Entries Tagged 'Torchwood' ↓

TorchwoodTitle: "Exit Wounds"First Aired (US): 4/19/08
So another season of "Torchwood" comes to a close, not with a bang but with a whole series of bangs and a lot of whimpering. "Torchwood" season 2 was an improvement on season 1, and the finale was no exception. There was nary a rampaging demon in sight; havoc was wreaked, chests were pounded and mayhem ensued, but at least it was 100% rampaging-demon-free.
James Marsters was back to deliver his particular brand of swaggering insanity as Captain John Hart, Jack’s obsessive stalker, but his story ended up being more interesting than just another jilted Jack-fan. After leading the team a merry chase, blowing up huge chunks of Cardiff and stealing Jack away to 27 AD, he reveals that he’s merely a pawn in a time-traveling game of chess, sent to mess with Jack by someone who wants very, very badly to hurt our hero.
Of course, […]

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TorchwoodTitle: "Fragments"First Aired (US): 4/12/08
I’d like to say something better about this episode than to call it necessary, but unfortunately that’s about the best I can do. "Fragments" is a classic plotline, it’s the "how did we get here" episode where we follow the characters down the murky path that led them into the grips of Torchwood. This gives us some interesting backstory, but I have to admit it feels a little perfunctory here. It’s like they needed to occupy the hour from the first thing that happens to the big finish that sets up for the season finale next week, and so they figured they’d give us a flashback. On a sitcom, this episode was in real danger of just being a clip show.
We already know how Gwen joined Torchwood, of course, so it’s only Jack, Ianto, Tosh and Owen who get trapped when a building that was supposed […]

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TorchwoodTitle: "Adrift"First Aired (US): 4/05/08
As a fan of "Torchwood," I’m enamored of the show’s tendency to keep changing things up; from a critical standpoint it’s like shooting at a moving target. Most of the time "Torchwood" is a frothy parfait of faintly silly scifi, melodrama and hot bisexuals, but then it delivers an episode like "Adrift," a sober, thoughtful exploration of hope, heroism and loss. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just a little perplexing. If I didn’t recognize the characters I’d think I was watching a different show. This week’s episode isn’t the guilty pleasure that "Torchwood" fans have come to know and love, but it’s one of the best, probably the best when it comes to standalone episodes that aren’t really focused on the larger arc.
It makes sense to discover, as Gwen does, that the rift doesn’t just deposit things in Cardiff, it also has a nasty habit […]

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TorchwoodTitle: "From Out Of The Rain"First Aired (US): 3/29/08
An old standard of sci-fi action shows is the "monster of the week" plot. Some shows - "The X-Files" springs to mind - are at their best when focused on the good old "see the monster, research the monster, kill the monster" plots, and some - anything by Joss Whedon, for example - are at their best when embroiled in the drama of the characters and ongoing season or series plots. "Torchwood" is undeniably a guilty pleasure, and it’s at its guiltiest and most pleasurable when the characters are doing what they do best, shagging and fighting with each other. As a result, the quotidian spot-catch-kill episodes leave a little bit to be desired.
The monster-of-the-week in this case is some circus freaks who have somehow become trapped on celluloid; for their part, they’re pretty creepy, which makes up for the […]

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TorchwoodTitle: "Dead Man Walking"First Aired (US): 3/08/08
There’s no doubt about it, "Torchwood" has hit its stride. After delivering a nice, high-tension entry last week, they give us a follow-up that’s nothing like a letdown. The story is intense, the characters manage to keep their freak-outs to a fairly reasonable level (and when they do freak, it’s with good reason), and there’s some very genuine creepy delivered. Aside from a slightly unfortunate bit of unintentional comedy with an animated glove (too much like Addams Family, sorry) the episode is serious as a heart attack. It would be easy to credit the upswing in quality to the addition of Freema Agyeman to the cast, but so far she’s largely taking a back seat. She’s definitely a welcome addition, but this story is absolutely about Owen, Jack, Tosh and Gwen. Seriously BBC, you can’t be thinking of getting rid of those characters.
Of […]

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Rumors are flying fast and furious about the fate of "Doctor Who" and "Torchwood," two of the BBCs most popular scripted programs. There have been persistent unconfirmed rumors that the fabulously weird David Tennant would be leaving his role as The Doctor, which would be disappointing but can be considered an inevitability of sorts. Like James Bond, the role experiences a lot of turnover. David Tennant is beloved by  fans, but some of the other options sound pretty good. Sadly the rumor that it might be David Carlyle of "The Full Monty" fame has proven false.
On the other hand, the news that "Torchwood" may lose Jack, Owen and Tosh in the next season makes one wonder why they’d bother keeping the show. "Torchwood" without Captain Jack Harkness seems a little like "MacGyver" without MacGyver, or "Stargate: SG-1" without MacGyver. It’s hard to imagine the show surviving a radical Jack-ectomy without […]

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TorchwoodTitle: "Reset"First Aired (US): 3/01/08
"Torchwood" may be a show with some spotty performance, but when it delivers, it delivers. This week’s episode is tight, taut and full of drama, easily the best of the season and certainly one of the best of the series as a whole. It also marks the first appearance of Freema Agyeman as the fabulously sexy and brilliant Martha Jones, former "Doctor Who" companion and UNIT doc. We already know that Freema will be a regular member of the cast, and she’s a welcome addition. It seems The Doctor’s loss is Jack’s gain.
Martha is brought in when the team is investigating a series of murders - death by eyeball injection, ew ew ew ew ew - of people who seem to have nothing in common aside from wiped medical records and bizarrely good health. Their investigation turns up the reason for the wiped medical records: it […]

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TorchwoodTitle: "Adam"First Aired (US): 2/23/08
The "mysterious being who inserts themselves into your memories" has been done quite a few times in scifi, so one can hardly call this a novel approach for "Torchwood," but it is nicely done. As always, the episode eventually slides a little too far into the land of melodrama, but until it does the newly arrived Adam is effectively creepy and insidious.
Of course, the magical new member of the Torchwood team who was really there all along hasn’t been content to simply insert himself into their memories, he’s also fiddled around a bit with who they are. Tosh is looking sexy and put together, and Owen has turned into a neo maxi zoom dweebie. Oh, and Gwen has forgotten that Rhys exists. Whoops.
Much of the episode is taken up with mistaken interpersonal drama. Adam has inserted himself into a relationship with Tosh, Owen is in love […]

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TorchwoodTitle: "To The Last Man"First Aired (US): 2/09/08
I can only assume that somewhere in the "Torchwood" writing room is a roulette wheel that they use to decide who’s going to have the next tragic romance. This week it comes up Tosh, which is nice for her, since she hasn’t gotten much action other than that evil sex alien back in Season 1. I assume the same kind of device is employed to decide what kind of time-travel screw-up is coming up next, and what dubious bit of scifi-tech will be used to defeat it. Not that I demand a great deal of realism in my scifi, but seriously, a big brass rift key that magically makes the bad stuff go away seems a little bit excessive.
It seems that Torchwood has been keeping a shell-shocked WWI vet on ice since 1918 due to some uncertain need for him in the future. […]

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TorchwoodTitle: "Sleeper"First Aired (US): 2/02/08
Oh "Torchwood," you never fail to deliver on that unique combination of melodrama and nonsense. If it weren’t for infectious enthusiasm, we’d probably all be staring blankly at the screen at the end of each episode, wondering what just happened. This week’s "Torchwood" brings us another heaping dose of screaming and emotional upset, offset by wacky comedy hijinks.
Things get started with a random couple being burgled. As the masked bad men overpower the husband and wife, the lights go all fuzzy and the next thing we know, both assailants are in the hospital in critical condition. Of course, the team is called in, and set to work trying to figure out how the perfectly ordinary-looking husband and wife managed to overpower two armed men.
It doesn’t take the team long to zero in on the woman, Beth, who seems to be putting out an EMP field. Must […]

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