What Do I Like About Torchwood?

That was the question. This was the answer.  (yes, another re-used post. Sorry)

What do I like? Hmm…

It’s well-written. Smart dialogue, sharp characters, good plots. Sometimes it stumbles a bit, but on the whole, it’s very good. And I’m only in the first season. Most shows take a while to find their feet.

The characters are very real. Flawed but not obnoxious, consistent, intelligent (for the most part, and when they make stupid moves you understand why, because there’s a REASON, and you know what it is.) The characters get developed.

It’s well-shot, but not cinematic (well, okay, sometimes.) The show feels real. Gwen, one of the main characters, is pretty, but she’s got a gap in her teeth and when she puts her hair up to get to work, it doesn’t look elegant, it looks like she wanted it out of the way.

It’s earthy, not…glamourous. There’s more sex than I’m used to seeing, but it’s not smooth, perfect, Hollywood sex. It’s just that the characters are real people with sex lives.

I love the characters, but I don’t always like them. Sometimes I want to hit them with sticks.

There’s an effortless lack of prejudice to it, too. When a white character has a black girlfriend, it’s NOT because they want to do an episode about race relations. She just…is black. And they don’t bother to explain why the two are a couple, either. When a woman is very attracted to another woman, she only angsts a bit because it’s never happened to her before–not because there’s anything wrong with it.

And when, after a quick but complex and sweet set-up of the relationship, Captain Jack Harkness kissed that guy in the ballroom–my knees melted, it was so hot. (and so well-written, I might have died if they hadn’t kissed) (here it is on YouTube, don’t watch if you can’t handle it!)

All in all, I find it wonderfully satisfying. (yes, if you’re wondering, there are lots of well-written, complex and meaningful het relationships too.)

I’m so sad we’re at the end of what the roomie owns. Now I’ll have to figure out how to work the DVR, and try to watch the eps in order though for some reason networks don’t tend to show the things in order after the first run…