Reviews Series / Torchwood Miracle Day

Would have been better as a Mini Series

Torchwood Miracle Day has a very intriguing premise, and one that allows the audience the explore the consequences of what would happen if one day, people stopped dying, while still getting injured or growing old. The premise was handled well for the most part, being done with a no-nonsense gritty realism. Here, the hospitals are overflowing with the undead, and resources are rapidly being depleted as the population spirals out of control.

However, audiences are informed rather heavy handedly that sending people suffering a Fate Worse Than Death to Concentration Camps to get disintegrated is a bad thing. Yes it is horrible, but until they eventually end the Miracle, it's the only way to deal with overpopulation.

The new characters were hit-and-miss. On the one hand, Oswald Danes is a very compelling, fascinating monster, but Esther was very grating at times, and seemed like a filler character who exists to fill the void left behind by the other characters in the early seasons.

The cliffhanger at the end was frustrating, because first we're given a very satisfying finale. But then there are some rather jarring developments, and it feels like the makers of the show grabbed the camera and said "we're making more episodes!" Which is rather pretentious, don't you think?

And the series was riddled with side-plots that distracted from the overall plot, and killed the tension. Do we really need to know so much about Jack's boyfriend, or Gwen and Esther's family? And the plot meandered all over the place, with plot developments that could be covered concisely and effectively in five or six episodes, but was stretched to ten episodes, and by the time the finale came around, I was practically begging for the story to conclude, as it was losing the tension from being so prolonged.

Trim the side plots, shorten the series to five episodes, and it would be great.