LeftHandedGuitarist

I'm very torn over the original Star Trek series. I'm too young for it; I grew up in the 1980s with the original cast films - which I loved and still do - but my real adoration for Trek began with The Next Generation and then especially Deep Space Nine. The original Star Trek is a very different show from any of that, and I have to look at it with a different mindset to try and appreciate it. I don't have any nostalgia colouring my view.

To put it bluntly, it's horribly dated and oftentimes difficult to watch or enjoy. It's campy and looks very cheap. BUT, it's saving grace is how good the actors, writing and characters are. They brought the show to life, and at points made it a complete joy. For the time it was made it did incredible things with progressive storytelling and strong special effects.

I'm never going to love the original series, or even really get it. It's not my Star Trek, but it has its place in history and that can't be denied. I feel it got it chance to shine when it moved into the film format (conversely, TNG and the rest of the franchise worked far better on TV than as films).

Season 3 turned the show around, and I'd go as far as saying that it saved the franchise. A massive change of people behind the scenes resulted in a big shift in tone for the show, and this bled over into every aspect of production. Michael Piller took the reins as what we would now call showrunner, and writers like Ronald D. Moore, René Echevarria and Ira Steven Behr did their first work.

The show became more confident, and made its storytelling far more about the characters than the plots. It looked better, with a more cinematic style and much improved uniforms for the cast. We got to know these people in a far more intimate and relaxed manner than previously, and they each managed to find their own voice. Beverly Crusher was a welcome return.

While it's not a perfect season, it's such an improvement over what came before as to be almost unrecognisable. The first two seasons of the show almost feel like they fit into The Original Series at times with their cardboard planet sets, overly dramatic camera shots and quirky acting. Here, Star Trek: The Next Generation came into its own.

Quite surprisingly, Wesley Crusher becomes quite interesting here. Maybe it's because he wasn't constantly saving the ship and acting like a brat, or maybe it's because they finally gave him some personality. His conversations with his mother are some of the highlights of the season. Data gets a massive amount to do and starts to show that he is capable of very nuanced human behaviours.

The one character who is left behind somewhat is Geordie. The poor guy just never gets developed well, there's not much personality and he doesn't seem to have anything much going on other than his engineering work. His dating attempts are routinely abysmal, and I can't help but think that LeVar Burton deserved better.

Best episodes for me: Yesterday's Enterprise, The Offspring, The Best of Both Worlds (1), Who Watches The Watchers, The Enemy, The Defector, Allegiance
Worst episodes for me: The Price, Booby Trap, The Vengeance Factor, The High Ground, A Matter of Perspective, Tin Man

Season 4 feels very "settled". I'm sure that in no small part due to the show finally having a permanent writing staff and a unified direction. It provides us with a number of fantastic episodes and really fires on all cylinders, providing a wonderfully varied season of storytelling.

What struck me most this time is how much continuity and seralisation is actually here. I always think of TNG as being episodic, with 45-minute stories told each week and then forgotten about, but it's not true at all. There are a large amount of references to things that happened earlier and the characters definitely grow as a result of certain events. Notably, the story of Worf's discommendation and the brewing Klingon civil war/pact with the Romulans is spread very nicely throughout. Things really come to a head in 'The Drumhead' as a number of seeds previously sown are recalled. Background character Chief O'Brien starts to take on a much larger role, and of course Wesley Crusher finally departs.

The season begins by resolving the Borg cliffhanger, and Picard is given a whole episode to deal with it in 'Family'. A good deal of the first third of the season actually uses family as a recurring them; we meet Picard's brother, Data's father (and his brother again), Worf's parents, Wesley's (deceased) father, Tasha Yar's sister, Riker's (fake) son, Worf's son and O'Brien gets married. It's a clear demonstration of how the show wanted to emphasise the bond between these people, and highlighting what was most important.

There's an unfortunate run of terrible episodes around the halfway point, but the season recovers. Great stuff, and firmly establishing the golden age of TNG (although, I think better might be yet to come).

Best episodes for me: Family, Remember Me, The Wounded, Reunion, Data's Day, Qpid, The Drumhead
Worst episodes for me: Legacy, Devil's Due, First Contact, Identity Crisis, The Host, Suddenly Human

[7.5/10] I think we all went into this expecting a medieval fantasy version of Futurama, but this show is something quite different (and a million miles away from The Simpsons). It's attempting to tell a big story and it seems that it's decided to do some world building before getting into things.

It's fair to say that things start out a little uneven, maybe even rough. It feels directionless and we're thrown introductions to these characters that feel a bit forced. It's hard to know what to make of Bean, Elfo and Luci to begin with. Bean is the most interesting and feels like the most fully developed: a drunken princess dissatisfied with her place in the world and feeling a lack of respect from her father. She's also determined and brave through her bad attitude, and I found it easy to like her. Elfo and Luci are more difficult, partly because their voices don't quite fit with the character designs. Luci in particular seems to feel like forced comedy most of the time, with his comments rarely raising a chuckle. Elfo does better in this respect, and as the series went on I began to warm to him a lot more (and season end spoiler: I actually really missed him later when he wasn't around.)

Background characters like King Zog, Sorcerio and Pendergast also become much more fun to watch as episodes go by.

It's only the second half of this opening season that things really begin to come together. Stronger storytelling, better jokes and much more emotional moments. It starts to almost feel like this series is leaning towards being a drama with comedic elements rather than the other way round. There are a lot of moving parts here and I get the feeling that Matt Groening and his team are attempting something pretty epic; the show may indeed be a different experience when you go back and watch it a second time and understand everything that's going on.

I love the look of the show. The backgrounds are gorgeous, and while the characters lack detail in comparison they do mesh together pretty well. The animation is of a similar style to Futurama and modern Simpsons, with a lovely mix of 2D and 3D models and what has now become the trademark Groening look.

It's not quite great yet and sometimes it's not even good, but there's enough here to keep me coming back and have me very interested in where things are going. The writing is good but the jokes need to have a bit more quality over quantity. If you gave up after only a few episodes I'd encourage you to keep watching if you have the time (episodes 8 and 9 really cemented the season for me). The show is attempting to create a fascinating world, but is just struggling to give us the best introduction to it.

Unlike Clone Wars, Rebels is pretty decent from the start. But it's also quite a different show. This focuses on a small group of characters and sticks mostly to the same location, the planet Lothal, throughout the season. It's a more intimate show and I think it benefits from this.

It also helps that these are new characters and we don't know their fates. Something that always held Clone Wars back was that we knew what was going to happen to Anakin, Obi-Wan, Padme, etc., and we knew that they were never in danger. That's not the case here where anything can potentially happen.

It's still a show aimed at children, of course. It has plot contrivances galore and the feeling that the heroes are always going to escape to fight another day is definitely there. But the show is able to throw in its own surprises and the continuing narrative helps to keep things interesting. Still, the characters here need work and are mostly defined by a single personality trait; that means that Ezra, Zeb and especially Chopper become tiresome while Hera and Sabine are heavily underdeveloped. And yet, there is clear progression as things become more complicated. That leaves Kanan as the most interesting of the bunch.

I've seen Rebels before but forgotten a lot of it, although I definitely don't remember enjoying it as much as I did this time. It's goes to an effort to recreate the feel of the original trilogy, especially with the space battles, and it succeeds.

Once you accept just how much this show is going to rip off, and blatantly steal from Star Trek (notably, it seems to fashion itself around The Next Generation and Voyager), you can sit back and let yourself have fun with it. It mixes up all of the sci-fi tropes which 1990s TV gave us and adds some low brow humour which works more often than not. The show is certainly still finding its feet, but its been well cast and each of the actors involved contribute very nicely.

Out of everyone, the standouts from this season have Alara, Bortus and Isaac - and its a shame that they haven't each been given a bit more screen time. Of the three, Alara has been the one most allowed to grow and Halston Sage really does well when given the lead. Isaac has been fun and intriguing, but I feel like so much more could be done with him. Meanwhile, Bortus has just about stolen every scene he's in so it's a shame that he's not been given more episodes.

This is certainly a show for those of us who really miss 1990s science fiction TV, because it aims to tickle the nostalgia but also cleverly makes fun of so much of it (eg., Malloy looking out of the viewscreen at a nebula and remarking it would make a great desktop screensaver). The humour is also balanced quite well with more serious and heartfelt material, although I feel there is still work to be done in this regard. On the plus side, the show has managed to surprise me with unexpected twists from time to time.

One thing I'm not so much a fan of is the Ed/Kelly relationship. We kept getting teased that they still like each other and honestly it's felt like a dead end to me from the start, so I'd appreciate it if the show would leave it alone from now on. The season finale suggested that this would be the case going forward.

If the show felt like taking some influence from Deep Space Nine - the best Trek - that wouldn't go amiss either! A little more consequences for the ending of episodes, sharpen up some of the humour and this show is going to be an absolute winner.

So much potential, and it wasted pretty much all of it. I was drawn to this show due to del Toro's involvement, and the amazing voice cast. Apart from a few things, it's been a real let down, though. The first 13 episodes were mostly enjoyable with a fast-paced narrative. After it wrapped that up, the second 13 episodes were almost entirely trash. Having killed off their excellent bad guy, they replaced him immediately with a weaker copy in Angor Rot. When you have the amazing Ron Perlman voicing a character, it's a good idea to keep him around.

The show does look gorgeous, and the cast are fantastic all round. The one big exception is Toby. TOBY. The most annoying, idiotic and pointless character. He's responsible for pretty much all the bad things that happen due to his mistakes, and he's borderline unwatchable whenever he's on screen. It's more exasperating when the show has good characters like Draal who remain completely underused.

The character of Blinky is also a mixed bag. Kelsey Grammar of course voices him wonderfully, but his design is incredible poor. Watching him run is disturbing due to the unnatural gait of a big head on a little body.

The show also suffers from the writing cliches that plague shows aimed at a younger audience. The heroes are never in real danger, relationships are boiled down to their most simple traits and bad guys would rather talk than deal a killing blow. There also seems to be very little rules to the magic, with convenient solutions always being found. It's time shows stopped relying on this stuff. The message seems to be that you can accomplish anything if you have your friends with you, but it also doesn't really demonstrate that their are consequences for your choices.

More than anything, I was curious about this show when it was first announced. I love the idea that each Trek series can be something completely different and I'd like to think that I'm pretty open minded, so an "adult animated comedy" immediately piqued my interest and I honestly though it sounded fun. But I was also confused as to just how it would function, or even fit in with the Trek framework. I didn't want Rick and Morty with a Star Trek skin.

That's not what this is at all. Lower Decks is clearly made by people who both love Star Trek and are intimately familiar with it. Each episode is a joyous exploration of various Trek tropes that are turned inside out and then made to provide us with pure entertainment. And yet they still manage to stay true to Trek's ideals, and they send the characters on a journey of discovering themselves and what they want out of their lives.

Mostly, the show is genuinely funny. This is a case of the producers not showing off their best stuff in the trailers and really saving the surprises for the broadcasts. The season continues to steadily improve and settle down as it goes on, but even out of the gate I was enjoying it. There's a fast pace in the early episodes (maybe too fast) that gets smoothed out, and any questions we have about how these characters are supposed to fit into their roles get answered. It slots very nicely into canon and works as a continuation of the '90s era of Star Trek shows.

The show is a deep dive into Trek lore and even the most die hard fans will find references to their most obscure favourite things. And yet it's not overdone, it's just FUN. I don't think it's even off putting for viewers who may not be all that familiar with Trek's past, as a friend of mine with only a passing knowledge of the franchise really got into the series (I shall now continue my mission to get her to watch more!)

The voice cast do excellent work, and the characters really came to life for me over the course of the season. Notably, Mariner is a fascinating and complex character who gets explored in detail and has probably emerged as my favourite. Over the course of the season, these characters genuinely made me feel things and fall in love with them. And I can't help but notice how much each actor looks like the character they play - could this be an intentional move to facilitate live action appearances down the line?

The final season of the show takes some risks and feels different to what's come before. Especially in the first half we are given episodes which feel almost experimental, and there is a big change up to the status quo for the characters. It was almost off putting until I got used to it: Aang with hair, the group disguised in Fire Nation clothing, the heavily reduced role for Uncle Iroh (no doubt due to the sad loss of voice actor Mako).

It's a strong ending, though. Each character is given a lot to do and their stories are all compelling which makes this a show its very easy to get invested in. Prince Zuko probably remains the most interesting character on the show and it's easy to root for him despite his role as an antagonist - and I'd go as far as saying that this season really belongs to him. Even his sister Azula, whose personality is far less subtle, was given further substance. I particularly enjoyed the prison break episodes which continued to throw surprises while always being fun.

The actual ending, I'm a bit torn on. It's certainly epic and while it's satisfying, the overabundance of action on all fronts was slightly draining to the point where the emotional beats didn't really reach me. It's a shame that the Fire Lord is such a one-note bad guy. I found myself very appreciative of the various issues raised along the way though, most notably with Aang not wanting to be a killer. And the humour throughout is essential to the identity of this wonderful show, and always hit the right mark.

I'm so glad I watched this.

Rewatching this season in preparation for season 2, about a year-and-a-half since it was first broadcast, meant that I remembered the broad strokes but had forgotten the details. I think that helped, and I enjoyed the show quite a bit more than I did the first time around. Things were clarified and I was able to enjoy the ride more rather than overworking my brain trying to work things out.

I think that this is a pretty fantastic season of television. The storytelling is incredibly ambitious, the production value out of this world and the performances are (with some notable exceptions) world class. I find myself being drawn into the world on screen very easily.

But, at the same time, I think the show has serious flaws at this point. Mainly, it's incredibly slow and could have benefited telling the same story over less episodes. Things are drawn out to excess and it's incredibly frustrating, as well as meaning the narrative becomes over complicated. In fact, the plot isn't all that complex but the way its told just makes it seem that way. There is a lot in there and not all of it is relevant or useful, to the point where I'm sitting there wondering, "am I just a bit stupid or does this not really make any sense?". I wouldn't blame anyone for feeling a bit lost at the end.

I also think that the human characters are an issue. Almost without fail, they are scum. All of these people work together and treat each other like garbage, they speak to each other in a vile manner which in any real business environment would never be acceptable, let alone the basic human interaction. Sylvester, Sizemore, Theresa, Elsie, Logan, Hale and even Ford are extremely difficult to like or even watch. I get that the show is trying to drive home a point that these people are playing god and mistreating the Hosts, but it only ever comes across as bad writing. The only humans who come seem to be something resembling good people are Felix and Stubbs.

The other thing which really began to bug me was the completely unnecessary and over-the-top nudity. It's there for no reason other than to say THIS IS AN HBO SHOW AND WE CAN SHOW EVERYTHING! There's a terrible scene where Ford even tells a technician not to cover up a Host and let them be naked, because they don't have any modesty.

But overall, this is a thrill ride and a rare television show which asks the audience to think. I'm excited for where things are going, and hopefully the things which I took issue with can be ironed out.

I thought I'd finally see what all the fuss is about, and so far I'm pretty glad I have. It's true that it doesn't get off to the strongest start with some pretty basic storytelling and episodes which feel a bit too much on the childish side, but it continues to build a world that becomes fascinating and extremely well thought out. The characters become more interesting and complex as it goes on and start dealing with themes that are far above the "kids show" roots. It's also pretty funny.

Prince Zuko may be the most compelling character, with the first impressions of him being an extremely vanilla bad guy who is evil just because. Episodes reveal more about what's going on with him and I actually began rooting for him to have some luck. I also love his Uncle Iroh who walks the line between comic relief and genuinely important mentor.

Aang isn't the best protagonist at times due to his immature nature and the fact that he keeps repeating a lot of the same mistakes before learning from them. Katara stands out as the one to watch, with her brother Sokka being unfortunately relegated to the "idiot" role most of the time, but when he has something important to do it makes it have all the more impact.

I'm not in love with the anime-inspired visual style and jerky frame rate (I really struggle with Japanese style animation, it's always been a massive turn off for me), but later episodes have some striking art. Looking forward to seeing where it goes next.

A stronger season overall, although I didn't think it quite reached the highs of the first one. However, this was far more consistent throughout with pretty much no truly weak episodes. This show has captured my imagination and I'm continually impressed with the logical worldbuilding and how it it all grows. Our characters learn enough to be able to unleash their true abilities and it gives us some really stunning and endlessly creative action sequences in which you think, "oh, of course they would be able to do that!".

Toph is a great addition to the main characters, and I quite like Azula and her gang as antagonists (in particular, Ty Lee is really fun and I love her bizarre infatuation with Sokka). I had a few issues with things once the gang got to Ba Sing Se where the overall narrative really seems to stall. This sorts itself out eventually, but I can't say it's my favourite place to spending all these episodes.

Mostly, I really love seeing the development of all these characters. They are staying true to themselves while also learning and growing. Katara maybe my favourite aspect of the show, and I love how her abilities have developed into making her a truly formidable opponent. But she's also the real emotional heart of things. However, the show may be shining best when it comes to Prince Zuko and his Uncle Iroh who are compelling with every moment of screen time they are given.

It's hard to know what to make of this show right now. There are numerous criticisms I can aim at it: it's extremely childish, the characters are undeveloped and often annoying/stupid, the plots are repetitive and it doesn't seem to really have any purpose behind it all. I have to remind myself, though, that these are the exact issues had with both Clone Wars and Rebels when they began, and both of those shows eventually evolved into compelling entries in the Star Wars universe.

For the positives, I absolutely adore the visual style of this show. The cel shaded art is often striking, and while it may not be the most detailed choice for characters it really shines in regards to space craft and scenery. I wish the show would have more of a focus on the star fighters and pilots (which was teased as the original premise); I was expecting Top Gun in space and the show has not remotely delivered on that front. It's a missed opportunity that the show isn't doing something along the lines of the old X-Wing novels and PC games.

The voice acting is mixed. Most performances are over the top, highlighting that this show is aimed at a younger audience than Clone Wars and Rebels were. Neeku in particular feels a bit too much like Jar Jar. Kaz is incredibly incompetent and repeatedly succeeds through nothing but luck (and the help of others). He seems to only have one emotional state (overeager) and even when he finds out his home planet and family have been wiped out it barely seems to register with him for more than a moment before he's back to his old self. I do like the guest appearances from the movie actors, and Oscar Isaac is a highlight any time he appears.

I'm happy to keep watching because, come on, it's STAR WARS and I live for Star Wars. I really hope the show can evolve into something more, though, as the previous animated shows managed to after similar poor starts.

A fascinating concept executed pretty well for the most part. The range of animation styles makes each short episode feel unique, and they are almost all absolutely gorgeous to look at.

What lets things down is that it feels like it was written by 13-year-old boys. There are episodes that suffer more than others in this regard and they seem to want to make sure that there's a swear word in every sentence, the most over-the-top gore possible and any chance to show off female nudity (with the odd bit of male nudity thrown in for good measure). It just makes it all feel a bit juvenile and in most instances it was completely unnecessary for the story being told.

Fortunately it doesn't ruin things completely. The varied stories here are almost all enjoying and often fascinating. I'd love to see Love, Death + Robots come back with another season, and I'd definitely love to see a few of the shorts here developed in to longer forms.

If I were to rank the shorts, it would probably be along these lines:

SUPERB
-Suits
-Lucky 13
-Three Robots

VERY GOOD
-Sucker of Souls
-Beyond the Aquila Rift
-Fish Night

OKAY/GOOD
-Sonnie's Edge
-Good Hunting
-The Dump
-Zima Blue
-Ice Age
-The Secret War

MEH
-When the Yogurt Took Over
-Shape-Shifters
-Blindspot

POOR
-The Witness
-Helping Hand
-Alternate Histories

Such a let down. This show just failed to evolve and it's nowhere near the quality of Clone Wars and Rebels. There's nothing wrong with the premise, but it just focused on the wrong things all the time and the tone just kept leaning towards slapstick. I accept that this one was aimed at younger kids, but it really dumbed everything down and didn't allow for any nuance in storytelling or characters.

And at the end of it all, I just don't see what the point of it was. It didn't give us an interesting story, didn't add any new lore and didn't connect or tie into other Star Wars tales. It didn't even give us a satisfying or meaningful conclusion as things just return to status quo. None of the characters were memorable and I find it difficult to see any of them becoming fan favourites (hmm... maybe Torra Doza actually). I think it's fair to say that the show actually gave us some of the worst characters in the franchise in Kaz, Tam and Neeku.

Still, I do love the visuals. The cel shading can be downright gorgeous and things really came to life whenever starfighter combat or racing was involved (far too little). The voice actors for the heroes and Colossus crew were also good all round - less so for the extremely generic cast of bad guys.

But you know what, I freakin' love Star Wars and this is part of it so I just find that I can't completely hate it. I was often bored watching but never felt like something I HAD to do, I always wanted to sit down and see the next episode. Am I just a glutton for punishment? Possibly, because looking back this was definitely not worth the time spent on it.

Earnest, sentimental and often overly cheesy but every moment is consistently watchable. This Is Us wears its heart on its sleeve and is one of the most "American" shows I've ever seen, but it succeeds due to how honest it is. I like the characters, I'm interested in their lives and I feel invested in knowing where things will go.

If I'm being super critical, then I do find myself getting annoyed with Kate and Toby. Their relationship is very OTT and seems to consist of a repeating pattern of one of them (usually Toby) doing something to upset the other (usually Kate), then having an emotional conversation where they make up and decide to continue. This then happens again in the next episode. It became tiresome, but their issues are fairly unique ones for television and the actors have enough charm to make it work, mostly. I'd also say that most of Kevin's stories can fall flat for me, he's not the most interesting character.

My favourite stories tend to be the ones involving Rebecca and Jack. They are such a perfect couple and I love the way they act both towards each other and with their children. I also love going back to '80/'90s settings (and sometimes even further back). Their arguments (which come nearly as often as Kate/Toby's) feel much more natural and earned. It's also helpful that Mandy Moore and Milo Ventimiglia have such good chemistry together.

And then there's Randall who just about steals the show. His narrative is a beautifully complex one and Sterling K. Brown gives his all in the role. His moments were the ones that eventually got to me and caused a few tears to flow.

I'm also really impressed that the casting managed to find actors who do seem to resemble each other at different ages, both in looks and in mannerisms.

The season seemed to be building up to something big in regards to Jack, but it never got there and I couldn't help feeling like it was a let down. It's like the show is only giving us small portions because they know they need to keep things going longer. I'm worried that given the amount of seasons This Is Us is getting that we could just be getting strung along until the story has really run dry. At any rate, right now I want to see more.

The Good Place has the potential in it to be a really amazing, fun show. It completely ignores that potential, though, in favour of playing things as safe as possible. It's frustrating, because the show has a fantastic central concept and both Kristen Bell and Ted Danson have the ability to make anything they are involved in better.

It turns out that they are not quite enough, and Danson especially gives a distractingly odd performance throughout (reasons for this can be explained away, but it's so off putting). The humour is extremely hit and miss, although most episodes did manage to get one genuine laugh out of me. It's a show that desperately needs to be more risqué and have more adventurous storytelling. Every character beside the two leads are bland, poorly written and certainly poorly acted (Chidi and Tahani being the biggest culprits).

BUT. The show does something unexpected. It actually pushes the narrative forward instead of sticking to the same conceit every episode, giving us new storytelling avenues. By the end we get that genuinely unexpected twist that re-frames EVERYTHING we've seen so far, and actually makes the show's annoyances suddenly make sense in retrospect.

Even if that hadn't happened, there's something about The Good Place that made me want to keep watching. It's completely mediocre but has enough of a spark that it succeeds in standing out, and given how the first season ended it could go somewhere good.

As something of a tradition, early seasons of Trek shows don't really work too well. Voyager 's main problem - for me - is how safe and predictable it is. By the time it had aired, the formula established by The Next Generation had been thoroughly used up, and then Deep Space Nine recognised this by changing things up. Voyager always feels like it wants to emulate TNG, and it never wants to stray outside of the lines.

The first season isn't a total disaster but neither is it compelling. There are false hopes given far too early on about opportunities for the crew to get back home, which we know are not going to pan out. There's also surprisingly little effort made to dive into the characters, with only the Doctor seeming to get any real depth (and maybe Tuvok). The Starfleet and Maquis crew merge without anywhere near as many problems as you would expect, and everyone is a happy family who run into aliens of the week and don't seem to learn all that much. Whats worse, the aliens really suck: the Kazon are trash who feel entirely nonthreatening, the Vidiians introduction is strong but they are then reduced to silly villains.

Despite all that, it wasn't as bad as I had remembered. While it has very few genuinely amazing episodes, most of the time it hovers around average storytelling without diving into really bad stuff.

Best episodes for me: Eye of the Needle, State of Flux
Worst episodes for me: The Cloud, Ex Post Facto, Heroes and Demons

There's something off about Torchwood. The premise is interesting enough, being given a nice setup in series 2 of Doctor Who, but the tone is bizarre. It's an adult show that exists within the Whoniverse, and therefore piles on the sex, violence and swearing. Doctor Who is a family show aimed more at the kids, but adults are a huge part of its audience. So it made some sense to create a spinoff that could be more mature.

But Torchwood isn't mature. It throws in the aforementioned sex and blood and swear words, but its writing is still at the level of Doctor Who. By that I mean it still has people running around shouting silly dialogue, giving us tons of exposition, plot contrivances, poorly designed monsters and only glimpses of emotional maturity. This stuff works in Who, in fact it works quite well because we know we're watching a fun kids adventure show. But this is supposed to be an adult drama, so immediately things feel iffy. The pantomime vibe is still here.

The characters do the show no favours either. I quite enjoy Captain Jack portrayed by John Barrowman, but I think it's fair to say that dramatic acting is not his forte. The issues with the rest of the characters are numerous, but it's a real problem when they are so completely uninteresting (Tosh and Ianto) or absolutely impossible to like (Owen). Gwen is our way into the story being the newcomer, and she's handled better but she makes odd choices. The character has nowhere near enough depth to give us the information to understand why.

The writing is not able to do justice to the stories being told. This isn't the fault of the actors (...mostly), but down to the laughably weak dialogue and direction. It doesn't help that visually it's all so poor, inheriting the cheapness from it's parent show of this era. Through all this there is fun to be had. There are good episodes in there and a sense of camaraderie does build within the cast. There's so much room for improvement though.