Breaking Bad – Season 2

As a celebration of the 'best' of TV, the Emmy Awards usually throw few surprises. Voted for by Hollywood, for Hollywood, some nominees may be questionable in terms of their quality, but almost all show evidence of either huge viewership or notable Hollywood-pleasing. Combining all of this, it's easy to see why critical successes such as The Wire, Friday Night Lights and Battlestar Galactica have all been snubbed in recent years, attracting as they do poor viewing figures and being filmed far away from the attentions of Hollywood. So it's noteworthy whenever one such show manages to catch their eye, and the Albequerque, New Mexico-set Breaking Bad has certainly done that, with not only a repeated nod for the surprisingly intense Bryan Cranston, but also for overall best drama and a well-deserved supporting actor nod for Aaron Paul, who did great work this season. It's nice for a darkly surreal show such as this to get some recognition, and may it continue. But why's it good?

My answer to that was a whole lot different a year ago. If the strike-shortened first season was all about the set up, complete with the requisite cool-moments factor to get the viewer interested, then the second season was much more of a character study of its two tragic protagonists, cancer-suffering wannabe druglord Walt and his streetwise-but-unfortunate accomplice Jesse. It's cool that the show, whilst obviously advancing plot when necessary, could take the time to really delve into these characters' minds and motives. And yes, this did mean an even slower, less exciting pace than the first season introduced us to. In fact, it wasn't until very late in the season that I realised just how intentional that might have been, for as a whole, the second season was just as powerful as the first, if not moreso. Fortunately, there were still a few liberal sprinklings of grisly/surreal moments present to keep everyone happy. If you've seen this season, you'll know what I mean if I mention the words 'tortuga', 'ATM' or 'pink bear'.

It's hard to describe why the season was so effective without going into spoilerific detail, but suffice it to say that over the course of the season both Walt and Jesse's moral compasses and most viewers' impressions of each man's integrity go through some drastic changes. This is certainly spurred on by some major situational advancements (one huge game-changer for Walt, and several medium-sized occurrences to Jesse), but the writers and actors manage to deliver on all fronts to show what's really making these guys tick as time goes by.

Of course, one might argue that this isn't too difficult to do for a show focussing on just two characters. And there's truth to that. Despite strong performances from the rest of the small ensemble, they really do feel rather underused, a complaint I held from the get go. The start of the season indicated that Hank and Marie would have much more of a presence on the show, but they both seem to shy away from the limelight after just a few episodes. Meanwhile, Walt's wife Skyler does get a bit more storyline this year, but it has so far fallen into untypically clichéd territory for this show.

Still, a strong second season from a show that hasn't yet rested on its laurels, and continues to subvert the viewer's expectations at every turn. Whilst the finale certainly had a surprising climax, it's hard to tell how much immediate impact it might have on the show's third season. I'll be watching, and eagerly waiting to see what strange directions the show will go in next. Oh, and that trick they pulled with the episode titles? Nice!

Torchwood: Children of Earth

I've never been a big fan of Doctor Who's 'mature' offspring, often a bizarre mixture of mature content and immature storytelling. Not far removed from the silly plot devices of Doctor Who, the only major difference between the two was that Torchwood really wanted to be grown up, and in an attempt to do so the show seemed even more childish in addressing 'adult issues'. You could almost imagine the executives getting as much kicks from a profanity here or a butt there as they did from any kind of meaningful characterisation, and it was hard to see how any kind of political or moral discussions in the show couldn't also be tackled in its family-targeted parent show. Not so with Children of Earth though, the darkest and most thought-provoking piece of sci-fantasy to show up on television since...well, Battlestar Galactica just a few months ago!

Never mind Russell T. Davies being on top of his game, I have to hand it to the BBC for their clever marketing choices for this five-part minseries; the show aired consecutively over five weeknights (and, less importantly, each episode's narrative also took place over consecutive weekdays) and allowed for BBC One – and its American counterpart, for whom Torchwood is one of their biggest fictional shows – to advertise the hell out of it as must-see event TV. Admittedly, I watched the show a while after initial broadcast but just watching the way the miniseries flowed it was clear this was a smart move, and BBC must be rather content with the way it worked out. Critical admiration and good viewing figures on both side of the pond.

And the miniseries itself? Well, despite the usual reservations I have with the show and Davies' writing in general – which presented themselves here yet again throughout – I was rather impressed. What seemed at first glance to be a bloated expansion of a standard episode, the miniseries became increasingly twisted and heartbreaking as time went on, with dark themes such as government-planned genocide and familicide showing up. Although Davies' work is typically heavy-handed with addressing the issues, Children of Earth was probably most successful because it did have the time to flesh out its characters a bit more than usual, both with the returning Torchwood cast and newcomers such as Peter Capaldi's tragic civil servant and Paul Copley's mentally unstable remnant from the aliens' previous visit. They're all given just enough humorous and light-hearted beats in the first couple of episodes to make the dark payoffs in the final few episodes really sting. Props to John Barrowman, though, who sheds his often goofy image to present a character finding himself in increasingly tragic situations without making the whole ordeal ridiculously melodramatic (which is sometimes the case with the entire cast; If they have to shed a tear, they might as well bawl their eyes out).

Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of the miniseries was the dark material it attempted to address. Yes, it certainly gave me satisfaction to see some situations and debates included that most shows wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole, but at the same time, it was only moderately successful. For a show that succeeds in showing the dark sides of inherently good people, it's a shame that Davies seems overly-prejudiced towards politicians. Perhaps his view is just a depiction of the general public's view that no-one in politics can be trusted, but here they're all shown as despicable vote-grabbers with no scruples whatsoever. This becomes particularly damaging to the show's integrity later on, as the dark arguments on how best to handle a necessary atrocity, however powerful and intelligent, are lessened by the fact they're being conducted by pantomime villains. And when one such character meets a particularly gut-wrenching fate, subtlety has to be thrown out the window when it comes to letting the viewer judge his actions; Instead, Davies repeatedly tells us that this guy was 'a good man' because (I assume) he doesn't trust us to make that realisation for ourselves.

The usual complaints against the Doctor Who universe can be made towards this miniseries as well. The instrumental music is effective, but often too intrusive. Whilst many jokes succeed, others are embarrassing. And the mostly-unseen villains that are alien and therefore required to display as little humanity as possible, well... It'd be difficult for any writer to make them seem authentic and not just, erm, a bit shit really. Despite this, Davies and associates should be praised for attempting something that is both more-of-the-same-but-with-a-bigger-budget and at the same time quite experimental. The aliens might fail, but the concept of possessed children has always been quite a chilling one. The political characters might be annoyingly one-dimensional, but most of the other characters work rather well, even the minor relations of the established cast. Having never been a regular viewer of Torchwood before, Children of Earth finally convinced me that maybe, just maybe, this show does have enough potential to step out of Doctor Who's shadow. And I think that in itself is pretty good praise of this miniseries. It's entirely accessible to newcomers, so I'd recommend it to anyone!