TV Review: Being Human
At first blush, Being Human seems like just another by-product of the urban fantasy explosion. It suffers from a lot of the pitfalls of that genre, to be sure. It features angsty vampires and occasionally cheesy dialogue, but these qualities are overshadowed by the positives the series has working for it. Most Americans haven’t discovered Being Human yet, not even in those circles that would seem to be its target audience. But with the U.S. premiere of the series’ second season on BBC America, it’s a great time to check out what this unique show has to offer.
The show, created by Toby Whitehouse, centers around a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost sharing a flat in Bristol, England. This may sound like the set-up to one of those “an x and an x walk into a bar” jokes, but the series manages to take itself seriously. It’s aware of the silliness of its situation, sure, but, these characters are meant to act like real people who happen to have particularly weird problems. Mitchell (Aidan Turner) is a vampire who used to be known as the worst of the worst but now is trying his darndest to go straight. George (Russell Tovey) is a werewolf who is just generally freaked out by the whole thing. And Annie (Lenora Critchlow) is the girl who died in the apartment before they got it and is now trying to figure out what she’s still doing here.
The series looks spectacular, like a film. The seasons are short but this lets them put more money into each episode. Even the werewolf effects, notoriously hard to perfect, look great. The acting, the directing, and the writing (most of the time) combine to wring the best out of the material. The episodes are a full hour long, and the series takes its time with many of its story beats without seeming to drag. It knows when to play dramatic speeches and when to go for the quip, striking a really interesting mix of tones. The second season premiere has an extremely angst-ridden werewolf-related plotline and a very gore sequence in a pressure chamber, but it also includes Annie’s humorous attempts to get a job in a local pub, George calling Mitchell “a piece of lethal furniture”, and Annie talking about how she used to like Buffy “before I started living it.”
Vampire Mitchell (Aidan Turner) finds himself in a compromising position with his fledgling Lauren (Annabel Scholey) in Season 1 of "Being Human".
The show has also had great luck with guest casting. Jason Watkins and Annabel Scholey made wonderful vampire villains in the first season, with Amy Manson perhaps being even better as a possible replacement in Season 2. She pulls off a character that is both sympathetic and completely bats*** simultaneously. Sinead Keenan seems to be joining the cast full time as George’s girlfriend trying to deal with the whole werewolf business, which has led to various dramatic developments.
The show can be startling sometimes in its frankness (as in this week’s episode, when a woman explained what the acronym “I.W.E.J.F.” stands for), and its frequent semi-nudity (George’s butt seems to show up multiple times per episode), but this allows it to deal with some of the weirder aspects of its world. In all the Urban Fantasy conglomerate, Being Human was the first to introduce me to its particular concept of “vampire porn.” However, it does a good job of keeping things grounded. I doubt those bothered by the over-the-top weirdness of True Blood will be put off the same way here, yet it manages to garner most of the advantages thereof. Maybe it’s just the British accents.
The biggest problem with the series is probably its tendency to descend into histrionics. There is just so much crying on this series, especially from George. He has just come off as more and more unlikeable as time’s gone on, mostly because he’s just so whiny. This may be on purpose and an attempt at having realistic characters, but that doesn’t make me want to watch it any more. In the season premiere he gets into multiple major arguments with his girlfriend Nina that are well-acted, well-shot, and well-written, but their problem is that they work too well… we’re sitting here watching a guy have a fight with his girlfriend, and it feels like that really would feel. There’s just, y’know, werewolves involved.
In addition, the “serious” portions of the dialogue often straddle a line between “awesome” and “ridiculously cheesy,” like last year when Mitchell insisted “I’m talking about something older than religion!” The plot-lines are a slow burn, but when they break into the open they often threaten to enter the same territory, such as last year’s episode where the neighborhood assumes Mitchell is a pedophile. It doesn’t always make sense, either. I’m still not sure why what happened at the end of last season happened, for example. However, the strength of the series is really in its feel, its tone.
You may think you recognize the premise, but you won’t find anything else quite like Being Human on TV. The closest comparison I can make is to say it’s like a British True Blood, but that does not really give an accurate picture of the series. I’ve never been to Bristol, but I think if I went now I wouldn’t be able to separate it from the dark world of this series, with winding, steep streets, leading to a unassuming pink house full of friendly monsters. SyFy has plans to remake the series in America, and maybe that series will stand on its own merits, but you don’t want to be the kind of person who only watches that version. Season 2 is airing Saturdays at 9 on BBC America. The six episode first season is now available on iTunes and on DVD.
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