Torchwood – The Monthly Adventures

#029. Serenity ~ 10/10

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◆ An Introduction

A great many people dream of settling down in a quiet suburban community; a slice of middle class living, secured from the so-called dregs of society by grand electric gates.

On the surface, these neighbourhoods are the picture perfect suburban dream. Wide roads, golden maple trees and verdant lawns. Most residents are white collar professionals ranging from university staff to government employees. Most… but not all.

Serenity Plaza is the latest such community in South Wales, but is it a front for something much more sinister? One thing is certain: Jack and Ianto are gonna have to work very hard if they want to win the Best Kept Lawn competition.

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◆ Publisher’s Summary

Serenity Plaza is the most exclusive gated community in South Wales.

You’d kill to live there. Jack and Ianto have gone undercover as a happily married couple. There are rumours that something’s wrong at Serenity Plaza and they’re determined to investigate. But the problem is that Serenity Plaza is just so rigidly normal.

Suddenly, Jack and Ianto have to confront the problems that normal couples face. Sharing a house together, doing the washing up, entering the residents’ baking contest, and hoping to win the Best Kept Lawn.

Competition is fierce. Because this is Serenity Plaza. And you’d kill to live there.

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◆ Cpt. Jack Harkness

‘Serenity’ is my favourite script with the good captain. Jack is clearly enjoying the opportunity to blend in and be normal… well, as normal as you can be surrounded by middle class snobs and innuendo spouting senior citizens. Moran has written for the good captain before, in his television story ‘Sleeper’, and he clearly understands the character.

John Barrowman delivers what I consider to be his best performance in this episode. He was clearly having a whale of a time with the material, which really plays to his strengths.

Jack actually searched for a name that meant “handsome” – hence why he is using the alias of Ken – but Ianto suggests that he should have chosen the name Geraint, meaning “old”. New rule: if you can’t pronounce “Sauvignon”, then you’ve had too much wine!

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◆ Ianto Jones

Ianto is afforded the best material in ‘Serenity’. Going undercover in middle class suburbia, with pensioners who make more smutty comments than a Carry On film, is clearly his idea of hell. That’s probably why he spends the entire episode brimming with sarcasm and threatening to go on a killing spree with a lawnmower (no, really). Moran really needs to write for this character again, because this was just marvellous.

Gareth David-Lloyd genuinely had me cackling throughout the episode. The quality of the one-liners is phenomenal, with his delivery of them being the cherry on top.

Ianto can only talk like a Stepford wife for so long. He chose the name Ifan because it’s a variant of Ianto.

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◆ Story Recap

Serenity Plaza is your typical gated community: it’s populated by middle class suburbanites that all secretly hate each other, and they’ll happily make petty comments about how much nicer their home is than yours.

Behind all the smutty double entendres, the fake smiles and the Stepford wives is a community hiding a dark secret.

Having tracked a signal to the estate’s satellite dish, Jack and Ianto have went undercover. One of the residents is a sleeper agent with Cell 114, and the clock is ticking to discover their identity.

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◆ The Second Foiled Invasion

Imagine getting the opportunity to write a sequel to an episode where people completely lost their identities, then transformed into super soldiers with swords for arms: super soldiers who planned on blowing up Cardiff with a series of nuclear warheads. Would you be brave enough to make the sequel a comedy, and one which feels like aliens invaded the set of Desperate Housewives? I already respect James Moran for having the sheer audacity to give us all tonal whiplash, but I actually think this is an improvement on ‘Sleeper’.

Cell 114 are planning on converting the human race into sleepers from their headquarters in Serenity Plaza. They’ve set up several gated communities around the globe to carry out this procedure, but I highly doubt they will attempt to invade planet Earth a third time… for reasons which become obvious in the final moments of the episode. All I’ll say is that things get very dark in the last few minutes, so prepare for yet more tonal whiplash.

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◆ Stepford Wives & Double Entendres

I will never understand why people want to live in a gated community. It’d be like sitting in an echo chamber surrounded by two-faced people who hate your guts!

What would make that atmosphere all the more sickening is that middle class suburbanites are masters of back-handed compliments: imagine planting some flowers in your garden, only for your neighbour to say how nice they look… almost as nice as the ones they had imported from a sacred garden in Hokkaido! Living next to snobs like that would drive you insane. I should know, since I’ve pretty much described the old woman living next-door to me.

I sympathise with Ianto in this episode, because he is stuck in Serenity Plaza having to act like some Stepford wife. The whole situation is clearly wearing him down, causing him to have miniature outbursts where he spouts the most hilarious one-liners;

• “We’d better not still be here next month, or I’ll go on a killing spree with a lawnmower!”

• “Go away stabby! Your front lawn was mediocre at best!”

The comedy really is on point throughout. Ianto gets the best one-liners, but I have to mention another of my favourite scenes, that being Jack’s “Hangover Song”.

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◆ Sound Design

All residents of the Plaza have this aggravating alarm clock that shouts at them to wake up on a morning, like some Colditz camp Commandant!

There is a scene towards the end of the episode where all the Sleepers have their bones melted. It’s utterly grotesque, but super effective.

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◆ Music

The cold open features this incredibly sedate and tacky piece of muzak, and it seriously wouldn’t sound out of place on an American sitcom. It does set the tone very nicely though.

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◆ Conclusion

“Catch you later! Don’t be a stranger!”

Jack and Ianto have went undercover in a slice of gated suburbia, hoping to uncover plans for a second invasion by Cell 114. They’ll have to endure all sorts of perils if they wish to remain undetected; meat-based innuendoes, middle-class snobbery, garden competitions, and neighbours who all secretly despise each other!

Torchwood has always mixed surprisingly well with comedy, and ‘Serenity’ is proof positive of that. This episode actually gets most of its humour from Jack and Ianto, whose relationship is definitely put under the spotlight. The Plaza showcases what their lives could be like if they were just an ordinary couple, but their cover stories here are exactly that. None of it is real.

John Barrowman absolutely nails his performance – managing to get the hangover song stuck in my head – but it’s David-Lloyd who managed to steal the show. Not only was he given the funniest lines, but his delivery of them was pitch perfect.

James Moran has been popping up a lot more frequently in the audio adventures, so I wholeheartedly hope we get to hear another comedy outing from him. ‘Serenity’ was just golden.