I thought the payoff of Abadon was lamer than an lame thing at lametime.

I thought it was lamer than that, on a show that leans on "scientific" or "alien" causes for events. It was like they opened the rift and Cthulu and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man jumped out.

I liked Owen's reaction to seeing Jack again.

I enjoyed the Torchwood. I thought Gwen's happiness with Rhys at the beginning and her loss at his death was very Whedonesqe or Minearish.

I missed Gwen's reaction to Rhys' death (I changed the channel) but I'd seen it before and what I liked was how raw it was and how real. They are definitely not worried about looking pretty during grief.

I agree. The characters just seem to be pretty raw, that makes Brit TV so much more satisfying than most US TV.

I also liked Jack quietly washing the blood off of Gwen's fingers while she is sitting next to Rhys in the torhwood morgue.

The big monster bit of the finale was pretty said, but there's some great character stuff. Everything surrounding Rhys' death, Owen's eviction from Torchwood, Owen shooting Jack, everyone's reaction to Jack's resurrection. (Jack and Ianto making out.)

Jack got some serious snogging in these last two episodes.

Awww, poor Casey.

almost as winsome and likable as Judy Garland's original Dorothy

See, iconic as the movie is, and much as I like it, I always think of it as an adaptation. And an adaptation that did some ghastly ghastly things - I mean, Jeebus, Glinda is such a fucking nightmare of squeaky saccharine pink awfulness, whereas in the books she's cool and dignified and has gorgeous clothes. (I really like what Wicked, in both its incarnations, does with Movie!Glinda.)

Actually, I rather preferred the movie Return to Oz, just for the faithfulness to canon imagery - because all that Art Nouveau artwork is so gorgeous and distinctive. But of course TWoO movie is a bright shiny thing all on its own too, an icon of campness and a familiar part of Christmases for generations of kids. So - yeah. I'm all over the ruby slippers like a rash. (Or rather, they're all over my feet right now atfg.)

Um. Yeah, so - I remain modestly optimistic that I might enjoy this show.

Torchwood finale - yeah, it's a bit of a mess, narrative-wise, and the last minute Big Bad is clumsy and WTF-ish...but I really liked Bilis Manger - I more than slightly expected him to be The Master when it aired, and was a bit sorry that he was just Random Creepy Guy. 'Cause he was very OldSkool Doctor Who. I liked all the things going horribly wrong with the Rift - the Roman soldier, the plague etc etc. I liked the Torchwood team cracking up even more than normal, and the whole business with poor Rhys (bless him - I do heart Rhys to pieces) and Gwen's raw grief was well done.

Big Sacrificial Hero Guy Jack - yeah. I had mixed feelings about it. I rather wish he'd kissed Gwen before he 'died', so that when she kissed his still dead Snow White corpse there'd have been some vague handwavey justification for his revivification...but it was not to be, apparently. But, oh, I did enjoy his Big Gay Stroppy Jesus scene, and something about all of that (and rewatching the series) made me really enjoy Owen. Who is so clearly jealous as hell (on whatever level) about Ianto's closeness with Jack. I did enjoy all the sniping.

Next season, I'm hoping that Toshiko gets some more character development, that Rhys and Gwen's ex-partner and the newish female police chief (or whatever she was) continue to get little bits of storyline. And I'm hoping that the writers pull their socks up, figure out what tone/balance of tones they actually want, and bring out more of the good stuff.

I am a trifle nervous about casting and storyline decisions I've already heard about...but remain hopeful.