Torchwood

Torchwood. There is nothing else like it. If you're looking for serious conventional scifi that tackles the universal problems of the cosmos and ends in an epic battle between good and evil this won't be the show for you.

OTOH, if you're looking for a fun sexy romp that gets serious when it needs to, focuses on the human factor and plays fast and loose with just about every "rule" imaginable, you'll find it in Torchwood. It's just what it's billed to be - Doctor Who for the grown-up set, the open-minded set, the slightly skewed set.

John Barrowman does a terrific job as Cap'n Jack Harkness, a man whose lived a life that won't allow him to die and has taught him a flexible sense of morality to match his flexible sense of sexuality. Cap'n Jack laughs, jokes, flirts and fights his way through one set after another of impossible circumstances, but a heart of gold beats beneath his suspendered chest. His team means everything to him and he'll give anything to protect them.

Playing Alfred to Jack's Batman is Ianto Jones. Gareth David-Lloyd is a lovely young talent who adds more depth to Torchwood's favorite coffee boy with each passing episode. He's bright and soulful with a very British sense of humor that hides a deep and painful sorrow. A real find for the producers of the show. He's fascinating to watch and even more fascinating to guess his motivations.

Every superhero needs someone to keep them in touch with their humanity and that exists in the person of Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles). A terrific spunky heroine with the sensibilities of a crafty cop, she keeps her boss focused on the human factor when his instincts tell him to shoot first and ask questions later--a conscience when Jack needs one the most.

But beware, this may not be the show for family viewing on a Saturday night. It deals frankly with human sexuality. It can be violent, gruesome, bloody and heart breaking. It can make you laugh one moment and tear up the next, but it can also send chills down your spine.

All in all if your up for some alternative entertainment this show can be pretty terrific. Open your mind and dive in. It won't be for everyone but if you like, chances are you'll love it.

From November 1963 until recently I have loved all things WHO (the first Doctor Who hit TV the day after JFK was killed). I've enjoyed all the spin-offs, including, and maybe especially, Torchwood (letters of Doctor Who rearranged, as most people realize). Then along comes 2011 and the move to Starz and the U.S. and the whole show goes flat. All the cool stuff is gone; alien jail; alien artifacts (idea stolen by Warehouse 13), Captain Jack's immortality, occasional Dr. Who crossovers, assorted creatures, etc. Each episode was a complete story with a few ongoing tie-ins. Now it's just another soap opera, and an especially bad one at that. We've had Lost, Heros, V, The Event and others. These things just go on and on, sometimes for years, and just fizzle, or just get left in mid-story. Torchwood: Miracle Day has a weak story, a castrated hero and nowhere to go. I hope it goes back to the BBC as soon as possible.

It's amazing how a high-quality production can sometimes draw reviews that would be more appropriate to low-grade syndicated filler. Torchwood is, at the very least, an imaginative, well-acted, well-photographed and, more than anything, totally idiosyncratic series.

Many seem put off by the sex. Fortunately, that wasn't a problem for the show's writers. This is a series that neither glories in nor shies away from sex. Characters have believable sex lives, that affect their actions in realistic ways. Some episodes are frankly *about* sex, in a brilliantly science-fictional way. (Bear in mind, the series is very definitely *not* aimed at kids. These characters are adults, and the show is written for adults. That in itself is pretty refreshing!)

Some of the interactions may border on soap opera... but that's the format. It works. It's an ensemble show, and it's about how the private lives of relatively normal humans are transformed by extraordinary events. No, these characters aren't as cute and lovable as, say, the crew of the Serenity. They're thorny, often irrational. I love that about them. Like real people, they often act in ways that even their best friends can't predict. And as with real people, one develops an affection for their faults as much as their virtues.

Stories are clever, but not cerebral. This isn't Twilight Zone. It's not 'hard' Science Fiction. It's a 'pulp' show for adults who want to feel like kids for an hour. It creates a world where the bizarre is commonplace. The viewpoint character is a 'normal' policewoman... she moves into this strange world, adapting to its superhuman challenges and becoming addicted to its heady rewards. It's a highly involving formula... if you're the sort of viewer who often finds our 'real' world far too dull and predictable.

Like Doctor Who, Torchwood is a show that, on paper, shouldn't really work. At every point in Doctor Who's long, long run, nay-sayers have proved with inescapable logic that it can't possibly work: it's too violent, it's too dark, it's too silly, it's too intellectual... it's too expensive. Many of the criticisms have been mutually contradictory! The same seems to be true of Torchwood... it's an odd, angular beast, that doesn't really follow any established paradigm. Saying it's "like Angel," or "like the X-Files" really isn't very revealing. In SOME ways, it's like Gunsmoke. Or Bless This House.

I won't give Torchwood a 10/10. Yet. It could be tighter... I have the feeling the first season meandered just a bit. But considering the oddly discordant tone it's trying to hit, that's hardly surprising. It would be even more surprising if the show was able to attract more than a cult following. What does seem ironic is that the cult followings of other, genetically-similar shows such as Doctor Who seem largely unable to appreciate this one. Sci-fi and fantasy used to be about shedding one's preconceptions... now they're cults with preconceptions of their own.

To me, that only adds to the attraction. Torchwood isn't 'like' Doctor Who, or any previous show, in tone, style, pace or perspective. But it has the same essence... the same willingness to take chances, to forge a new myth unlike any other that's gone before. Even if it stumbles a bit at the start, I can't wait to see where it's going.

There seems to be an awful lot of negative comment about Torchwood on these pages and there is definitely a certain 'its not like Doctor Who' element. I love the re-vamped Dr Who, and I was a fan as a child, I grew up with Jon Pertwee as the Doctor and to me he was always the definitive incumbent, until being eclipsed by both the modern incarnations. No, Torchwood is not like Doctor Who, it's a different series; I feel that the characters are very well drawn. They are a team of typical people, they do not have the solutions to all the problems they face, they get scared, they argue, they make mistakes. As far as I see it they behave exactly how most normal people would if recruited and working in a tightly knit team under stressful conditions. There is of course the Russell Davies trademark BLG sexual behaviour, but it is portrayed in a refreshing manner and very much it keeping with the general vibe of the show.

What many of the reviewers seem to miss is the fact that the show is as much about the characters as the aliens, the scripts with a couple of exceptions have been excellent, exploring human relationships and attitudes from a range of perspectives, but most importantly they have been rip-roaring entertainment.

The acting is strong, Barrowman being particularly good, but they all acquit themselves well. The casting is excellent, rather than a stable of beautiful people, they have chosen actors that look, and thanks to good writing, behave, like real people.

A couple of points;

John Barrowman's American accent isn't fake; he lived there from the age of eight.

A lot of comments regarding how derivative the series is; I suspect that Bram Stoker might consider Buffy to be more than a little derivative of his work, but none the less entertaining for it.

This is an excellent series, watch more than one episode before reviewing and please try to approach it with out a particular expectation.

In summary, it is brilliant entertainment.

I hated the first season of Torchwood, because it lied. It promised to be a dark sci-fi series for adults. All it was was a show that pretended to be adult, with kisses and swears, but felt like a sillier show than Doctor Who, which is a great show, but Torchwood is supposed to be darker.

But then the second season started. The quality of drama and script and even acting skyrocketed. I suggest seeing it. At least, now I do. And the kisses and swears suddenly feel like they belong. I had some issues with the effects of the episode Meat, but the script for it was about perfect.

I only take off stars because of the crud first season.