I’m watching episode four of Season 1 of Torchwood (Cyberwoman) while folding clothes and ironing, and I figured out why I am loving this show so much even though it is uber cheesy.
Torchwood is the British Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which was one of my favorite series of all time. Guess I’m just a sucker for this kind of stuff.
August J. Pollak
Oh boy is someone gonna like season two.
Joseph Nobles
Dear sweet Ianto. We love him.
akak
It’s a spin-off of Doctor Who — my favorite super-cheesy show!
DFS
I think Charlie Brooker called it Scooby-Doo with fighting and cum shots, which I thought was a better description.
Bnut
I was going to a snide comment, but I watch Jersey Shore, so I therefore am not allowed to make fun of anyone, anywhere, ever again.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
A British sci-fi author offered a critique of Torchwood that summed up my feelings: “More monsters, less weeping.”
Chyron HR
I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.
Bnut
@DFS:
This is a hilarious review.
Nylund
After a while, I couldn’t stomach the cheesiness anymore. The Torchwood miniseries, Children of Earth, had some truly creepy moments that redeemed the show a bit. If you ever give up on the show itself, make sure you still watch that.
jimBOB
I think Charlie Brooker called it Scooby-Doo with fighting and cum shots,
Never seen a cum shot in Torchwood, though there are plenty of dudes kissing.
I thought most of Torchwood was underwhelming, though the “Children of Earth” series was pretty great all the way through.
demkat620
Children of Earth was excellent and Torchwood season 1 had some really creepy moments(Countryside) but 2 and 3 just ran wild with the cheesiness.
Corner Stone
Man, no one could ever accuse you of being a dim bulb. Sharp I tells ya!
Corner Stone
They just showed the “Pork Sandwich Cam” at the Citi Field game for Astros v Mets.
I’m still drooling.
Corner Stone
I’m just remembering the episode of Seinfeld where I think George is having sex and eating a sandwich at the same time.
Of course that might have been a personal memory, but I also think it’s an actual episode as well.
That’s the kind of pr0n I could get behind. Literally.
Kered (formerly Derek)
Pastrami. The most…erotic…of sandwich meats.
Mark S.
Weird:
The concept of palingenesis goes back to the Stoics. I kind of hope Sarah takes this ball and runs with it.
kdaug
Dunno, never got into the immortal Cap’n Jack thing. Loves me some Doctor, though.
Fun fact – KERA in Dallas was the first American station to pick up Monty Python, Flowery Twats, Yes Minister, and Doctor Who. I grew up on Brit shows, which is the sole redeeming feature of my childhood. (Well, that and Sid & Marty).
Anna Granfors
Oh, just you wait till series 2. You actually GET a Buffy alum (no spoilers!), for one thing, and Joss’ tendency to kill characters is taken out for a walk, too. And series 3 (the five episode/one week “Children Of Earth”) goes a way past Whedon, in some regards.
And I know everyone else here has told you to, but WATCH DOCTOR WHO, series 1-4 and the Specials, also written by Russell T Davies, and even better than Torchwood, but not as much f*cking.
And in case no one’s mentioned these two, watch Stephen Fry’s “QI” (nominally a quiz show but really just an excuse for the UK’s funniest, smartest people to mouth off in entertaining fashion), quite probably the best thing on TV, period, and at least the first few series of “Shameless”, all about ASBOs on a Mancunian council estate where patrons at the local routinely order “a pint and two E’s (ecstacy), mate”. Effing hilarious and heartstring-tugging simultaneously.
(Oh, and if you haven’t been reading Joss’ BtVS comics, you’re really missing something. He exec produces and writes some, just like the series, and has brought along some of the series’ best writers (Espenson, Noxon, etc.) with him. Great stuff.)
Mark F.
I’m a Torchwood fan too. I think as you move through seasons 1 through 3 it gets better and better (with occasional bumps along the way of course). But like a couple of other commenters have mentioned, Season 3 (I’ll consider Children of Earth a 3rd season for this discussion) is really very very good. Some definite cheese factor like the other 2 seasons, but it definitely took the show up to another level. I can’t wait for Torchwood to continue next year when they start running it on Starz on cable. I’ve heard a little bit about it and it sounds like it could be pretty good.
Yutsano
@Bnut: It’s Snooki isn’t it? Dear Allah I don’t even watch that show and know enough to rub that salt in. I need to stop being less aware of popular culture dammit.
iasa
I haven’t seen season 3 of Torchwood yet, but I think it’s great mindless entertainment.
And I am quite mindless, I just now realised Torchwood is an anagram of Doctor Who. Doh!
kdaug
Admittedly, Children of Earth was quite good.
Greenhouse Guy
@Bnut:
:)
Mark F.
Another British genre show that is definitely worth a look is Being Human.
The premise starts off like a bad joke- A ghost, a werewolf and a vampire rent a house in Bristol to try and fit in like humans….
But it’s actually one of my favorite shows right now. Series 2 is currently on BBC America and it’s moved in a bit of a different direction from series 1. Definitely worth checking out.
demkat620
Welp, the mooslim on my tv just quoted the bible.
That’s unpossible!
demo woman
I just watched The Ghost Writer and now my conspiracy cap is on.
corwin
FYI Torchwood is an anagram of Doctor Who, that’s how they came up with the name. And they are planning on bringing the show to Starz this next season, not sure how that will work out.
geg6
Well, I have to guess I wouldn’t like Torchwood then. I never watched Buffy when it was still on, but recently started getting the first season from Netflix. I only did it because so many people I like and respect constantly profess love for the show.
I have now watched two of the discs. Underwhelmed and disillusioned is about the best way I can characterize my reaction without insulting our blog host and probably numerous BJ commenters. Let’s just say I will be cancelling the rest of the discs ASAP.
middlewest
@geg6: The first season was really weak. I think most fans will admit this.
Incertus (Brian)
@middlewest: I wouldn’t say weak so much as up and down–good episode, cheesy episode, all the way through. But the cheesy ones were at least entertaining for the most part.
But Children of Earth–yeah, that’s some good television right there.
jimBOB
@middlewest:
First season Buffy is not as good as the later ones, but I think there was plenty there to let you know the general zeitgeist of the show. If you didn’t like that part you probably won’t like the rest either.
Some people just don’t connect with Whedon’s stuff. No need to push it on them.
Donald Gillikin
John, “Cyberwoman” is generally regarded as being perhaps the worst episode of Torchwood Series One. If you’re motivated to keep on watching after that one, you may be “one of us” after all.
patrick II
If it’s the sci-fi portion that grabs you, this suggestion isn’t a good suggestion, but if you also like the seemingly vulnerable young lady that is really smart and tougher than you might think, Veronica Mars is also streaming on Netflix. I enjoyed it, particularly season 1.
ScottC
Season 2 is much, much better than Season 1, and Children of Earth is best of all.
But as to that awful episode, Chyron HR has the comment of the thread up there at #7.
New Yorker
So I recently got “The Lives of Others”, a German film about the police state in East Germany in the 1980s, from Netflix.
It was a really good flick, but I discovered afterward that the film is a favorite of the wingnutosphere as well. I suppose that makes sense on the surface since the film shows the suffocating nature of the communist police state, but I have a few questions for wingnut fanboys of this movie:
1, The early scene in which a dissident is broken by sleep deprivation, do you believe he was tortured? Is it only torture if the Stasi does it, and not when the US does it?
2, the heroes of the film are artists and intellectuals. Does it bother you that the film portrayed such people in a positive light when everyone knows that artists and intellectuals are effete elitists who look down upon simple, hard-working Americans like Sarah Palin?
aimai
@geg6:
I’m so sorry to hear that geg6. Like a lot of the other posters here I’m a huge Buffy fan, in fact my spousal unit and I are just starting to watch the entire series again with our daughters (13 and 11). There was quite the cult following of it at my children’s school among the parents and teachers. What didn’t you like about it?
aimai
aimai
@New Yorker:
Also, New Yorker, that’s a really good point. That movie is horrific on many levels. But where an ordinary person sees the oppression of *the state* as the problem–authoritarianism run rampant– the righties seem to assume that there are good states and bad states. I think they groove on the poverty and corruption of the communist state because it”proves” that any interference with the free market leads to decay. They don’t look at the state apparatus and think “wow, we’re doing the same thing with our pursuit of laws against contraception, abortion, gays, and muslims.”
aimai
ruemara
Love Torchwood, love BTVS, Whovian 4 EVAH! Cheesy sci-fi? It’s my bag, man. If I could just unload a few spec scripts and work in the genre til I croak at 110, I’d be a happy woman.
skippy
a) children of earth was some of the most gripping, tragic, suspenseful and creepy television i’ve ever seen;
b) is everyone aware that torchwood is continuing on starz tv network this upcoming year?
c) the grouchy neighbor the robot girl woke up at 3 am on the “i was made to love you” ep of buffy? that was me!
(and yes, i was the waiter that couldn’t remember harry crane’s name on mad men two weeks ago, thanks!)
tho i like buffy, i can relate to those who don’t “get” it. at the risk of raising the ire of bsg fans, i could not for the life of me get into the new battlestar galactica, even tho i netflixed it up thru season 2.1, til i just couldn’t go on. it did noy speak to me at all.
skippy
oh yeah, d) been following the doctor since the pertwee years. tom baker was the best doctor, until i saw david tenant. unfortunately for mr. tenant, i then saw matt smith, best who ever.
Hal
I would suggest starting Buffy with Season 2 or even Season 3, which for me, is probably the best season overall (just edging out season 5).
Season 1 is very weak, but I think that was because the show only had a few episodes made in case of cancellation.
Oh, and if you never watch any other episodes, at least watch The Wish and Hush. Hush could have been it’s own movie.
Twisted_Colour
Torchwood is the British Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Ummm… Is Captain Jack Buffy?
agoner
Now I know why I love you and your blog so much:
“…Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which was one of my favorite series of all time.”
@Anna Granfors: And yes, Joss’ BtVS comics are amazing. He can do all the things that a limited tv budget would not allow him to do.
elmo
@Hal:
And “Once More, With Feeling.” Gotta watch that. “Witness arias.” Hee!
LP
I agree with everybody who agrees with me: watch Doctor Who. That being, the Russell Davies and Steven Moffat’s Doctor Who (2005-present). Deeply Whedonesque.
Hal
@elmo
That’s one of the others, but I think a musical might frighten off newbies. And there’s alot of history being exposed in that episode (Buffy’s resurrection, Willow going bad etc.) that probably would be too much for someone just starting out with the series.
Freemark
Have to agree that ‘Hush’ and ‘Once More, With Feeling’ are my favorite episodes. TVS was just the right mix of seriousness, cheesiness, and innuendo humor.
As for the ‘Hush’ episode. I don’t if any other show could pull off an entire episode that involved almost no talking, yet be one of their best episodes
HyperIon
@Nylund wrote:
I lasted one or two episodes. I kept getting this vague impression of Doctor Who dorkiness. I was, therefore, pleased to discover its Who orgins. Is an anagram even.
Anyway it was pretty bad.
jimBOB
@skippy:
Can’t judge Matt Smith, as I’m waiting for the new series to come out on DVD (we have no cable), but Tennant and Tom Baker were both totally awesome. If you are nearly as much of a Who geek as me, you’ll enjoy the Mad Norwegian Unauthorized Guides, which are an insanely complete study of the pre-Davies series.
Litlebritdifrnt
Said in a thick Welsh Accent “Excuse me have you seen a Blow Fish in a convertible?” Woman points finger in direction of Blow Fish. “thank you” Woman “bloody Torchwood” BEST LINE EVER IN A TV SHOW. I just loves me some Torchwood.
slightly_peeved
And watch “Mock the Week” on youtube. It’s “Whose line is it Anyway?” meets “The Daily Show”. It’s where Jon Oliver got his start on TV, and one of the regulars in the previous seasons – Frankie Boyle – is the filthiest man in the world.
Litlebritdifrnt
PS) I have to disagree that Torchwood is Buffy thingy, I absolutely hated Buffy, it was such utter fluff. I cannot imagine comparing the two series.
toschek
I’m sorry but Captain Jack Harkness is awful, just watch Dr. Who instead — so much better.
Oh and if you haven’t caught it yet, Steven Moffat’s Sherlock is the best thing I’ve seen in a long time.
Litlebritdifrnt
PS) Oh and by the way, completely unrelated to anything in particular but we have a development in Wilmington known as Mayfaire Town Center.
http://www.mayfairetown.com/index/c/index/
It is one of those new developments which tries to recreate a town center. Anyhoo, one of the streets in said town center is “Torchwood” I wonder which came first?
Redshirt
If you think Buffy was “just fluff”, you didn’t watch it enough to know what it was really about. It was the furthest thing from “fluff”.
Witness “The Body”, one of the most realistic episodes of TV to depict the death of a loved one.
bly
You like Torchwood! Yay!
I was kinda thinking it’s be too geeky.
Anna Granfors
…yeah, whenever anybody talks smack about “Buffy”, I kind of figure they’re more into things like “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “The Glenn Beck Show”. Series 1 was weak, it’s true, but it grew into something that always winds up on every TV/culture critics’ Top Ten lists. And quite right, too.
That said, I kind of thought series 1 of Torchwood was a little weak *myself*, but I’m glad I stuck around. (And you HAVE to watch Doctor Who, at least series 4’s finale, “The End of Time”, just to see Ianto and Gwen throw themselves at the Daleks, guns blazing, and Gwen’s warcry, still one of my favorite TW moments.)
electricgrendel
Torchwood is awful. Just- truly and utterly awful. I could make it through the child sacrifice and the orgasm-eating demon and even the cyborg woman punching a freaking pterodactyl, but I could not make it through that sleazy little rat-faced douchebag describing the sort of orgasm he wanted to give that perennially witless main character.
I’m glad you enjoy it, but I found that show to be absolutely horrifically awful.
electricgrendel
Torchwood is awful. Just- truly and utterly awful. I could make it through the child sacrifice and the orgasm-eating demon and even the cyborg woman punching a freaking pterodactyl, but I could not make it through that sleazy little rat-faced douchebag describing the sort of orgasm he wanted to give that perennially witless main character.
I’m glad you enjoy it, but I found that show to be absolutely horrifically awful.
mclaren
Torchwood is megabitchin’. It’s got pterodactyls and reanimation gloves. It’s got weevils from another dimension and a secret super-science hideout in downtown Cardiff. It’s got aliens driving around in posh convertibles and time travel to WW II Britain. What more could you ask for?
If you dig Torchwood, check out seasons 1 and 2 of the British series Primeval.
Also The Mary Jane Chronicles will probably float your boat if you like Torchwood. British sci fi TV is on a roll. The new Doctor Who kicks ass, too.
Oh, and those of you who don’t like Buffy the Vampire Slayer can sit on it and rotate. Buffy rules. No one has done a better hour of TV than the S4 episode “Whispers” — no one, period. The musical episode from Buffy S6, “Once More With Feeling,” is one of the great achievements of all series television. S2 episodes 21 & 22 are some of the best TV ever made. And the S5 episode “Fool for Love” where Spike relates how he killed two Slayers while romancing Buffy will send chills down your spine.
Caveat: the first season of Buffy was very spotty. Start with season 2. The finale of S2 rules. S3 was awesome. Season 4, not so much, although it had some great individual episodes. S5 and S7 rocked hard. S6, not so much, although once again it had some of the most heartbreaking episodes ever put on TV, particularly the finale of S6.
At its best, Buffy the Vampire Slayer proved Joss Whedon was a genius. Gotta see the whole series, particularly S2 and S3 and S5, before you judge. And if you still think BTVS was a crap series after watching S2 and S3 and S5, bite me. I’m right, you’re wrong, BTVS was awesome, case closed, go back to your undead lord in the Hellmouth.
Fleem
@mclaren:
What you said.
And I’ve only seen a couple episodes of Being Human but the show is way better than its premise sounds. It’s definitely, deeply influenced by Buffy. The reluctant vampire with an “addiction” to blood. Repercussions (werewolf-induced Tourettes!) for attempting to overcome lycanthropy. I can only think they’re deliberate parallels to similar plot points in Buffy.
John
Sorry, but not like BTVS. BTVS was full of episodes in which the plot was a metaphor for something that was going on in the lives of the characters, like when B’s boyfriend turns into a monster right after she finally sleeps with him.
Torchwood is about the plot.
Freemark
@John: I have to assume you barely watched BTVS. That episode influenced the entire series and was the very basis for the series ‘Angel’. It was the most important single episode as far as plot development in the series.
Unless you are just being snarky. I haven’t seen Torchwood yet to know if you are or not.
Agoraphobic Kleptomaniac
I know i’m late, but I love torchwood.
The wife and I actually started backwards. We started with Children of Earth because of how much everyone raved about it. Loved it, went back to season 1, got to mid Season 2 where Doctor Who crossovers happen more frequently, and now we’ve put ourselves on a Torchwood Haitus until we catch up with Doctor who!
P.S. “Cyberwoman” wasn’t the worst episode from my perspective. (It could have been because I had no idea what was going on because of all the constant references to the Doctor Who universe that I had no connection with.) Seriously – Pteradactyl punching is never a bad thing in awesome campy sci-fi.
No, the worst episode is the “shoes” episode that was a major crossover episode with Doctor Who. It was unintelligible, weepy, poorly written, and all of the characters were written so far out of character it was moronic.
Donald G
@Agoraphobic Kleptomaniac:
In what way was the Torchwood episode, “Random Shoes”, a major crossover episode with Doctor Who, outside of some thematic and stylistic similarities to “Love & Monsters”?
slag
Damn! Now I’m going to have to watch this show. Thanks, Cole. Thanks a lot.