I feel this episode is steeped enough in Jack Harkness lore this should be considered a prerequisite required story to fully appreciate.

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is pretty solid, on the whole, which is great by the standards of the first two seasons of Torchwood. It is well known that RTD and others involved in the early reboot of Doctor Who were inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer, while James Marsters apparently saw a New Who episode and became interested in joining the series, eventually winding up with him taking on the memorable role of Captain John here. He is the best part of this episode by a wide mile and really helps to elevate the material a little bit.

Sure, the writing and execution of all this is a little clunky, but on the whole it does a good job at introducing a new character from Jack's past, creating conflict around it, and then setting up some stuff for Series Two, even if it is only really paid off at the end of the season. You could ask for a lot worse, especially given all the atrocities of Series One. This left me optimistic for the future of Torchwood after suffering through the first series on my first watch. It holds up pretty well in hindsight, even if the results of Series Two on the whole are a lot more consistent with Series One then I would prefer.