Torchwood: Among Us 2

 

Torchwood Among Us 2

Warning: Torchwood Among Us 2 is a fairly dark boxset, and the some of the things I will be discussing in the reviews below, while not as brutal as Among Us 1's topics, may be distressing.

In this household, we revere the trinity of Foley, Handcock and Goss like thousands of religions revered their ancient gods. Those other gods are fallen - no more. They languish in comparison to those who have produced the only truly consistently fabulous Big Finish series, and we do not mourn those pitiful religions of the past. 

Each time a new release of this goddamn series comes out, I prepare for the brainrot to set in, to seep into my goddamn skull. I can no longer really present writeups of this particular series as anything truly well considered, nor objective. I cannot lie. I pray at the altar. 

Among Us 2 is even more episodic than Among Us 1, hitherto the most episodic Torchwood boxset produced thus far. The four stories within, minus all being fairly exceptional, have nearly nothing to do with each other. Looking at the story synopsis's of set 3, I anticipate that this will largely continue throughout the series, and that Among Us is less a concrete and all consuming arc like Aliens Among Us, and more a loose collection of genius - instead of a typical series finale, we're going to have what Goss describes in Vortex as "The world ending during an episode of The One Show." Personally, I think this is a great direction. While nothing in Among Us 2 necessarily hits as strong as Among Us 1's absolutely brutal highs, and I don't go quite as hard for it as some have been known to, Among Us 2 remains a series of unparalleled creativity, and long may it reign. 

Propaganda by Ash Darby (????)

I have absolutely no clue whether or not Darby exists or whether or not they are a pseud, but if they keep this up, I earnestly don't mind. Propaganda is a story about Orr, and it's probably a retool of what used to be a story about Jack. This is the preferred outcome, I think, given Propaganda primarily works given the success of Orr as a character. It, much like your average The Story Continues episode, is searingly political, this time tackling the idea of a "forgotten" war in Ukraine. Given that it's genus was in 2019, and that Goss also predicted the pandemic idea as a story arc idea before it got scrapped, I fear the unwanted gift of prophecy a bit.  Propaganda is probably the weakest of the set, due to it's story structure in of itself, but Orr and (Not Stranded) Tania have a nice rapport that keeps the story going. I feel like this particular episode would be subpar if not for Orr, in a sense - it is the most typically Torchwood and while important, also the most Episode of the Week the series has gotten so far. As it nears it's ending it gets stronger and stronger, moving into a fever pitch. The first time I listened to Propaganda I had a lot of trouble following the plot, but the second time was a revelatory experience. I hope Orr continues to get the development they deserve, hopefully with a Monthly Range release or two. 

At Her Majesty's Pleasure by Tim Foley

At Her Majesty's Pleasure practically writes itself. Yvonne Hartman is such a thoroughly complex character who has benefitted immensely from the tight scrutiny that Goss, Foley and Handcock have given her over the years. Yvonne scripts, thanks to the combined efforts of The Story Continues and Torchwood One, are practically a Torchwood subgenre, and while nothing necessarily can top the sheer weight of Alien Among Us's Poker Face, At Her Majesty's Pleasure gets damn close by upping the ante and stakes for Yvonne a considerable degree. The other star of the play is Tom Price as Andy Davidson, hopefully not for his only appearance in Among Us, but who knows?? Price and Oberman have developed a tight rapport as actors over their stories together, and as what feels like a final nail in the coffin for their relationship, at least for now, At Her Majesty's Pleasure does phenomenal work. Andy's timeline has unfortunately become a bit of a blob, and my largest criticism with At Her Majesty's Pleasure may be that I can't tell when this particular Andy is coming from. I know, a minor quibble, but this is what I've been left with - a lot of his character development in this one seems incompatible with what we've seen in Torchwood Soho, and I wouldn't mind this as much if Foley and Goss don't already work together so closely, and have kept Andy on a mostly tight leash. It's not like Andy has been played with by too many range's and authors, it'd be something understandable if this was a Stranded issue, but Stranded slots in quite nicely. Soho on the other hand is Goss's plaything. Regardless, this is some vicious and personal drama that really keeps the audience at the edge of their seat. By the end of this story, Yvonne seems actually invincible.

Cuckoo by Tim Foley

You can't get more "odd man out" than Cuckoo, an episode that seemingly has no relation to any of the others (yet) and stars Bilis Manger and Not-Ianto Jones. Cuckoo is dark in quite a unique way for Torchwood audios, in that it's remarkably gory, a lot of it has to do with well-designed sound-effects and good acting. You believe that people's eyes are being torn out in this thing. The plot's conceit is that it has three kids in a basement filming a youtube video and they come across the Torchwood hub, where Bilis Manger is snooping around. Eventually, we get hologram Ianto Jones. Hologram Ianto Jones could be fricking anybody. The reason why it's a Hologram Ianto Jones is because Gareth David Lloyd is in the Big Finish Basement. The character of the Torchwood Hologram is very interesting and well written, especially as the episode moves towards it's gruesome conclusion. Murray Melvin was a gift to the world and I'm beyond wounded to see him go. Cuckoo is, if anything, a testament to his sheer talent. 

Pariahs by James Goss

The gang's all here!! After two episodes not dealing with the main Torchwood gang, Pariahs is an ensemble piece starring Orr, Ng, Tyler and Colchester all trying to keep two witnesses to a scandal alive. It's a bit of an action piece, in part, but being on audio, it's more of a thriller. A lot of it really revolves around the interactions between these four characters plus a teensy bit of Yvonne, who feels like the team's ultimate weapon more than ever. This is the most arc focused episode the series has had so far, considering the main threat in it has already been fleshed out over four stories. Thanks to Aliens Next Door and Propaganda in particular, we really understand what Torchwood is up against. I had hoped that the story would delve deeper into the DNA service angle, it's wonderfully creepy and mentioned a bit in the synopsis, but only really referred to a few times in shadow and secret, Torchwood don't get to do any investigation themselves. Pariahs also has the guts to end with everything in immediate disarray, almost as if it's a "part one." Given how episodic the series has been up to this point, we'll see how exactly it follows on from there. I have some mild apprehension for set 3 due to it being the first set without Scott Handcock's influence, but I'm also quite excited indeed, if the series can manage to stick the landing. 

Overall as a set, they're making the right choices. The episodic style is absolutely the right move, and while the series is consistently good, there's not a single episode as strong as the ludicrously astonishing highs of Aliens Next Door, Misty Eyes and Moderation. I think I love that set more than can be conceivably said, and while I can objectively say that Among Us 2 is yet another hit for the Story Continues range, I don't love it as much as most people seem to. Still, apples, oranges. This series has something for everyone and long may it prosper.