Torchwood: Children Of Earth Review

A review of a TV series? Not sure how I will do this, but let’s give it a quick go. First of all, a brief introduction to this:

Torchwood is a series occurring in the same universe as Doctor Who (oft called the Whoniverse) with a company of people attempting to combat alien invasions and so forth. Based in Cardiff in Wales, where there’s a small rift in time and space enabling many curious or violent aliens to wander through. There’s been two series previously, and a few members of the Torchwood team have died since the new team was established.

StoryI feel that this story probably resonated more for those with children, whereas to myself it made The 456 seem like a race of paedophiles, when they requested 10% of the children of earth. The eventual decision by the Prime Minister seemed like a likely solution to a problem like this, should it arise. The story was pretty okay and fit the schedule well.

Character DevelopmentJohn Frobisher (Peter Capaldi) made this mini-series fantastic. The whole Ianto/Jack thing would have been good were it not for his permanent death, which means we’re now to down to just Jack from the team we saw in the first episode. Another great character was Denise Riley (who hopefully becomes PM).

Gwen being pregnant was kind of expected, but with a child I suspect that will eventually knock her out of the Torchwood team too. Clem was alright, but they never explained how he smelt odd things did they?

Jack’s daughter was good, his grandson and his death, not so much. Lois Habiba turned out great as well and I hope she becomes part of the team. It was all about the supporting cast this time around.

Soundtrack

Urgh. I’m very half and half on the soundtrack. Some tracks were great, whilst others felt very, very out of place.

Pace & Flow

Putting the show on a weekly schedule seemed to work pretty well, but it seemed that certain events didn’t have enough time spent on them, such as Jack and his daughter and Rhys always deserves more time.

Setting & Location

Obviously we’re in Cardiff again, but placing us on a council estate before realising that these children will be the ones offered on a platter was nice work. Not much more I can think of on that actually. Kind of new to TV reviews.

67.3%

Story: 8.3/10
Character Development: 7.1/10
Soundtrack: 4.9/10
Pace & Flow: 6.2/10
Setting & Location: 7/10

• 0 – 19% Unwatchable - why the hell did I even watch this?
• 20 – 49% Poor – Certain elements of the show hold it back
• 50 – 69% Average – More good than bad, but you might need to be a fan to really get in to it.
• 70 – 84% Good – This is what you’ll be talking about with people in the office the next day.
• 85 – 89% Excellent – This is what you’ll be talking about for the next month.
• 90 – 100% Fucking Excellent – This is the best TV show ever, therefore going by Josh Whedon logic, it will soon be cancelled.

There you have it, my first TV series review. It’s not quite right yet though.