_posted in education | tv | 04 September 2009

"LAUSD Shame On You"    photography credit: Daye Rogers

I am unequivocally and unabashedly a Torchwood fan. There are some episodes where the cheese levels exceeds what should be legally allowed in any country but that's what I love about it. Even amongst the 51st century pheromones of Captain Jack Harkness, the pansexuality and the campiness there are truly extraordinary well written moments- actually more than just a few well written moments. This mix of campy over the top and quiet moments is what makes Torchwood appealing to me. Somehow, even when life is at it's most ridiculous for these characters, it just happens to sometimes fall into the realm of the profound, and that's where Torchwood seems to excel.

With the five-day story arc that is season three, Children of Earth, they've upped the ante. Yes, there are tons of explosions, Ianto and Jack kiss, and there's the improbability of television science, but most importantly there's a tighter plot with some damn fine writing, acting and directing. Could this be because they've compressed the show down to a cohesive five episode arc? Or because it's the same director for all five episodes? Or maybe it's because there are only three scribes involved? Or could it be the addition of solid actors on the other side of the aisle from the Torchwood crew?

Whatever the reason, the ride is fast, hard and fun, just what I expect from my Torchwood. After two seasons and a lot of drama, death and sex, we can't forget the sex, it seems the Torchwood crew has finally developed into solid characters. Gwen has definitely come into her own. She's taken the lead and done it without any second thoughts or approval from Jack, who's darker than we've ever seen him, by the way. We finally get a see a Jack who was more compromising and willing to do questionable things, even if it is for the greater good. Added to that is a more contemporary version of the results of his life amongst us mortals and who knew Ianto even had a life before Torchwood?

It's the new players in the game that have made Torchwood less cheese and more sincere. Cush Jumbo's take on her character, Lois Habiba, a temp personal assistant who is thrown in the middle of political intrigue and an alien invasion is noteworthy. She's deft at balancing her fear, sense of responsibility and strength. Paul Copley takes us on a trip of lost innocence, consequences of our past and fear with such lovely acting, that I just wanted to gather the old fella into my arms and tell him it would be alright, that almost 45 years later he'll be able to rest easy. But it's Peter Capldi, who I crushed on seriously in Crow Road so many years ago, that takes the cheese out of the sails, as it were. He's exceptional as the reluctant, but too damn good at being a middleman, middleman. To watch him squirm at not at his own efficiency, but his willingness to betray the English public should make you hate him, but instead you feel sorry for the man. Watching his character's arc, you finally feel that a man who never truly took the lead in his career has finally done so and it's a poetic and sad ending.

We listen as this consummate middleman sits in a room with his fellow politicians deciding on how to carry out a master plan that reminds us that in realty we don't need aliens to steal and do horrible things to children. And this is where screenwriters Russell T. Davies, John Fay, James Moran (of Severance fame) and director Euros Lyn shine. Watching as a table of men and women decide the fate of hundreds of thousands of children of Great Britain is chilling. The most chilling, however, is listening to the only woman of power in the room justify their selection criteria of the doomed children.

On the one hand we've got the good schools and I don't just mean those producing graduates, I mean the pupils that will go on to staff our hospitals, our offices, our factories, the workforce of the future. We need them. Accepted, yes? So, set against that you've got the failing schools, full of the less able, the less socially useful, those destined to spend a lifetime on benefits, occupying places on the dole que and frankly the prisons. Now look, should we treat them equally? God knows we've tried and we've failed. And now, time has come to choose. And if we can't identify, the lowest achieving ten percent of this country's children, then what are the school league tables for?

I can't help but be in awe of the timeliness of that bit of honesty. I'm sure that resonated deeply with me because of my own view points about education and its current condition in the US. Various states have or are facing massive layoffs. The Los Angeles Unified School Board (LAUSD) has gone through rounds of layoffs, while the Pontiac School Board laid off all it's teachers. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. One can only feel that the United States is plunging head first into the death of public education or rather the birth of its privatization.

Either way, this scene hits on so many of the points I've read and the conversations I've had with teachers in the last few months. What's most telling is the character's implied assertion that it's the students fault that the schools are failing. After all, these are "less able" and "less socially useful" individuals. Too often I've heard and read comments on various news blogs that read like a laundry list of why black and brown poor kids are to blame for the subpar educational experience we're providing. And yes, that "we're" includes you and me. Instead of making our school district leaders or other elected officials accountable concerning public education, too often it's the students who are squarely attacked, either because they are poor or undocumented or of color. I've found myself enraged often after reading, yet another anonymous comment that students in LAUSD's failing schools are "criminals anyway." Is this, the best we can do, attack the students?

_illegals from los angeles writes

Get rid of the illegals. That will fix the problem in one action. Start requiring proof of citizenship each fall.

_rena b writes

Don't throw good money after bad. Obviously all the money in the world will not change the attitude of drop outs and their parents who don't care. An attitude adjustment is in place. impose a fee on each parent per child per semester and fine them if their kids fluff off and fail. Hold the kids back who don't do well until they can pass the grade, don't push them ahead.

The character mentions the "school league tables" which is akin to our system of ranking schools based on high stake testing. Sometimes it's nice to see that we're not alone in our struggles, but it doesn't make me feel better to know that public urban education in England, France, and other developed Western countries are struggling just as much as we are.

The fact that it's an adult science fiction television series that touches on what is usually of no interest in most prime time televisions shows, save the substantive season 4 of The Wire, is at the same time sad and exhilarating. It's not the focal point of the series but it's an important plot point and I appreciate the writers putting it on the table, for making us question the possibility that these tests could and are indeed used for a variety of purposes, maybe nefariously, even if it's for just a second.

And this is how I know Torchwood has stepped up it's game. It's rare that an episode of Torchwood ever stuck with me. Maybe a few lines of dialogue would stick, here and there, but nothing really resonated. It was always fun to watch and sexy. This season of Torchwood, however, has come to a great place in it's story. Like Joss Whedon, Russell T. Davies has excelled in killing off those indispensable characters, which really keeps the audience on their toes or infuriates them. If we're to see a season 4 of Torchwood, Davies and Co., have set up a nice clean slate to work with, hopefully they'll continue throwing in a little more realty with all that science fiction.

_vidcheck: j. michael straczynski: babylon 5