emma wrote:empath wrote:Sorry, Smiling Jack.
(wait, why doesn't he smile anymore? Oh, I know - because Mr. Barrowman knows his career may never recover from this!)
He didn't have a career before. He is probably happy because this is the best gig he's ever gonna get.
Yeah, since (in no particular order) Central Park West, Titans, an uncredited spot in the film The Untouchables, a kinda noticeable part in the movie-remake-of-the-play-remake-of-the-movie The Producers, and minor, peripheral role in De-Lovely do not constitute an acting career.
Then again, he's probably expecting this to fold up like a cheap deck chair and him have to go back to starring in direct-to-video pieces (of <censored>) like Shark Attack 3: Megalodon.
They just made him broody.
Because they tried to make him Angel.
Erm...well, now Angel doesn't fall into this 'Make a funny sidekick into the brooding hero of a spin-off and complain when it fails' syndrome, because Angel was broody- no, wait: "dull as a table lamp" even back on BtVS; if anything, they let Boreanaz stretch his character beyond "tall, dark, handsome & brooding in the shadows" in the second show, and it helped.
Now Xander, for example - if THAT character had gotten a spin-off where he was coordinating 'the slayerettes' in Cleavland or something as some stubbled, gruff, smoke-free Nick Fury, it would bomb worse than Dresden, and would qualify for the syndrome. Mr. Harris should've been wearing a fool's motley to just make things outright obvious - he was comic relief.
Or say Spike post-Angel...there was actually talk in the industry about giving Spike his own show. THAT would've failed since he was a supporting 'anti-hero' foil for the lead (be it Buffy or Angel).
As the lead, Spike would just become a blond, shorter, skinnier Angel.
ANYWAYS, back to Torchwood - I do agree with the assessment that the rest of the cast resemble a pile of co-eds on spring break. They don't get enough character development (except maybe our 'POV' character of Eve, but she's supposed to be the audience's surrogate, anyway), and the only reason Cap'n Jack has it is because of his existence on the core show the spin-off budded out from.
Basically, it slips a fair bit from its potential, but then how many spin-off shows succeed?