Torchwood 2:9 (Spoilers)

“Something Borrowed“

Gwen’s getting married, but Gwen is pregnant. And she wasn’t the night before. Bitten by a shape shifting carnivore, her changed circumstances change all the relationships around her, particularly with Rhys. And then the real mother comes after Gwen, who insists on no delay to the wedding. All the makings of a fine melodrama!

A nice resumption of a lightness of touch in the direction, unlike last week’s borefest, although the editing remains questionable and the episode was a tad flimsy. Great idea (maybe too many ideas for one episode), lousy monster, with an overly drawn out central storyline. Where there needed to be conflict between Jack, Gwen and Rhys to counterbalance the screwball comedy, there was only screwball comedy with painfully Welsh accents (although Nerys Hughes did make it bearable). It may have been back to the fun of the top half of the series, but it suffered from series 1’s problem of an absence of strong character moments. Where a serious moment was needed, we got only asides or wisecracks, and only hints about more important character issues. Jack and Rhys do save the day together, so things do nearly come together at the end, but it leaves Jack far from happy, and again he’s kept on the fringes with his introspection. And will someone please treat Ianto properly? Series 2 is doing itself a serious disservice by ignoring this disfunctional but extremely good looking couple, no doubt because of the family-friendly edit later in the week. It’s nice that Gwen and Rhys are driving the show consistently this year, but I really want to know more about and see more of Jack, and Ianto in particular.