hairy_hen said:

Man, don't even talk about Torchwood. It's one of the most vile, misguided, and just plain stupid shows I've ever had the misfortune of being subjected to. Bunch of pointless wangsty rubbish that means absolutely nothing, and completely wastes the potential that an interesting character like Jack Harkness seemed to promise when Doctor Who first introduced him. To hell with that garbage!

I feel that describes Series 1 and, to a lesser extent, Series 2 pretty well, but Children of Earth (Series 3) was absolutely brilliant. Basically, something like Children of Earth is what I expected Torchwood to be when I first sat down to watch it from the beginning. I'm pretty excited for Miracle Day (Series 4) right now, whereas I only watched Children of Earth out of a feeling of obligation since I'd already watched the first two series and it was only 5 episodes long.

I do agree that Captain Jack was pretty completely wasted within Doctor Who. He should have come back halfway through Series 2 and stuck around for a while, if you ask me.