Geekshow

Review: Torchwood – Children of Earth

We. . .  We . . . We . . .We Are . . . We Are . . . We are coming.

Hello fellow TV fans. Sorry for the delayed absence. Some real world issues got in the way for a few months, but the worst seems to have passed. So now it’s time to talk television. And just when we thought the summer had nothing to offer us, along comes the good ol’ BBC.

Torchwood: Children of Earth (henceforth, T:COE), was a week long event that basically crammed the entire third series (season) into five nights. And they were some brilliant nights of television to be sure. I could sum up the plot, but at this point, I’m sure you’ve seen it and already know all of the heartbreaking details.

So let’s talk about some of the incidentals. First, let’s discuss the pacing. Trying to cram what would typically be a season long arc into 5 nights could make the viewer feel like things were rushed. I never got that impression with T:COE. As a matter of fact, each hour or so long episode moved with such grace that they felt much more fulfilling than a mere hour. I never felt shortchanged by the end of the hour.

Ok, plot. Here’s where some of the flaws sink in to T:COE. Overall, it is an amazing idea, and a classic tale re-told with some amazing panache. The deal with the devil that proves to never really be over. And in Torchwood, the devil is instead a race of drug-trafficking aliens known only to us by a frequency: The 456. It’s the brazenness of Torchwood that confounded me in this story though. Jack and Ianto bursting into Thames House all John Wayne-like to save the day. Is this surprising for Jack? No. Captain Jack Harkness is confidence and brazenness personified. It’s Ianto’s presence that confused me. We all know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jack cannot die. But bringing Ianto on what is sure to be a suicide mission? I know it was a plot device to bring Jack down a few hundred notches. Does it make it any less meaningless? No, I don’t really think it does.

That being said, the performances of T:COE were up to and probably over par of anything we’ll see coming from the Emmys and Oscars this year. Ianto’s (Gareth David-Lloyd) death scene was one of the most tragic and heartbreaking moments on television this year. And that was only the first of many to come. Eve Myles, probably one of my favorite actresses today, gave Gwen a new depth of pain and humanity that I didn’t think was possible. Gwen has always been one of my favorite characters, but the moment she stares into a camera and says, “I want to know about that Doctor of his. The man who shows up and saves the world. Only sometimes he doesn’t . . . Sometimes the Doctor must look at this planet and turn away in shame,” you can’t help but feel the complete and utter hopelessness that this finale is going to offer.

The series’ regulars were not the only performances that were astounding. Peter Capaldi plays middle-man John Frobisher who is asked the un-askable after 30 years of service to his country, and who is left to make the only choice he feels he has left: to keep his family safe, he must remove them from the equation. The sheer horror of knowing what was coming, yet watching his resolution as his the room to his daughter’s door slowly swung closed was nearly unbearable.

Undoubtedly the acting in T:COE was remarkable; however those performances wouldn’t have been much without the writing. While there were indeed some awkward moments and obvious plot devices, the sheer scale of the writing left the viewer emotionally drained by the end of the finale. The realization of what the Prime Minister is going to ask of Frobisher, to the council’s meeting to decide how the sacrificial children should be chosen, to the understanding that Jack has had to sacrifice his lover and his family to save the world, to the final realization that The 456 didn’t need the children to survive, but rather just to get high. The writing was compelling, powerful and emotional.

And I loved it. Was it hard to watch at times? Yes. Am I upset at how Ianto was killed? Yes. Do I want to punch Jack in the face for running away from all of it? Yes. But is it all true to character? Absolutely. Is it what we’ve come to know and love about Torchwood? Without a doubt. Jack makes the hard choices (remember “Small Worlds” from series one when he sacrifices a child to save the world against the rest of the group’s wishes?). This idea is not new to Torchwood. It’s why we love Torchwood.

Now we are just left to hope that they…are…coming. Back.