Claudius as a mob boss! That's a connection I've never made before, but it does work well. Though the whole "revenge" theme is still very relevant in this day and age, I kind of thought that the whole struggle over kingship was a little outdated (or maybe I'm just spoiled, living in the US of A?) A friend actually suggested that someone do a modern adaption of Hamlet with them crazy Columbian drug lords instead of kings. I totally agree, though one might run into problems with all the references to 'kings' and such.
It's funny: the stereotypical way for a Bad Guy to become such is to kill his father/brother/lover for the throne, but people ignore the fact that a lot of the kings and rulers we hail as pretty cool actually did commit patri- or matri- or fratri-cide to get the throne (and if they're really cool, they committed all three). Yes, he was a little of a ruthless bastard, but I agree with you in that Claudius would have done a MUCH better job as king.
Orchestral? Oh, I'm jealous. For some reason, every Shakespeare production I see is haunted by the spectre of awful music. Macbeth, it was people literally banging metal sheets together (the type you might roof your shed with); As You Like It was supposedly-futuristic-but-really-crap GarageBand drivel; the rest, just noise. (What is it about good old Will that urges people to experiment?)
I was wondering what more substance we could get of Ianto's backstory from these writers, but I did enjoy what it turned out to be. Being a clear fan-favorite, I'm actually surprised that none of the writers seem to be very adept at giving him a life outside Torchwood, but at the same time I'm kind of glad about it. I mean, we've all seen Cyberwoman; clearly, Bad Things Happen when they try. I have a feeling the whole reason why people like him (and his relationship with Jack) so much is that that the writers haven't tried to stuff anything down our throats - they just left David-Lloyd to do his thing. And it's a good thing.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2008-06-04 11:27 pm (UTC)Though the whole "revenge" theme is still very relevant in this day and age, I kind of thought that the whole struggle over kingship was a little outdated (or maybe I'm just spoiled, living in the US of A?) A friend actually suggested that someone do a modern adaption of Hamlet with them crazy Columbian drug lords instead of kings. I totally agree, though one might run into problems with all the references to 'kings' and such.
It's funny: the stereotypical way for a Bad Guy to become such is to kill his father/brother/lover for the throne, but people ignore the fact that a lot of the kings and rulers we hail as pretty cool actually did commit patri- or matri- or fratri-cide to get the throne (and if they're really cool, they committed all three). Yes, he was a little of a ruthless bastard, but I agree with you in that Claudius would have done a MUCH better job as king.
Orchestral? Oh, I'm jealous. For some reason, every Shakespeare production I see is haunted by the spectre of awful music. Macbeth, it was people literally banging metal sheets together (the type you might roof your shed with); As You Like It was supposedly-futuristic-but-really-crap GarageBand drivel; the rest, just noise. (What is it about good old Will that urges people to experiment?)
I was wondering what more substance we could get of Ianto's backstory from these writers, but I did enjoy what it turned out to be.
Being a clear fan-favorite, I'm actually surprised that none of the writers seem to be very adept at giving him a life outside Torchwood, but at the same time I'm kind of glad about it. I mean, we've all seen Cyberwoman; clearly, Bad Things Happen when they try. I have a feeling the whole reason why people like him (and his relationship with Jack) so much is that that the writers haven't tried to stuff anything down our throats - they just left David-Lloyd to do his thing. And it's a good thing.