Like Jack himself, Miracle Day is a tale of immortality that has no idea when to end
I've never been much of a fan of Torchwood, ever since the slick, technological powerhouse from Doctor Who was relegated to a grot-infested sewer in Cardiff for its first series incarnation. That dark and dingy downgrade exemplified the core problem I had with the spin-off; it wanted to riff off of the no-holds-barred sci-fi nonsense of Who, but was too enamoured with its own ideal of being gritty and adult to ever let itself do anything entertaining with the concept. Where Doctor Who could let its childish wackiness set the pace and tone, Torchwood was in desperate need of its own pace-setter.
Children of Earth proved to be an excellent turnaround for the series in that regard, more than halving the series run of thirteen standalone episodes to just five instalments with one continuous storyline. It was leaner, punchier and, most importantly of all, didn't flop about from point to point like a cat trying to mindlessly pounce on a laser pen dot. And if that seems like a strange analogy, I'm afraid it pretty much sums up where Miracle Day goes wrong.
I certainly wouldn't say that Miracle Day is a failure; its central conceit, in which every human being suddenly becomes immortal, raises an awful lot of ethical, societal and political points, and the series does an excellent job of covering them all. It begins with some relatively long-term worries, like the fact that everyone is still growing old and decrepit, then hits us with genuinely horrific scenarios, such as the foetus with its brain growing outside of its skull, doomed to a life of unimaginable torment and unable to be aborted, even as an act of mercy. These small moments of horror are explored to greater or lesser degrees, and there's a palpable sense of being overwhelmed as minor characters are rushed past the camera, bringing with them a fresh batch of game-changing concerns. As the episodes progress we see the world change before our eyes, overwhelming insanity leading to mass murder and the degradation of humanity just so policy makers can find some breathing room to think about the immediate next step, never mind forming a long-term plan. In this regard Miracle Day is distressingly real and unflinchingly brutal; it gives the series the intellectual edge that Doctor Who could never hope to touch, and that is very much to be commended.
But at some point the series has to step away from the side stories and get into the central narrative itself, and it's here that everything starts to unravel. The heroes of the piece are only four strong, and they spend most of their time meandering about, completely in the dark about what is causing the miracle and not making any real headway at any point. They blunder their way into numerous dead ends, get sidetracked by family issues that ultimately lead nowhere, occasionally get deported and eventually have to be handed their biggest leads on a plate, with an old (very, very old) flame of Jack's and a convicted paedophile walking in and slapping key pieces of evidence in front of them, as if to say "here, now get a bloody move on". Midway through the series Jack states:
Which sums up the laissez faire attitude of Miracle Day in its entirety. Like a cat chasing a laser pen, they run after shadows with no game plan at all, and after a while it turns from mysterious to downright irritating.
There's nothing wrong with this in itself, of course; a good mystery is always welcome, and even when confronted with the miracle, laid bare on screen, there are only more questions that open up. But this doesn't explain why Russell T. Davies and his team felt the need to stretch the running length to twice that of Children of Earth, when those five extra episodes are entirely composed of filler and distraction. Far too much time is spent with Gwen's father, whom the Welsh mainstay needs to save from incineration with the rest of the Catagory 1 (or good-as-dead) humans. Without wishing to spoil the particulars of that story arc, it finishes on a flat note that makes the whole thing feel like an exercise in effort for the sake of effort.
It's especially disappointing given the rich seam of potential that they give themselves through the aforementioned array of minor details, most notably the redefinition of crime, the ethical dilemmas of the medical boards and the upsurge in cult behaviour. This latter issue promises to develop into a much more prominent part of the series, with paedophile Oswald Danes becoming a new messiah of sorts; it would have made his growing sense of perspective of his crime and his eventual need for redemption much more fleshed out and well defined, but no sooner has he achieved a base of fanatical support than the whole thing is pulled from under him, and the entire issue of cult behaviour is pissed up a tree. It isn't just a missed opportunity, it's a squandered one that they started work on then apparently couldn't be bothered to finish. It's an odd case of the writers trying desperately to justify the running time of their series without having any apparent enthusiasm to do so. The best of these self-contained side stories, that of Jack's old lover who eventually leads them to an important clue in the present day, is still basically irrelevant to the wider issues at hand, and doesn't advance Jack as a character all that much.
Miracle Day could easily have been the equal of Children of Earth, but somewhere along the lines (possibly due to the influence of co-producer Starz) it became bloated and directionless. Some excellent scripting carries it well, but having established a brutal and complex world, the series loses its vision and falls back on the bland tropes that failed to ignite Torchwood under its old format. Less of a missed opportunity and more one that didn't stop to consider the wiseness of its running length, Torchwood: Miracle Day provides plenty of food for thought, so long as you have the sense to pass over the bloated filling.
Children of Earth proved to be an excellent turnaround for the series in that regard, more than halving the series run of thirteen standalone episodes to just five instalments with one continuous storyline. It was leaner, punchier and, most importantly of all, didn't flop about from point to point like a cat trying to mindlessly pounce on a laser pen dot. And if that seems like a strange analogy, I'm afraid it pretty much sums up where Miracle Day goes wrong.
I certainly wouldn't say that Miracle Day is a failure; its central conceit, in which every human being suddenly becomes immortal, raises an awful lot of ethical, societal and political points, and the series does an excellent job of covering them all. It begins with some relatively long-term worries, like the fact that everyone is still growing old and decrepit, then hits us with genuinely horrific scenarios, such as the foetus with its brain growing outside of its skull, doomed to a life of unimaginable torment and unable to be aborted, even as an act of mercy. These small moments of horror are explored to greater or lesser degrees, and there's a palpable sense of being overwhelmed as minor characters are rushed past the camera, bringing with them a fresh batch of game-changing concerns. As the episodes progress we see the world change before our eyes, overwhelming insanity leading to mass murder and the degradation of humanity just so policy makers can find some breathing room to think about the immediate next step, never mind forming a long-term plan. In this regard Miracle Day is distressingly real and unflinchingly brutal; it gives the series the intellectual edge that Doctor Who could never hope to touch, and that is very much to be commended.
But at some point the series has to step away from the side stories and get into the central narrative itself, and it's here that everything starts to unravel. The heroes of the piece are only four strong, and they spend most of their time meandering about, completely in the dark about what is causing the miracle and not making any real headway at any point. They blunder their way into numerous dead ends, get sidetracked by family issues that ultimately lead nowhere, occasionally get deported and eventually have to be handed their biggest leads on a plate, with an old (very, very old) flame of Jack's and a convicted paedophile walking in and slapping key pieces of evidence in front of them, as if to say "here, now get a bloody move on". Midway through the series Jack states:
"And that Oswald. He's blazin' away. The patterns are starting to revolve around him. And all we have to do is keep watching."
Which sums up the laissez faire attitude of Miracle Day in its entirety. Like a cat chasing a laser pen, they run after shadows with no game plan at all, and after a while it turns from mysterious to downright irritating.
There's nothing wrong with this in itself, of course; a good mystery is always welcome, and even when confronted with the miracle, laid bare on screen, there are only more questions that open up. But this doesn't explain why Russell T. Davies and his team felt the need to stretch the running length to twice that of Children of Earth, when those five extra episodes are entirely composed of filler and distraction. Far too much time is spent with Gwen's father, whom the Welsh mainstay needs to save from incineration with the rest of the Catagory 1 (or good-as-dead) humans. Without wishing to spoil the particulars of that story arc, it finishes on a flat note that makes the whole thing feel like an exercise in effort for the sake of effort.
It's especially disappointing given the rich seam of potential that they give themselves through the aforementioned array of minor details, most notably the redefinition of crime, the ethical dilemmas of the medical boards and the upsurge in cult behaviour. This latter issue promises to develop into a much more prominent part of the series, with paedophile Oswald Danes becoming a new messiah of sorts; it would have made his growing sense of perspective of his crime and his eventual need for redemption much more fleshed out and well defined, but no sooner has he achieved a base of fanatical support than the whole thing is pulled from under him, and the entire issue of cult behaviour is pissed up a tree. It isn't just a missed opportunity, it's a squandered one that they started work on then apparently couldn't be bothered to finish. It's an odd case of the writers trying desperately to justify the running time of their series without having any apparent enthusiasm to do so. The best of these self-contained side stories, that of Jack's old lover who eventually leads them to an important clue in the present day, is still basically irrelevant to the wider issues at hand, and doesn't advance Jack as a character all that much.
Miracle Day could easily have been the equal of Children of Earth, but somewhere along the lines (possibly due to the influence of co-producer Starz) it became bloated and directionless. Some excellent scripting carries it well, but having established a brutal and complex world, the series loses its vision and falls back on the bland tropes that failed to ignite Torchwood under its old format. Less of a missed opportunity and more one that didn't stop to consider the wiseness of its running length, Torchwood: Miracle Day provides plenty of food for thought, so long as you have the sense to pass over the bloated filling.
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