Everytime her vacuous face comes on screen I want to throw things. I don’t even like her in her brief cameo in Doctor Who with Ianto; she annoys the piss out of me there. She turned me off Torchwood from Episode 1. I hate dumb people who nonetheless wander into things they can’t possibly understand and still insist on knowing ALL about it, and then get themselves into trouble and expect everyone else to rescue them.
Seriously, I can’t be the only one, can I? Gwen-haters, show yourselves!
I love Gwen!
I started watching Torchwood after watching all of the new Doctor Who. I was excited because Captain Jack is easily my favorite character. But I just can’t get into it. He’s way too serious in this show.
That’s another thing - I agree that Jack is too serious. I knew this was much more adult than Doctor Who, but who says adults have to be serious all the time?
I’m a big Dr Who fan, but Torchwood was, in a word, bad. The Children of Earth miniseries was pretty good, but the rest was nearly unwatchable.
QFT.
Gwen is a moron and Owen was repellent. I gave up after the first season. I hated *Torchwood *and I’m a big Doctor Who fan.
Gwen was the only one I could halfway tolerate ;). Yeah, frequently dumb or doing dumb out of character nonsense to service the script. But she seemed a bit less of a crap actor than the rest. Captain Jack is who I really despised ( actually the actor, the character is passable as a concept ).
The shows was…very uneven. Not a total waste, but I would have a hard time recommending it unreservedly to anyone.
I liked Gwen, enough to watch Torchwood seasons one and two. Couldn’t stand Captain Jack. All the characters did amazingly stupid things from day one - I just considered that substandard writing. “Children of the Earth” was better than the two seasons, but I doubt I will ever watch any of them again.
Someone on the Dope called “Torchwood” methadone to Doctor Who’s heroin, which I suppose is why most of us watched more than an episode or two. The premise was one of thos interesting ideas that I wish a better writer had come up with.
My biggest beef was the total lack of consistency. It was a lighthearted comedy one moment, a gritty drama the next. A character would be comic relief one day, a tragic hero another day, and a selfish asshole the next time, all without a word of explanation, and we were just supposed to go along with it and buy into whatever traits they superimposed onto the character for the moment. Clearly, that kind of things can be done well - like in Dr Who - but it needs a certain amount of consistency in the characters and believability that Torchwood just never bothered with.
I agree with the above, and wish to add my disbelief that seemingly 80% of the population of Cardiff are bisexual.
And Cardiff? Really? That was the most interesting place in the world they could set a series?
i adore barrowman, so i keep watching because of him and because of the captain jack character. and oh… can the man SING, ladies. he’s been on the west end stage for more than two decades. if you want to hear him, scope out youtube. there’re tons of song videos that people have uploaded.
i thought children of earth was the best of the series, and season one was execrable - largely because of owen (detested the character). that and the writing was less than par, but here and there some really worthwhile eps in the series, such as ‘from out of the rain,’ and ‘countrycide.’
not the best tv in the world but certainly not the worst, either. with it headed for starz here next month, i’ll be very interested to see how how badly us yanks foul it up. yes, yes RTD is in charge, but us 'mericans gots influence! and Really Big Guns. 
In fairness, I think this was meant to be one of the comedic points of the series - the Fate of the Human Race being decided on a routine basis in one of the United Kingdom’s less interesting cities. (Sorry, CardiffDopers).
She grows on you. When I saw the first episode I wasn’t thrilled with her either, but she’s good. If you like the show otherwise, stay with it would be my advice.
I actually liked most of Torchwood, but then I’m not too harsh of a critic. I thought Children of Earth was outstanding.
Torchwood on Starz is supposed to be starting July 11. I don’t currently get Starz, but I’m tempted to sign up for it just to see Torchwood. Anyone know any other way to get the new Torchwood season without signing up for Starz?
thanks,
J.
Oh, I absolutely hated Gwen for most of the first season. Then I tolerated her. I only actually started kind of liking her in the last season. She is definitely someone I would not be friends with in real life.
Torchwood is available on instant viewing on Netflix. Starz, in my experience, is crap. In addition, a large part of what I can see on Starz on my TV, I can also see on Starz on Netflix.
With the possible exception of Jack, everyone on the show is a horrible human being. Our introduction to Owen is when he rapes a girl and her boyfriend, and it’s played for laughs. Gwen cheats on her fiancee, then tells him about it, then gives him the mind-wiping drug, and is generally repulsive. Plus all those things the OP mentioned. I can’t think of the names of the other characters right now, but the one girl’s defining personality trait is that’s she a doormat, and the other guy’s defining trait is that he sits on the floor and cries a lot.
Then add these characters to boring, predictable plots. If you can’t tell, I didn’t enjoy this show very much.
Owen did not rape anyone. It was some alien device/chemical that made people want you. All he did was kiss a girl and her boyfriend kissed him just as passionately and Owen decided maybe playing with alien tech isn’t as fun as you might think at first. Owen was always kind of a sleazy jerk anyway though.
It’s been a while since I saw that scene, but I remember the woman turning him down before he used the spray. In my opinion, something that takes away someone’s choice makes it non-consensual sex. I thought he used it on the boyfriend too, but I may be wrong about that.
Yeah, just start with Children Of Earth, which is great, and skip over all that faffing about with inconsistent characterisation and forgettable plotlines in the first two seasons. I found the difference in quality enormous.
Can’t wait for Miracle Day!