Wednesday, March 12, 2008
It's a nice day for a Welsh wedding
NUPTIALS! Torchwood, BBC Two, 9.00pm
We've got to hand it to Torchwood - they've set the bar sky-high this series in terms of the guest stars they can attract. We had James Marsters in the series opener, stealing the episode right out from underneath the main cast, Alan Dale a few weeks back, Richard Briers last week, but this week we think they've hit the jackpot - Nerys Hughes as Rhys's mum. Nerys Hughes! Awesome.
Also awesome: this week's episode. It's Gwen and Rhys's wedding, and it should come as no surprise to anyone who's been following their somewhat bumpy relationship that it doesn't exactly go smoothly. In any normal TV show this might mean someone marching in to stop the wedding, or the revelation of a massive ungodly secret in the middle of the ceremony, and...well, we do get both of those, pretty much, but since this is Torchwood, there's also the small matter of Gwen being inseminated with alien spawn. Cue a very knowing scene in which Gwen protests that the alien only bit her, and Owen and Jack exchange disbelieving looks, since they know only too well Gwen's habit of banging anything with a pulse, alien or otherwise. Possibly.
In a pleasant change of pace from the dark, brooding, hanging-around-on-rooftops tone of the past couple of episodes, this one's played for laughs for the most part, and it gives Eve Myles a chance to display some impressive comic chops (her reaction when Rhys reveals that Owen's been showing him how to use Torchwood's alien artifacts is priceless), as well as Nerys Hughes referring to Jack as "an American with no sense of timing or fashion" (she's clearly been following the show very closely), Tosh being cocooned with a horny best man, and Rhys punching Jack in the face. It reminds us of Buffy's better comedy episodes (interestingly, the one it reminded us of the most was season four's 'Something Blue', and this episode is called 'Something Borrowed'. Coincidence?) - for our money, it's the most entertaining episode they've done since 'They Keep Killing Suzie', and given how much we loved that episode, that's a very hearty recommendation indeed.
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