Being Human: Series 1 (2pc) (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews). . . and best werewolf and best ghost show on TV. Mind you, I like TRUE BLOOD and have even come to see the upside to THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, but both of those are enjoyable diversions with no real subtext (TRUE BLOOD gestures at subtext with its parallels with prejudice against all kinds of difference, but in 2010 that is a pretty worked over subtext and lacks power at this point). But if you want more depth of subtext and a more subtle narrative and richer character development and, well, less garishness, than this is a show you should check out. Not yet available in the U.S. on DVD and Blu-ray (every time I have checked on Amazon I've only seen an outrageously overpriced $70 Blu-ray that never seems to be available -- though if you have an all regions DVD player, you can order an infinitely more affordable edition from Great Britain, which I strongly recommend, I repeat, only if you have an All-Regions player). There are only six episodes in Season One and eight in Seasons Two, so the idea of paying over $10 per episode is rather offensive. But you can either catch the show on BBC America or on Region 2 DVDs.
The series starts when two orderlies at a hospital at Bristol decide to room together. What makes this desirable for them is that they are supernatural creatures. Mitchell is a vampire. Not a terribly old one by vampire narrative standards (less than a century old). George is a werewolf and on three nights a week has a rather violent transformation into a truly nasty beastie (and thanks to CGI his transformations are truly horrendous). Both of them are trying to pass as normal humans, and for economic reasons and simply because they don't want to live alone, they decide to find an apartment together. By happy circumstance, the apartment they find and move into is inhabited by an outrageously sunny and upbeat ghost named Annie. Together, the three of them try to lives that are as normal as possible.
The trouble is, the rest of the world doesn't want them to live normal lives. The vampire community (why does there always seem to be a vampire community?) wants Mitchell to return to the fold. They especially don't want him living with a werewolf. And meanwhile, the afterlife wants Annie to move on, into the light, and away from her human life. So their struggles are unusually rich and complex.
What made BUFFY and ANGEL so vastly superior to TRUE BLOOD and MOONLIGHT and THE VAMPIRE DIARIES and the TWILIGHT series (both novels and movies) was what they were able to do with the premises, with the metaphorical richness of the stories. TRUE BLOOD ends up being a glorious one-dimensional guilty pleasure show, all glorious surface with nothing beneath. BEING HUMAN is much more like BUFFY, with richly developed, deliciously articulated stories with timely cultural references. Mitchell's vampirism, for instance, is used less as a metaphor for homosexuality, as it is in TRUE BLOOD, but addiction and the difficulty of human self-control.
The show is driven by its appealing leads. Russell Tovey (George) will be perhaps best known from his appearance on DR. WHO and the movie THE HISTORY BOYS, but Lenora Crichlow (Annie) and Aidan Turner (Mitchell) are appealing newcomers. There are endless polls about who the hottest vampires are and if Mitchell were better known in the U.S. he'd almost certainly win them all. He is a spectacular incarnation of the really bad boy who wants to be good but for whom it is a constant struggle. George, meanwhile, is like the big silly family dog. There is meanwhile absolutely noting ghostly about Annie except that she can't be seen. She is dark complexioned, but if you had to assign a color to her personality, it would be yellow. Bright yellow. She is sunny and irrepressibly happy and upbeat. Any room she is in has no dark corners. In other words, the polar opposite of all of the stereotypes of ghosts.
SyFy has announced that they are developing an American version of BEING HUMAN. Hopefully they won't blow it. The BBC series is a great one. I am not opposed to an American version, as long as it is more like the American adaptations of THE OFFICE than other efforts. But even if it fails, it should be seen as a gesture towards the excellence of the original. But even if the American version turns out well, if you love extremely high quality shows dealing with the supernatural, you should definitely know the original. The only thing I hate about this show is that there have been only fourteen episodes to date.

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BEING HUMAN is a bizarre, supernatural sitcom from the BBC that revolves around the concept of two young men-Mitchell and George--sharing a flat. While this seems like a tried and tested formula for television the twist is that Mitchell (Aidan Turner - THE TUDORS) is a vampire and George (Russell Tovey - LITTLE DORRIT, THE HISTORY BOYS) is a werewolf. Complicating matters further is pair's newfound home is haunted by the ghost of Annie (Lenora Crichlow - SUGAR RUSH).

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