Reviews of Torchwood

Its like an episode of Torchwood in 'ere

Posted : 1 year, 9 months ago on 7 March 2008 01:27 (A review of Torchwood)

I enjoy watching this show, but i feel it is becoming a bit of a victim to the "new look" BBC tv style.
In the past few years we have been bought such wonderful shows as "Titty Titty Bang Bang" and soon to be released "Lilley Allen and Friends" showing the level of thought out, clever television the BBC are concentrating on giving us. Most programs on their BBC3 channel revolve around laughing at the word sex, and being as metro sexual as possible to show that England is firmly in touch with todays modern values.
Torchwood is no different, with its extremely high sex drive and homo erotic characters it is definitely not the most subtle of tv shows. Not an episode goes by without 2 men snogging pro furiously, every 10 words the word Sex is mentioned and the characters have no sexual boundaries, not caring which sex, race or species their next lover belongs to.
This is of course not a bad thing, if it spreads open mindedness to the world then excellent, but i dont know why it has to be done in such a full on way? I am no prude, but i dont WANT to watch men kiss once a week for 40 minutes really, im ok with the occasional bit, in fact in the first episode of the second season i found it hilarious when the main character, after a 2 minute fight scene, began to kiss the face off of his opponent in a fit of passion. It fit perfectly in and had me laughing for ages, but other times it just seems done for the sake of it, in a kind of "OOOH CONTROVERSY ON THE BBC!!!!" kind of way as if they are trying their absolute hardest to prove some point to some body who probably switched off the first time a male character winked at another man!
Sexuality aside, the stories are reasonably good for a BBC sci fi, it has yet to live up to DR Who's standards, but then who expects it to? The characters are lovable enough, the stories are interesting, and often quite cool, it is very Welsh, which has done wonders for that race's image, (they almost seem human!!!) I know it will be on for a long time to come as it is a well written show, they just need to stop letting 13 year olds proof read the scripts adding in naughty words here and there, and the show can be taken a little bit more seriously.

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Torchwood review

Posted : 1 year, 10 months ago on 18 February 2008 06:26 (A review of Torchwood)

I would enjoy this more if the producer didn't keep coming over all fanboyish. Spotting which other shows he's a fan of by watching Torchwood is ridiculously easy. I enjoy this show, but I would like it so much more if he'd put more originality into it.

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Interesting concept but uneven execution

Posted : 2 years, 4 months ago on 3 August 2007 06:16 (A review of Torchwood)

A spin-off of Doctor Who which revolves around a secret agency dealing with alien technology and supernatural activities in Cardiff, Wales.

If you come to this looking for a Doctor Who-type show you'll be severely disappointed. It's more adult, more violent but frankly, not as good as Doctor Who. While the story concepts are interesting, much of the plot execution happens as a result of convenience. There were a number of times when I couldn't help but roll my eyes at how an episode unfolded.

Also at times the show comes across as disjointed. The early episodes have different styles that makes it hard to follow. Is it scary?, is it action?, is it funny? All of the above?

In terms of character development, the only people we really get to know is the team newcomer, Gwen and Captain Jack Harkness. Even though the other team members, Owen, Tosh and Ianto all get their own episodes, I don't have a real feel for them, as though they are after thoughts with motivations that change to suit the story. This leads to some clunkers for episodes like Cyberwoman or Combat.

But it's not all doom and gloom because Torchwood starts to improve in the latter part of the season. In particular I enjoyed "They Keep Killing Suzie", "Random Shoes", "Out of Time" and "Captain Jack Harkness" which mixes good character pieces with really well-developed stories.

What I've noticed with most episodes is that things start off interesting but then taper to this "Oh, is that it then?" type of endings. Hopefully things improve in season 2.

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What A Sad State Of Affairs

Posted : 2 years, 6 months ago on 28 June 2007 02:08 (A review of Torchwood)

It would be nice if there were more decent sci fi shows but unfortunately we get stuck with this tripe. I knew it would be a waste of my time to watch it just by seeing the previews. For starters the acting isn't up to par and the witticisms are embarrassing. Especially the ones made by Captain Harkness (John Barrowman) who is even more embarrassing because he gives the impression of an arrogant sleaze. Between Harkness trying to act like a sexy devil and the ridiculous faces Gwen Cooper (Eve Miles) makes, it's enough to make you cringe.

Besides do you really think a show is going to be worth watching when it comes up with a story line about a sex addicted alien? A sex addicted alien that doesn't have it's own body but must travel to another planet just to find a host body? I think not.

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