Torchwood: Children of Earth (***may contain spoilers***)

[NashVegas]

Wow, what a roller coaster. The first four were fantastic, and I think the final episode was a mixed bag. It would have been nice if there could have been *some* kind of up note for Jack. Like the grandkid turning out to be a chip off the old block, just *something.*

And by the way - what about Gray?

[dsc]

1. I had never watched Torchwood but had read so much positive about it I had to watch

Simply stunning. I loved the couple that Jack and Ianto were and the first four nights were fantastic until the very end of the fourth night. The fifth night, while depressing, was also very good. In any case, I intend to track down the other seasons if possible.

[NashVegas]

4. It's Good Stuff

Welcome aboard!

Season one was great, season 2 had its highs and lows.

[Tam3]

25. I love this series!

I don't know if we have to have spoiler warnings, but just in case if you have not seen this do not read!

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I'm thinking that US television wouldn't have the stones to film some of the stuff from Torchwood, like the last part of the fifth night when Jack's grandson was used as the sacrifice. Any USA shows or films I seem them fade fast in fractions of a second, i.e. as in the Aliens and Predator movie, the second one when the boys chest was about to burst the scene quickly faded to another scene. I think the USA is used to and want their happily ever after, and that isn't what you get from BBC UK.

I love a lot of series from British TV, and was happy to hear that there will be a 4th season. This show is not for kids under 14, but it's a great adult show. I'll miss Iantos! I believe Johnson, the Black Ops woman, and Lois Habiba would be a great addition to Torchwood. How about Mr. Dekker? Anyone else you would like to see join Torchwood?

[MrModerate]

2. Attuned as I am to the happy ending syndrome . . .

Especially as it *always* plays out on sibling program 'Dr. Who,' I didn't expect to sum up the show with "everybody dies."

I have more respect for 'Torchwood' now. Up to now I've banned it from my house because of it's unfortunate tendency to slip into soft porn at unexpected moments. Not that I'm opposed to soft porn, but not egregious soft porn in a sci-fi show. I may have to dredge up and watch the episodes I've missed.

[NashVegas]

6. What Did I Miss

besides an occasional lingering, sloppy kiss?

[get the red out]

7. I always liked the daring little sexy parts

They aren't really porn. You have to pay a lot more to see porn, LOL!

[MrModerate]

11. About the third episode they were fighting some alien . . .

That extracted men's vital energy through their dicks. It was a bit much for my (then) 9- and 12-year-olds. Since then, I've seen a few milder but still too-edgy moments, enough to turn me off the program. I'll probably give it another shot.

[NashVegas]

13. Was That The One

With the sex-crazed alien? I missed that one.

[Tam3]

26. Not even close to porn, but they put their rating

system at not for under 14 years of age, so obviously your kids shouldn't be watching it. Back to the episode, they were fully closed, and not showing anything(If I remember correctly, so it isn't really porn or it wouldn't have a NC-17 rating, and I'm not sure what cable is allowed to show, but I don't think soft porn is allowed anywhere but that stupid crap they show on the movie channels, where they are fully naked and simulating sex. Most TV, movies I wouldn't allow children under 13 to watch, I'm more against the constant violence they have in movies. It's funny what parents will allow and what they won't. So no your kids shouldn't be watching this mini series or any of the episodes this series is for older teens and adults.

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. Not soft porn ,but the very first episode had one of the Torchwooders

doing date rape, basically - using a drug to get women to want sex, and then his Torchwood memory eraser so that they wouldn't remember it. And it was never really brought up as an awful thing to do - more as 'isn't he a bit desperate'.

[get the red out]

3. I loved this series, until now

I have watched Torchwood from the beginning and loved every minute of it until now. Having Jack "sacrifice" his own grandson went too far, just my opinion. It hurt like hell to watch Ianto die, but I could accept that, all in the line of duty. But they really went way too far into darkness tonight having to watch him kill his little grandson for me to get any form of pleasure out of it in any way at all. Just disgusting, hopeless, idiotic, and the ruination of what had been an absolutely amazing series with wonderful characters.

I wanted to smack the hell out of the writer during the little talk after the end of the show.

[NashVegas]

5. I Still Do, Just ... Geez Louise

Did they have to kill off so many great characters, between this and Exit Wounds?

On one hand, I have to give Davies great credit for writing such a flawed hero; on the other I think he beat up his own child as much as Jack did to his.

[get the red out]

8. I am pretty irritated

I was accepting all the character kills much better than I usually do in shows where I love the characters so much, but then Ianto's death broke my heart (but I can deal with that), then the end and what he did to his poor daughter.... way too much. I love Jack, and all his warts, I fell in love with his character when he was on Dr. Who and have loved watching him develop, but I did not enjoy how this mini-series panned out at all. Pretty sick, really. Like the whole point was seeing how miserable the thing could become.

If Torchwood does come back I wonder if there will be any point to the show other than waiting for Reece, Gwen and their baby do die and wondering which dies first and how they die, or if they just kill the whole family at the same time. That's what this show has become now.

[napoleon_in_rags]

9. Yeah, they've got to bring the grandson back.

That was just too much. The whole morality tale of the sacrificed children resonated in so many ways with global warming and all, but then Jack sacrificed his own kid? That screwed it all up. But Jack is a phoenix character, I'm thinking that in some way his grandson will be too.

[NashVegas]

12. After a Good Night's Sleep

I think we're supposed to look at what Jack did in contrast to the government's (and Frobisher's even more hopeless) solution. Yes, the grand-kid was safe, but what about the great-grandkids? Would they have stood a better chance? Meanwhile, not a single one of the cabinet would have sacrificed one of their own for what they perceived as the greater good.

[get the red out]

17. Disagree

I won't be an apologist for them going that dark. It wasn't necessary and it ruined the entire show, all the years of it for me. I hope Torchwood never comes back on. I hope it is done.

[napoleon_in_rags]

22. But they completely screwed the "Jack was making a sacrifice" bit.

Through the whole "you never care about your grandson" bit his daughter threw at him when he tried to experiment on him earlier in the series. Jack didn't refute it at all, so the picture we were left with was him sacrificing a family member he actually didn't give that much of a shit about. We see him crying and depressed, and leaving the planet, but some part of me wants to slap him, HE wasn't the one who got toasted to push back the 456.

[get the red out]

16. It absolutely was the unforgivable for me

If nothing is done to correct it, I hope Torchwood never comes back on. Captain Jack is ruined for me, bastard writer.

[napoleon_in_rags]

21. I agree with you that it sucked. Good myths teach morality.

And have relevance to many things. The myth would have been beautiful if all the adults in the world had to sacrifice something for the good of the children, even a "story of Isaac" situation where the kid is saved by some divine hand from the sacrifice would have been better. But they FUCKED it up, because they made clear in the earlier episodes that Jack wasn't even that close to his grandson, nor his daughter. So at the end of the day, the hero wasn't even making a sacrifice...He just came up with a better more ruthless Machiavellian strategy than the government that happened to involve sacrificing the life of a distant family member.

The only thing that can happen now is if the kid comes back, as some kind of powerful energy entity representative of the 456 to haunt Jack. I can't see any other thing they can do to redeem that screw up.

[NashVegas]

28. Well, Yes ...

But the driving force in current popular culture is one that's all about tearing down myths, rather than building them. I don't like it, but there's not much I can do about it just now.

[quiet.american]

20. Know what you mean, I did, too.

He was sitting there describing what he'd written with such cheerfulness, seemingly completely oblivious to what he'd just put Torchwood fans through. Oy.

[depakid]

10. I like the fact that they kill off characters

A very different and much more mature show than anything in state states, outside of HBO. What suspense is there if you know everyone will survive?

Looks like there may be another series, according today's interview with Russell T Davies:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32128070/ns/entertainment-television/

[get the red out]

18. It's stupid not mature

If I want nothing but misery and death I can watch CNN all day. Fuck the show, fuck the writers, I hope it fails.

[depakid]

23. Well, it was a smashing success- and it's just been renewed for a 4th season

I know that must just bust up your childlike American sensitivities.

[Tam3]

27. You are right on depakid

Americans are far to sensitive, happy endings are far too common. Did you see Neil Marshell's The Descent? They showed a different ending apposed to everywhere else where they got the real ending. Sarah still in the cave. To be fair though many liked the UK ending too, but it's a perfect example of what the American audience is shown. I am an American so I do know something about this topic. I love British shows, I love Torchwood for daring to go where they went. it takes great stones to do so, something their US counterparts are lacking, for the most part.

[NashVegas]

30. Now Now

One minute Ianto's running off to play hero with Jack, the next, *poof.*

I get the point, being part of Jack's life is dangerous, but it was manipulated.

We never saw Ianto with a family until it was time to start planning for the character's death. We never saw Ianto & Jack's romance heat up until it was time to plan for the character's death.

It's like the old drill on early 1970s TV. Bonanza - fall in love with a Cartwright brother, you die. Fall in love with Starsky or Hutch, you die. A cheap ploy for the writers to throw some romance into dramatic shows based around men, without having to go through the expense of keeping an additional actor on the payroll.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

24. Yes, one of the exciting things about British TV

is that it doesn't require "happy endings." When I was a kid, fretting about a TV character who was in danger, my mom would just say, "Oh, don't worry. He won't get killed. They have to have a show next week."

Not so with British series.

MI-5/Spooks has had almost its entire original cast replaced, with the characters either getting killed or forced to resign or assume new identities. When there's a hairy situation, you never know who, if anyone, is going to come out all right. Sometimes they're rescued at the last minute. Occasionally they're not. The last episode of Season 5 was especially unnerving in that respect, because you didn't know the fate of the characters till literally the last minute.

[Djarun]

15. Torchwood

We..
We..
We..
We Are..
We Are..
Renewed?

[quiet.american]

19. What a twist that the end of the world was to come at the hands of ....

(WARNING: THIS POST IS FILLED WITH SPOILERS)


... a couple of alien junkies.

"Chemicals." That was one of the most shocking moments for me.

And the scenes where they were deciding whose children to sacrifice... not often that I find television drama truly sobering and chilling, but that was just so well acted.

Didn't expect this to be so utterly dark... it seems Russell T Davies was trying to strip away any romanticism we may have had about Captain Jack, from Jack's initial mercenary visit to his daughter and grandson, to his false bravado that essentially caused Ianto and scores of others to be killed, to learning that it was him who knowingly drove the first set of children to their living nightmare ...to almost no real remorse over sacrificing his grandson... even the very end, where he looks upon Gwen's pleading tears with a curious lack of response.... and off he goes.

I have to add this, though -- when I first saw John Barrowman as Capt. Jack in Doctor Who, I thought he was one of the most exciting actors I'd seen on television in ages -- but the quality of his acting seems to have degraded lately. A lot. I hope he does whatever he needs to do to jump-start his talent again. (But he does still look good in that coat!)

Eve Myles continues to amaze, though. I think she's absolutely excellent. And the rest of the cast was spot on, too. The actress playing Lois Habibi (sp?) was really terrific. I truly thought at the end of the story we'd see her, Jack, Gwen, Ianto and Reese in HUB 2 as the "new" Torchwood. When I'm wrong, I'm wrong!

(And I'm still trying to get over what happened to Toshiko. -- and about Gray -- "Exit Wounds" is the episode you'll want to see.)

[NashVegas]

29. Gray

I know what happened in "Exit Wounds." So what happened when the Cardiff bomb went off in Children of Earth?

I miss Tosh, too. Big time.

[bikebloke]

31. A Tosh fix in MI-5/Spooks

In the first series of Spooks, Tosh has a small part playing the Japanese girlfriend of one of the regular characters. I don't remember which episode, but here are only six of them.