Torchwood 2.5 Broken (spoilers)

I loved this story. I've always been a critic of the consistency of the first two series of Torchwood. Character recovers from life-shattering events easily, hop in and out of each others beds with little consequence and we never get a tonal consistency. Owen even date-rapes people in our introduction to him and he's one of the "good guys". What we have here is something that I though the show always needed - a reason for Ianto to actually exist.

Tying it so closely to TV episodes like Cyberwoman and Countrycide was a bold move as they're not terribly popular episodes but what it allows is for, essentially, this story to become like a coda to each of those episodes. Ianto suffering real PTSD on top of already going through grief is a much more interesting way of reacting to events. Torchwood's first year especially thought "adult" meant sex and swearing when, actually, this kind of pathos is much more adult that anything there.

I wasn't sold on the portal stuff, honestly, and was a little bit let down when it turned out to be a sci-fi story as it was working so well as a character piece. With a bit of reworking, you could drop the alien stuff and have Jack retconning the barmaid be the event that drives the wedge between him and Ianto. The "let's be friends with benefits" thing comes off a bit clunky but it's kinda got to - that's where the TV show has them next and it's only CoE that sees them a full fledged couple. It's also made clear that neither believes just casually sleeping together is healthy but that since they're "broken", both of them, they may as well do what feels good in the moment. That's so much more real, and much more like many relationships, than trying to retcon their story into a loving one when, at this point, it patently wasn't.

You know..on screen I never cared for Ianto. But his two audios have been just fantastic. Niggles, sure, but that's gonna be the case when you have the frustrating Series 1 an 2 as your source. I honestly think Big Finish do Torchwood better than Chibnall ever did.

I re-listened to this one yesterday and I have to say I loved it more than the first time. I thought Ianto's character was really well-developed in the story. Loved the way Jack assumed that Ianto knew nothing about the disappearance's and meanwhile Ianto was figuring it out all along. I thought Ianto's reactions to everything he went through and the way things developed was very true to life.

Ah, I'm not sure it would have been very Torchwood to not have something like that in it.
 

I don't half fancy an omelette now though.

Isn't that why it's called Broken though? Ianto is broken, Jack is broken and they're deciding to be Broken together and see what comes of it. It's perfectly in keeping with the relationship they have in Series 2 of the show where this is set.  I think what you're saying is implicit is actually explicit and is really the point of the piece.

And no, I'd say Ianto was clearly in love with Lisa. Not very sure where you get the idea Ianto was somehow denying he was as a gay man to be with her? I've rewatched Series 1 and 2 and...it's not in the show. He's bisexual - to be with Jack doesn't mean what he had with Lisa is any less meaningful or valid to him and vice versa.

I think it's one of the best, most profound things Joe has ever written and can't praise his handling of it highly enough. It's one of the few BF releases that I've heard that capture some real, rather than ideal, aspects of relationships I've been in. Where "This'll do, because it's here" is all you have in the moment.  

I only just heard the audio yesterday and then read the thread.

So in light of recent comments I gave this a relisten and I'm sorry to say my opinions haven't changed.

I sincerely apologize if they've unintentionally offended anyone.

Kind Regards

mark687

Only 'most'?, must try harder.