Torchwood

Wow! I just finished watching the first season of Torchwood on DVD. Overall, good stuff.

Torchwood is a spin off of the updated Doctor Who series. The flavor is essentially The X-Files as executed by the people who currently produce Doctor Who, with five main characters. It sometimes reminds me of Farscape in that the main characters work together all of the time, and still end up pulling guns on each other from time to time due to the circumstances in which they find themselves. If you don't care for Doctor Who, you still might want to check it out because the tone is far more adult than Doctor Who. In fact, I'm curious as to how well some of the episodes will survive editing for an American audience because of some of the sexual content.

Now that I really have your attention, the best part of the show is actually the way the writers handle the toll taken on the characters' personal lives as a result of their jobs. By the end of the season, they've all paid a mighty price somewhere along the way and are emotionally wrung out. The last two episodes of the season should really be watched in one sitting, in my opinion.

If you do watch Doctor Who, there are a number of references to events crossing over with Doctor Who, some subtle and some not so subtle, and it's worth paying attention to catch them. Two of the five characters have actually met the Doctor (Captain Jack extensively, and Toshiko just in passing).

Yes, the monsters are still a bit cheesy (the Weevils in particular), and Captain Jack has a few decidedly unnatural secrets (and I'm not talking about his sexual orientation) that might bother people who'd prefer more realistic characters, but it was still well worth watching. If same sex romantic relationships bother you (or clearly depicted opposite sex sexual activity), there's no point in watching, as sexual elements turn up often enough to be an issue if it's something you don't want to see.

I know they're making a second season, and I hope to see where they go from here at some point. It'd make a great roleplaying campaign. It may be the closest we'll ever see to a Delta Green TV series, except that Torchwood chases aliens and alien artifacts rather than creatures and items from the Cthulhu mythos.