Torchwoods always been a strange programme. Fittingly described by Charlie Brooker as being like a hitherto secret episode of
Postman Pat in which Pat runs down fifteen villagers while masturbating at the wheel of his van it began life desperately trying to distance itself from its mother programme
Doctor Who by being sexy and violent. It started life on BBC3 and BBC2 for its first two series, eventually graduating to BBC One in 2009 for the critically acclaimed five part miniseries
Torchwood: Children Of Earth. After that, the series more or less fell off the radar with plans for an American remake on Fox luckily being axed. Then came the news that there would be a Series Four. Co-financed by American cable network Starz,
Torchwood: The New World (its initial title) was promoted as a globe-trotting ten part thriller set in a world where suddenly, nobody is able to die, something that is initially referred to as the Miracle but eventually sees the world fall into hell. Fans were hyped and the day of the first episode came. But as the new series wore on, it showed signs of fatigue and it was evident that the programme had taken a downward turn since
Children Of Earth. Why was
Miracle Day so flawed? Lets look further into it...
8. Its Too Americanised
One of the more quirky facets of
Torchwood is that always been very Welsh. Its set almost exclusively in Wales with a predominantly Welsh cast and the occasional good natured dig at the country and its people through the dialogue. But because
Miracle Day is partly financed by an American cable network, theyre suddenly able to call some of the shots, leading to the bulk of it being set in America.
Children Of Earth was largely set in London but that makes sense as Torchwoods base is destroyed after the first episode and the attention of alien menace the 456 is on the UK government because of their previous dealings with them. But theres not really an explanation for most of
Miracle Day being set in America other than that old adage of American network executives that people dont want to watch something thats outside of their frame of reference. So because of that, the series gets relocated wholesale to America with the flimsy explanation of the CIA rendering Torchwood, which makes no sense since the CIA has no connection to or authority over Torchwood especially since that, at the start of Series Four, it is defunct. But to keep established fans watching, theres the need to have parts of it set in Wales which leads to a ridiculous amount of continent hopping whenever a subplot in the UK needs advancing. Also, at 50 to 55 minutes long, each episodes five minutes shorter than it would have been had this been a series made with the BBC put first. Then again, this may not be such a bad thing given that probably the worst thing about the series was...