TV Review: Being Human

You've got your vampires, your werewolves, and your ghosts, and never the thrain shall meet… or something like that. Okay, so sometimes vampires meet werewolves, but ghosts rarely wind up involved in those mash-ups. But now, fans of all three supernatural creatures can rejoice, because BBC America's Being Human, which premieres this Saturday night, takes all three creatures of the night and mixes them together into an otherworldly parfait.

Is it an utterly delectable, none-too-fattening treat? Well, it's not undelicious, but it's not exactly a truffle from La Maison du Chocolat either.

The series revolves around three twenty-somethings: George (Russell Tovey), a werewolf; Mitchell (Aidan Turner), a vampire; and Annie (Lenora Crichlow), a ghost. George and Russell have, for various reasons, decided that they'd rather not live in the shadows anymore, so, while they're not divulging their secret identities, they are renting a swell house and trying to fit in with the world at large. They're both hospital porters and just generally doing everything they can to, well, try to be human.

Annie's issues are slightly different. Being a ghost she can't readily be seen by people. At the outset of the pilot, she actually seems to be coming back into focus for more folks, but that all falls apart after a little almost encounter with her onetime fiancé, Owen (Greg Chillin).

The show operates on several different levels. There are crucial backstories as to how George, Mitchell, and Annie ended up in their current not-quite-human states; there is the mythology as it exists in this series of the various creatures; the present day intrigues of the various supernatural sets; and the actual human bits. It is a lot to try to cram into every hour of television and doesn't always gel perfectly.

Perhaps a lot of that is due to the character of Mitchell, the resident vampire. Where George and Annie have serious issues they're dealing with, their characters are written in a more lighthearted fashion. Mitchell feels far darker than that. George and Annie struggle, but they joke. Mitchell – at least in the first three episodes – mainly just struggles. His character fits in with the concept of the show, just not with all the characters around him.

Article Author: Josh Lasser

Josh Lasser, formerly known as "TV and Film Guy," and complete with a Masters Degree in Critical Studies in said areas, gives his opinions on TV, Film, and Entertainment in general. All of which he does in a shameless attempt to try to get paid to do the exact same thing. …

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