Torchwood: Children of Earth - Day Four

[angelophile]

I've been thinking about how to talk about this episode without giving spoilers away all day (I've already put my foot in it once) and concluded it's nigh on impossible.

I will say that plotwise, it dragged a little, apart from the dramatic climax, as it was mostly an episode where all the loose ends and reveals from earlier episodes were gathered together.

I will also say that it delivered some of the strongest and most chilling character pieces on television, demonstrating the true banality of evil. Not since Conspiracy has there been a piece of television as compelling and harrowing. Deborah Findlay and Nicholas Briggs (normally the voice of the Daleks), joined Nicholas Farrell, Peter Capaldi and Susan Brown in a set piece that was truly horrifying but also frighteningly logical. Never has the phrase "That's what school league tables are for" been more shocking.

In fact the episode was clearly focused on giving chills rather than thrills and the sudden change in pace was strength as well as weakness. Effectively an episode about government, it could never expect to be action packed. But this was writing of a maturity that almost seemed at odds with what had gone before (although not entirely with Torchwood as a series, after it's far more mature second series).

And the ending... Oh boy. Even if you saw it coming, it still got you right in the gut.

Comments

[kirke-novak.livejournal.com]

Just to inform you - you wrote Day Three instead of Four

The entire things was fabulous and chilling, especially that during the table discussion, I thought "s/he has a point!" a couple of times, which made it even MORE chilling. Am I... pragmatic ;_; What Would Cap Say?

The ending... meh. Seriously, meh. After the brilliantly acted 50 minutes, we get such wallbangers, with (mouldy) cheese on top. There were at least three things that made me go WHAM!

But... you know my opinion on what happens next. We'll see. I have emergency pick-me-up ice-cream in my fridge, I'm not afraid to use them!

[angelophile.livejournal.com]

The thing I liked about the ending was that

[kirke-novak.livejournal.com]

Great point, m'friend. Great point!

It was all so fabulous I'm not even getting near that fridge. I'll just have a cup of tea and muse how Trochwood came from s1 to this. That's what I call growing up.

Damn, I'm impressed.

[angelophile.livejournal.com]

I know. TW 1 was what a 15 year old boy would think was adult programming. Series 2 underwent an incredible transformation, but the maturity level of these last two episodes went even further. This was proper telly for adults.