Shorter Torchwood

[rivkat]

Anyone who champions public virtue or government action is actually corrupt (not even excepting our heroes, which is at least a variation). 

This attitude is not all that shocking or uncommon--see this NYT article--and certainly caution is warranted.  But how I wish I could see a pop culture portrayal of a public official who wasn't a cop or a prosecutor who was seriously invested in doing the right thing for the right reasons.  I know some!  It's not made up!

Comments

[cofax7]

You're not exactly selling me on this show, I must admit…

[rivkat]

I don't really think I'm trying. There's talent behind it, but I've always had at best an ambiguous reaction.

Oddly, Covert Affairs also surprised me with a corporatist turn--obviously I expect a show about the CIA to be pro-CIA, but suddenly big oil is our friend too? I'm starting to suspect side payments from certain interests.

[samjohnsson]

CA's had some weird turns, but it honestly didn't feel so corporatist to me - Big Oil didn't feel so much as befriended as much as scenery that has enough funding for a horribly corrupt exec to scam. Plus, outside-of-US company, so there can actually be a CIA agent nosing around it.

Torchwood on the other hand, is turning out to just be badly paced. Unless they've got one hell of a turn coming up in the last few eps, I may very well end my mental canon at the end of s2.

[rivkat]

We did get the oil company being called out as having the "best" safety record among majors (which is sort of like being the shortest player on the average NBA team), and the social justice concerns--which sounded like they were about land displacement, not safety as such--were just a cover for greed, which was what I reacted badly to.

[samjohnsson]

Fair. "Best oil company" isn't a prize anyone really wants to win, really.

[epershand]

[n.b. I haven't seen any of Miracle Day yet.]

Hmmm. I thought there were some people in Children of Earth who were both government officials and doing the right things for the right reasons. TBF, a big fraction of them ended up dead, but it ended with bureaucrats taking a firm command to do things for the right reason, and put women in a position of power in that situation, which I liked.

Although CoE also had that narrative arc about the bureaucracy vs. the government where the bureaucracy had long-term goals and did bad things to achieve good things in the long term, and the government had short-term goals and did horrible things without thinking about the long term.

[rivkat]

Yeah, my comments are specific to US Torchwood, which I think says something about US TV production.

[vass]

But how I wish I could see a pop culture portrayal of a public official who wasn't a cop or a prosecutor who was seriously invested in doing the right thing for the right reasons.

Sometimes they're portrayed that way, then either they're murdered by corrupt government forces who hate their integrity, or else they become disillusioned and turn evil.