Torchwood review: Eve Myles gives a fantastic performance in Smashed

Gwen Cooper has to get drunk while fighting off a very dangerous threat in October’s Torchwood episode, Smashed.

The premise of Smashed, as you can probably guess, is this: Gwen Cooper gets drunk. Very drunk. Drunker than she’s probably ever been. With that kind of premise, it’s easy to imagine that this will be a fairly light-hearted episode of Torchwood.

So naturally, writer James Goss subverts those expectations completely. Instead of an episode of Torchwood that’s rather fun and hilarious (which we’ve definitely had in the past, such as Torchwood One‘s Retirement Plan), Smashed is surprisingly dark and even brutal listening. I’m not saying that hearing Gwen completely drunk isn’t occasionally hilarious to listen to. But those moments are overshadowed by the story’s inherent darkness.

The episode begins simply enough. Gwen makes a small independent inquiry into a company called Drillpak, who’ve started a frakking operation near the Welsh town of Glynteg. There have been reports of the town’s residents being somehow affected since the frakking started, but for Gwen, it should be a straightforward job to investigate.

Of course, it’s not long before all hell breaks loose, and Gwen has to do everything she can to survive…

(L to R) Helen Griffin (Rhian), Dick Bradnum (Drillpak Site Manager), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper) and Omar Austin (Martin Sandhu) star in Torchwood: Smashed.

(Image Courtesy Big Finish Productions.)

An intense listen

One reason why Smashed is so intense to listen to is that Gwen’s not simply consuming alcohol to have an enjoyable evening. It’s just that she’s been put into a situation where she has to keep drinking, or else something terrible will happen to her. However, on top of that, she also finds herself being hunted, leaving her in a rather vulnerable position…

Eve Myles puts in a great performance in this episode as drunk Gwen. She plays it just right – clearly drunk, and certainly having the occasional moment of humor with it. Particularly when she tries to hide the fact that she’s completely wasted.

More from Winter is Coming

But Myles also knows how to play someone drunk while still going through hell. There are a lot of moments when she’s clearly struggling – struggling to stay awake, struggling to shoot straight, struggling to survive. It’s a very different and considerably more vulnerable side to Gwen Cooper that we hear in this episode, and Myles plays that brilliantly.

I also need to mention how great Omar Austin is as the young activist Martyn. In some ways, he’s clearly clever, but he’s also naïve and still has a lot to learn. He’s a great character to pair up with Gwen, especially as he remains sober for so much of the story, and Austin plays him really well.

Smashed is a Torchwood episode that I was both surprised and even shocked by. Much darker than you might expect, it’s another solid story by James Goss. Not the easiest of listens at times, but still another decent Torchwood episode for Gwen Cooper.

dark. Next. Review: Jon Pertwee: Complete Season Four (Blu-Ray)

Have you listened to Smashed? Or even other episodes featuring Gwen Cooper? Which audio story has been your favorite for Gwen so far? Let us know in the comments below.

Home/Doctor Who