Being Human
Jan. 28th, 2009 10:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khaosworksIt sounds like the set-up to a bad joke: "A vampire, a werewolf and a ghost share a flat together..."
Writer Toby Whithouse, who Doctor Who fans will remember wrote the Series 2 episode "School Reunion" that reintroduced Sarah Jane Smith and K-9 to a new generation, wrote and created the pilot to Being Human, which was broadcast in February last year on BBC Three. A groundswell of fan appreciation and an online petition led to the BBC greenlighting it for a series, except with two of the three principle actors replaced. Some people feared that this might destroy the dynamic of the characters, but from my perspective, never having seen the pilot, they don't have anything to worry about.
It's a high concept - twenty-something supernatural beings in a flatshare in Bristol. Mitchell is a vampire, an officer sired during World War I by another vampire called Herrick (he apparently made a deal in exchange for the lives of his men), and has recently been struggling with the urge to drink blood. George is a slightly hapless sort who was attacked by a werewolf while on holiday in Scotland, and abandoned his family and fiancee after he discovered what happened when he got his time of the month. The two men met under as-yet-unrevealed circumstances, and work at a local hospital, deciding to get a house together. What they discover is that the house already has an occupant.
Annie used to live in the house with her fiance, but she mysteriously fell down the stairs and died, becoming a ghost that was understandably annoyed with new people moving in, and systematically drove each new tenant out - until the boys came by. Delighted at having people who can actually see her, she gains new confidence and is actually able to start having other people see her as well. Which poses a bit of a problem when her ex-fiance, the boys' landlord, comes by and she feels the need to see him, just for a bit...
This could have been a wacky sitcom, but Whithouse turns Being Human into much more. The show explores the drama and difficulties inherent in these three kindred spirits trying to maintain a semblance of a normal life - "being human" - and struggling between going against their nature and giving in to or accepting what they are, a struggle that is also all too human. Joss Whedon in Buffy effectively dealt with monsters as a metaphor, and here you can see the conditions of the three protagonists as metaphorical as well. For Mitchell, vampirism isn't so much a biological necessity as it is a kind of addiction: he gets the shakes, and laughs it off to mundanes as having quit smoking. George is like someone with really bad anger management issues: once a month, he becomes, in a very painful transformation, a different person entirely, one that frightens even Annie, who can't be hurt by him. Annie is the shut-in who longs for human contact but can't have it, and even when she starts to have progress in that area, retreats from the big, bad nasty world outside - she knows there are monsters out there, but inside with her friends she's safe.
Of course, there are more to the characters than that, and each has their own subplots to contend with. There appears to be something shaking up in the vampire world, and Mitchell has been asked to choose sides by his sire. Someone else is stalking George, and Annie doesn't quite know the full circumstances of her death. The acting is uniformly superb, and what could have been a really camp treatment of the subject matter (apparently the BBC Three trailers played up the comedy aspect) turns out to be poignant and layered. There are comedic moments, of course - George running around the common looking for a place to wolf out, Mitchell leaving the house clutching the television set while George transforms inside, George giving a nonchalant hello to his ghost housemate but screaming like a girl when the landlord appears - but these are interspersed among some genuinely moving character moments and some very dark dramatic ones.
Bottom line - very much recommended, and I look forward to exploring more of the characters' backstory and their lives. Whithouse should be prepared to receive calls from people wanting to do a crappier, US version of it soon, if they haven't called already.
Writer Toby Whithouse, who Doctor Who fans will remember wrote the Series 2 episode "School Reunion" that reintroduced Sarah Jane Smith and K-9 to a new generation, wrote and created the pilot to Being Human, which was broadcast in February last year on BBC Three. A groundswell of fan appreciation and an online petition led to the BBC greenlighting it for a series, except with two of the three principle actors replaced. Some people feared that this might destroy the dynamic of the characters, but from my perspective, never having seen the pilot, they don't have anything to worry about.
It's a high concept - twenty-something supernatural beings in a flatshare in Bristol. Mitchell is a vampire, an officer sired during World War I by another vampire called Herrick (he apparently made a deal in exchange for the lives of his men), and has recently been struggling with the urge to drink blood. George is a slightly hapless sort who was attacked by a werewolf while on holiday in Scotland, and abandoned his family and fiancee after he discovered what happened when he got his time of the month. The two men met under as-yet-unrevealed circumstances, and work at a local hospital, deciding to get a house together. What they discover is that the house already has an occupant.
Annie used to live in the house with her fiance, but she mysteriously fell down the stairs and died, becoming a ghost that was understandably annoyed with new people moving in, and systematically drove each new tenant out - until the boys came by. Delighted at having people who can actually see her, she gains new confidence and is actually able to start having other people see her as well. Which poses a bit of a problem when her ex-fiance, the boys' landlord, comes by and she feels the need to see him, just for a bit...
This could have been a wacky sitcom, but Whithouse turns Being Human into much more. The show explores the drama and difficulties inherent in these three kindred spirits trying to maintain a semblance of a normal life - "being human" - and struggling between going against their nature and giving in to or accepting what they are, a struggle that is also all too human. Joss Whedon in Buffy effectively dealt with monsters as a metaphor, and here you can see the conditions of the three protagonists as metaphorical as well. For Mitchell, vampirism isn't so much a biological necessity as it is a kind of addiction: he gets the shakes, and laughs it off to mundanes as having quit smoking. George is like someone with really bad anger management issues: once a month, he becomes, in a very painful transformation, a different person entirely, one that frightens even Annie, who can't be hurt by him. Annie is the shut-in who longs for human contact but can't have it, and even when she starts to have progress in that area, retreats from the big, bad nasty world outside - she knows there are monsters out there, but inside with her friends she's safe.
Of course, there are more to the characters than that, and each has their own subplots to contend with. There appears to be something shaking up in the vampire world, and Mitchell has been asked to choose sides by his sire. Someone else is stalking George, and Annie doesn't quite know the full circumstances of her death. The acting is uniformly superb, and what could have been a really camp treatment of the subject matter (apparently the BBC Three trailers played up the comedy aspect) turns out to be poignant and layered. There are comedic moments, of course - George running around the common looking for a place to wolf out, Mitchell leaving the house clutching the television set while George transforms inside, George giving a nonchalant hello to his ghost housemate but screaming like a girl when the landlord appears - but these are interspersed among some genuinely moving character moments and some very dark dramatic ones.
Bottom line - very much recommended, and I look forward to exploring more of the characters' backstory and their lives. Whithouse should be prepared to receive calls from people wanting to do a crappier, US version of it soon, if they haven't called already.
