Jasmine Sahu is well suited with this new American drama exclusive to Dave.
Lois Cameron explains why this series is much more than your average cosy period drama.
The last episode of this series sees Sherlock and Moriarty attempt to solve the final problem with devastating consequences.
With major cast changes afoot, Jacob Martin ponders whether Being Human can live up to its own scarily high standard.
As I watched the last 5 minutes of this, the penultimate episode of Torchwood: I think it’s a Miracle I’ve made it this far, I began to feel something I hadn’t felt when watching it before: tension. Things finally seemed to be slotting into place and building to a conclusion; it was quite exciting. Only problem was, there’d been 50 minutes of tedium to get through first.
The episode kicked off with the characters playing the ‘Who Appears in the Darkest Scene?’ game. Gwen made the first move in a dark pre-credits scene, before bettering her score when she returned to her house in pitch darkness. But then we cut to Scotland, where Jack and Esther were hiding out in a cottage that you could barely see due to the ultra-oppressive darkness.
At this point, it seemed as if it was game over, and we returned to Wales where Gwen and Rhys, seemingly resigning themselves to defeat, were having a night in front of the box. But then the room was plunged into unrelenting darkness thanks to a power cut, and they emerged victorious at the eleventh hour! (If they’d have waited another hour, just think how dark it would have been then.) It was the most fun I’d had watching Torchwood in ages and, if the game had continued, scenes becoming so dark that you couldn’t actually see what was going on, I think it would have improved the episode as a whole.
Much of this series has been truly laughable, and this episode was no exception, with excessive use of dumb dialogue (“Don’t forget, there’s no murder anymore”; as if we could), and duh-duh-duh moments. My favourite of these involved Oswald Danes who, at the rate of one-word-per-minute, explained to Gwen why she should go easy with that pan: “I have a name.” We know you do, you keep reminding us you’re the most wanted man in the world – everyone knows your name! “I have the name of a man.” OK… “I have the name of the man who created the Miracle.” Ooh, do you really? Do tell! Oh, we’ve cut to Rex in America.
If the writer, John Fay, had taken some of the dumbness out, he’d have freed up more time in which to give the more interesting and important things, like The Families, a bit of breathing space. It would also have allowed us to spend a bit more time with the CIA mole, a more interesting character who, it turns out, is also a lesbian. Just thought you might have missed that amazingly subtle revelation. (Project PhiCorp logo on screen now.)
Things did pick up in the aforementioned last 5 minutes, though. We were finally going to get to see The Blessing! What could it be, I wondered? Would it be a giant Dalek? Or a giant CGI alien blob? Or maybe even a giant, flaking, polystyrene wall with a big crack down the middle?
Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, it was the latter. But, just as the suspense was draining away, there was a bit more intrigue in the final scene, as Jack’s blood started to move towards the window! Gwen came to this conclusion: “It’s The Blessing, it’s somewhere over there,” she said, while looking out at Shanghai. Any particular place over there? All I can say is, I hope that that blood has a better sense of direction than the writers of this series.
The final episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day airs Thursday 9pm BBC1, and we might just get some answers.
You must log in to submit a comment.
