Torchwood: No More

I’m done with Torchwood. I’m a little upset about it. When I began my catch up with the show this summer I had heard that although the first two series were only average quality, the third (Children of Earth) was genuinely good TV. After watching the first handful of episodes I could tell that Torchwood was not a show that I was going to like a lot. The promise of Children of Earth and the upcoming (at the time) BBC/Starz (re)launch of Torchwood with "Miracle Day" was enough for me to overlook the tone and character problems of series one and two. To be fair the critics were right and I think that Children of Earth is, on its own merits, great. The Torchwood mini-series had a tight focus, intriguing story, and interesting take on its characters. Sadly, in retrospect, these weren’t things I needed the first two series of the show to appreciate. All of that being said I did watch series one, two, and Children of Earth in time to jump into series four right after it started airing. To my surprise and distain, Torchwood: Miracle Day is bad.

The problems with Torchwood: Miracle Day can be traced back to the first two series—tone and character problems—but also that the story is bland. In order to fit what story they seem to have into the 10+ hours that they have to fill their characters are acting irrational for no apparent reason (which is aggravating beyond belief) and the pacing is slowed to a crawl (which is so boring). Slow plots are fine if there are interesting characters to focus on. Bland characters are tolerable if there is an interesting and immediate plot to invest in. A turtle-paced plot joined with uninteresting and intolerable characters leaves nothing to hang on to.

If this was a new show I might be more inclined to stick with it longer in the hopes that the creative team gelled and “found itself”. The fact that this team has had more than 30 episodes and over four years to fix their creative problems and are coming up with nothing leads me to believe that Children of Earth was a fluke and Torchwood will never be the show I hoped it would.

I think that its time I cut my losses and bailed on Russell T. Davies and the rest of the Torchwood crew. I still have Dr. Who to fill my British Sci-fi quota, and I think that the time I would spend continuing with Miracle Day is better spent on one of my many other currently airing or upcoming shows.

If you have a different view on the subject of Torchwood I’d appreciate the view point and discussion. Please sound off below…