It's strange. I have both very similar reactions and very different reactions to you, but sometimes arranged differently. S1 Torchwood, I can barely stand (though there were a couple great eps). S2 got better but there were still aspects of it that never really caught me. S1 and S2 Torchwood were something I'd usually watch only because there was other stuff out there for it. Like you said, it could be lived in. So in some ways, I was in it because it was interesting to talk about and later, because people went interesting places in it in fandom. You seem to like it for the livability as you put it . . . however, to me that made it always feel like it never really went where it could or it was too distracted with being the edgier part of the DW-verse to really find its voice beyond that. It was something that made me know the show COULD be great . . . but most the time, I hated almost all the characters and only truly liked/believed about half the plots. S3 though. Oh, that's when I fell in love with Torchwood. That's when I fell in love with Gwen. That's when I fell in love with Ianto. That's when I started finding Jack really interesting again. Yes, it was an ending in so many ways, but that's where it finally felt like the story and the characters came alive and made sense to me. Not to say that S3 was perfect or that the characterizations were perfect, because I had gripes. But what's weird and what I meant by in some ways our perceptions are similar is what you said about S4 so far, about it feeling like it's not 'your show'. I had much the same feeling while watching it. I don't know if that's happened because of their attempt to 'Americanize' it (which is hilarious because their take on Americanizing things, even with the help of Americans, is often a little crackish and in some cases outright laughable with Ep 1 as a great example) or if it's just because I haven't seen enough of the storyline so far or what . . . But in some ways, it feels like watching DW without the TARDIS, you know what I mean? It's all there but something intrinsic (and otherwise easily overlooked) is missing. Oh well, I suppose I will wait and watch more to see if it lives up to S3 to me. If not... *Shrug* I might just move on from Torchwood completely. There's only so much time I can devote to a show because I sense what it COULD be.

(And btw that one blonde CIA woman is so American!SallySparrow that I can't even watch her. But seeing Jack? Oh, I didn't even realize I had missed him that much! And Gwen is awesome. Which is weird because I couldn't even STAND her in S1 or S2 but since S3, she rocks.)