Jack confronts Oswald Danes, Rex infiltrates an Overflow camp and Gwen tries to rescue her father. A dark secret behind Miracle Day is revealed (again).
The plot of Torchwood: Miracle Day seems to have settled on a path, but I’m not sure if its themes are following. It’s taking the form of a conspiracy thriller, an attempt by good (?) people to promulgate the labyrinth of deception perpetuated by the terrors of the capitalist world; the media, the drug companies, the government. People with money and power, who’d like to exploit you, the common man, to get more of it. It’s a hero story, though, so what stands between the opulent sphere and Us are Our Heroes, a (formerly) immortal con man from the future and a policewoman from Wales, with some renegade FBI agents in tow. Representatives of the people, rather than the people themselves. Someone more inclined toward analysis might note that this undermines the attempt at Moral Drama or social commentary, but, then, I honestly still can’t decide what the exact literary subtext of the Science Fiction conspiracy at work here is.
Some of the social architecture inNew World Order is actually Kind Of Cool, though, which is only occasionally undermined by the monotony of their conveyance through media “channel flipping” montages. One principle point of intrigue (for me, at least) in this episode, were the motifs coloring the background, which tended to be a little more interesting than the unanimity of evil amongst the top tiers of society. Having a pedophile/serial killer elevated to the status of Media Darling is not the most subtle piece of social critique. In fairness, they do display that not everyone buys into his charade, but the message is clear none the less. Miracle Day does strike one as being paranoid, or at least, a caricature of modern liberal paranoia.
“The Categories of Life” refers to one of those Interesting Things I mentioned, an attempt to restructure a world where no one dies but gruesome things still happen. In the United States (and Wales, apparently) those with litigious inclination declare that “death”, that is, death in the legal sense more than the biological one, be divided into three categories corresponding to their medical status. Unfortunately, it’s quickly spun into the attempt to build a suitably villainous antagonist, brick by brick. “We’ve got a couple glitches in the system”, a smarmy bureaucrat nervously explains, trying to justify the third-world conditions he has the sick and enfeebled in. He hammers the point home by putting two bullets in Dr. Juarez and hauling her off to an incinerator.
In Gravity’s Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon said that a million bureaucrats are planning death, “[...]and some of them even know it”. In Torchwood: Miracle Day, all of them seem to know it. Authority is synonymous with corruption and the degradation of virtue, but I don’t see a ton of consistency in this Chomskian critique of The Powers That Be. Sometimes there will be an interesting parable, and I do hope I’m communicating that my feelings are mixed not holistically negative, but my general feeling is that sometimes the show oversteps its bounds, and other times it does not step far enough. I think it needs to wrap itself more effectively around its themes, and genuinely hope it does before the curtain closes.
Needless to say, I wasn’t entirely engrossed by either plotline investigating the “Overflow Camps”, either with Rex or Gwen. Although Rex is what Literature majors refer to as a “flat, boring character”, I’m generally down with Gwen this season, so I was disappointed to see her so remote from the parts of the show I liked. I say “parts” but, really, my attention was primarily engaged when Jack was on screen. His confrontations with Oswald Danes have provided an intriguing insight into both of their characters, and I’m far more concerned with good character drama than speculative sci fi paranoia/conspiracy. Beyond his presence and charm (both of which he has in spades) Jack’s emotional arc is more deserving of perpetuation than any other singular aspect of the show, so again, I sincerely wish for it to reach its potential heights.
Maxwell Wassmann
Maxwell Wassmann is a dandy and bad poet living in the Detroit area. When not polishing his boots with champagne or reading books he barely understands to look impressive, Maxwell can be found overdosing on caffeine while imitating Don Draper’s affectation. His hobbies include ...
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