Being Human
Feb. 18th, 2009 07:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
roginRemember that pilot that was on BBC a year ago, the one about the vampire, the werewolf and the ghost living together in a house?
I was really looking forward to see this one made into a show, then for a little while not so thrilled when I heard that they had exchanged the actor playing Mitchell (the vampire), since I really loved Guy Flannagan in the role (who could possibly not love a skinny vampire that irons?) but as it turns out the new actor is pretty ok too and the replacement actress for Annie (the ghost) is imho even better than the original one.
The pilot was good, but there was a lot of room for improvement and the actual show is proving to be a lot better. It's getting more fun with every episode. What makes the show so interesting to me, asside from some truly brilliant lines and the fact that I could connect to the characters from the first second is that it is really doing it's own thing. It's a supernatural show that is almost solely character driven. There is no murder mystery of the week, the characters are not even heroes in the sense that would feel competent enough to run around saving people or hunting down bad guys (not on a regular basis at least). They just live with there weird conditions, sometimes better, sometimes worse. They're neither completely good or evil and thus more human then most tv characters.
The show makes me laugh and awww, and squee and that after only a few episodes. As far as vampire shows go it doesn't compare to Buffy, because nothing ever will, but it outdoes Moonlight and True Blood in a heartbeat. Of course the budget is much smaller and there aren't any cool special effects but both the writing and the actors make up for it twice. Only bad thing is that the season only has six much to short episodes, but hopefully it'll come back next year.
I really like where they are going with the characters. George is adorkable from the first episode on and while Annie is a little too emotional for my liking, I'm looking forward to her going all banshee on Owen. Mitchell as the vampire trying to be nonhomicidal gets me thinking the most, since I've seen that story so often already, but still never quite like that. Mitchell seems to be genuinely nice person, someone who's good with girls, kids and people in general, someone who is not made at all to sit in a corner brooding about his sins, but at some point his vampire condition always catches up with him. Unlike on other shows the hunger for blood is not driving him completely insane or out of control and also there's not an easy morally acceptable alternative to human blood like pigs blood or true blood in the being human verse. Going without blood for months doesn't kill him, or make him horribly weak, he just wants the blood and at some point he falls pack into the pattern and adds one more kill to his list. What's one more after all, when he's already guilty of so many murders. And you can always turn them. and then be completely incapable of taking care of your vampiric offspring. What makes it so mean is that he isn't faced with apocalyptic moral dilemmas, just his own private ones and sometimes he's just that little bit to weak to do the right thing and then overwhelmed by the consequences. He turned the kid from the last episode, because he couldn't bear seeing him dead and the mother grieving, but it makes him return to the company of the vampires that embrace it as their nature to be killers, which makes sense, because how could he pretend to be human, when he just turned a kid into a bloodthirsty monster. What's also interesting is that Mitchell doesn't have any of that killing-the-evildoer-thing going (after all he's not even going after Owen). It's even hard to imagine him to be a person who would judge others, when he's such a mess himself. Actually that makes much more sense for someone feeling guilty, than deciding what's good and what's evil for everyone else.
I wonder what he's going to be like, when he tries to run with the vamp crowd again, because I can't really see him fit in there either.
btw. I really need a Being human icon, does anyone know a good place to look for one?
I was really looking forward to see this one made into a show, then for a little while not so thrilled when I heard that they had exchanged the actor playing Mitchell (the vampire), since I really loved Guy Flannagan in the role (who could possibly not love a skinny vampire that irons?) but as it turns out the new actor is pretty ok too and the replacement actress for Annie (the ghost) is imho even better than the original one.
The pilot was good, but there was a lot of room for improvement and the actual show is proving to be a lot better. It's getting more fun with every episode. What makes the show so interesting to me, asside from some truly brilliant lines and the fact that I could connect to the characters from the first second is that it is really doing it's own thing. It's a supernatural show that is almost solely character driven. There is no murder mystery of the week, the characters are not even heroes in the sense that would feel competent enough to run around saving people or hunting down bad guys (not on a regular basis at least). They just live with there weird conditions, sometimes better, sometimes worse. They're neither completely good or evil and thus more human then most tv characters.
The show makes me laugh and awww, and squee and that after only a few episodes. As far as vampire shows go it doesn't compare to Buffy, because nothing ever will, but it outdoes Moonlight and True Blood in a heartbeat. Of course the budget is much smaller and there aren't any cool special effects but both the writing and the actors make up for it twice. Only bad thing is that the season only has six much to short episodes, but hopefully it'll come back next year.
I really like where they are going with the characters. George is adorkable from the first episode on and while Annie is a little too emotional for my liking, I'm looking forward to her going all banshee on Owen. Mitchell as the vampire trying to be nonhomicidal gets me thinking the most, since I've seen that story so often already, but still never quite like that. Mitchell seems to be genuinely nice person, someone who's good with girls, kids and people in general, someone who is not made at all to sit in a corner brooding about his sins, but at some point his vampire condition always catches up with him. Unlike on other shows the hunger for blood is not driving him completely insane or out of control and also there's not an easy morally acceptable alternative to human blood like pigs blood or true blood in the being human verse. Going without blood for months doesn't kill him, or make him horribly weak, he just wants the blood and at some point he falls pack into the pattern and adds one more kill to his list. What's one more after all, when he's already guilty of so many murders. And you can always turn them. and then be completely incapable of taking care of your vampiric offspring. What makes it so mean is that he isn't faced with apocalyptic moral dilemmas, just his own private ones and sometimes he's just that little bit to weak to do the right thing and then overwhelmed by the consequences. He turned the kid from the last episode, because he couldn't bear seeing him dead and the mother grieving, but it makes him return to the company of the vampires that embrace it as their nature to be killers, which makes sense, because how could he pretend to be human, when he just turned a kid into a bloodthirsty monster. What's also interesting is that Mitchell doesn't have any of that killing-the-evildoer-thing going (after all he's not even going after Owen). It's even hard to imagine him to be a person who would judge others, when he's such a mess himself. Actually that makes much more sense for someone feeling guilty, than deciding what's good and what's evil for everyone else.
I wonder what he's going to be like, when he tries to run with the vamp crowd again, because I can't really see him fit in there either.
btw. I really need a Being human icon, does anyone know a good place to look for one?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-02-18 08:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-18 08:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-18 08:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-18 08:48 pm (UTC)I agree with your assessment of the show, though someone I know if of the opinion that Mitchell hasn't really gone back to the vampires but is only pretending in order to bring down Herrick. I'm not convinced myself, due to this being - as you say - a character-driven show, not a plot-driven one so much. We'll see.
I think all three main characters are delightful, though I would like Annie to be less weepy and more haunty.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-18 08:52 pm (UTC)I was also surprised how quickly I fell for this show, I was well into the second season when I cared that much for the Buffy characters.
A second series would be great.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-18 09:06 pm (UTC)I just joined :) Thank you for the link.
Mitchell hasn't really gone back to the vampires but is only pretending in order to bring down Herrick.
Hm, can't see him do that yet, like I said he doesn't strike me as the hero type. But I could see him make a stand when he is cornered and I'm pretty sure he will be, because Herric is going to try to make him participate in some kind of atrocity or another.
I also wonder what he's going to do about Lauren, too? The whole thing is so messed up.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-18 09:14 pm (UTC)It is! It's lovely, isn't it?
I think Herrick will try to get Mitchell to do something horrible to George, and Mitchell will have to choose between his friends and Herrick and co.
But maybe that's too cliched.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-18 09:33 pm (UTC)It is! It's lovely, isn't it?
totally, I love it when there simply are no easy solutions.
I think Herrick will try to get Mitchell to do something horrible to George, and Mitchell will have to choose between his friends and Herrick and co.
But maybe that's too cliched.
Sounds very plausible to me, since they were setting up this whole vampires regard werewolfes as animals thing up for the whole season now. I just hope they make it more than just a vampire version of the Tully story ... and I wonder if we ever get to see Mitchell actually fight.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-19 04:12 am (UTC)xxx
no subject
Date: 2009-02-19 12:11 pm (UTC)Hopefully Owen is going down in flames, but I wonder what she'll do once she has had her revenge, after all she would have to finally die then, so I'd rather have her no real closure.
*kisses*
no subject
Date: 2009-02-19 10:22 pm (UTC)Well, we've seen him beat up the cringing undertaker vampire. I don't think there'll be any big fight scenes in this show. They don't have two pennies to rub together. After Ep 4 was shown, they were actually telling viewers to log on to the BBC website to see how the car hitting Bernie scene was shot, becuase they were so proud of it, bless 'em.
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Date: 2009-02-21 07:48 am (UTC)As long as the writing stays the way it is, I can do with a meager special effect budget. It's cute that they're so proud of the scene :)
bwah I hope so much that they'll get the ok for a second season.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 05:51 pm (UTC)And Sugar Rush is one of the cutest and funniest shows I've seen. You should totally check it out :)
here's some info : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_Rush_(TV_series)
smooches!
no subject
Date: 2009-02-22 08:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-22 04:44 pm (UTC)Is there going to be a third season?
:) *smoochies*
no subject
Date: 2009-02-23 05:34 pm (UTC)Mmmm I haven't heard anything about a 3rd season. Which is a shame really.
*smooches you*
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Date: 2009-02-24 10:03 pm (UTC)Did the writers of this show make anything else too? (looking for a replacement drug)
*kisses*
no subject
Date: 2009-02-25 03:23 pm (UTC)Mmm I don't know if they've made anything else but.... I have three suggestions. They are really really really funny shows! I promise you won't be able to stop laughing:
Black Books
The IT crowd
No heroics
*smooches*
no subject
Date: 2009-02-26 01:57 pm (UTC)Btw I'm halfway through Bones and loving it, especially the episodes with Stephen Fry, he's my all time favorite actor.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-27 12:19 pm (UTC)And yay I'm so glad you're enjoying Bones! :))
Also... I was recently introduced to a show called "The Big Bang Theory", it's very funny, small episodes, and there's so much geek love in it! I think you'd like it :)
xxx