Torchwood: Children of Earth Miniseries

I just got done watching the 5th and final episode of Torchwood:_Children_of_Earth and it was, in my opinion, one of the greatest hours of television I have ever had the privilege to see. I wanted to do a quick review of the entire 5 part miniseries so I can try and convince a few of you who didn't watch it buy the DVD when it comes out in a few days. It might help if you watch the first two season first, but I think you would still enjoy COE without watching them.

This was a much darker look at humanity and what people are willing to do for the "greater good" than the past few seasons. The basic premise is that aliens called The 456, after the frequency they communicate on, come to Earth and demand 10% of the Earth's children to use as a drug. The opening scenes where the aliens start to talk through the children is harrowing and not going to be forgotten by me any time soon.

Now is this was all the plot involved it may have been a bit boring. However with the characters of Captain Jack, Gwen , and Ianto out to try and save the world it was anything but that. We find out that the aliens visited once before and Captain Jack was one of the people who turned 12 children over to The 456. If not The 456 would have unleashed a virus onto the planet killing millions. It was a decesion that would later come back to haunt him when a child whom escaped the abduction confronts him.

We also discover that Jack has a daughter and a grandson named Stephen. Who end up being used as pawns by the government to try and control what Jack and Torchwood does in regards to the aliens. This was after they tried to kill all three memeber of Trochwood by blowing up their bas of operations.

Now the aliens are back to demand more since their first racket succeeded so well. The aliens say they will wipe out the entire planet if their demands are not met. The reminder of the show deals with how the government gives into the demand and how the decision to hand over 10% of the Earth's children is made. If was dismayed by how believable it was to watch government officals sit around a table and decide which children will be sacraficed and which spared.

In the last episode we watch children be yanked out of schools, homes, and even parent's arms to be used as sacrifices to the greater good. Watching society break down out of fear born out of self preservation was fascinating to watch over the last five nights. You want to hate the Gov. officals who are making these decisions but you can't quite get there. They are almost as much the victim as the children. How do you choose between 10% of the children and the entire population of the planet?

Now naturally the day is saved in the end but not without Captain Jack having to make the impossible choice of sacrificing his grandson to save the world. It was a gut wrenching ending that had me in tears for the second time. The first was the death of my favorite character in the fourth episode of the miniseries. Now this is not new to fans of the show as both Owen and Tosh were killed off last season.

I'm not sure I'm fully fleshing out the details and emotions this show made me feel over the last week, but I hope this gives you enough information to want to watch it for yourselves.