The Gathering, the latest episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day, succumbs to all the shortcomings this long, frankly overblown fourth season of ten episodes has been plagued by since its premiere: far too much time is spent building towards next week's finale, be it with teasing lines of dialogue or glimpses at the so-called 'Blessing', which seems to be some sort of...alien hole thing. Yep, that's really what we've been waiting eight hours for, a chasm that I at first mistook for being the crater in the Earth, yet which actually turned out to be a giant mouth for what ever extraterresterial force lies at the heart of Miracle Day. On the bright side, the acting is superb all round, with Bill Pullman still managing to prove this season's best casting as the disturbingly empathetic paedophile Oswald Danes, Mikhel Phifer at least coming into his own when Rex was at the heart of a CIA investigation, and Lauren Ambrose managing to take PR history-maker Jilly Kitsinger to new heights of eerie confidence as she meets the Three Families' ultimate weapon deep in Shanghai. Were the plot so solid and consistent as the performances, then I'd have a much happier outlook on the penultimate instalment, but as it is we basically just get Gwen's father being taken back to the concentration camps, Jack and the team including Oswald being led to Shanghai, and ultimately Jack's blood drawing a line to the Blessing (funny how the finale's called The Blood Line, isn't it?). Time and time again in this run, we've had simply very minor plot developments instead of the proper advances a strong drama should each week, and unless Episode 10 can really surprise us with some huge revelations and twists (I doubt it), then Starz, showrunner Russell T Davies and BBC America need to ask themselves a question when taking the next season back to the drawing board- should Torchwood revert back to its standalone 'case of the week' format? That is, of course, providing Starz choose to pick the show up again...based on Miracle Day, I'm not sure what decision I'd make in their shoes...OS Cover Image
Friday 9 September 2011
Torchwood: The Gathering Review (3.5/5)
The Gathering, the latest episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day, succumbs to all the shortcomings this long, frankly overblown fourth season of ten episodes has been plagued by since its premiere: far too much time is spent building towards next week's finale, be it with teasing lines of dialogue or glimpses at the so-called 'Blessing', which seems to be some sort of...alien hole thing. Yep, that's really what we've been waiting eight hours for, a chasm that I at first mistook for being the crater in the Earth, yet which actually turned out to be a giant mouth for what ever extraterresterial force lies at the heart of Miracle Day. On the bright side, the acting is superb all round, with Bill Pullman still managing to prove this season's best casting as the disturbingly empathetic paedophile Oswald Danes, Mikhel Phifer at least coming into his own when Rex was at the heart of a CIA investigation, and Lauren Ambrose managing to take PR history-maker Jilly Kitsinger to new heights of eerie confidence as she meets the Three Families' ultimate weapon deep in Shanghai. Were the plot so solid and consistent as the performances, then I'd have a much happier outlook on the penultimate instalment, but as it is we basically just get Gwen's father being taken back to the concentration camps, Jack and the team including Oswald being led to Shanghai, and ultimately Jack's blood drawing a line to the Blessing (funny how the finale's called The Blood Line, isn't it?). Time and time again in this run, we've had simply very minor plot developments instead of the proper advances a strong drama should each week, and unless Episode 10 can really surprise us with some huge revelations and twists (I doubt it), then Starz, showrunner Russell T Davies and BBC America need to ask themselves a question when taking the next season back to the drawing board- should Torchwood revert back to its standalone 'case of the week' format? That is, of course, providing Starz choose to pick the show up again...based on Miracle Day, I'm not sure what decision I'd make in their shoes...
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