Torchwood, Series 2, Episode 1: "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang"

Mark Hope · Jan 17, 2008

The new Torchwood series started up on BBC last night. Didn't see a thread on it, so...

(This post is spoiler-free for the moment...)

The story featured a rogue Time Agent played by James Marsters (Spike from Buffy) as well as the return of Captain Jack (who had hitched a ride aboard the Tardis for a brief jaunt in Dr Who.)

I'm a Torchwood fan, so no surprise that I really enjoyed it. It had some real laugh out loud moments - more than I was expecting. The portrayal of how the Torchwood team has handled Jack's absence was effective. It also served as a decent introduction for viewers who may not have seen the series before (it has moved over to BBC2 from the Freeview/Sattelite BBC3) and hit upon all the setting's most notable elements by the end of the episode. This was mostly done with skill, although one scene (the one with the fish-guy in the living room) was a little heavy-handed.

Looking forward to more...

Thornir Alekeg · Jan 17, 2008

Wow, the second season is just starting in the UK? BBC America is only going to be a couple of weeks behind since it starts here in the US on January 26th. Yay!

Mustrum_Ridcully · Jan 17, 2008

Looks like a good start for the new season. Eager to see more.

Fast Learner · Jan 18, 2008

It was blessedly almost free of my primary problem with the first season: characters constantly acting stupid beyond words. There was a bit of it, but overall, they did a much better job coming across as a professional team doing their job.

Mark Hope · Jan 18, 2008

Fast Learner said:
It was blessedly almost free of my primary problem with the first season: characters constantly acting stupid beyond words. There was a bit of it, but overall, they did a much better job coming across as a professional team doing their job.

Yeah, that was very noticeable. That said, I really enjoyed the way that the characters would frequently behave in stupid, selfish, petty-minded ways in the first series. I liked the fact that they weren't heroes and they weren't a proper team - just frequently small-minded and short-sighted individuals in way over their heads. It made the contrast with this episode all the more striking. I do recall lots of viewers being of the same opinion as you though, and I think that I was in the minority in that regard, heh...

Plane Sailing · Jan 18, 2008

I didn't like the heavy handed sexuality in it, but there were some good elements too. I laughed out loud at James Marsters hologram message, for instance.

delericho · Jan 18, 2008

Fast Learner said:
It was blessedly almost free of my primary problem with the first season: characters constantly acting stupid beyond words. There was a bit of it, but overall, they did a much better job coming across as a professional team doing their job.

Spoiler...

Although it wasn't stupidity as such, I was unimpressed with the extreme ease with which Captain John (Spike) took out the entire Torchwood team. It does nothing whatsoever for the credibility of your regular characters if the guest star punks them all without breaking a sweat.

It was an okay episode, and did what it needed to do. However, it was no "Random Shoes".

Fast Learner · Jan 18, 2008

One thing that I didn't care for was Captain John's strength change: early-on he can lift a full-grown man in the air and walk along with him held extended from his body, but later he's dragged around by the lead female (by cuffs). There's good reason for him to go along with it most of the time, but there are a couple of points where he would have been better off overcoming her.

Mark Hope · Jan 18, 2008

Fast Learner said:
One thing that I didn't care for was Captain John's strength change: early-on he can lift a full-grown man in the air and walk along with him held extended from his body, but later he's dragged around by the lead female (by cuffs). There's good reason for him to go along with it most of the time, but there are a couple of points where he would have been better off overcoming her.

Well, he does say that

he was only pretending to be captured so that he could be saved from the bomb - as well as still having the key to the cuffs, he also lets himself get dragged around. This came across pretty clearly to me

.

Plane Sailing said:
I didn't like the heavy handed sexuality in it, but there were some good elements too. I laughed out loud at James Marsters hologram message, for instance.

Yeah, the "look, we really are an adult show!" thing seems to be as present in this series as it was in the previous one, heh. The hologram was excellent, though - really cracked me up

.

delericho said:
It was an okay episode, and did what it needed to do. However, it was no "Random Shoes".

Random Shoes was awesome. This second series does indeed have some pretty big... shoes... to fill in that regard.

dravot · Jan 27, 2008

Caught this episode last night on BBCA. I'm so happy that it's on in the US only a week or so after the UK. Now I don't have to 'fly to the UK for the weekend' anymore.

Decent episode. People weren't as stupid and self involved as in Series 1, and I liked James Marsters. I get the feeling that we'll see him again in a future episode. It looks like they'll start building out Cap'n Jack's history and background, and I approve.

Is it a bit sad that the team got punked by Marsters? Yeah, it was bit weak, but not that bad.