Torchwood: Children of Earth

This is my guilty T.V. indulgence so I'm happy to see it back. I'm hoping the reduction of episodes means there is less wasteful, fatty material that needs wading through to get to what charms this show does posses. Agreed the idea of them trying to hold an entire narrative together for more than one episode is something of a concern, but I remain optimistic. Why? I can't say.
Trailer looks cool, and in the general absence of science fiction on TV at the moment with Galactica over and Lost off for the rest of the year I'll take what I can get.

Have they said when it will broadcast?

I kinda enjoyed it. I'm not really sure of any menace though, which makes the whole thing seem like people are running around over nothing.

Also, the most heavy-handed shoehorning of homosexuality into a show ever. It felt more like an attempt at shock tactics as opposed to building acceptance.

Episode three was fucking brilliant. Best alien in a glass tank filled with smoke since the Guild Navigators in David Lynch's Dune. The way this thing has been building over the past three nights has just been fucking amazing.

Yeah, this is a totally different show in quality to what Torchwood is normally like. They've done a really good job of ramping up the tension and keeping the story interesting and the characters believable. The cabinet meeting where they were discussing how to 'spin' the children sacrifice was really nasty, I think I preferred it when The Master was running the country.

I'm trying to figure out why this is working. Everyone is still the same on this show, aren't they? Russell T Davis is still the main man for Torchwood, even if he left Doctor Who... or is that not right? They just managed to find a decent scriptwriter from somewhere?

Maybe just trimming the team down to Gwen and Jack is the key, I never really cared for the rest of the squad.

Hey, as long as they include the kids who play their music out loud from their phones on public transport, I'm sold on this plan.

Do we really think this is going to be the last season for Torchwood? The numbers on this have been really good haven't they?

This is just fucking bizarre. The announcer says it's Torchwood beforehand and it even says it in the titles and features the same characters but...

..it's really fucking good? It just doesn't make any goddamn sense.

Why didn't they write it like this from the start?
*sigh*

Pregnant? I don't remember that night.

That was rather bloody grim alright. 'The hero we deserve but not the one we need right now' just about sums Jack up at the end there, talk about your pyrrhic victories.

Man, that bit where Frobisher goes home...Christ.

Yep, brutal. Not exactly what I'd call 'entertainment', but a brilliant end to the story. At least they had the balls to not do a cop out ending. Consequences galore.

Christ, does Jack need any more issues?

Well that was too fucking dark. Christ.

ugh, finished earlier today-- I hated this season/mini-series, and I was a fan of the show before.... And to be honest, i was glued to my screen the first couple episodes (the guy who plays frobisher is awesome)-- but the last two and the climax specifically RUINED the whole thing.

A short list of my qualms (spoilers ahead):

--it wasnt enough that they killed off the majority of the cast last season, now they have to kill Ianto (and destroy his and jacks relationship) and have jack BOTH betray and desert his friends and family (was killing his grandson supposed to qualify as self-sacrifice or redemption?? Pffhh)

-- Speaking of injustices-- Frobisher, the pathetic, near-innocent pawn is made to kill himself AND his entire family-- Yet the true villain, the PM, only has to suffer the promise of public humiliation (such a tired gag--cough harriet jones, cough-- Id rather see the stones be thrown for once...)

-- The aliens are never seen, are obnoxiously under-developed (they like drugs, sell drugs, to whom, for what? Where are they from, why and how did they come here the first time? or this time?)... In retrospect, they are AWFUL villains for a 5-episode miniseries of any "who"-universe story...

-- It could have EASILY been told better in 2 episodes, instead of dragging and plodding along the last three episodes toward an unbelievably WEAK and unsatisfying climax.

-- As for tired gags, my god, RTD is like a broken record... of a broken record!! -- home-video monologuing (cough-blink-cough), further exacerbated by the insane over-exaggeration, teasing "the world ending" when in reality something like the simple, easy substitute of "civilization ending" would have been perfectly accurate fix, and not misleading and insulting to anyone who cares to think about it for a half-second afterward.

-- At the end we fast forward six months, yet dont see the baby born-- instead it sole purpose is basically so jack can say hes been backpacking... as if any justification can be made for his final actions....

-- Because Jack acts like a ~censored~ in the end, like I already said, betraying and deserting his family and freinds-- and despite making a few good points about his "life" and immortality, comes off as a total ass, leaving earth simply to run away from his problems and the potential for further emotional pain... AKA THE EXACT OPPOSITE WAY A HERO SHOULD ACT, as if killing his own grandson without hardly blinking wasnt enough....

You know, it reminds me of a review I read of aliens vs predator 2, and how the critic felt in lacked basic humanity and was downright mean-spirited ... Well thats the best way I can describe this.... Clearly RTD doesnt understand that theres a big difference between honest and adult-oriented... and downright mean-spirited, cold-hearted cynicism.

... As if simply comparing it to AVP2 werent insult enough....

P.S. loved he guy who played frobisher-- a complete 180 from his recent, other equally (if not more) brillaint performance in "In the Loop", the british satire film.

P.P.S. I forgot they killed the poor pathetic older man too (since his whole life hadnt been enough of a sob story or anything), for a stupid contrivance-- defeating the aliens by mirroring a frequency they put out ... like they couldnt have foreshadowed and established an equally played-out solution any other way, at any other time....

EDIT: Does anyone know if the show is supposed to go on after this, or if this was supposed to serve as a series finale?

Holy fuck that was awesome. I had no idea this show had balls. It kinda makes me pissed off that the last two seasons of Torchwood were so patchy now that we see they had this kind of stuff in them. Maybe the lean, tighter format of the five episodes focuses things a little.
No idea what the fuck they are going to do after this.
Agree with Spike that this is some of the best Who related stuff we've ever gotten.
Outstanding.

It was good. Can see why BBC America is using this during the intro of BBC America HD (at least in my neck of the woods)..

I'm not only shocked to see a great Torchwood show, but to also see that there are people out there who were invested enough in the awful, awful Torchwood of old to verbally abuse one of the writers.

I particularly like the part where he is apparently hurting depressives. For proof here is offending tweet:

Just finished it on iPlayer. That was a real surprise. Polished, subtle (except the ending scene on the hill) and dark without being the cliche of the term. It even managed funny once or twice.

The only real shame lay in a few shitty minor characters being played by people who couldn't act their way out of a paper bag, reminding me that it was a Who spinoff.

Splendid stuff.

I did quite enjoy it as a whole, though I do have a good few issues with it. Gwen Cooper's aforementioned DOOMONGERING! being one of them. I think that killing Ianto and Jack's sacrifice did pile the misery on maybe a bit too much. I don't really know what Ianto's death serves other than the fact it makes it easier for future adventures of Jack Harkness.

Jesus, that was beyond Rick James-level "cold blooded". The cabinet decision making process, the rounding up of the kids, there were alot of scenes that actually made me physically ill to think about. Really grim, and the ending was even more desolate, but I loved the fact that Jack essentially legged it and ran away from it all. I don't recall anyone ever really thinking of him as a "hero", and this re-established the fact perfectly.

I really don't know where they plan on going from here. But I think the mini-series format worked better for the show and would be much happier to see them continue in this fashion as opposed to a full-blown season again.

Frobisher's exit . . . fuuuuuuuuuuuck off.

what do you mean when you say fuck off? Does that mean you agree with me that frobishers end was unjust in a way, especially compared to the PM's "punishment"?

I'm actually curious to see where RTD comes down on the end of Frobisher. He's obviously not as innocent as his secretary's speech suggests he was. But the scene can be read that RTD was using her speech to generate sympathy for him.

Personally I think the speech was for her benefit. Though my friend doesn't agree with me. I saw it as her showing how she lost faith in her government, because they could do that to what she saw as an essentially good man. Though as the PM said in the very first episode, Frobisher is expendable.

As for the series as a whole I didn't think it was entirely successful. One issue is the BBC'S production in general. I know it's shot HD etc but it just looks so damn cheap. I have a friend who works on editing at the BBC and he said whether it's a kids show or something like 'Torchwood', the shows tend to have the same feel to them.

Secondly, they really need better actors. Holy shit some of them are bad. I live in Cardiff, and I don't think I've heard anyone sound as...welshy as the people in that show do.

Third problem, Jack getting 'beamed' up. So not needed. Just show him vanish or something, we didn't need him flying away like a Gay Angel.

I hope they don't come back for another series though. I thought that if I was writing the timeline for Jack it would make sense that he only returns to Earth after everyone has died. But you know that RTD et al will cave and Jack will come back and prove he was a hero all along.

Yeah, I guess that was a little vague. I was still kinda reeling from the whole thing. I meant it was just cold. The finale just kept piling on the grim like me piling on the toppings at the dessert buffet Pizza Hut used to do when I was a kid. The whole "dude that fucked up kills is family" scene is nothing new, admittedly, but there was something about the way this scene was anchored in amongst all the other doom and gloom that still made it stand out as so merciless. Maybe it was the rapid succession of the shots. Normally, you'd get the 3 shots, then a lengthy pause as they stop to register what they've done before you hear the final shot. Frobisher didn't even take time to put himself through that - there was the slightest, tiniest pause and that was it. I kinda believed that pause was more him second-guessing wanting to take is own life more than stopping to weigh the actions of what he'd just done to his family.

Anyway, long story short - fucking grim.

I'm doing a phone interview with Julie Garnder, a producer on all of this Torchwood/Who stuff, and don't know much about these shows. If you folks have any questions that you would like to be asked, or whatever, post it up quick.

When will Dr Who be filmed in HD?

I read somewhere that was just a one off for the special? If they have fully switched over to HD then I'm a very happy man.

Holy fuck, that fifth episode redefined grim. I got seriously squicked out when the 456 revealed why it wanted the kids, and this is coming from someone who doesn't really have time for anyone under the age of 15.

And I know Frobisher was a bad guy but...damn. His meeting with the Prime Minister, when it gradually became clear that he was being scapegoated in the worst possible way, gave me a gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Don't get me wrong, CHILDREN OF EARTH was great. But it packed much more of a punch than I ever anticipated.

I thought the everything with the kids was suitably creepy, and I was impressed with how grim a direction this went in. I kept waiting for the happy ending, and damned if there wasn't one.

I was glad Gwen mentioned a good reason why the Doctor isn't there all the time, because that's the one thing that always nagged me about Torchwood -- why the hell don't you just call the Doctor for these things? I get that the idea is Torchwood is there when the Doctor can't be, but you'd think he'd get wind of some of these things and lend a hand. I liked the whole "He must turn his back in shame" bit. Fit nicely with Tennent's take on the character.

Just finished it last night. Wow. I loved it. These 5 episodes are for me better than the entire run of Supernatural (and I only make that comparison because it's probably the only other genre show I bother with and it seems to be beloved by Chewers, which leaves me rather out of step).

I don't see Jack as the bastard or betrayer or what have you - but then I never saw him as a typical hero either. He was pretty cold to Ianto though, shit. And Ianto wasn't even my favorite character. (I wanted Jack's love interest to be better looking - maybe a Hugh Dancy type. Because I'm shallow.)

Ultimately I am very satisfied.

Bullshit.

But still, that was some great television. Too bad the series wasn't on the same level, but I can hope for the best in the future.

Hi Torchwood, I'm a year behind.

Finished Children of Earth an hour ago and feel utterly gut-punched. Where was that for the first two seasons? (Keeping in mind that I liked Season 2) Exit Wounds feels like a happy jaunt compared to this. It ends with a massive deus ex machina and yet I don't care because of the heartbreaking consequences involved.

Just... really, really good storytelling. I feel sort of sick in the best possible way.