Posted on 08/25/2011 8:33:51 AM PDT by Maelstorm
Four years ago, the BBC decided to capitalize on the immense popularity of the long-running Doctor Who series by creating a spin-off called Torchwood.
Whereas Doctor Who is, apart from the intensity of its stories, safe for the whole family, producers said that Torchwood would be “dark, clever, wild, [and] sexy.” "Doctor Who for adults” is what they called it.
As a colleague wrote at the time, a better word to describe the show is “nihilistic” - it’s a judgment that’s reinforced by the show’s newest character.
While Torchwood is certainly dark, it’s rarely, if ever, been all that “clever,” especially when measured against the standard set by Doctor Who and other science fiction classics.
Instead, the show has substituted transgression for originality. Specifically, sexual transgression. The lead character, Captain Jack Harkness, can best be described as an “omni-sexual.” While the rest of his team, all but one of whom were killed, may not have successfully emulated his alien-fighting skills, they did manage to learn from his sexual example: extramarital affairs, same-sex experimentation were all in a day’s work for the Torchwood team.
For the fourth season, entitled “Miracle Day,” the writers ratcheted up the transgression: The newest character, Oswald Jones, is a pedophile. Yes, you heard me correctly.
Jones, played by actor Bill Pullman, is a convicted pedophile-murderer who is released on a technicality. While he’s far from the first pedophile to be depicted on television, he is undoubtedly the first depicted in a way that prompts the audience to root for him.
John Barrowman, the openly-gay actor who plays Harkness, said: “The interesting thing about [having a pedophile man character] that is that the audience is going to be torn, because they’re going to not like him for what he’s done - but they’re gonna like him.”
Let’s be clear, “liking him,” in the sense that Barrowman means is not the same as being able to see past Jones’ horrible crimes and understand that he is also created in the image of God. It’s not the same as believing that even the worst of sinners can repent and be transformed by the power of God.
It’s saying, “he may be a murderous pedophile but, you know what, he’s cool!” That’s not a matter of grace, that’s indifference. It’s a kind of kind of nihilism, where in the absence of moral truth, the kind that Christianity provided the West, we evaluate things by how this make us feel – in this case, whether they are entertaining.
For people who have come of age when what Freud once called “Totems and Taboo” are increasingly subject to revision, it’s hard to entertain people. As they say “been there, done that, got the t-shirt.” So we ratchet up the transgression.
Of course, there are limits: You couldn’t imagine Barrowman substituting “homophobe” for “pedophile” in what he said. After all, some things are beyond the politically correct pale at least.
And, lest we forget, there are people who insist that sex between adults and children can be consensual. Thankfully, public opinion is nowhere near that point. Yet. Because as we’ve seen, yesterday’s unthinkable taboos have a way of becoming today’s “alternative lifestyles.” It is a sad sign that our culture may be dying.
Why I’m sticking with Dr. Who ping.
Fresh from beating the Catholic Church to a pulp with the stick of pedophilia, the Kultursmog has turned immediately to the project of legitimating pedophilia.
As G.K.C. said, “Any stigma will do to beat a dogma.”
Why?
Bringing the show to America just has not carried on that good story line. However, this article misses the mark on the bill pullman character. My take is that the entire world is in such chaos that no one is thinking clearly and those who have poor judgement skills to begin with are attributing something miraculous to him. However, many people in the story also hate the man and one episode he was beaten by police officers before the public could get to him.
Ping to #5
I don’t know why anyone is surprised. Spending a few hours reading from mainstream homosexual writing it becomes fairly clear that marriage isn’t the only thing they want to redefine. This is why there has been such a push to lower age of consent by homosexuals.
All their TV programs are vehicles to totally transform worldview to the pagan/occult/atheist/Marxist one.
This one is more blatant because the watchers are already corrupted to a large extent....it is the final nail to remove all sexual morality—complete freedom with government endorsement and protection so that their worldview will be the only one allowed.
It is for total Transformation to make it legal for all sex acts—so degeneracy will destroy the family and civil society—create slaves to passion and drugs—and a total destruction of Biblical morality==that which makes civil societies and freedom possible. They don’t want people to be free. Slaves to passion and drugs will make it easy for them to get control of everything.
That forcing the word “pedophilia” into the marketplace—even with evil connotation...is used to normalize the idea. Repeat it over and over and people start thinking it is done all the time-—kind of, normal for people.
“Marketing of Evil” outlines how the deviants have been successful in removing morality from our conscience and actually transforming the belief systems to where now “evil is good” and “good is evil”.
What I found most interesting about watching series like Torchwood is the blatant biases plugged in to most everything. It also helped punctuate the same kind of stuff being done here in similar ways. From guns to the role of authority figures in public life.
Maybe my tinfoil is a bit too tight, but the methodology is too similar for mere coincidence.
I like dark and violent entertainment on occasion. It's one thing if they are taking a character like Sanctuary's Jack the Ripper and giving him a path to redemption, it's another if they just ACCEPT the behavior of a baby-raper.
I think I'll pass on the 4th installment of Torchwood...
My wife and I watched about three episodes of “Torchwood” and dumped it forever.
Fixed it
Dumbass homo.
Yeah but that beat down was did seem clearly intended to garner the character sympathy. That didn’t offend me so much because they did make clear that the man had no real feelings of guilt over what he had done. I just found the whole thing really disjointed and then throw in out of context homoerotica and it just seemed like a mess of a show. There is just not a lot to like and even the characters aren’t as compelling as in the original Torchwood. Anyway there is plenty of other good sci fi on lately. I’ve been enjoying Alphas, Eureka, Falling Skies, and Haven. :-)
The first season was actually pretty good.
When Jack was kissing men in season 2, I turned it off.
Enter this new abomination, where the stops are all out. You shall tolerate gratuitous, graphic, prolonged gay activity on-screen and like it!
Well, no.
And I will change channels when commercials for it pops up on any other network.
Here is additional reaction from another thread :
Discussing what I now call the Gay Softporn Handbook and Propaganda Manual BBC Show...
TW is just too adult for my tastes - too much weird sex stuff.
Maybe you can torrent the UK version.
19 July 2011
It appears that fans of the British version of Torchwood won’t be getting an eye full of Captain Jack Harkness and an unnamed barman despite the fact that it apparently already been broadcast in the US on STARZ. The BBC bosses thought it was too explicit. This, from the network that included a full on nudity scene involving a post-op transsexual in a movie exploring transsexuality.
The Sun reports that a source, which hopefully wasn’t hacked into by reporters working for News Corp, that the executives felt that the scenes were just too sexy to show primetime audiences. The source said “It wasn’t that it was a gay scene that worried people, but just the fact it was such an explicit sex scene, full stop. You can get away with scenes like that on American cable channels, but you can’t on primetime BBC1.
A BBC spokeswoman did confirm that this scene was cut along with another that they deemed to be too explicitly violent. She said “The UK and US versions of ‘Torchwood’ are slightly different. However, these differences do not change the story in any way and the strong storylines are first and foremost to the series.”
John Borrowman did promise show fans that the new series would be the sexiest yet, and it would include “man sex” and “full-on” nudity.
Because, in my case, stripped of the pervert component and advocacy (which adds nothing to the story) it is actually entertainment good enough to be among my favorite regular series.
As a vehicle for pervert propaganda, an otherwise entertaining series commited suicide.
R.I.P.
Kind of reminds me of our federal government : You don't like what?
I guess.
I read a lot of SF and fantasy. A few years ago I read a pair of linked novels that were well recommended on Amazon, I forget the name of the author now—a woman. It turned out that her hero was gay.
Very well written, dramatic, and satisfying, except for that one unfortunate fact right at the center of things. None of the reviews or blurbs had mentioned it.
So, I read on with mixed feelings, having bought the books. No complaints about style, drama, construction. But I won’t buy any more of her books.
Yeah I know what you mean. The original wasn’t so bad but the new one is not even to the edge. I agree it is gratuitous and that aside even the show just isn’t that compelling. They also had a very stupid side track with a Tea Party representative.
I wanted to like this but found early on I couldn’t stand it.
This series has the dubious honor of having one of the worst episodes of any television show i have ever seen It was called “Cyberwoman”. G*d it was baaad!
We have enjoyed Falling Skies but have to admit even that lacks in good writing. At times when you would expect them to be running or hiding they stand and discuss their feelings. ;^)
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