Torchwood

The BBC's dystopic series Torchwood, which first aired in the UK in 2006, has been running on Starz.  The series begins on Miracle Day, when for some reason people stop dying, particularly Oswald Danes, a child rapist and murderer who is to be executed but is pardoned when the execution fails.   It soon becomes evident that people have stopped dying all over the world.   When injured, burned to a crisp, shot in the head or any other gory variation that creator Russell T. Davies can concoct, they still live although in wounded and often grotesque form.  As the series progresses, the semi-dead are designated a separate category of life, herded into concentration camps, and burned.  It is in around episode 5 of the first season that Torchwood begins to remind me of a Tea Party protest.  For instance, a covert government operation involving the herding of large numbers of defenseless victims into concentration camps is a common fear among some Tea Party activists. As well, Miracle Day is attributable to a corporatist conspiracy.

The image of wounded immortality is a critique of big government and socialism. Just as failed industries are not allowed to die, wounded Wall Street firms and sub prime borrowers are not allowed to die, so the world is inhabited by the undead, made so by a corporate conspiracy.

Where the show is going I do not know, but it is great if gory entertainment.