I haven't watched Torchwood much before this season, so I'll give you the background I know. For Doctor Who fans, you know already that Torchwood is an offshoot of Doctor Who, so it's going to have slightly more fantasy undertones than most American TV shows. Fantasy/Sci fi really. Anyway, Torchwood is the group that tries to fix crap when the Doctor doesn't show up to save the world. As Gwen says, quite beautifully at one point, “You know, I used to wonder why the Doctor wouldn't show up sometimes. But now I think I know. Sometimes he must look down at us and see what we can do to each other and be filled with disappointment.” Or something similar, anyway.
Torchwood seems to be the more adult version of Doctor Who, with no magic phone box, and more real-world and darker problems. In this season, The Miracle occurs.. or so it seems to be at first. The Miracle is an event that occurs one day, that makes everyone more than just immortal. You simply cannot die. It's a lot like what happens to Jack before the Miracle- he lives again.. and again.. and again. You feel the deaths. You feel the pain. But you come back. At first it seems like an amazing beautiful thing.. But then the darker side of the “Miracle” shows up.
People burnt to a skeleton with eyes are still breathing. When you cut off their head they still blink. A woman was shaken by her husband, and when she didn't die, when her neck snapped, he kept shaking her because she was still alive until her brain turned into Jello... And the cops weren't allowed to do anything about it because “Attempted Murder” no longer exists when no one can die.
Then the Tea Party starts an idea. “Dead is Dead”. Basically, they think people should shun the people who should have died via heart attack, or trauma (Rex, a main character, had a pole go through his chest, it still ruptures and bleeds for at least half the season til it finally heals itself). People who should be dead will supposedly die because they are not meant to be alive. This idea mutates as the population grows and the world starts realizing problems, like the fact that there are still births and the population is still growing.. But there's no one dying to balance it out.
So, PhiCorp and some of the governments come up with these ideas for “Camps”. There are Category Ones, Category Twos and Category Threes. Category Ones I believe are the ones who should be dead, or have an illness that will kill them, like cancer.. Or have reoccuring heart attacks, like Gwen's father. They will send the category 1's to these camps and “sort out the mess”. An episode later it is discovered that the Category 1's are simply shoved in ovens and burnt to sand. A woman who was actually alive, well, and was going to go to the world with information about how people with no insurance were being “misfiled” as Category 1's was shot 4 times by the guy who ran the place, who snapped, and shoved in an oven. The man she loved had to watch her burn and record it because he couldn't save her.
Obviously, the Miracle isn't all that wonderful or beautiful. And to me, this has a lot of important connotations people should pay attention to... There are verrrrrrry obvious symbols, points, etc.. Like PhiCorp having stocked up on medication to make bank on the illness that would occur when the Miracle occurs. The fact that people without health insurance are treated as if they're dead. For a British show it really has a good point for Americans too, about how Health Care is corrupt and it's obscene how corrupt it really is. Or maybe how humans, how we have the ability as people, just like everyone else on the planet, to shut off our ability to empathize with our fellow man.
This is something I've observed myself as someone who happens to be homeless. Legally, anyway. I now have a roof over my head, but I still don't have a legal address.. and I see how people I know are treated, or people on the street are treated. I see how people think. It's pretty similar, it's a very dark, scary concept that we have the ability to just filter our mind to see individuals as part of a group.. And said group as less than we are, and thus less than human/less deserving.
This starts out in high school, I suppose, though not nearly as effectively. It mutates with age to become groups we dislike. I find myself doing it occasionally, though I know I do it less than a lot of people out there. And yes, I do see the irony in the fact that I distance myself from humanity to such a degree that I can think of people, all people, as them, and myself as me.
We're an arrogant bunch. We really are. We like thinking of ourselves as Kings of our own world. I forget some of the terminology, forgive me, I intend to go to college in the fall, but basically it has to do with the fact that every single person, every single individual person sees the same world in a different light. A different way. No two people will experience life in the same way, not even the same way on the same day. We're fucking complicated.
Due to that, we have a hard time I guess seeing our own flaws, our own failures.. Admitting that we too, make mistakes. But, that's a tale and a conversation for another time.
When we have to survive, it is very easy for us to adapt into an us or them mentality. Whether that is in terms of Category Ones and being okay with someone who accidentally tripped down a flight of stairs being shoved in an oven because “They should be dead” and “I'd rather it be them than me/mine”, or in an actual battle situation it's you vs someone that wants to kill you, it is the same effect.
Now, that also changes, the first part does anyway, with whether it's someone you personally know and care about or not. It's harder to distance yourself from someone you've gotten to know. I try to get to know as many people as I can. I obviously filter them when I realize we don't see eye to eye or we are not a good mental match for each other, but getting to know other humans enriches your own experience. And that's coming from someone with “Generalized Anxiety Disorder” according to a therapist/whatever person, and someone who knows very well she has an issue with people as a whole.
Perhaps that's why I like this show so much. I'm a very dark, blunt person when it comes to bringing about a point. I see things in imagery, and so I try to share and use examples that bring clarity. This show is very in your face about how the world would really be if something like that happened, and I think it's a good wakeup call about the health care industry.
Torchwood seems to be the more adult version of Doctor Who, with no magic phone box, and more real-world and darker problems. In this season, The Miracle occurs.. or so it seems to be at first. The Miracle is an event that occurs one day, that makes everyone more than just immortal. You simply cannot die. It's a lot like what happens to Jack before the Miracle- he lives again.. and again.. and again. You feel the deaths. You feel the pain. But you come back. At first it seems like an amazing beautiful thing.. But then the darker side of the “Miracle” shows up.
People burnt to a skeleton with eyes are still breathing. When you cut off their head they still blink. A woman was shaken by her husband, and when she didn't die, when her neck snapped, he kept shaking her because she was still alive until her brain turned into Jello... And the cops weren't allowed to do anything about it because “Attempted Murder” no longer exists when no one can die.
Then the Tea Party starts an idea. “Dead is Dead”. Basically, they think people should shun the people who should have died via heart attack, or trauma (Rex, a main character, had a pole go through his chest, it still ruptures and bleeds for at least half the season til it finally heals itself). People who should be dead will supposedly die because they are not meant to be alive. This idea mutates as the population grows and the world starts realizing problems, like the fact that there are still births and the population is still growing.. But there's no one dying to balance it out.
So, PhiCorp and some of the governments come up with these ideas for “Camps”. There are Category Ones, Category Twos and Category Threes. Category Ones I believe are the ones who should be dead, or have an illness that will kill them, like cancer.. Or have reoccuring heart attacks, like Gwen's father. They will send the category 1's to these camps and “sort out the mess”. An episode later it is discovered that the Category 1's are simply shoved in ovens and burnt to sand. A woman who was actually alive, well, and was going to go to the world with information about how people with no insurance were being “misfiled” as Category 1's was shot 4 times by the guy who ran the place, who snapped, and shoved in an oven. The man she loved had to watch her burn and record it because he couldn't save her.
Obviously, the Miracle isn't all that wonderful or beautiful. And to me, this has a lot of important connotations people should pay attention to... There are verrrrrrry obvious symbols, points, etc.. Like PhiCorp having stocked up on medication to make bank on the illness that would occur when the Miracle occurs. The fact that people without health insurance are treated as if they're dead. For a British show it really has a good point for Americans too, about how Health Care is corrupt and it's obscene how corrupt it really is. Or maybe how humans, how we have the ability as people, just like everyone else on the planet, to shut off our ability to empathize with our fellow man.
This is something I've observed myself as someone who happens to be homeless. Legally, anyway. I now have a roof over my head, but I still don't have a legal address.. and I see how people I know are treated, or people on the street are treated. I see how people think. It's pretty similar, it's a very dark, scary concept that we have the ability to just filter our mind to see individuals as part of a group.. And said group as less than we are, and thus less than human/less deserving.
This starts out in high school, I suppose, though not nearly as effectively. It mutates with age to become groups we dislike. I find myself doing it occasionally, though I know I do it less than a lot of people out there. And yes, I do see the irony in the fact that I distance myself from humanity to such a degree that I can think of people, all people, as them, and myself as me.
We're an arrogant bunch. We really are. We like thinking of ourselves as Kings of our own world. I forget some of the terminology, forgive me, I intend to go to college in the fall, but basically it has to do with the fact that every single person, every single individual person sees the same world in a different light. A different way. No two people will experience life in the same way, not even the same way on the same day. We're fucking complicated.
Due to that, we have a hard time I guess seeing our own flaws, our own failures.. Admitting that we too, make mistakes. But, that's a tale and a conversation for another time.
When we have to survive, it is very easy for us to adapt into an us or them mentality. Whether that is in terms of Category Ones and being okay with someone who accidentally tripped down a flight of stairs being shoved in an oven because “They should be dead” and “I'd rather it be them than me/mine”, or in an actual battle situation it's you vs someone that wants to kill you, it is the same effect.
Now, that also changes, the first part does anyway, with whether it's someone you personally know and care about or not. It's harder to distance yourself from someone you've gotten to know. I try to get to know as many people as I can. I obviously filter them when I realize we don't see eye to eye or we are not a good mental match for each other, but getting to know other humans enriches your own experience. And that's coming from someone with “Generalized Anxiety Disorder” according to a therapist/whatever person, and someone who knows very well she has an issue with people as a whole.
Perhaps that's why I like this show so much. I'm a very dark, blunt person when it comes to bringing about a point. I see things in imagery, and so I try to share and use examples that bring clarity. This show is very in your face about how the world would really be if something like that happened, and I think it's a good wakeup call about the health care industry.
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