It’s a little thing, but I think it’s so important that bocchi’s bandmates say “i have no idea why no one talks to bocchi. bocchi is so fun to hang out with” multiple times throughout the series. It shows that despite bocchi’s extreme anxiety and her bizarre idiosyncrasies, everyone genuinely likes spending time with her and wants to be her friend.
Komi Can’t Communicate also features social anxiety, but most of the characters like Komi for her exterior qualities, not for her personality. This is largely due to a difference in comedic premise: Komi is a normal person surrounded by odd people, and comedy is derived from misunderstandings and their surface level judgements. Bocchi is an odd person surrounded by normal people, and comedy is derived from the absurdity of bocchi’s overreactions.
Overall the way Komi expresses her anxiety is more surface level, whereas bocchi discusses specific fears and hopes and delusions with the audience. Komi’s friends barely know anything about her as a person (besides Tadano and Najimi), but bocchi is teeming with so much personality you can’t not know her. I think that’s why komi’s plot points about social anxiety don’t hit as hard for me as bocchi’s
The thing I really like about Torchwood is that despite the fact its a spin-off of an alien show it’s not about aliens at all. It’s a show entirely about humans.
Our main cast is entirely human, and we are supposed to be rooting for them, but none of them are morally perfect. They all do bad things and make bad decisions. But that doesn’t make them bad people.
Cyberwoman is a good example of this, and I genuinely think it’s a good episode but it happens way to early. Ianto hides his girlfriend in the basement of Torchwood, and this will eventually put the entire team’s life at risk. But Ianto never had any ill intentions to begin with. This was all just him refusing to accept the fact his girlfriend was dead, willing to do anything to help her. He was desperately trying to get back the person who loved him, who understood him. Something he really didn’t have with any of the other people at Torchwood. The episode is really intense, high with emotion. The episode’s only fault is not really establishing any of those emotional moments earlier on in the show, and not really delving into them afterwards.
Same with Tosh in Greeks bearing Gifts. There were so many red flags showing with Mary, almost immediately, but Tosh was so desperate for someone that she could talk to, someone that could understand her, that she ignored all those things. Her using the necklace with her teammates wasn’t a great thing for her to do, but you can’t really be mad at her for being curious how her colleagues thought of her. And even after finding out that Mary was an alien and just using her, Tosh was still sad that Jack had killed her.
Even Suzie wasn’t evil. You find out she had been murdering people, but she was doing it in hopes that she could achieve resurrection, that no one would have to die via alien again. And when she was taking life from Gwen, it had nothing to do with any negative feelings towards her, or the fact that Gwen had sort of replaced her, but she simply wanted another chance at life. After finding out that her one life was all she’d ever get she wanted another chance at appreciating it more. That’s why both of her deaths were equally heartbreaking.
I even think that having the team betray Jack at the end of the season wasn’t an entirely bad idea. But, a lot like Cyberwoman, there were just too many things going on that were shoved into one episode. But I think the general idea of their betrayal makes sense because the team doesn’t know anything about Jack. He never lets them in, never talks about himself, and yet he expects all of them to never question him or his orders. Some mistrust is definitely going to develop there.
All of them being part of Torchwood automatically makes them distant from the rest of society. But they’re still human. They still need and value those connections and relationships. That’s why the five of them trying to keep an entirely professional relationship doesn’t really work. The only way Jack’s idea for Torchwood is going to work is if they have strong trust and a strong relationship with one another. Torchwood is a family, not a business.
So hard to choose just 10! Four of these are from The Runaway Bride and three are from Partners in Crime. Just all-round iconic episodes, what can I say.
Reply with any other suggestions and reblog for a wider sample, thank you!
artsyles are so hard to maintain. i gave up mine years ago. never heard of her since. even though all my artworks looks like there’s 10 people doing it.
The Black Panther sends her regards, but she will not be joining us today. I, M'Baku, leader of the Jabari Tribe, son of Wakanda, wish to challenge for the throne.
WINSTON DUKE as M'BAKU Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)
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