TV Review: TORCHWOOD: MIRACLE DAY - Episode 5 (The Categories of Life)

This will be a spoilery review, so if you haven’t yet seen the fifth episode of MIRACLE DAY either stop reading now or resign yourself to having a couple key plot points blown.

Only five episodes in and TORCHWOOD has finally ditched the excessive expositionary talkie-talkie and delivered the audience some much needed walkie-walkie. The show rips the fledgling team apart and decides to run ‘as it happens’ 24-style concurrent plot lines rather than subjecting the audience to yet another yawn inducing team gabfest.

The government, along with some generous help from the pharmaceutical giant PhiCorp, has developed new guidelines defining what constitutes life and death after Miracle Day. (Which, when you think about it is really tricky in a world where no dies.) Anyone marked Category 1 (brain dead) or 2 (severely injured) is shipped off to an overflow camp set up to relieve the strain from overcrowded hospitals. The Torchwood team decides to investigate the camps. Gwen flies back to Wales to investigate the camp her father has been shipped off to while Rex, Vera and Esther take a closer look at the Los Angeles incarnation.

(I think we’ve come far enough as a TV going audience that when we’re shown ‘camps’ where they gather a lot of people together against their will then something really bad is going to happen. Overflow camp is only a hop, skip and jump away from concentration camp and we all know what that means.)

With everyone poking around in their own little corner of the globe the team becomes fixated on discovering what the mysterious hidden Modules, set up in each camp, are all about. Meanwhile Jack sets about tracking down Oswald Dane (yes, again) to try and convince him to use his position as PhiCorp’s spokesperson to reveal the truth about the Miracle Day to the world. Oswald rejects Jack’s offer and instead delivers a speech during a PhiCorp rally claiming Miracle Day is simply the next step in man’s natural evolution.

As the team gets closer to discovering the truth behind the modules Vera makes a fatal mistake, provoking the head of the L.A. camp into shooting her after she discovers he has been keeping sick patients in deplorable conditions. Since he can’t kill her his solution is to put her in one of the secret modules, which turn out to be full of terminally ill category 1 patients. Of course the modules are actually giant ovens designed to turn the comatose into ashes and TORCHWOOD gets to carry on one of its longest running traditions, gruesomely disposing of a member of its main cast.

I’d argue it was the wrong cast member, but your mileage may vary.

I like my sci fi with strong undertones of social relevance and Russell Davies never fails to deliver. His shows are never just about the surface storyline. There’s always a deeper meaning at play and MIRACLE DAY is no exception. This season comments on American health policy, the danger of capitalism when left unchecked, the power of the media, the allure of celebrity and a host of other social issues, which are woven into its onscreen DNA. It’s a bold choice, especially in the face of the unrelenting puffery put out by most American broadcasters. Yes, TORCHWOOD is trying to break into the American market, but it’s doing so by holding up a mirror to American culture and asking the audience to look long and hard at some of its excesses. The show exaggerates for the sake of entertaining the audience, but it doesn’t take a genius to peel back the narrative and spy the inspiration for the story points quivering underneath.

There are a couple plot beats from this week’s show that strains my credulity somewhat. It boggles the mind to suggest that PhiCorp thought they’d be able to keep giant Nazi style concentration camp ovens a secret for any length of time. I highly double after, what, a week without death, that anyone would settle for a population control solution which has roots in such a black time in human history.

But really, that’s TORCHWOOD’s entire reason for being. Showrunner Russell. T Davies isn’t here to hold your hand. When TORCHWOOD first started airing I was put off by the show’s excessive bleakness and depravity. Spinning out of DOCTOR WHO as it did I wasn’t able to reconcile it’s inherent darkness with WHO’s more lighthearted approach.

It didn’t help that Jack was constantly appearing on both shows, further muddying the thematic waters.

But I’ve come to appreciate TORCHWOOD on its own merits and realize that the show is able to take a more honest and critical approach than WHO ever could. If DOCTOR WHO exists to explore the nature of the universe and discover the best of what humanity as to offer; then TORCHWOOD is all about shining flashlights into dark and grubby holes and making sure we acknowledge our more destructive tendencies.

It doesn’t have the best snappy banter or fill us with warm fuzzies, but TORCHWOOD is that rare televisual beast, a show that tries to personify huge, difficult to define and unwieldy social issues into a rallying call for change from the viewing audience.

It doesn’t always work. It isn’t always enjoyable. But it’s always very necessary.

TV Review: Torchwood: Miracle Day Episode 4 (Escape To L.A.)

 

Today’s review of the latest (4^th) episode of Starz TORCHWOOD, titled ESCAPE TO L.A. is going to be quick and fairly scathing so prepare yourselves.

I’m going to ignore the first 35 minutes or so of the episode, as it mostly amounts to not worth your time fluff that isn’t going to matter down the line once everything is revealed, and character building stuff that concerns aspects of certain characters that I really don’t need to see. Gwen gushing about seeing the West Coast and the Pacific feels utterly cheesy. Do I need to see Rex Matheson’s drug-addicted, lowlife of a father and they have a moment of introspection? Not really, that’s not why Matheson is here. Same goes for Esther and her crazy sister and mistreated nieces…we already have insight into Esther on that level I don’t need to see her pull the trigger on calling the cops on her sister for keeping her kids inside. I mean this is a show where travesties are being visited across the board around the world, so showing me Esther having to deal with it on a personal level like that is just icing on a cake that’s already been iced. It’s like singling her out because she’s a lead but why the heck should I care more about this situation with her sister than I should with all the others suffering…which they show us as well? It’s a waste.

In the last 10-15 minutes of the episode things finally start to happen and so that’s what I’d like to concentrate on if I might. The revelation in a previous episode that a pharmaceutical company had been stockpiling pain meds before Miracle Day in preparation for it (and therefore had prior knowledge of the forthcoming undead/not-dying event) was kind of a non-starter. It’s like watching a police procedural show and realizing that the person you refused to think committed the crime in that episode because that would just be easy and lazy…actually DID do it and you feel like you wasted your hour. That was what finding out Phi Cor did what they did was like for me…anti-climactic and lazy. And of course they are then not the ones behind everything but are only the end result of a bigger plan, so someone or many someone’s are, of course, shadily behind things. Do we get to find out who? No. Do we get an inkling? Sort of, in the form of a nasty thug who tries to off both Gwen and Jack and then does a long ass villain monologue (Really Torchwood? Really? A time-giving, boneheaded, villain monologue that allows Rex to stumble up the stairs to save the day?) Wow. Is this the 1970’s and is this a genre spy flick? Come on! In this day and age we (the audience) require a little more goddamned credit. This is Torchwhood, not the A-Team…the Doctor would be ashamed. I digress. The speech gives a twinkle of insight into who’s behind things, but of course isn’t fully revealed and it has something to do with Jack’s past. Wow. I’m so mystified! ( <--sarcasm) Look, unless they raise Toshiko or Owen or Ianto from the dead and make them responsible then I’m not going to be impressed.  I might be more amenable if the daughter whose child he sacrificed in Series 3 shows back up in revenge, but even that might be hackneyed. Inventing an enemy from Jack’s past that we’ve never met isn’t really going to fly with me. This show is usually about how Jack has made rough decisions in the past and how they come back to haunt him, but we can't keep going down that road every season. If that menace is something we haven’t seen before, how is that meant to be interesting…even when it is revealed? Series 3 Children of the Earth was riveting from almost episode 1 through all 5 eps. It had an enemy in it that we found out about relatively quickly, conflict amongst the members of TW from the outset, and an eventually unsolvable, un-day-saveable issue. It was tense, compelling and edge-of-your seat television. Finding out who the 456 were and hearing from them and their conversations early on was riveting...so that even though we didn't know why they wanted children I was enthralled until they told us...and at least I knew who the menace was. A faceless menace can get REALLY annoying if it draws out too long. BBC and Davies should be ridiculously proud of the 3rd series for things like that. In juxtaposition, so far, Starz should be utterly ashamed of their output. At 4 episodes in, big TW fans like myself and others I know should be loving this series and it should really be finding its niche with viewers, most hopefully American viewers. It’s not though, and I actually feel that Starz is totally failing the show. As they did with their other genre shows (SPARTACUS and CAMELOT) they treat them like fluff filler for the most part, and while a few cast members (Mostly John Barrowman) turn in their very best performances, the writing is lazy, the music is poorly arranged and most of all…the show is just plain BORING. I shouldn’t want to fast-forward a show, but I find myself wanting to. I was going to get my gf and her sister to watch, but at 4 episodes in and seeing how it’s going I can’t bring myself to subject them to something that has been relatively mediocre so far.

We are almost at the midway point of the show and it should be winning viewers, not losing them. At this point I could almost call it a wash…because even if the next 6 episodes are incredible it doesn’t justify the first 4 being tepid. We still don’t have a clue about who is behind Miracle Day, and we really should. Jack and Co. need something to strive for/against and not still be picking at threads. The Torchwood of the past was able to solve things quicker than this. I’m also tired of the USA/British terminology jokes. Can we be done with that already? Having Rhys be at home in Wales may give it some of its global flavour but he’s totally wasted there and that disconnected telephone relationship between him and Gwen gives us the catalyst for something that happens concerning Gwen at the end of the episode which to me…again…feels lazy.

I liked a number of Series 1 eps of TW, and even more of Series 2 in fact…and I think Series 3 was the pinnacle of their tenure so far, but the 4^th series (whether it is Starz fault, the writers they chose, or Davies himself) has been like luke warm water and it’s driving me nuts.

I am actually now starting to pray that Starz abandons the show and it somehow finds its way back to the BBC….but the problem with that is that if it flops now, who’s to say Davies won’t leave the show to go on to other things (no one could fault him). It’s his baby and without him it just wouldn’t be the same (See current Doctor Who), so I’m kind of double-edged about that thought. Still, anything is better than lazy writing and evil villain stupid ass monologues.

TV Review: TORCHWOOD: MIRACLE DAY – Episode 3 (Dead of Night)

The original incarnation of TORCHWOOD is a strange hybrid. As a spin-off for of DOCTOR WHO for mature viewers the show wore its American television influences with pride. Grown up themes, unflinching plot lines and plenty of explosions and gunplay gave TORCHWOOD the feel of a heavy drama masquerading as an action film. Perhaps that’s why the first two series produced such middling results. TORCHWOOD always felt like a show that knew where it wanted to end up, it just didn’t quite understand how to follow the path to get there. It wasn’t until the third series, TORCHWOOD: CHILDREN OF EARTH, that the creators discovered the right balance for the show, choosing to forgo the weaknesses of episodic television to focus on a single plotline.

In order to bring a fourth series the air the creators have collaborated with the American station Starz, hypothetically returning the show to its American inspirations.

Unfortunately the results to date have been uneven. The first episode floundered until it arrived at its big budget climax, while the second ep recovered brilliantly with a prototypical ‘locked room’ storyline that was suspenseful with a healthy dollop of black humour (the vein of storytelling that serves TORCHWOOD best).

And sadly the American additions to the cast have been underwhelming as well. Mekhi Phifer, as CIA agent Rex Matheson, has been reduced to a hyper-masculine American stereotype, snapping and snarling his lines out with a perpetual grimace on his face. I’ve seen more from Phifer during his time on ER so it’s disappointing to see his character so badly underwritten.

Even worse is Alexa Havins as the intelligence analyst Esther Drummond. For three episodes now she’s been tottering around on four inch stilettos and generally dressing like a 13 year old’s vision of a naughty librarian. Nestled amongst more gifted actors Havins’ bland performances stick out like a sore thumb, especially when compared to original TORCHWOOD-er Eve Myles, who manages to portray a tough, nuanced character without ever sacrificing her femininity in the process.

The only bright light among the new cast members has been Arlene Tur who plays an emergency doctor trying to cope with the challenges of Miracle Day. Although Tur is used primarily as an expositional plot device, observing how the MD changes affect those on the front line, she makes the most from her limited screen time.

Dead of Night, the third entry in this season, is as rocky as the season opener was.

When it comes to light that painkillers and other drugs will soon be made available to the public without a subscription the team begins to investigate PhiCorp, a major pharmaceutical company that seemingly began to stockpile drugs in preparation for Miracle Day.

Jack also begins to take an interest in convicted pedophile Oswald Danes after his many television appearances begin to earn him a sympathetic following from viewers and a mysterious meeting with PhiCorp.

There's a bit of running around, a well worn break and enter cliche is used (OMG, THEY'RE HIDING RIGHT BEHIND THE BOOKCASE) and nothing of substance really seems to happen.

This ep just dragged. Davies et al are clearly setting the table for bigger goings on in later episodes. In the meantime, that means force feeding the audience a bunch of background information on PhiCorp and shuffling the characters around like chess pieces in order to put everyone in the right place at the right time.

There was also one particularly painful scene where two characters nattered back and forth about how Britain and the U.S. use different words to describe the same thing. Once is funny, (a misunderstanding regarding pants and panties), but half a dozen times is overkill and just sucks all the momentum out of the scene.

(Is this still a thing, btw? Are people still so ignorant of the rest of the world that they need a translator to tell them that gas is called petrol in other places? Or are we just to assume that the writers think all North American are idiots?)

The few moments where the ep excelled was in the smaller character pieces, Jack exploring his mortality and reliving his failures, Gwen reconnecting with her husband and son and Rex and Vera struggling to find a romantic connection with each other despite their own self sabotage. When TORCHWOOD pauses long enough from its seemingly endless info dump and uses its characters to explore the changing nature of the world around it, the show becomes legitimately interesting.

If it really wants make a splash across the pond then TORCHWOOD needs to bring it’s A-game right now. After shedding 30 per cent of its viewing audience between the first and second ep it can’t afford to fart around and hope people keep watching. The show’s premise and its characters are clearly established and its fan base eager and ready. Its time to give them what they want.

TV Review: Torchwood: Miracle Day Epsiode 1 (The New World)

Okay, let’s talk about TORCHWOOD: MIRACLE DAY.

Am I excited that TW is back? Yes. Am I excited that there is an RTD and Julie Gardner production on the TV again? Hell yes.  Was the first episode of TW: MD great? Yes and no.

Overall it was a decent enough intro to a new season, but you can certainly tell that this is not going to be the pressure cooker of awesomeness that last seasons’ CHILDREN OF THE EARTH was from the outset. It’s a slower setup this time. That’s not a bad thing, but it just felt different. Jack, Gwen and Rhys are back in fine form and Harkness especially seems to be maintaining a rather surly disposition (likely due to what he had to do in the last season) that I liked. Picture Jack circa the series 2 episode titled ADRIFT when Jack is being secretive about a facility to Gwen who keeps pushing him on it. The pace is speedier in the second half and the first half has more of the random info about no one dying, but it does kind of beat that horse to death for a half hour. It’s hard to unify the two sides/stories of the Atlantic, as when Phifer shows up in Wales and confronts Gwen and Rhys I couldn’t help thinking that the Esther character would have worked better, in perhaps a way that had her not realizing just who she was going to see and why (on orders from Rex maybe). Rex Matheson on his personal one-man mission was...over-the-top to me. That’s a personal complaint though.

So, the episode is entertaining and though it doesn’t give us too much to work with plotwise beyond the main macguffin, it certainly gives us stuff to look forward to. It was nice to hear Murray Gold’s Torchwood score again and nice to see RTD-isms within the narrative. I should also note that watching this episode, even though it had some problems, was oodles better than most of this season of DOCTOR WHO…if that tells you anything.

The newbies:

Rex Matheson (CIA agent) - Played by Mekhi Phifer (see below for my thoughts on him)

Esther Drummond (CIA) - played by Alexa Havins was suitably interesting and kind of a version of Gwen pre-Torchwood, up to including Jack drugging her with a Retcon pill. Nice touch that.

Oswald Danes (criminal on death row) - played by Bill Pullman is totally creepy and messed up. I am fully of the belief that if there's one role trope Pullman can always pull off it's "creepy". 

Dr. Vera Juarez (doctor at a hospital where she notices no one dying) - played by Arlene Tur. Here is a new medical person to add to the team in the future methinks. Which is good since no one wants to see Martha Jones return. Tur was good in her small role in this first ep. Interested to see where she goes.

Now, onto some issues I had.

Problem #1: Mekhi Phifer. Dude…the overacting of this guy in the first episode was like watching an excited 12-year old in the school play attempting to portray Mercutio and only managing to pull off Paris Hilton. Seriously. His acting was AWFUL. Every other new character successfully did their level best to come into this new world but Phifer was just bad. He better up his acting game in the next few episodes if he’s going to win any fans. I’m going off thinking of his wound and pain making him overact (or seem like overacting) and once that calms down we might see more of Phifer circa E.R. as we KNOW he can act. I hope at any rate, cause I don't know how much more overacting Mekhi I can take.

Problem #2: So much time is spent on setting up and joining the various plotlines that when it all comes together in the final resolution, the scene comes out of nowhere and seems totally out of place. You have Matheson as CIA agent just getting on a plane and flying to Cardiff and finding Gwen easy peasy…Beyond that the entire point of that final scene hinges on the aforementioned Phifer delivering his lines well and since he doesn't it just comes off as strange and rushed. The Cardiff Police show up (3 cars)…Jack & Co. surrender. Not really that “Torchwood” of them (Ianto, Toshiko and Owen would probably be ashamed), but I digress.

While not the best season opener, it is still leaps and bounds better than a lot of the tripe that’s on TV right now and you’d be doing yourself a big favour to get into this show now so you don’t have to catch up later.

Enjoyed it mostly, but I am waiting for the show to WOW me like the 3^rd season did.