Torchwood review: Serenity is a hilarious story focusing on Jack and Ianto

Jack and Ianto try hard to live an ordinary life, in this month’s hilarious Torchwood episode, Serenity.

Released ten years exactly after Ianto Jones’s shocking death in Children of Earth – Day Four, this month’s Torchwood audio is, rather fittingly, very heavily focused on Jack and Ianto. It’s also a rather excellent story.

One thing that helps is that this episode is written by James Moran. While this is his first Torchwood story for Big Finish, Moran has actually written a couple of episodes for the TV series before – including co-writing Day Three of Children of Earth.

Ten years later, and he clearly hasn’t lost his touch when it comes to writing for the Doctor Who spin-off. His episode Serenity is brilliant, and has to be one of the funnier Torchwood stories we’ve had in a while.

The story focuses on Jack and Ianto living a seemingly happy life in suburbia. They greet the neighbors with happy smiles, they take part in the regular contests for having the best kept lawn, and they seem to get on well with everyone.

But why are they really there? And what is Serenity Plaza hiding?

Unresolved business

There is so much brilliant humor in this story, and a key reason for that is Ianto. When it comes to humor, Ianto Jones works best using one of two approaches: you make him the super positive character of the story that’s opposite someone miserable, (such as in The Last Beacon, when he was opposite Owen,) or you do the exact opposite. And Serenity has definitely gone for the latter option.

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While an ordinary life would seem to suit someone like Ianto, he gets sick of it very, very quickly. He becomes fed up of the ordinary life while simultaneously becoming a part of it (his reaction to finding out the secret of the Best Kept Lawn winners’ success is priceless).

But while the humor is the best element of this story, it’s not the only aspect that makes it work. Getting to see a glimpse of Jack and Ianto living an ordinary life is rather sweet, and the pair have some great moments together. On top of that, we also get a resolution to a major loose thread from the second series, which is pretty satisfying for long-term fans to hear.

Serenity is a hilarious episode that features a dark ending, and works nicely as a great tribute to a character that we all miss, ten years on.

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Have you listened to Serenity? Are you a fan of Ianto Jones? Would you like more stories focusing on him and Jack? Let us know in the comments below.

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