Torchwood: Children of Earth

This is one of the more interesting things I've seen a running series do. When Torchwood moved from BBC2 to the regular BBC, they only got an order for a five episode miniseries instead of a full season. So they turned it into a five day event, and it became the most interesting thing the show has done. Instead of several disconnected stories, they tell one with a lot of attention to detail. You'd think stretching a plot over five hours instead of fifty minutes might result in some boredom, but the events are heavy enough that I was attached to my seat the entire time, unlike my previous experience with the show.

The pace is generally slow, but the drip-feed of information and curiosities is enough to keep you interested before things really ratchet up. It's a couple episodes before the real villains actually show up but their presence is felt through the creepy manipulation of all the world's children. It sets the mood for what's to follow, where politicians have to face a terrible decision, and it gets treated with the proper weight that you generally don't see in fantastical stories like this. The normal activities of the Torchwood Institute are sort of placed on the back burner as the focus is more on their survival and personal relationships, and they spend a lot of time just trying to not die. The resolution was pretty rapid compared to the amount of buildup and drama before it, but it was a nice capper to a genuinely intriguing tale. I'm really not sure what's going to happen in season 4 with the current state of the cast, but it will probably be worth at least checking out.