Torchwood - A Review

Tonight was the BBCA premiere of the Doctor Who spin-off, Torchwood, to which I have been looking forward for quite some time. The lead actor is supposedly either bisexual or gay in real life (there really is a difference, even though no one outside of bisexuals mind to make it), and I could care less, but it is apparently one of the show's selling-points and definitely a hot topic across the Blogosphere, so I felt I should mention it.

[POSSIBLE SPOILERS]

Captain Jack Harkness is the man in charge of a top-secret agency known as Torchwood. Both the organization and the Captain have appeared on Dr. Who several times and BBCA replayed those episodes today, leading up to the debut of Torchwood. In Doctor Who, Torchwood was sketchily made-out to be some sort of governmental agency, but in the premiere, it was made clear that Torchwood exists outside of all legal circles and levels; it exists on its own, in and of itself, somehow.

Torchwood is not exactly like an X-Files branch (regardless of its governmental affiliation or autonomy), even though that is as close a similar concept as you can really get. They basically hunt aliens - specifically aliens, not the paranormal, Supernatural, or anything else - but they also handle alien technology and apparently design their own. Further, Harkness himself is apparently not completely human, but it is not clear as to whether he is alien or was once human or what. In Doctor Who, he was supposed to have been "from the future," but that is still as nebulous, since the Doctor is a Timelord...

At any rate, the series is well-shot and downright brilliant. The lighting is sharp and crisp, yet dark and moody - a slick dark future in modern-day times - and the sets are urban and somewhat futuristic, but not overly so. It has a sort of timelessness that lends itself to the suspension of disbelief you need to accept the concepts in play. And the concepts in play are nothing short of sheer brilliance.

Torchwood doesn't rely on unexplained alien races and technologies, nor Star Trek-type, nonsensical hyper-explanations; it seamlessly blends the fantastic, the futuristic, and the downright simple to affect a Dark Conspiracy, tabloid reality where you aren't exactly sure what's what, but you believe it could happen just the way you're seeing it. You really never stop to consider what is happening; it catches you and whips you up and you willingly go along for the ride.

The acting, writing, dialogue, and direction are top-notch and the special effects are next to nothing. I'm not sure, but they may have used the same cats that did Hex and Hex' special effects (there were much more of them in the first season) were absolutely staggering.

If the debut is any indication, Torchwood is one hell of a show and so completely worthy of a Saturday night timeslot.

By the way, what happened to Jekyll?