Television Show: Torchwood
Written by: Guest Bloggers at 11:23 pm
Guest Post by: RPalladino
BBC America
Starring John Barrowman, Eve Myles
Created by Dr Who’s latest visionary, Russell T Davies (also famous for the UK version of Queer as Folk), Torchwood is a series full of questions, but very few answers.
Sure, it’s pretty standard fare as far as storylines go: aliens invade earth through a gash in time and space, a heroic team of scientists investigate and kill, or capture, said baddie aliens and all is set right with the world.
Now, while that isn’t strictly the plot with every one of the thirteen episodes, what strikes you first about Torchwood is how badly written it is. The plotlines are clumsy, premises are shoehorned in to either up the ante or slow everything down to a near stop, the actors look bored with the material and more interested in their costumes and the direction for pretty much the whole sad debacle is slipshod and reliant on either dodgy effects or sexual forays that really don’t belong in the scene and are just used for pure titillation.
John Barrowman, who revisits his charming Dr Who character, Captain Jack Harkness, here is probably the only thing that could save this whole series from being relegated to the dustbin of history. Unfortunately, Russell T Davies has ousted the charm in favour of a hollow interpretation of Harkness, all bluff and bluster and no empathy, rather than fill out the promise Barrowman’s character had shown in his brief appearances in Dr Who.
The rest of the cast fare no better. Eve Myles is a strange choice and her character, PC Gwen Cooper, is badly written and doesn’t seem to belong. Myles is awkward in the guise of the disbelieving copper and is ultimately unconvincing. The same goes for pretty much the whole bunch of them. But the point, ultimately is this: If a show is badly written, then the cast will fail too. Of course, conversely, Sir Alec Guinness played in the Star Wars movies with elan and wit (even though he hated the movies), but there’s not a Sir among any of these jobbers, so Torchwood dies where it falls.
It’s a sad fact that when spin-off shows are created they invariably fail and Torchwood is a good case in point. After some really high personal hopes for this series, and the patchy third season of Dr Who currently on show, it’s time for Davies stop this indulgence and quit while he’s, sort of, ahead.
Torchwood will grab some good ratings, and a second season has been in production for some time back in the UK, but the old saying about not being able to polish a turd remains true here. Avoid.
Torchwood airs on BBC America at 7pm EST every Saturday.
Technorati Tags: Television Show, Torchwood, BBC America, DVD, Box Set, Review
---------------------
Written by Guest Bloggers - Visit Website
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A mix of work by writers who have written for Literary Illusions over the years.
