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Ouch.
Torchwood has always billed itself as the adult alternative to Doctor Who, which has traditionally been viewed as a children's program despite its vast adult following. With "Children of Earth," the show finally earned that billing. Casting aside the cheesiness and sloppy writing that plagued much of the first two seasons, Torchwood proved a show doesn't need scantily-clad women, gratuitous sex, or morally bankrupt characters (yes, I'm looking at you, Battlestar Galactica) to be perceived as an adult show. All it really needs are average people being confronted with terrible choices and facing the consequences that follow.
I am so happy that the show didn't cop out and pull a solution out of thin air so that everything worked out and everyone lived happily ever after. The government still made the choice to sacrifice the children and enacted the plan to round them up. They couldn't even salve their collective conscience by thinking they were helping to save an alien race; the children were nothing more than recreational drugs to the 456. John Frobisher still chose to kill his family and himself rather than hand over his children and live with what he'd done. And although Jack Harkness ultimately came up with a solution to save the day, it was at the deliberate expense of his own grandson's life. By sacrificing his grandson, Jack also lost his daughter. There's no way in hell she's ever going to forgive him for killing her son.
Science fiction has always been at its best when using extraordinary circumstances to examine the human condition. For quite a few years now, the genre has timidly presented its protagonists with moral and ethical dilemmas, then produced a last-minute deus ex machina that allowed those characters to agonize about their circumstances without ever having to actually make a choice or get their hands dirty. In "Children of Earth," everyone got their hands dirty and were forced (or unable) to live with the consequences. Jack couldn't even bear to stay on the same planet after what he'd done.
Ironically, season one started with Gwen Cooper being the new girl on the job, and season three ended with her as the last one standing. If there's never a season four, then the show certainly came full circle and went out on the highest possible note.
Torchwood has always billed itself as the adult alternative to Doctor Who, which has traditionally been viewed as a children's program despite its vast adult following. With "Children of Earth," the show finally earned that billing. Casting aside the cheesiness and sloppy writing that plagued much of the first two seasons, Torchwood proved a show doesn't need scantily-clad women, gratuitous sex, or morally bankrupt characters (yes, I'm looking at you, Battlestar Galactica) to be perceived as an adult show. All it really needs are average people being confronted with terrible choices and facing the consequences that follow.
I am so happy that the show didn't cop out and pull a solution out of thin air so that everything worked out and everyone lived happily ever after. The government still made the choice to sacrifice the children and enacted the plan to round them up. They couldn't even salve their collective conscience by thinking they were helping to save an alien race; the children were nothing more than recreational drugs to the 456. John Frobisher still chose to kill his family and himself rather than hand over his children and live with what he'd done. And although Jack Harkness ultimately came up with a solution to save the day, it was at the deliberate expense of his own grandson's life. By sacrificing his grandson, Jack also lost his daughter. There's no way in hell she's ever going to forgive him for killing her son.
Science fiction has always been at its best when using extraordinary circumstances to examine the human condition. For quite a few years now, the genre has timidly presented its protagonists with moral and ethical dilemmas, then produced a last-minute deus ex machina that allowed those characters to agonize about their circumstances without ever having to actually make a choice or get their hands dirty. In "Children of Earth," everyone got their hands dirty and were forced (or unable) to live with the consequences. Jack couldn't even bear to stay on the same planet after what he'd done.
Ironically, season one started with Gwen Cooper being the new girl on the job, and season three ended with her as the last one standing. If there's never a season four, then the show certainly came full circle and went out on the highest possible note.
