I’m a huge Doctor Who fan and am looking for something to hold me over until Christmas. Is it worth my time?
The first two seasons are mostly forgettable, although the episodes where Martha Jones shows up and
Owen dies and becomes a zombie
are decent, as are the episodes where Jack is reuinited with his namesake and with his former partner.
“Children of Earth” and “Miracle Day”, in contrast, are some of the best sci-fi to air on TV in the past decade and I cannot recommend them highly enough. It’s worth trudging through the first two seasons just to be able to fully appreciate everything that happens in the latter two.
Gwen is possibly the dumbest star of an action series I’ve ever seen and I do not buy that she could stumble upon Torchwood, even by the second series when it was painfully obvious who they were and what they were about.
I would say that about a third of the episodes are great, a third are fine and a third are dreck.
It is considerably more adult than Doctor Who. Doctor Who is aimed at a family audience; Torchwood is obviously more adult oriented. There is stronger language, more gore, and some pretty graphic sexual depictions. If any of those aren’t your thing, I’d steer clear.
That said, I loved it. Smapti is right, at least about the first season: it is mostly forgettable monster-of-the-week type nonsense. The second season, I really became attached to the characters. Children of Earth is amazing and heartbreaking. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen Miracle Day, but I have heard great things.
Yes, it is.
I agree with you about “Children of Earth” but Miracle Day was disappointing by comparison. And part of the appeal of Children of Earth was the compressed schedule. It aired in the UK and the US over five consecutive nights. So we were able to discuss it here as it unfolded. Miracle Day wasn’t as compelling but the bigger budget showed.
And there’s a big difference between the first two series/seasons and the second two. The first two are basically monster-of-the-week while the second two each have one long story arc.
I’ve just started watching the series (about halfway through the first season), and I’m enjoying it very much. It’s not perfect, but it is entertaining.
Longtime Doctor Who fan here, and I have to go with a disappointed “no.” The attempt to make it appeal to adults, who haven’t objected much to Doctor Who being a kid show for the past 50 years, consisted of a little pre-watershed-level adult language, Cap’n Jack reminding us constantly that he is more gay than [del]bi[/del] anybody on Earth, and Owen, Wales’ answer to Steve Buscemi, getting naked. And Rhys shoulda dumped Gwen and found a nice girl with friends who weren’t so demanding of her time.
Just fun, good summer watching IMHO
Hm. I was going to say the first two seasons, when they were sticking to a monster of the week schedule, was the most watchable, if you don’t mind the gratuitous bisexuality. When they switched to the mini epic season-long arc stuff they lost their footing and floundered all over. In retrospect, I’m certain I watched out of pure fan loyalty.
Captain Jack Harkness is a really cool idea, and character. Torchwood not so much.
When it first came out, I was pretty enthusiastic about it but quickly lost interest. To me it was the kind of show that conflates sex with maturity. I’ve heard good things about a select few episodes from the first couple series, which might be worth watching, but aside from that little positive.
Children of Earth is genuinely good and worth watching. Not fantastic, but on the whole pretty good.
Miracle Day has an excellent premise and the first few episodes are full of promise. The parts where characters are reacting to the new status quo and actively reconsidering how the world will change are very interesting. However, it quickly loses loses steam and fails to follow through on that premise as well as having the characters be as dumb and abrasive as possible to facilitate the plot. I lost interest about halfway through, so if it picks up in the latter half I am unaware.
My advice would be to get a list of the best handful of episodes of the first two series and watch just those along with Children of Earth. Then walk away.
I watched only a handful of episodes before deciding it wasn’t for me.
But I still remember Countrycide…
I generally agree with Garula. I watched the first couple of series until I realized I was completely bored with waiting for it to get good. The tone was really weird - characters seemed to completely change personality from episode to episode. And John Barrowman never goes from ACTING to just acting. Children of Men was OK, though I didn’t like it as much as most people. And I thought Miracle Day was abysmal. It was painfully bad to watch. They Americanized the hell out of it, which destroyed the tiny bit of charm that was left in the franchise.
I’ve generally found what I have seen of Torchwood – which is everything up through the most recent season – to be fairly decent, but hardly essential, viewing. I’d say it’s probably worth sampling, seeing as how you’re just looking for something to tide you over for a spell.