'being human' (BBC + vampire/ghost/werewolf): anticipate?

starts on bbc america this weekend. sort of intrigued despite being very bored of vampires.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfnYEjXJAJc

It's decent. Handles the drama rather better than the comedy part.

favorable review:

Three young friends share a shabby apartment in Bristol, England, as well as secrets, and those sound like the set-up to a corny joke — a vampire, a ghost and a werewolf walk into a bar. Only in this case the bar is a pub and there is no punch line. “Being Human” takes the killing — and the perpetrators’ anguished remorse — seriously, but still manages to find the humor in their predicament as these monsters in human form struggle to blend into normal, almost Seinfeldian life that includes work, going out on dates and having the tedious neighbors over for drinks.

granted, that just makes it sound like someone taking the general vibe of shaun of the dead and extending it to series length. but maybe that'd be ok...

decent is enough of a recommendation for me. i need something to watch at least for a few weeks til mad men comes back.

at the risk of sounding nuts, it's one of the best original uk dramas i've seen in years. and the comedy works. it's not like shaun of the dead, poking fun at the genre, it finds its laffs within it.

Agreed. Really should have got a BBC1 or 2 airing but maybe it was just "a bit too BBC3"?

Here's my friend as the pizza boy in Episode 1:
http://forallmylittlewords.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/beinghuman.jpg?w=450&h=277

There's some discussion of it over here but it's neither particularly spoilerific or going into much depth.

It is very enjoyable, doesn't take itself too seriously, and contains the most smashable character on British TV for several years.

I'm the last person that would consciously seek out a vampire TV series, but I caught the first episode and was hooked. Very well done.

Yep, agreed, definitely try and catch it. It brings a gloomy and slightly miserable Britishness to the genre, while still being funny. Also does inventive stuff with a small budget. The vampire guy is the least interesting of the three main characters, IMO.

I really liked this!

cool, sounds like fun. got the dvr set, looking forward to it.

at the risk of sounding nuts, it's one of the best original uk dramas i've seen in years. and the comedy works. it's not like shaun of the dead, poking fun at the genre, it finds its laffs within it.

Yeah, it's really good. Has a kind of 'An American Werewolf in london' vibe, in that the comedy is genuinely funny, the horror stuff is genuinely creepy, and they mesh together really well.

It's not entirely static and episodic, either. There's a few "twists" and that sort of thing.

ok just caught a couple of eps of this, it's pretty great - the 80s goth ghost was lols.

saw the first episode last night, dug it pretty well. not totally sold on this whole vampire conspiracy plot, but i like the characters. (also, how worthwhile would it be to watch the pilot? i know it has mostly different actors in it.)

It explains a few things, and is entertaining/funny in its own right. Jarring to see different faces in the roles, though (EVERYBODY is different except George).

After the waste of time 'Merlin' turned out to be, I think I'll delete that and start tivo'ing this instead. Saw the first ep and liked it alot. Aided somewhat by Mitchell The Hot Vampire of course...but a girl needs a reason to tune in.

wait what, did they remake this with different actors?

oh never mind, missed the comment about the pilot

This has been consistently good so far! Very funny in spots.

watched the whole thing last week and it got so much better after the second episode I was very relieved.

altho on BBC America they keep doing these "behind the scenes" spots where the actress playing Annie has this hairdo that literally makes her look about 50 pounds heavier than she actually is

haven't seen it on bbca (snagged torrents of it) but that girl is crazy hot

realization made last night:

http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/3900000/George-being-human-3972942-640-455.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3370/3260331777_8ac161a76b_o.jpg

George is so shrill!

Back tomorrow.

are you just starting the 2nd season there? wonder when it'll get to the u.s.

Yeah, it's series 2. Nice to know this has American fans.

Ohhh that's good news. I'll get Mr Veg to torrent it for me. Screw BBC America and their ridiculous delayed broadcasts.

I read somewhere that SyFy is going to remake this show with an American cast? BOLLOCKS.

Could've done with more laughs.

Yeah, bit too heavy on the arghhhhhnst this time I thought. It was starting to feel like some of the weaker Buffy episodes(which they also referenced very self-consciously). Also I don't think Russell Tovey is a good enough actor to carry those big emotional scenes. I like sinister bible-quoting guy though, echoes of Ultraviolet(which featured a church-funded organisation of vampire hunters). I always like seeing Paul Rhys in things, even though he was hilariously bad in Bonekickers. But then everyone was bad in Bonekickers.

Best bits were Annie in the pub because a) she's a decent comic actress and b) she is fit.

Thought it was a pretty good opener, but yeah the emo was a little heavy and looks set to continue. chap, I concur on both yr points.

In my t0rr3nt queue right now. Looking forward to this...

I feel like this tried to cover too much ground too soon rather than easing back in to things a little, consequently some of it a little jarring

I can never decide whether Tovey is a really good actor playing a really odd, awkward character, or a really odd, awkward actor.

the bit I saw of these was really poor.

watch more bits.

The scenes with George and Nina were pretty horrible, I was glad they made it up towards the end and we're not likely to be faced with a series worth of intense "you gave me werewolf AIDS" recriminations.

Needed more laughs though, the pub storyline should be fun. The landlord's son is a good character in the making.

Much, much better this week, mainly because George wasn't acting like a stroppy five-year-old the whole time. Lots of quite interesting plot developments going on.

Surprised they despatched Saul so quickly though, I assumed that part of the story was going to run for a while.

The bit when Annie realised no one could see her again was heartbreaking.

I like batshit morally ambivalent vampire dude. "Tonight, we're listening to Miss Kate Bush" - of course you are you big goth. The stuff with the coroner is going to run and run.

It could all get very bad indeed soon. Nina is kind of annoying but I don't want her to go in the werewolf exploding machine.

Much calmer and more considered than last week and much better for it. Some of the Saul stuff was proper creepy, particularly as we don't really know what it all means yet - and loved Terry Wogan talking through the telly. This episode reminded me why I liked the first series so much.

> loved Terry Wogan talking through the telly.

this was too much like Life On Mars

SPOILERS kinda... OMG this is at some kind of peak right now. I don't quite buy all the vampires in a humang world stuff but that is the big problem with the vampire mythos and it's never normally touched on, so it's brave that they're tackling it head on, and the AA group is a really neat idea. Annie's story seems to have resolved really quickly so be interesting to so where it goes next. But the real highlight is George, going from :D tourette's to :O full on psycho.

Some good humour too, as well as the tourette's, I loved 'the real hustle' bit last week.

yes, this is so good it's kinda wasted on bbc3 (9 on a sunday night too, odd slot)

Forgot about this, then caught up with the first three eps of s2 over the weekend. Really enjoying it. Most notable thing: the dialogue is 100% credible, stuff-British-people-in-2010-actually-say idioms, "proper" swearing like people IRL actually do etc. As the missus said: "None of it made me look up and go, 'nobody talks like that ffs'," which is absolutely crucial if they're going to take us on the rest of their crazy ride. Loving it, basically.

There needs to be more love for this show, I think it might be my favourite thing on telly. Charlie OTM about the dialogue, it's so natural. I didn't realise the writer was the guy who did No Angels, which was similarly excellent at having people talk the way people actually talk rather than the way people talk in TV shows.

yeah i wouldn't be able to kill any vampire that looked like Mitchell either...

Major lolz at Annie's George impression at the ghost baby. All of their stories are really developing in terms of trying to grasp what normality they can (and failing dismally for the most part) AND they've commissioned a third series so they don't have to wrap it all up in three episodes.

and an america remake too! :/

What the hell was all that about then.

I had no idea there was a new series.

I don't think I saw any trailers. Was a bit of a mess of surprise post-last-season shocking event catchup, new character introduction, old character retirement, and russell t style massive stake (lol) raising story arc establishment.

It was all a bit odd, wasn't it? I only knew about it through Twitter.

haven't seen the new ep yet, but i realise how much I miss the days of comedy roommates who happen to be monsters on the fringes of things, as opposed to the escalating war where they're all central to earth-shattering events

You will HATE this then.

Was hoping for some Becoming Human crossover action, but no.

That was all a bit mental, talk about a very rapid refresh of... virtually the entire cast. Still, will stick with it I think, next week looks like it'll be a lot more domestic. Also, urgent and key - Annie bringing up a baby will be comedy.

Also what happened to Herrick at the end of last season? I've totally forgotten.

Mitchell killed him.

nina's off-screen death felt like a cop-out. to be fair i think they are victims of their own success and the old cast have gone onto bigger things. not good for the series though.

i wonder whether annie will stay - the two the remaining two are going to join up with already contains a ghost so they'll have a spare...

in the 2037 bits, was that eve?

I think it was, yes.

If they lose Annie, I'm out.

knowing that was eve in 2037 made the present day baby-killing thing lose any kind of suspense.

didn't like mark williams either, tone was all wrong.

(i realise i'm doing what i hate other people with, say, doctor who - treating the whole thing more seriously than it obviously deserves. it's just fluff at the end of the day, the Twilight it's ok to like.)

They obviously weren't going to kill the baby whatever happened.

Don't care about Nina's death being offscreen, she was the worst character anyway.

Yes, Mark Williams's character was far too comedy-sketch, as was everyone's reaction to him. As mentioned already, the realistic and almost mundane tone of the central characters is one of the best things about it, and it's bad enough losing a lot of that to accommodate RTD-type OH NOES END OF THE WORLD DOOM shite without flinging in "hilarious" sitcom-type characters too.

(I also care about this too much)

Bit disappointed that Pearl went through the door in the end - I thought the dynamic between her and Annie was the best thing about this episode. Whereas Tom and Leo don't really seem to work particularly well with her - there's no chemistry between the actors playing Tom and Annie at all.

Only realised midway through the episode that the dude playing Tom is the brother of the actress who plays Kelly in Misfits, and they really are almost identical characters played in a similar way. Same voice as well.

Same character, same voice, same face.

Better than last week but I think Annie playing the fool is pretty weak sauce. Hal's speech in the pawn shop was excellent.

Much much better this week, a return to the low-key group dynamics of old and even a passing Real Hustle reference.

aye, spotted that, chuckled. bets on who's gonna be mr or mrs burnt arm nemesis, i'm going for hal.

Yeah I enjoyed this one a lot, Hal is a terrific character.

brilliant episode.

saw hal aka damien molony on stage last night. not exactly a character actor and i'm not sure the world needs a new james mcavoy, but good luck to him anyway.

also

bets on who's gonna be mr or mrs burnt arm nemesis, i'm going for hal.

― ledge, Monday, 20 February 2012 14:10 (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

BAM

also

brilliant episode although annie's death/return/revenge was a tad arbitary/underexplained. death scene was v well done but then her return was just - inevitable. she's dead but she has to come back so *boff* she comes back. just like that. pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. nothing to see, move on, move on.

Yowsa. There are questions, always questions, but I don't think one could ask for much more from a "what the hell are they going to pull out of the bag for this?" powerful finale.

So was anyone other than me, Ledge and Ailsa actually watching this?I got rather behind and only finished last night but the second half of the series in particular was fantastic.

I'll admit to having my doubts about essentially refreshing the whole cast but Tom and Hal together were a brilliant double-act and I don't even mind if there's no Annie next season, as Tom + Hal + Alex already have great chemistry. Although they seem to be leaving it open for Annie to come back or not as they case may be.

Also they'll be able to lower the stakes a bit next series after consistently raising them year after year. I'd be quite up for a series of just Tom, Hal and Alex faffing round the house.

Lol "stakes". Agreed this season's trio worked well, and I have no worries about Alex taking over from Annie. The whole Eve thing was a bit RTD Rose for my liking, but the resolution was far more neatly done.

Hopefully Annie will finally be able to change her clothes.

And yeah I didn't really see the new trio coming - lol idiot - but have high hopes, agree that a more domestic series would be good.

Oh btw I thought Gatiss was brilliant, I wondered how they were going to manage to make the old ones actually scary but his make-up and demeanour really did the trick. Plus of course he is more or less by now an actual elder statesmen of British weird tv, which fitted perfectly.

(& much better than Mark Williams did)

Cutler disintegrating was pretty revolting, ditto all the maggots in Alex's neck. They clearly had a lot of fun with all that.

re Annie's clothes, nice throwaway line from Alex about being stuck in her date clothes.

I'd be quite up for a series of just Tom, Hal and Alex faffing round the house.

This series was pretty much that, I thought. Budgetary restrictions, no doubt - Many episodes where they didn't venture far from the house, just back and forth from the cafe, Cutler's vampire lair, and so on. Virtually no werewolf transformation cg either.
This was the best series yet though. But I'll miss Cutler.

Yes, Cutler was good. I love how they can have a massive character like Herrick be almost completely un-missed by introducing excellent replacements (not to mention George and Mitchell).

Herrick was a bit rubbish really, Cutler way better.

Aw, he was a massive part of the show though.

There's something of the David Thewlis about the actor who played Cutler.

On again tonight, bbc3

Good stuff. I've started seeing some chatter about it again on twitter, but had no idea it was this week.

never saw past the first series. now I see there is a US version. any good?

I just watched my first ever episode and enjoyed it a lot.

A decent if a tad confusing setup for what looks like an exciting season. The 18th century devil conjuring magick ritual was a bit handwavy and basically bobbins though.

PHIL DAVIS. Also, Hal going bonkers because he can't clean the house.

I watched this with someone who had never seen the show before and found myself squirming with mild embarrassment. The format feels tired at this point and the WWII scenes were awful. General feeling of 'here we go again' about the whole thing.

I liked Alex's take on the reality of being dead, but the rest of it didn't do too much for me. Though it was late and I was not entirely sober nor awake.

well this is ticking over ok, anyone see the trailer afterwards for the zombie thing though?

Not really feeling it so much these days, mostly due to Phil Davis sitting around cackling. Didn't really know what to make of zombie trailer, but it's zombies, so we'll probably watch anyway.

anyone watch the 'new zombie thing'?

could've been a black mirror episode i think (have only seen 75%)

forgot all about it. will try and give it a spin this week.

so what about the being human inception/blade runner ending?

I stopped watching this after Aidan Turner left, but now I'm catching up on the last two series on Netflix. I really like the new cast and the much darker tone of the whole thing, but it's weird how much television for younger people has changed even in the couple of years since this was made: it's so white and hetero and male. The female stories are about looking after people and making stuff better, while the male storylines are about killing and being heroes. And most of the vampires' victims are attractive young women.