ZERO EFFECT

Torchwood: Miracle Day - Episode Five (The Categories of Life). The world population is now divided into three "categories of life". Gwen (Eve Myles) is in Wales with her husband Rhys (Kai Owen) to rescue her father from one of the overflow camps set up globally by Pharma giant Phicorp for the first two categories.

Meanwhile Rex (Mekhi Phifer), Vera (Arlene Tur) and Esther (Alexa Havins) go undercover in the San Diego camp. And Jack (John Barrowman) aims to convince Oswald Danes (Bill Pullman) to switch side.

« It's... It's a cookbook! » (The Twilight Zone, To Serve Man)

« Look, Torchwood's gone, okay? It's just a name these days. » It means something when even the characters of Miracle Day look like they know things don't fit. « Do you think I'm useless? » asks Little Miss "Yeah, but I'm CIA" Sunshine to the officially former Captain Jack (« He likes to call himself Captain Jack, but I'm not buying that. ») Dr. Vera would be entitled to ask the same question after weeks attending Washington D.C. medical panels and no one bothered to email her that it was finished. But Vera's embarassment is all for a bit of exposition, like those irritating news bulletins. Is it Baa Baa Black Sheep or what?

Talking of embarassment, how can fugitive Gwen Cooper fly with a passport and an alias already used for the Phicorp raid? How can one of the gang even take a plane without being noticed by the CIA or by their presumed nemesis Phicorp, a global contractor with infinite resources. Are Keystone agents Esther and Rex contagious? Gwen is unrecognizable, below her own standards. « Andy, don't be so thick, » she says to her former colleague Sergeant Andy (Tom Price). But who acts a Parker and Penelope fantasy with her hubby at the airport and makes fool of herself in front of a military until she admits a break-in will do better? Hey, it's about her dad! Who ignores that at the end of the episode?

Apparently Torchwood: Miracle Day is a "political thriller" (1) says respected American writer and producer Jane Espenson, who penned The Categories of Life. The "thrill" is widely discussed but in this "new age of care and compassion" we do have politics from both sides of the pond: « No NHS. Who's paying for all this? Phicorp. You've got healthcare being run by private business. And believe me, just the start of your problems. » Stateside, it's poor Dr. Vera - the gang's former D.C. political correspondent - who deals with caricature, once formally accepted amongst the "Freedom Fighters" (« That makes you sound like terrorists. »)

And the Ellis Monroe of the week is Colin Maloney (Marc Vann, who deserves better), the misogynist, racist, Hilary Duffist, Phil Collinsist and insensible camp administrator. Maloney has his own cart with a General Lee horn! But even a low-level nazi-type bureaucrat (he does an explicit "Jawohl" in case you hadn't noticed) must have his self-esteem and Vera should have thought twice before calling him a "stupid little man" during a hard day at work. Full-time member of Clue Club and she already gets what is obviously intended as her Ianto Jones moment, as looms the awful truth: the forces behind Phicorp are familiar with Godwin's Law.

And Jack? He plays hide and seek with Oswald and tries to convince him to "become a hero". Why not? The man is a pedophile and murderer who lost his ticket to Hell and was offered a spokesperson job from a big corporation, nice hotel rooms, a limo, cohorts of fans and his own groupie Jilly Drescher Flekman (Lauren Ambrose). Esther and Rex are indeed contagious after all. And we're looking forward to Bill Pullman's next project to erase the trauma of the rally speech.

The Categories of Life is directed by Guy Ferland. Now two aspirins, please.

Next Time: Big Brother?

(1) http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/ustv/s8/torchwood/interviews/a332311/torchwood-miracle-day-jane-espenson-interview-writing-welsh-voices-was-a-joy.html

http://danowen.blogspot.com/2011/08/torchwood-miracle-day-categories-of.html
http://www.flickfilosopher.com/blog/2011/08/torchwood_miracle_day_episode_4.html
http://tachyon-tv.co.uk/2011/08/mexican-cooking/
http://feelinglistless.blogspot.com/2011/08/knife-edge-of-taste-eric-saward-was.html

OUTCASTS

Torchwood: Miracle Day - Episode Four (Escape to L.A.) While the world is coping with the miracle, CIA renegades Esther (Alexa Havins) and Rex (Mekhi Phifer) are in L.A. with Torchwood's Gwen (Eve Myles) and Jack (John Barrowman) to learn more about the involvement of pharmaceutical firm Phicorp. Oswald (Bill Pullman) and Jilly (Lauren Ambrose) face a rival: right-wing politician Ellis Hartley Monroe (Mare Winningham).

« And you all get the power.
You all get the best.
When everyone gets everything.
And every song everybody sings. » (Opus, Life is Life)

Miracle Day is almost halfway through its 10-episode run and not only the fourth iteration of Torchwood definitely doesn't live up to its 2009 miniseries predecessor Children of Earth. But moreover this co-production between US cable channel Starz and BBC Worldwide Productions may well be remembered by many as a major disappointment. The search for the truth leads the gang and director Billy Gierhart to Los Angeles. Because we well know "the truth is out there", and so does co-writer X-Files veteran John Shiban (with Jim Gray).

« Look at that horizon! We've reached the edge of America, » marvels Gwen Cooper when they arrive at Venice Beach, because it's the coolest place to prepare a raid on a corporate HQ in L.A. It's lucky the pharma company is not based in Boston. There's cholera in Boston, helpfully explains Esther sister's Sarah (Candace Brown). And every now and then someone pulls a Basil Exposition, like Dr. Vera (Arlene Tur) when she develops to Rex what is Ellis Hartley Monroe's Dead is Dead [Nanananana]. Ellis Monroe is "the darling of the Tea Party", a right-wing politico whose movement asks for segregation of those "who should have perished" and by persisting "are draining ressources of healthy living citizens".

With an actress like Mare Winningham you could expect the character to be the match of Lynne Warner, the Secretary of Defense played by Sharon Gless in The State Within. A worthy rival to Danes, a source of trouble for Fred, Shaggy, Daphne and Velma, not the caricature she is. Monroe is just the last step to Danes's access to messiah status and in the end the triangle (John de Lancie? Beldar Conehead?) tells it all: « But we already have Oswald Danes. We don't need another. » Before disposing of her in a clumsy nod to Goldfinger. This foray of Torchwood into American politics really makes things worse, whatever the subtext of Miracle Day is.

How reassuring, by the way, that in such troubled times the new prophet is a pedophile and murderer who missed the bus to Hell. Bill Pullman has a great scene when Oswald opens the bottles and enjoys his hotel room. That's before he does his Second Venue speech and the surreal Lion King thing with the baby in the "plague ship" hospital. « Dead is not dead. No, not anymore. Life is life. » [Nanananana]. « This is disgusting, » comments Dr. Vera. « I know! » squeaks Ozzie's fangirl Bobbi Flekman Jr. (YOU said it, ladies). No wonder why Ellis Hartley Sarah Palin Monroe desperately needs a coffee after that.

« I don't want to live forever. Especially like this. »

The Mystery Machine "Travelling circus folks" are no better treated as they go IMF (Improbable Missions Force) to steal a data server and switch it with another. Fortunately Rex has seen Sneakers. Jack quotes George Eliot and shows less life than 007 in A View to a Kill, until he remembers good old Captain Jack during the assault. And what did Esther expect when she phoned child protection? Gwen shares her time between her family matters and impersonating Hustle's Stacie. Rhys (Kai Owen) provides some sort of comic relief - at least he spared us the Risky Business scene, and remote Vera is the voice on healthcare.

You almost wish the polite assassin and old school artisan, played exquisitely by C. Thomas Howell, could do his job properly: « They are everywhere. They are always. They are no one. » Unless his job is to hold our attention long enough for Rex to shoot him in the throat (no more sound of C.) Do the Torchwood US newbies come from the Keystone Cops branch of the CIA? « And soon, the families will rise. ». Esther and Rex wish it's not theirs.

« Don't worry. No one dies. »

http://danowen.blogspot.com/2011/07/torchwood-miracle-day-escape-to-la.html
http://scifi4me.wordpress.com/2011/08/01/mr-harvey-torchwood-has-escaped-logic/
http://www.flickfilosopher.com/blog/2011/08/torchwood_miracle_day_episode_3.html
http://feelinglistless.blogspot.com/2011/08/mainly-because-it-was-douglas-adamss.html

CORPORATION CORRIDORS

Torchwood: Miracle Day continues on BBC One with its third episode aired last thursday. One week behind US cable premium channel Starz, which co-produces this fourth iteration of Torchwood with BBC Worldwide Productions. Dead Of Night is written by American writer and producer Jane Espenson (Buffy, Battlestar Galactica, Warehouse 13).

« And the next, and the next, and the next... »

Rex Matheson (Mekhi Phifer) asks his boss Brian Friedkin (Wayne Knight) why he was set up and by whom. The investigation leads the CIA agent, his analyst colleague Esther Drummond (Alexa Havins), Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) and Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) to a warehouse where they find a massive stockpile of pain killers from pharmaceutical company Phicorp. Oswald Danes (Bill Pullman) does the media circuit and accepts the offer of Jilly Kitzinger (Lauren Ambrose). The PR guru also invites Dr.Vera Juarez (Arlene Tur) at Phicorp. And a cult called The Soulless has emerged following the miracle.

« Corporation corridors, help me find an open door.
Believe in me, I'll play your game.
Please don't ignore me or my name. » (Murray Head)

Jane Espenson's Dead Of Night is an aknowledgement that anything right after Rendition would pass for the quintessence of sobriety (« That woman in the airport. ») Original Torchwood characters and American newbies begin to act as a team and Rex puts his Axel Foley mode on pause to behave like the disavowed CIA agent he's meant to be (« Don't go deaf. ») Gwen is the leader of the gang, as there's no trace of the dashing Captain Jack from past Torchwood series - or even Doctor Who - in the fourth series of Russell T. Davies's creation. Jack even abandons field work to satisfy a "mortal need". And "Miss Translation" Esther shows signs of fragility, which is always better than inconsequence in term of narration.

Miracle Day borrows from the Great Book of US television conspiracies. After the CIA in the previous episode, it's now the big corporations and Torchwood's Virtucon is called Phicorp. The forces behind the pharma firm have been "there for decades", they're "everywhere", they know "everything" and they were ready for the miracle (the truth is out there, etc...) They own Warehouse 14, bigger on the inside, and now they own Oswald Danes too. Because we all know a pedophile and murderer is the ideal choice for a spokesperson in those Twitter days. His perception by the public is quite confused, like the treatment of the character by the writers. How are we supposed to react when the man is beaten up by uniformed cops?

« But you see. Beauty of this miracle is... If I shoot you just right maybe you might live an agony for, who knows how long? Maybe a thousand years. »

Well, it's all part of the big baddie and RTD's joint 10-episode masterplan. Only The Lady in Red, aka Jilly Drescher, seems to know the nature of the game but it is unclear if she's a "woman of wealth and taste" or just a lackey. If Dead Of Night doesn't bring the wonders expected by many, at least it's a proper patch to the Shark's Week blooper compilation preceding it. If only Miracle Day didn't abuse of news bulletins or medical panel scenes as ellipsis and if only the talents of Wayne Knight and Bill Pullman were better used. Speaking of talent, the preacher on TV is played by wonderful American veteran actor George Murdock.

Torchwood's first two series were about bizarre alien things happening, the way the flamboyant Jack Harkness and his team dealt with them, and how it affected the characters and their relationships. Children of Earth, was the brilliant encounter of Quatermass with Spooks. For the moment Torchwood: Miracle Day looks less like its sci-fi predecessors and more like the tale of a very long agony. But thank Heaven this one will not last a thousand years. Three down, seven to go...

Dead Of Night is directed by Billy Gierhart.

http://danowen.blogspot.com/2011/07/torchwood-miracle-day-dead-of-night.html
http://feelinglistless.blogspot.com/2011/07/malcolm-hulke-or-don-houghton-had-to.html
http://blogcritics.org/video/article/tv-review-torchwood-miracle-day-dead/
http://www.nerdist.com/2011/07/torchwood-miracle-day-dead-of-night-review-spoilers/

SHARKS ON A PLANE

Torchwood: Miracle Day continues on BBC One with its second episode, Rendition, aired two days ago. One week behind US cable premium channel Starz, co-producer of this fourth incarnation of Torchwood with BBC Worldwide Productions.

« Next Day... No one dies. »

In a world where people stopped dying, CIA agent Rex Matheson (Mekhi Phifer) seeks answers in Wales. Later he returns to America assisted by a colleague named Lyn (Dichen Lachman) aboard a special plane, with Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) and Captain Jack (John Barrowman) in his custody. But he soon needs emergency phone help of Dr. Vera Juarez (Arlene Tur). At the CIA headquarters, Esther Drummond (Alexa Havins) discovers that she and Rex have been framed. Oswald Danes (Bill Pullman) becomes an overnight star thanks to a TV act of contrition and raises the interest of PR guru Jilly Kitzinger (Lauren Ambrose).

« There is only one river. There is only one sea.
And it flows through you, and it flows through me. » (Peter, Paul & Mary, River of Jordan)

In a world [voice of the late Don LaFontaine] where the failed execution of a pedophile and murderer has become a viral video joke, the only execution which could possibly succeed is the one of the originally British drama Torchwood. Gwen's husband Rhys (Kai Owen) is left in Wales with their baby as spotlights are still on the ultimate pain in the arse [sorry] Rex and Miss Congeniality 2011 Esther. Both are caught in what looks like a X-Files type-conspiracy where their boss Brian Friedkin - the legendary Wayne Knight - has a role. He apparently takes orders from a triangle (the Mysterons? SPECTRE? News International?) which wants to "remove" Jack.

Written by Doris Egan (House M.D.) and directed by Billy Gierhart, Rendition collapses on Oswald's unconvincing television remorses, meant to reverse public opinion. Then arrives Fran Drescher's PR little sister from Hell, Vera pulls a Robert Stack when Jack is poisoned by Lyn - whose family name must be Deceitful, and MacGyver Gwen rips the plane. « Welcome to Torchwood », she concludes after agent Deceitful does an embarassing head twist. This last point shall be discussed, not that the episode was deprived of good moments: Rhys "defending" Jack, Rex and the "gay" steward, or « There is no Golden Hour anymore ».

Next episode is penned by respected writer/producer Jane Espenson. At this stage she could be as well named Jane Esperanza because what the fourth series of Torchwood needs most now is indeed a Miracle Day.

http://danowen.blogspot.com/2011/07/torchwood-miracle-day-rendition.html
http://www.flickfilosopher.com/blog/2011/07/torchwood_miracle_day_episode_1.html
http://feelinglistless.blogspot.com/2011/07/even-works-of-pip-jane-and-peter-r.html
http://www.denofgeek.com/television/980462/torchwood_miracle_day_episode_2_spoilerfree_review.html

THE TOURIST

Torchwood: Miracle Day had its BBC One premiere on thursday night. One week behind US cable premium channel Starz, now co-producer of Torchwood with BBC Worldwide Productions. Miracle Day arrives two years after Torchwood: Children of Earth, the five one-hour episode masterpiece miniseries.

Sinister Oswald Danes (Bill Pullman) is about to receive a deserved death sentence curtesy of the State of Kentucky when things go not as planned. Meanwhile, a name known only in some very restricted circles gets the attention of CIA agent Esther Drummond (Alexa Havins): Torchwood. She informs her colleague Rex Matheson (Mekhi Phifer) but he has a spectacular car accident. In Wales, former Torchwood member Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) lives with her husband Rhys (Kai Owen) and their baby - only Police Sergeant Andy Davidson (Tom Price) can contact her. Rex survives because Death took a sabbatical and everybody else in the world doesn't die anymore. Esther feels this global "miracle" could be linked to Torchwood and searches the archives where she meets Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman).

« No one dies these days.
- You wanna bet? »

Torchwood: Miracle Day is the fourth incarnation of the Doctor Who spin-off launched in 2006 and initially developed and produced by BBC Wales. The American co-production and the filming stateside (majoritarily) raised some apprehension but fans expected exec producers Russell T. Davies (creator of Torchwood), Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter to be a guarantee of the programme's integrity. Davies himself writes this first episode, aptly titled The New World, directed by Bharat Nalluri - also executive producer. At his best Nalluri is more than a director, he's a genius stylist. He directed the premiere episodes of Spooks, Hustle (of which he got the idea), and Life on Mars. He's the man behind the stylistic identity of those three hits which established the reputation of Kudos, their prodco. Unfortunately his name is also associated to that mess called Outcasts.

The New World has the double duty to reinstall Torchwood after a two-year absence and transplant it in an American setting without betraying its DNA. However Torchwood: Miracle Day is mainly designed for Starz's viewers and is submerged with US television fiction tropes right from the totally uninspired and short title sequence, out of a net med drama. Without "Tarantino Gwen", Rhys and unsung Torchwood hero Andy, Captain Jack would almost be a special guest star in his own show (with a predictable twist) arriving only after 20 minutes. And would-be team members Esther and Rex are not a solace, as the former is the generic American TV government agent and the latter is one of the most irritating characters in the History of television. Among newbies only Dr. Vera Juarez (Arlene Tur) is of some real interest for now.

Nevertheless an overall watchable 50-minute US sci-fi fare (think The X-Files or Warehouse 13) with uneven humour, action sequences tailor-made for the North American market, and the brilliant presence of Bill Pullman. The next episode of this Malthus meets 24 dystopia will tell what is left of the identity of an originally British drama, definitely fading away behind the economic necessities.