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Torchwood: US reviews

America gets to see Torchwood: Children of Earth from Monday. Reviews are trickling in, and they like what they see.

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gwenAmerica gets to see Torchwood: Children of Earth from Monday, almost two weeks after it aired in the UK and Australia (thanks, UKTV!).

Reviews are trickling in, and they like what they see. Which is saying something for Americans watching Brit telly.

Variety said:
Crafted as a limited series that owes as much to the sci-fi classic “Village of the Damned” as to its two prior seasons, “Torchwood: Children of Earth” is a crackerjack, fabulously entertaining thriller. Although John Barrowman reprises his role as Capt. Jack Harkness — the mysterious, seemingly immortal head of a team founded in the 19th century to thwart extraterrestrial threats — the project makes like any good politician, catering to its base while inviting the uninitiated to join the party. Spread over five nights, it plays like an expanded version of what “The X-Files” movies should have been.

Chicago Tribune said:
No argument here. In a summer light on great TV finds, “Children of Earth” arrives as a bracing jolt of electricity. If you watch the first hour and don’t find yourself hooked, check your wrist—you may not have a pulse.

SunHerald said:
Directed by “Doctor Who” vet Euros Lyn and written by a team led by “Torchwood” creator Russell T. Davies, “Children of Earth” often rockets through its five-hour running time, although there are some talky sequences when it’s easy to wonder if the miniseries could have been trimmed just a little bit. And its dark climax may turn off some viewers, especially those who are new to the “Torchwood”/”Doctor Who” universe. But in a summer when so much of U.S. network TV has been dedicated to reality series, burned-off episodes of canceled shows and cheesy disaster-movie miniseries such as ABC’s “Impact” and NBC’s “Meteor,” “Children of Earth” feels like an unusual gift – five nights of strong acting, humor, drama and writing that’s about very high stakes, and that wants to challenge our brains rather than massage them to sleep.

10 Responses

  1. So American are starting to understand that they can enjoy shows without redoing them. Good on them. Maybe there’s a shift happening here.

    I hope they do go back to a full season next year. Looking at the last two seasons again, i realise what a loss a good 13 episode season is.

  2. Enjoyed it very much, and liked how different it was from the previous seasons. RTD has pretty much cleared the decks for next season (if it happens) and done so in style. A bit bummed about the ***** of *****, but that’s the nature of the show. I could never imagine the resolution to this plot being done on Who. If it was even attempted, the would be a righteous tirade from the Doctor, that’s for sure!

  4. At least this series showed that it’s not all fun & games
    for Capt. Jack being (effectively) immortal… until he
    literally & eventually becomes big headed, of course 🙂

  5. If I was programming this for the US I would show ep 1 and 2 together as the first 2 were very padded. I almost switched off but stuck with it due to the teasers at the end and it paid off – the last 3 were really chilling and well acted.

  6. In short, I liked it. While the whole “we are coming” crap was really cheesy and made the series a little difficult to take seriously (plus they could have made 456 sound more eerie/monstrous as opposed to Big Brother-esque :P), but this 5-part series has been consistent, and certainly a lot more memorable than some of the weaker episodes in the last two seasons.

    Episode 2 really stood out for me though… not to mention that it was pretty disturbing and disgusting at times. 😛

  9. Minor spoilers :

    I enjoyed this 5-parter, but with it having established the global crisis, why did it have to largely concentrate on a small Welsh housing estate for its dramatic final episode? Maybe this scenario was supposed to be representative of the whole (on a cheaper BBC Cymru budget), but it seemed to lose something because
    of this tunnel vision of the supposed big picture. I admit that making it welsh-centric is an RTD trademark, though. More of a “Torchwood: Children of Merthyr”. 🙂

    The more talky bits were done well, especially the scene where the British cabinet discuss the “rational” things to do… chilling & some of the best TV drama I’ve seen recently. It was a good mini-series & it deserves its praise from the critics.

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