Here I am, in the unenviable
position of having to defend the fourth season/series of Torchwood, also known as Miracle
Day, not out of a sense of duty, but because I was genuinely enthralled
by its story arc (twice – last year upon its broadcast on Starz, and now again
on Blu-ray). “But Ross…it’s a Doctor Who spinoff. No wonder you love it. How can your opinion
on the subject be even remotely objective?” That might be sort of true if not
for one thing: I never felt similarly inclined to champion The Sarah Jane Adventures,
which starred freakin’ Elisabeth Sladen,
and detailed the further adventures of my favorite Who companion ever.
Captain Jack Harkness - though I appreciate, nay, adore numerous aspects of his character - isn’t even in my Top
Ten.
Miracle Day, as I understand it, was loathed by more fans than
it was tolerated. Hasn’t this always been the case with Torchwood? People always
seem to be so wronged by this series,
as if it’s gone out of its way to attack them personally. Even Children
of Earth, arguably the jewel in its crown, had its detractors – mostly
those who couldn’t bear to see Ianto killed off. Russell T Davies allegedly got
death threats over that one, the poor man. These are the same people who refer
to the first two seasons as the “real” Torchwood, yet everything that comes
after warrants no reference at all. Still others would argue that Children
of Earth was the only decent
thing ever produced under the franchise name. The real truth, it seems, is that
there is no real Torchwood. The series is like Russell T Davies’ personal
narrative playground, to do with as he pleases, with whomever he pleases, as the revolving talent roster (both in
front of and behind the camera) seems to suggest. Miracle Day further
proves that it’s an ongoing experimental work in progress, as it once again
offers up storytelling that’s quite unlike all that’s come before.
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| (l-r) Mekhi Phifer, John Barrowman, Kai Owen & Eve Myles |
Miracle Day is the most audacious series of scripts the show has
yet rolled out, but the problem with audacity is that, if one isn’t game for
it, it tends to leave one at best uncomfortable or at worst dismissive. There
are moments in Miracle Day that’ll have viewers shifting in their seats, and
many more that those same viewers will fluff off as laughable. The premise, for
those few of you who are unaware, is that one day, all of a sudden and without
explanation, nobody on Earth dies. Then another day goes by, and the same thing
happens. And so forth, and so on. This is dubbed “the miracle.” The first six of
its ten episodes are an exploration of humanity’s reaction to this brand of
immortality. Davies says on a commentary track here that much of the idea was
to explore the way mankind would overreact
to such a scenario, which, if taken into account, might put a considerably different
spin on the events. Either way, as Torchwood is wont to show us,
humanity comes off looking ugly and self-absorbed. Give humanity immortality,
and they’ll immediately find ways to kill themselves or one another. There’s a
grim, joking outlook to much of the proceedings, but that’s only when it isn’t
offering up genuinely horrific material. Miracle Day puts knots of various
types in my stomach, and that’s why I love it, flaws and all.
And there are flaws. It’s
never discussed or mentioned how the miracle affects life on planet Earth
outside of mankind. How about plants and animals? Surely they, too, should play
a huge role in the proceedings? Alas, we never find that out. The concept is potentially so vast, that the season could have taken twice as much time to explore the idea and still come up short. The oft-tossed about notion that ten episodes was too long a time to tell this story is, dare I say it, horseshit. Many viewers will
immediately want to know why the miracle is happening, but the answer to
that isn’t revealed until Episode 10. This is likely part of the reason folks
started tuning out en masse when the series was broadcast last summer; for many viewers it was
simply taking too long to find out why all of this madness was happening, and
the myriad red herrings along the way were probably frustrating. Misguided though
this line of thinking is, it nevertheless, as of late, seems to be a real problem. (See also
AMC’s The Killing.) Blu-ray or DVD alleviates this problem. You don’t
need ten weeks. You just need ten hours.
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| Bill Pullman as Oswald Danes & Lauren Ambrose as Jilly Kitzinger |
The character of Oswald
Danes (Bill Pullman) is one such red herring. Since the series doesn’t have a
villain proper until the eleventh hour (or the tenth, as the case may be), it
gives us pedophile Danes as a through line substitute (mind you, this narrative
contains many other “short-term” villains along the way). Danes was the first
high profile figure to escape death, and has since used the entire situation to
his benefit. The idea of Oswald is maybe a good one, but the execution of the
character less so, and even after two viewings I’m not sure if this is because
of Pullman’s performance, or because of how the character was (or rather
wasn’t) written. For the first couple episodes, Pullman is mesmerizing, playing the character
with tics and vocal inflections that are quite unlike anything we’ve ever seen
the actor do before. However the gimmick becomes stale, and we care less and
less about his story as the show marches on (he probably should’ve been written
out halfway through the season, but no, he’s there, unwanted, ‘til the very
end).
There’s other stuff the
season probably gets wrong, and certainly in tone it shifts wildly all over the
place from one episode to the next, but as is always the case (or at least
always my case) with Torchwood,
it gets more right than wrong. It’s
the journey that makes Miracle Day alternately fun and
horrifiying, not the destination. That’s why even if the finale feels a little
off, or maybe doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, or, alternately, is perhaps too damn convenient, I’m not inclined to
bash those aspects. Its divisiveness is exactly what makes this must see sci-fi TV. This is a story that’s about the ride, and first time
viewers need to know, going in, that it's simply not about what happens at the end.
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| (l-r) Alexa Havins (as Esther), Phifer, Myles, Barrowman |
Fans worried about
involving American money and talent in Torchwood, and the effect it would
have on the production. They needn’t have, and clearly Starz knew the show they
were getting involved with; if anything, Torchwood is bolder here in its
outlook than ever before. It’s bloodier and more violent. It’s as bleak as
ever. You want gay sex? An entire episode revolves around Jack’s relationship
with a man in 1927, featuring some very graphic sex scenes, and an emotionally
engaging storyline to go along with it. (It’s certainly not exploitative just
for the sake of it.) The only way the show has been “Americanized” is in its
look and location, as there’s no mistaking it’s now being made with American
money and equipment, with the bulk of it being shot in L.A. (although much of
the story is still set in Wales, and the production did spend three weeks
there).
I’ve become accustomed to
believing, over the years, that Torchwood is Captain Jack’s show,
and that without John Barrowman, there is no series. With Miracle Day, though, I’m
starting to see that maybe that’s not the case, and in fact this concept is
even more flexible than I’d previously given it credit for. While new team
member Rex Matheson (Mekhi Phifer), with his awesome swagger, might be part of
that train of thought, what really led me down this road is Gwen Cooper (Eve
Myles). Miracle Day is far more Eve Myles’ show than it is Barrowman’s.
She’s the character who’s grown and learned throughout the entirety of Torchwood,
not Jack. She’s always the character who’s got the most to lose, and never more
so than in this story arc.
Let’s be honest: John
Barrowman isn’t a great actor. He is, however, a great screen presence, and
aspects of his personality have been used over the years to help create Jack. On the
other hand, Eve Myles is one hell of
an actress, and she gets to do stuff with Gwen in Miracle Day that it feels
as though she’s been waiting for years to do. Here she’s not someone with whom
to fuck, and even Jack learns that. She’s gone far past being the student.
She’s his equal, and just as adept at deciphering the cruel way the universe
operates as he. On the watch of Miracle Day, Gwen Cooper has become
every bit the central figure that Jack Harkness is. If, for whatever
unfathomable reason, Barrowman wasn’t available, or no longer wanted to do the
show (hey, the thought was prefaced with “unfathomable”), at this point Torchwood
could easily continue on with Gwen as the central figure.
Perhaps the most polarizing
character in Miracle Day, though, is Jilly Kitzinger (Lauren Ambrose), who,
like Oswald, is another surrogate villain, although I wonder if people realize
she’s supposed to be this crazy bitch
in heels? I mean, you do get that the
idea here was to create a camp, over the top villainess, right? Jilly’s a publicist
who finds herself thrust in the middle of the miracle madness, and with every
step she takes, she finds herself enmeshed deeper in the conspiracy, until
finally, at the end, she’s at the very center of it all. I’ve been a fan of
Ambrose since her days on Six Feet Under, so I was perhaps
predisposed to appreciating her work here, although Claire Fisher Jilly is most
certainly not. However, she attacks this role with the same kind of ferocity as
she did Claire for five seasons. Unlike Children of Earth, Miracle
Day doesn’t end with a complete sense of closure. Although its storyline is tied
up nicely, its characters are left dangling, and Jilly is one of them. I don’t
pray, but if I did, I’d pray for more Torchwood and more Jilly Kitzinger,
because I had so much fun with Miracle Day, and this just simply
cannot be the end. Yes, like the best professional entertainers, Russell has
left me wanting more.
Blu-ray Extras: This is a crisp, beautiful sounding and looking Blu-ray that to my eyes and ears replicates the experience of watching it in High Def last summer. The star attractions here are probably the two
commentary tracks, on the first and last episodes, featuring Davies and Julie
Gardner. They’re a reliably fun and informative couple of hours, which cover a
great deal of ground and are well worth a listen. Only problem is, they were
recorded after only the third episode had aired, so neither of them have any
idea that the general public isn’t going to be eating this material up,
although Davies confesses that he’s unsure if it’s going to be everyone’s cup
of tea. Next up is the bonus web series entitled “Web of Lies,” which is
similar in style to one of those animated motion comics. I don’t know exactly
how this was presented on the internet, but here all the bits and pieces are
edited together into one 30-minute piece. It tells two alternating tales – one
in the past with Jack and Gwen, and another set concurrent with Miracle
Day, featuring the voice of Eliza Dushku.
There is also a series of
character profiles, a behind-the-scenes special, a special effects featurette,
and a short selection of utterly worthless deleted scenes. The most annoying aspect of this set, however, are the intros for each episode featuring Davies and Barrowman talking directly to the camera. These are lowest common denominator type bits, for the dumbest viewers in audience. I can sort of see why they were made for the TV broadcasts (though I'll be damned if I can remember them playing on Starz), but here they're nothing more than an intrusion, taking you out of the drama each and every time. They can be skipped with your remote, yes, but the set should've offered up the option to not play them at all. Your mileage may vary.
