woman."

[Rob McCow]

*Ignoring Awesome comment above*

I'm really looking forward to this. We visited L.A. earlier this year so I'm hoping to recognise some of the locations! Si thought he spotted LAX in episode 2, but it turned out they'd flown into Washington.

[Awesome Wells]

*Ignoring Awesome comment above*

Oh dear. Sorry, I thought it was okay to comment. I haven't given anything away about it - except one out of context line...

[Rob McCow]

No no! It's perfectly fine to comment, it's me sticking my nose in here that's unusual. More often I stay away from spoilery threads!

Actually, the way things are going I'd be happy to have Torchwood spoiled. Tell me what happens!

[Anthony Williams]

I might get round to post my review tomorrow night...

[Dino]

I might get round to post my review tomorrow night...

Could you possibly make it Friday please? Or is that wink too suggestive?
It'll be in black tags won't it anyway.

[Anthony Williams]

It'll be in black tags won't it anyway.

Nope! If you want to avoid spoilers, don't look in this thread!

[Alex]

Bored now. I don't care about any of the family stuff (especially blondie, who's just an incredibly irritating character now - I mean when she reported her Sister, who wouldn't even let her in to the house, what did she think was going to happen?) and they even wasted Bill Pullman this week, and the direction it's taking with his character seems ludicrous - however panicked people are, would they really trust this horrendous human being?

As for the rest of it, the break in was dull, the torture scene teased without giving any anwers, Rex's attempts at climbing stairs was laughable, and the 'cliffhanger' was the poorest yet. Even the dialogue, which has been the show's saving grace at times, was horribly flat too. A pointless episode really, where we learnt nothing and nothing exciting took place.

4/10 - I really hope it ups it's game soon, or I'll lose interest.

[Anthony Williams]

Note: I forgot to add a poll. I'm about to dash out, can one of the mods please add one?

Thanks!

[SiHart]

I can't- I've tried!

[Anthony Williams]

Done, but I haven't added anything witty in yet. Mostly because I'm not very good at it.

Also, a reminder to people: this is a spoiler thread. There is no need to use spoiler tags. People enter at their own risk.

[Dino]

I voted a ten. Normally that's accompanied by ten reasons, and they will come! Instead I've noticed a different thing...
You might of heard about the series Lexx and it's reputation as not very serious plotlines? As a lexx fan I feel they cracked it with their third series. (The same standard as Children Of Eath, even though CoE was better.)
I really loved the epic final series where they landed on present day Canada pretending to be America. There is an episode of that series from 2001 called "Stan Down". In involves a recreation of the assassination of JKF, only
The President's wife gets shot and Orlando is blown up.

I bring this up as "Stan Down" was the fourth episode in that series like tonights was. It stopped laying down the plot at a slower pace and picked up and took the story further.
I can imagine Torchwood fans who don't think this series is not up to the standard they expect, (And I agree with their thinking, but I am enjoying this show!) being a lot like the fans of Lexx who thought the 4th series was the weakest.

This is the best episode since it came back.

[Larry]

thought this episode was an improvement on last weeks which was a bit slow going but Escape to LA, things seem to be moving on a pace .

[Andrew Curnow]

Next week's looks really good, so I'm still hoping this is going to become unmissable, edge-of-the-seat telly. But for now...

I don't know, it just doesn't seem to have really gelled somehow. All Thursday's episode seemed to be based around getting that server, which went from never having been mentioned before to the most important thing in the universe. I know it was almost just a 'MacGuffin' to justify a bit of undercover shenanigans, but the whole thing was a bit naff - the elaborate security system which just one guy (what, in the entire company??) can open. And was I the only one who expected the door to, say, close securely behind you once you've entered? I was anticipating some drama as Rex got to the top of the last flight of stairs, but found the door was closed and he could only watch in horror through the glass as something exciting happened for a change... but no, he managed to get through because (presumably) the door was just casually left ajar (that clever Chinese programmer has heard of retinal prints but not sprung hinges?!) so that he could go in and shoot the bad guy. And to add insult to injury, he shoots him through the throat - why would you do that as a priority other than for the dramatic reason of stopping him spilling the beans at the vital moment?

Another thing that sort of jarred for me was Jilly's first appearance, where she starts off despising Oswald. That seems a perfectly natural reaction, except there's been no sign of that AT ALL in the preceding episodes.

I'm not hating it, but I'm not yet loving it, it's fast becoming a regular appointment with mild disappointment every Thursday.

(By contrast, part 2 of Children of Earth was about little more than waiting for Jack to be alive again, so was in a sense just padding - yet it was far more exciting, and gripping, and involving, and just plain entertaining, than this equally paddy episode.)

Maybe episode 5 is where everything changes, so I've gotta be ready!

[Si Hunt]

This was a big improvement on the previous episode. I'm finding that, deep within this, there is a strain of tension making me want to see what's coming next. Okay, it's largely all sub plots but they are mercilessly teasing us with what we don't know that it made it very enjoyable. I liked the "Dead is Dead" woman and her chilling non-death by crushing; you knew it was coming but the single blinking eye worked brilliantly. It was like when the chap got shot; suddenly death, or rather the means of death, is somehow more frightening than when it was just death. If that bit-part was going to get gunned down, I really wouldn't have cared that much. But I suddenly found myself thinking "Ooh, shot in the throat and still living... that's nasty".

The bits with Rhys are beginning to annoy me, it's like they want to employ the actor so his little insert scenes, no doubt shot cheaply in Wales, are shoehorned in every 20 minutes. Have I ever met Gwen's Dad? Do I care that he's going into a home or whatever? No, I do not.

I liked all the undercover stuff, even though it sort of felt a bit pointless given you knew the bad guys were on to them. And I was a bit mystified by the magical Server as well. Was the idea that if they replaced the Server with an identical one, no-one would miss it? That would work for a shiny car outside a house, but a server is more visible surely by its appearance on various networks than by someone checking the actual box was in a big store room, so surely it would be missed the minute someone tried to log on to it? And if the firewalls giving access to the server were so inpenetrable, surely it would have an equal amount of security preventing direct log on to it? So why would it help to have it sitting in the room with you?

Nevertheless, there was lots here to entertain, and driving the whole thing was the intriguing mystery of who's behind it (mention of a "family" made the Family of Blood cross my mind, but surely not). And throughout it all we are given only one clue to their identity, a single, illuminated triangle, revealing the true, shadowey people behind the Miracle... pop group Pink Floyd.

Si.

[SiHart]

Really must watch it this at some point...

[Rob McCow]

But you gotta be ready Si! This is MASSIVE.

[Rob McCow]

The more brilliant Torchwood gets, the more awful it gets.

Same as the previous weeks really - Bill Pullman is amazing, Jack and Gwen aren't in it much, the new team Torchwood are pretty good.

The worst bit was the old 'I'm about to tell you who the villains are... here I go... ARGH!' I cannot believe they did that!

[SiHart]

It was quite good.

[Awesome Wells]

It was quite good.

Damningly faint praise, Si...

[SiHart]

OK, well I enjoyed it. It was better than I expected and although i don't think of the much team in general, this episode felt more like Torchwood than any of the other episodes have. Whether that's a good thing is open to debate...