Truth of the matter is that I seriously commend the writers for giving me characters that I care about so much. That the thought of Ianto's, Owen's, and Tosh's deaths months after watching the series can still make my stomach turn with anxiety and grief is pretty amazing. That's good script and good acting.
I agree. Plot holes and occasional bad writing aside, the characters are the best part of TW.
Fan devotion (including my own) towards the TW characters scares me sometimes. I've looked it up on the Internet; Ianto is the only fictional character at the current moment having a physical and well-known shrine. The only other characters I can think of that would merit one too would be Sherlock Holmes (wrong time) and Harry Potter (not dead).
Fringe! I have to rewatch that again sometime.
I've made that comparison too before and the only thing I could come up with was that was, um, that Fringe took itself more seriously. Not saying that TW didn't, but yeah, like you said, the sense of danger in Fringe is a lot more real. In Torchwood there's still the sense that you can walk away from it, even as a civilian. Or maybe there's the Doctor's save-the-day omnipresence in TW, which sort of lightens it (killed that in COE though). Or it could simply be the aliens/threats. To be honest, none of the aliens in TW and NewWho freak me out (except the Weeping Angels). But Fringe... *shudders*
But... yeah, I still love TW more too. :DD