I hated Owen more than I've hated most any other TV character for the entire first series. The second, I found myself liking Owen a lot, which created a lot of cognitive dissonance.
A year or so later I did a rewatch of the first series and tried a little thought experiment: I pretended the date rape scene never happened. Just by doing that, I found myself a lot more sympathetic to Owen and a lot more aware of the nuances in Gorman's performance. (Granted, having seen series 2 and knowing what happened to him pre-series 1 probably factored in a bit.) It's not that he wasn't being a dick, just that it was easier to see Gorman's nonverbal hints why he was being a dick, i.e. because he is broken and thinks that if he pretends he doesn't give a shit about anything then he'll be safe (emotionally). It was also a lot easier to notice those little moments where he's not being a dick.
Overall, his character just felt more cohesive. The Owen we see in 1.02-13 and all of season 2 is an asshole and a bully, but he takes being a doctor very seriously -- do no harm and all that good stuff. He's cruel to his teammates, but I think he's more oblivious to just how much harm he's causing (or even thinking that they're better off if he leaves them more cynical in his wake) than actually trying to hurt them that much. There's also a component of lashing out because he's terrified to let anyone close, especially in how he responds to Tosh.
Owen in the pilot ... just doesn't seem to fit into that, to me. If he had, say, picked up a drunk person without really thinking about whether they could consent, that would be unforgivable, but it would be consistent with his character the rest of the series. But he deliberately robbed two people of their ability to consent, and that just doesn't match up.
tl;dr I think the writers really fucked Burn Gorman over.
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regna
My thoughts on Owen, let me show you them
Date: 2010-07-06 01:19 pm (UTC)A year or so later I did a rewatch of the first series and tried a little thought experiment: I pretended the date rape scene never happened. Just by doing that, I found myself a lot more sympathetic to Owen and a lot more aware of the nuances in Gorman's performance. (Granted, having seen series 2 and knowing what happened to him pre-series 1 probably factored in a bit.) It's not that he wasn't being a dick, just that it was easier to see Gorman's nonverbal hints why he was being a dick, i.e. because he is broken and thinks that if he pretends he doesn't give a shit about anything then he'll be safe (emotionally). It was also a lot easier to notice those little moments where he's not being a dick.
Overall, his character just felt more cohesive. The Owen we see in 1.02-13 and all of season 2 is an asshole and a bully, but he takes being a doctor very seriously -- do no harm and all that good stuff. He's cruel to his teammates, but I think he's more oblivious to just how much harm he's causing (or even thinking that they're better off if he leaves them more cynical in his wake) than actually trying to hurt them that much. There's also a component of lashing out because he's terrified to let anyone close, especially in how he responds to Tosh.
Owen in the pilot ... just doesn't seem to fit into that, to me. If he had, say, picked up a drunk person without really thinking about whether they could consent, that would be unforgivable, but it would be consistent with his character the rest of the series. But he deliberately robbed two people of their ability to consent, and that just doesn't match up.
tl;dr I think the writers really fucked Burn Gorman over.