5. The Tone
As mentioned, when it began, the writers of
Torchwood desperately tried to set it apart from
Doctor Who by making it swearier, sexier, and gorier. This calmed down as time went by, making the series look less adolescent but it was still thoroughly adult. Then came
Children Of Earth. It was gritty and violent but in a more subtle way. It was as much a political thriller as it was a sci-fi one. Good news all round.
Torchwood had finally matured and was worthy of its new timeslot on BBC One. But then came
Miracle Day and all of that development seemed to go out the window. Russell T. Davies and co seem to have taken advantage of
Miracle Day being co-financed and broadcast (at least in America) on a cable network free of strict regulations to cram as much body horror, intense violence, and hardcore sex into it as possible.
Torchwood was a bit like this at the start but even though it was gory and filled with swearing and sex, it was daft and campy.
Miracle Day tries to jettison as much lightheartedness as possible and make it straight-up depressing. The knock-on effect of this is that it feels a bit jarring, as there are still elements of the slightly campy tone of the first two series in there. As for the violence and the body horror, it just feels kind of unpleasant really. The gore itself isnt too much of an issue (at least not for me anyway) but there are just other bits that are so dark they feel out of place. Over the course of the series, we get a middle-aged woman being drugged and then put into a car crusher, someone being shot through the throat, the mass incineration of people who are still technically alive (and some of whom are still semi-conscious), Vera being burned alive, and the mention of a Rwandan genocide being foiled by the Miracle which the killers work around by bashing people over the head with hammers, chucking them in a mass grave, and then paving over it. Thankfully we never actually see that last one. As well as this, one of the most prominent recurring characters is a pedophile murderer who is completely unrepentant, repeatedly saying his victim should have run faster and eventually killing himself after the Miracle is reversed so that he can chase her into hell, his last words being Keep running, Susie Its understandable that a world without death would turn to crap and fair play to the writers for exploring that. But sometimes its just far too visceral. And as for the sex scenes, I just personally dont think that they add much to the story and are a bit unnecessary. A dark tone is to be expected from something like
Miracle Day but in a few places, I think they just went too far.