Being
Human long seemed like something of an embarrassment
for the BBC - a hugely popular show that they felt a little bit
ashamed of. Originally shown as one of three pilots of BBC3, the
show was rejected in favour of the godawful and instantly forgotten
Phoo Action. A determined online campaign finally
paid off when a series was commissioned, though only with cast
changes, and the BBC hyped it as a 'comedy' series - a horror
show being clearly beneath them, especially given the sterling
reputation BBC3 has for quality comedy (basically, BBC3 + comedy
= the entire nation switching channels). Despite all this, the
show quickly built a following, and after a hit and miss opening
series, got into its stride with an increasingly dark second.
The pressure, therefore, is on for this new series - rumours that
it would cut back on the grim stuff to go more for humour to appeal
to the channel's fuckwit demographic, not to mention the challenge
of a US remake, had some of us worrying that it had shot its load
already.
First
episodes are always a difficult thing to make a judgement on,
of course, and it took the last series a couple of shows to get
into its stride. And this opening show was a mixed bag, but thankfully
had more positive elements than negative ones. There didn't seem
to be much more humour than usual, and the cliffhanger from the
last series - with ghost Annie (Lenora Crichlow) being dragged
to Purgatory while vampire Mitchell Aidan Turner) and werewolves
George (Russell Tovey) and Nina (Sinead Keenan) fled their Bristol
home after Very Bad Things happened - is nicely tied up here,
while setting the scene for the story to come. As Mitchell heads
to Purgatory to rescue Annie, he's confronted with his victims
of the past by Lia (Lacey Turner), a spirit guide who is a lot
less flirty and friendly than she seems, and who foretells his
death at the hands of a werewolf. And werewolves are to the fore
here, as the sub-story follows Robson Green and Michael Socha,
father and son lycanthropes who are hunted by vampires, headed
by Paul Kaye, who run a underground arena where humans and werewolves
are pitted against each other.
How
all this will pan out remains to be seen. But so far, a fairly
solid start to the series. If only the BBC would take it out of
its own Purgatory and show it on a real channel...
Being
Human long seemed like something of an embarrassment
for the BBC - a hugely popular show that they felt a little bit
ashamed of. Originally shown as one of three pilots of BBC3, the
show was rejected in favour of the godawful and instantly forgotten
Phoo Action. A determined online campaign finally
paid off when a series was commissioned, though only with cast
changes, and the BBC hyped it as a 'comedy' series - a horror
show being clearly beneath them, especially given the sterling
reputation BBC3 has for quality comedy (basically, BBC3 + comedy
= the entire nation switching channels). Despite all this, the
show quickly built a following, and after a hit and miss opening
series, got into its stride with an increasingly dark second.
The pressure, therefore, is on for this new series - rumours that
it would cut back on the grim stuff to go more for humour to appeal
to the channel's fuckwit demographic, not to mention the challenge
of a US remake, had some of us worrying that it had shot its load
already.