Torchwood Miracle Day

http://www.renaud-bray.com

http://www.renaud-bray.com

*** Résumé en anglais seulement ***Torchwood: Miracle Day opens with a fantastic premise: one day, everyone on earth stops dying. A murderous pedophile being executed survives; a CIA agent who gets punctured with rebar survives; victims of heart attacks and strokes and disease survive. The world population begins to skyrocket and the only clue is a word that flashed across the CIA's computers for only a moment: Torchwood--which all fans of BBC science fiction know is a British agency dedicated to investigating impossible and alien events. In short order, Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) returns from his self-imposed exile and Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) comes out of retirement to discover what's behind this instant immortality. Reluctantly merged with Jack and Gwen are two members of the CIA: an aggressive field agent who should be dead (Mekhi Phifer, 8 Mile) and an analyst who's never done field work at all (Alexa Havins). And how will that pedophile (Bill Pullman, Independence Day) fit into everything as he gradually becomes a cult figure and a media sensation? Unfortunately, the 10-episode series soon gets bogged down in conflicting impulses. Half of the show wants to be a thoughtful examination of how humanity would grapple with such a transformation, while the other half wants to be a thrill ride as Torchwood peels back layers of conspiracy. These halves seem like they ought to mesh, but they undercut each other; what would be a compelling revelation for one of these threads seems lackluster for the purposes of the other. What makes Miracle Day still worth watching are the human moments: a wonderful backstory romance for Jack and an encounter between the pedophile and an escort have an emotional payoff that's far more significant than the conspiracy, which grows increasingly forced. And Gwen Cooper remains a delightful character, grounded in the prosaic world while wrestling with the mysterious unknown; she's the perfect audience surrogate. The basic pleasures of Torchwood are muddled in Miracle Day, but what succeeds will still be essential to the show's fans. --Bret Fetzer