A common criticism I see of this episode is that the cold open by Russell T Davies is amazing, and the rest goes downhill. This is monumentally unfair because:

1. It's very easy to write a great opening for a show when you don't need to worry about the ending.
2. In actual fact, the whole episode is amazing!

Excuse me. Have you seen a blowfish driving a sports car?

An amazing start to the second season of Torchwood! Captain John is a welcome unhinged addition to the character rotation of the sub-franchise; I always forget how incredible his introduction is. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang gives showcase strong characterisation and utilisation of the ensemble main cast, plus sewing the seeds for a lot of things to come later in the season.

It's a fun episode all-around with some very memorable scenes and needle drops.

The most important thing about this episode is that I had fun. I watched John Hart with the same fascination you might show to a weird bug wandering over a branch. Can't wait to see more of what's wrong with him

That was a lot of fun. Loved Captain John Hart as the antagonist - he's basically Torchwood's answer to the Master - and the humour (especially the Blowfish driving a sports car at the beginning). It's a shame Gwen is practically reduced to damsel in distress though, and Owen saves the rest of the team sans Gwen after they were betrayed by Captain John a bit too easily for my liking.

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.