TV Review: Torchwood: Children of Earth - Page 2

As for the bad guys, this time out it's an alien race known only as the 456, they're called as much because that's the frequency on which they originally broadcast a message to Earth in 1965.  In the opening moments of the season though no one knows that the 456 are on their way, all anyone knows is that all the children of Earth (at least the awake ones) have stopped simultaneously.  Quickly though the 456 are able to do more than stop all the children, they're able to use them to broadcast their first message to the world:  "We are coming."  The 456's plans go well beyond just using children as radio receivers however, and England, Torchwood, and the world soon find themselves in dire straits.

While it is most definitely science fiction based, Torchwood: Children of Earth, like all the best sci-fi, isn't exclusively concerned with aliens and the future and improbable (or impossible) events.  Torchwood succeeds – and make no mistake, this season does succeed, and more than previous ones – because it is concerned with characters and is able to center itself in the world in which we live.  Children of Earth spends a significant amount of time examining the hypothetical politics of an alien invasion, looking at the best and the worst that we, as a world, might do in the face of obscene alien demands. 

The humble heroes of Torchwood find themselves not only fighting aliens, but their past, and a threat from within their own government.  This season is most definitely a dark look at our world, not just because the story has a focus on the 456's relationship to children (though that is a lot of it), but because it shows a myriad of groups and factions all out for themselves.  Whether it's to protect themselves in the future, hide their tracks in the past, or just plain live through the present, Torchwood not only shows how poorly non-sympathetic characters might act in a dire situation, but how even sympathetic ones can do the wrong thing.

This five-part single episode story, Torchwood: Children of Earth, is so astounding and so good because it not only has a huge scope but because it doesn't lose the small stories, the stories of both the folks at Torchwood and their loved ones, like Eve's husband Rhys Williams (Kai Owen) and the stories of some of the members of the government who find themselves involved with the 456. 

Article Author: Josh Lasser

Josh Lasser, formerly known as "TV and Film Guy," and complete with a Masters Degree in Critical Studies in said areas, gives his opinions on TV, Film, and Entertainment in general. All of which he does in a shameless attempt to try to get paid to do the exact same thing. …

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