Do Yourself A Favor: Watch Torchwood
Author: JT
• Sunday, May 10th, 2009

1 Do Yourself A Favor: Watch TorchwoodWhy aren’t you watching Torchwood? Because it’s buried at the bottom of your cable dial on BBC America, most likely. But whether you simply didn’t know it exists or because you dismissed it as a lame, Doctor Who spin-off: reconsider. In a post-Battlestar Galactica world it just may be the best science fiction on television. It’s everything shows like Fringe wish they could be, but can’t under America’s restrictive environment of censorship.

The premise is familiar. A team of professionals work for an organization which investigates alien activity on Earth. Their goal is to protect and prepare. You never know when some half-crazed, energy-based psycho from outer space might decide she’d like to dine on Earthings by using sexual orgasms to suck people dry. From the premise you’re probably ready to dismiss it as CIS meets the X-Files, but Torchwood is so much more than it’s find the paranormal clues premise. You’ve never seen anything on network television like this.

BlockBuster It stars a bi-sexual immortal who dresses like a dashing, off duty Civil War cavalry officer. It tackles any and all issues with unflinching zeal and when called for isn’t afraid to drench them in sex just for the hell of it. The show’s female cast members for instance, regularly find themselves lured into lesbian make-out sessions, yet somehow it’s never gratuitous. How can so much lesbian fucking actually work within the context of a great plot? It just does. It works when a hot lesbian alien and Torchwood’s awkward, straight female computer geek fall totally in love.

Most importantly every episode has consequences and impact. Torchwood cuts right to the heart of even the most bizarre and terrifying circumstances. A lesbian mind-reader who rips out hearts is someone you can, surprisingly, identify with. When people die, it hurts. When the cast gets in trouble, the danger feels real because you never know when one of them might end up really and truly dead. There are victims. There is pain. There is no magic button at the end of every hour which someone pushes to put it all back to normal. Every moment has meaning, emotion, and tears are not uncommon. It’s science fiction for adults. How much of that’s left?

It’s sleek, it’s sexy, and it’s unlike anything else you’re wasting time with. Do yourself a favor and try out Torchwood. You’re missing the best science fiction left on television.

2 Do Yourself A Favor: Watch Torchwood

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  • ari
    i don't know about all of you people, but i enjoyed it.
  • don
    I really enjoyed Torchwood. It was entertaining, with it twist and turns, cornball humor, cliches, and cheesy goodness. As far as sci fi goes time will only tell what shows will hold up. I grew up watching Doctor Who, Tom Baker to the current incarnations. If you remember those old show and then watch them now, you know the meaning of cheesy. Talk about cheap productions. But if your anything like me you were in front of that TV for every cheese filled episode. People are such critics, shut up enjoy the show, or get off your asses and produce something better, I dare you.
  • I downloaded both seasons after finding this article on digg, and as a newly-obsessed fan, I'm REALLY glad I read all the comments (here and at digg), AFTER watching the whole show, so that they can't ruin it for me.

    Maybe I'm just weird in that I'm a female viewer who loves science fiction and slash. Maybe I'm juvenile, or maybe I'm just part of the tiny niche audience this was aimed at.

    What does it mean to be juvenile or immature, folks? "Immature" and "juvenile" seem to be your favourite names to call Torchwood, yet, I'm not exactly sure what you all have a problem with. The only thing I've noticed about such words, in life, is that those who think themselves "mature" are EXACTLY the kinds of people I don't like and hope never to become.

    The acting convinced me, the makeouts were hot, and while I didn't like Owen's fish face either, something underlying it all kept me caring, rapt at attention, occasionally talking at the screen and tearing up along with the characters.

    I think Torchwood is awesome. It's fun and exciting, and I found myself overjoyed at being encouraged, by the show, to quit taking entertainment so seriously.
  • The Sarah Jane Adventures episodes are perfectly acceptable in their cheesiness, as they are intended for younger viewers. Torchwood was supposed to be for a more mature audience than the general viewing audience of Doctor Who. They seem to think that more mature means everyone wants to have sex with everyone at any given moment. It gets old real fast.

    Heck, I even prefer SJA to Torchwood despite their juvenile nature. At least they were intended to be juvenile.
  • terry
    Monday, 11. May 2009

    Waiting for season three of both Torchwood and Sara Jane. Way better than those “Conner Chronicals”. Watched 10 minutes of one of those episodes and had to turn it off because “I’m smarter than that”.
    As for the “gratuitous, and cliche” of Torchwood? Yea, that’s why it’s so good, everyone needs a laugh in good nature every now and again.

    ^^ Ha ha ha!! You can turn in your sci-fi badge now. I love sci-fi as much as anyone, which is why I sat through both seasons of Torch Wood. And truth be told, it is a bad show. But to say that Torch Wood is better than TSCC is insane and shows how completely out of the loop you are. Next you'll be saying how Sarah Jane is better than anything Gene Roddenberry ever did.
  • terry
    Waiting for season three of both Torchwood and Sara Jane. Way better than those "Conner Chronicals". Watched 10 minutes of one of those episodes and had to turn it off because "I'm smarter than that".
    As for the "gratuitous, and cliche" of Torchwood? Yea, that's why it's so good, everyone needs a laugh in good nature every now and again.
  • Torch Wood was Horrible!!

    @ Cletus: Wow. I never thought to look at the spelling of Torch Wood and Doctor Who, great catch.

    @ site moderator: The comment above is spam, but "shemale with perfect tits.." (hover mouse over The Tube Dude user name above) would fit great with a Torch Wood episode.
  • johnny9k
    I tried Torchwood for 4 or 5 episodes when it was released in US 2 years ago. I really wanted to like it, but it was dreadful, pointless, gratuitous, and cliche.
  • I've enjoyed Torchwood, but I wouldn't call it Sci Fi. It's bubble gum adventure with an X-Files-ish veneer. And it wasn't until the very _last_ episode that it actually got good and you understood more about each character.

    I've seen much much worse. Two words: the aborted reboot of "Knight Rider." Okay. That was six.
  • Keith
    Seemed cool at first, but the characters aren't that memorable, their motivations are vague and the plot has more to do with their weird sexcapades rather than sci-fi. If they'd move more toward focusing on a specific goal instead of random issues that seem to have little continuity between them it might make for a better show.

    As is, it's sci-fi soap opera for omnisexuals.
  • Josh
    I think torchwood had potential. It just seemed like they moved Doctor Who writers over and halfway through writing each episode they remember their on late night and can throw sex in completely ham fisted. Half the time it feels like a cheap porno but you don't get to see any goodies.
    The acting in it is sub par, but I'm not sure if it's the actors fault, or the directors, or the writers. Characters never seen to have a consistent motive or even emotion from one line to the next.
    Second season was a little better, but it really needs more intelligent writing. Maybe when it's under Moffat it'll really shine.
  • Tom
    As a proud brit, doctor who fan, and lover of all things sci-fi I pose this question.

    Really?

    It is an awful awful awful awful program. It gets worse

    I dread the day America 'discovers' the Sarah Jane Adventures!
  • Viralink
    I didn't like this show at all when I tried it first a few years ago. Then I watched the other sci fi shows out at the time. THEN I decided to watch torchwood again and found it acceptable.

    Torchwood - Looks great compared to watching reruns.
  • fumblefacedolt
    What's with the brown coats? A literal rip-off from Firefly fans?
  • Cletus
    Torchwood spells Doctor Who
  • zach
    Its not new to the US...

    and it does slightly suck. The first two seasons were not bad but they weren't good either.
  • someone
    The show has been in the US for 2 years now whats the big surprise. In addition to that its very available on the internet at one's favorite streaming sites. Yes its not super huge budget but it does tackle modern issues with more aplomb than many shows in any nation that I've seen so far. If all you notice is the cheezyness, then you're not paying attention.
  • Jay
    I gave it an entire season to prove itself. By the time I got to the end of it I could not have cared less if any of the characters lived or died. In fact, for several of them, I was rooting for the monsters to eat them. The gay angst thing was a real turn off too.
  • Ben Speakman
    I live in the UK an initially dismissed this tv series. After reading this article I gave it another go. Which was a bad idea. I cant believe something like this gets aired on the tv. The effects are like a throwback to cardboard star trek sets. The whole thing is so cheesy and the characters are just laughable. It feels like it was produced by GCSE students. Piss poor.
  • Mark Fradl
    uh...are you kidding? I'm a huge Doctor Who fan so i gave this a try, watched the entire first season. It's painfully bad. 5 minute plots stretched to fill 60 minutes, annoyingly gratuitous and juvenile sexual content, unlikeable and uninteresting characters... unless this show REALLY took off after season one, you're on your own here
  • Yes it is cheesy, but it is part of the charm. It is made on a super tight budget and is all about the story. And it is fiction, they can do anything they want and explain it anyway they want.

    The first season was great, the second was a bit lacking. The mini series will be shown over five days, preview at http://www.bbc.co.uk/torchwood/

    It is not all about a lesbian romp, i think that was only in the one episode.

    Oh and fact of the day, Torchwood is an anagram of Doctor Who.
  • Seriously, I really tried watching this and the idea is ok. But after 3 episodes that were so extremely cheesy that I couldn't even force myself to watch it I just stopped.

    I love sci-fi, but this and Dr.Who just don't do it for me. Almost everything in these series is in-plausable and that annoys me. Stargate have done a good job (imho) in making things seem plausable... and if you can't explain something, dont!
  • Arkiel
    Torchwood isn't over, you brainless git. Even a cursory look at Wikipedia would have told you about the upcoming Children of Earth mini-series, Summer 2009.

    Chief redeeming qualities are swarthy Captain Jack Harkness (and his story arc, and his ex), rigid consequences, and the tail end of the second season where one of the cast members becomes a zombie (those episodes are among my favorite). Takes a lot to get to the good stuff though.

    Yeah. Its definitely good for filling out the long gaps between Doctor Who seasons.
  • First of all, it's a WWII era look, not the Civil War. Secondly, the sexual content is gratuitous, and becomes downright tedious. Don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed episodes, or at least portions of episodes, and despite all of that I am looking forward to this year's mini-series, but Torchwood never seems to live up to its potential. It's a shame really.
  • JT
    Not everyone in the world lives in the UK. It's new here in the U.S.

    For everyone who isn't in the UK, give it another shot. The show has really improved from what it was in Season 1. In the absence of shows like Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica (which I agree, are much better) Torchwood is at the least, pretty good.

    If nothing else, you'll see things you'd never see on American television.
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