Being Human

I just finished watching the first season of BBC's Being Human.  I know, I'm behind the times.  The show is currently heading into it's third season.  Yay!  This is an awesome show with an amazing ensemble cast. It combines drama and the supernatural with a perfect dash of wacky humor, and there wasn't an episode that was not excellent.  The first season is only six episodes, but it's worth the price, no matter if you find it on DVD (Amazon around $20) or a streaming service like Amazon's Video On Demand ($9.99 for season 1 right now).

The show features a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost living together in Bristol, in an attempt to 'be human' by keeping their darker natures separate from the side they show the public.

Annie (Lenora Crichlow), the ghost, isn't quite sure why she hasn't gone 'beyond' yet, so wants to solve that.  She's a free-spirit, always happy and eager to please.  She doesn't need to eat, but making tea makes her feel normal, so there's always a clutter of teacups about the house.  She's someone you'd love to have as your next-door neighbor, but you wouldn't be able to see her because she's a ghost.  Her growth over the six episodes is remarkable and she learns both good and bad things about her death and its meaning.  You'll be rooting for her, I promise.

George (Russell Tovey), the werewolf.  What can I say about sweet, lovable, goofy George? He's not what you'd expect a werewolf to be, and that's great.  The whole show turns the paranormal stereotypes on their heads.  George is very firm about keeping his werewolf nature away from his 'human' life and only has to deal with that during the full moon.  Yet, he's fearful in reaching out to humans, and when love comes to him, he is reluctant.  He is the comic relief on the show, and has incredible comic timing.  Heck, the whole cast works marvelously with one another.  You'd think this show was in its third or fourth year for the actors really have a handle on their characters.  One of the things I adore is the gnome wallpaper in George's bedroom (you can see in the pic at left).  It was obviously there when he moved in, but, oddly, it fits him to a T.

Finally, there is Mitchell, the vampire who is about 150 years old.  He's stopped drinking blood in his efforts to be as human as possible.  You can see that he genuinely craves the companionship and affections that humans offer, yet he struggles (as you would expect from any vampire).  Aidan Turner, who plays him, has laidback charisma and charm and just like George, he embodies his character and you can't resist loving him from the start.  The fact he's gorgeous doesn't hurt a bit.  But over the very short story arc he manages to grow a lot as the others do.  He faces his dark cravings, and whether or not he succumbs I'll leave for you to find out when you watch the show.

The BBC site for the show is here, and you can watch clips and video (yes, even here in the US!).  The Wikipedia page is pretty awesome.

The SyFy version of Being Human premieres Monday night.  I'm not sure how I feel about this.  I don't get the channel, so can't watch it, but I'm so in love with the original I really don't want anyone to try and remake it.  Though advance word on the SyFy version has been good.  You all will have to report in if you see the new show and let us know what you think.  Do we need two versions of this show?  Can they capture the magic of the BBC version?