In his review of the latest Torchwood episode, Chris wrote:

“Oh, Torchwood. If I had to give you a report card, I’d be the teacher that always writes, “Does not reach potential.” When you’re good, you’re VERY good. Unfortunately, most of the time you’re really only GOOD to OK. Tonight was pretty much just OK.”

I’ve got to disagree; I admit that I’ve only seen the first series, but everything I’ve read (up to and including Chris’ review) tells me that the central problem that bothered me in series one hasn’t been resolved. Simply put:

Torchwood doesn’t know what it wants to be.

I mean that both with regard to the show as a whole, and also the Torchwood team as depicted every week. It’s clear from the finished product that the people who make Torchwood don’t have a clear idea of what kind of story they want to tell, what sort of tone to set, or even, really, what genre Torchwood is. Paralleling that, through the end of series one, it’s not clear whether we’re meant to see the Torchwood team as elite defenders of the Earth; or a bunch of flawed and imperfect folks doing the best they can to hold the line against alien weirdness because there’s nobody else to do it; or a group of amoral, oversexed jerks playing around with whatever alien technology (and live aliens!) they happen to come across.

Compare Torchwood to Doctor Who. From the very first minute of “Rose” it was very clear what sort of show Russel T. Davies was making. Compare it to any really good show, and you’ll see the same thing; shows that are good know what they’re about. Take Buffy as an example. However shaky the first season was, it was pretty obvious what Joss Whedon wanted to say, what stories he wanted to tell, what themes were going to be explored. And when he went against expectations, it was only because he had clearly set up those expectations in the first place; when he subverted genre conventions it was only after he’d established what genre and which conventions he was working with.

Torchwood has done none of those things, and that’s why, from where I sit, it isn’t very good at all.