'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! :/

n

am going to pretend that's not happening, tbh. why the fuck have they renamed their channel SyFy? (actually have just googled why, and it doesn't matter, it still looks shit)

Also mean to say, the bit with the paedophile guy explaining his paedophilia to Mitchell in the terms that Mitchell himself used to describe his own vampireness was quite uncomfortable, and I love that things like that can sit alongside them talking shit about The Real Hustle and all the emotional Annie stuff and a whole ton of actual real lolz and then some pretty gruesome murdery stuff.

Yeah i think that's what i love most too - how well they manage to handle the banal, domestic stuff alongside the gore, like the three of them fighting over house chores and grocery shopping, George unexpectedly bonding with Hugh the barkeep... and how the supernatural stuff bleeds into all that without seeming completely contrived.

wish the US would stop making remakes of UK shows - is it really that much cheaper to remake a show than to just buy them? but I guess they all have this "if The Office worked..." mentality.

and an america remake too! :/

I'm only up to s1e4, but I've been kind of wishing it was an american show instead of a british one, because it feels like it's having to ultra compress its stories to fit them into a 6 episode series, and they could've been a lot more weighty if they'd had 24 eps to spread them over. Like, the who-killed-annie revelation would've been quite a shocker if I'd been watching for 3 months already, but after 3 episodes it was just "ah, ok". That Gilbert character could've had quite a moving exit if I'd met him more than an hour earlier. Mitchell making friends with the kid across the road felt awkward and weird because they had to squeeze it into the first 20 minutes of the episode. etc etc. Not that this means a remake is a good idea, obviously. I just wish we gave our drama a bit more breathing space over here.

Most notable thing: the dialogue is 100% credible, stuff-British-people-in-2010-actually-say idioms...As the missus said: "None of it made me look up and go, 'nobody talks like that ffs'"

This is true and great, but it's almost jarring in itself. At one point somebody said "I need a wee" and I did kind of look up and go "nobody on tv talks lke that!"

There is a difference, I guess, in that we (the UK, rest of the world) are likely to get way more of their references than they would of ours, so there is more of a danger of something being lost in translation if it's not remade for a US audience.

xp yeah I've thought about that, a measly 6 or 8 episodes vs an often unpalatable 24. 12 would be a nice compromise.

Yeah 24 episodes run the risk of having too many filler episodes - the 12-14 episode run is the best imo. More concerned that it's going to be on SyFy tbh, not a channel usually known for quality productions. suppose it depends on who they hire for writers.

wish the US would stop making remakes of UK shows - is it really that much cheaper to remake a show than to just buy them? but I guess they all have this "if The Office worked..." mentality.

I don't think it's a question of cost, Hollywood just seems to believe that the US market could not understand or relate to anyone who doesn't speak and look exactly like they do.

yeah and i guess there are certain things that UK shows can do that US shows can't - not sure where Syfy stands on nudity, but I can't imagine any US channel, HBO included, being able to show e.g. the kid watching the vampire porno scene.

BBC America showed it. (unless it was edited all to shit)

I'm still a couple of episodes behind but the bit with George and Mitchell freaking the fuck out after realising they'd missed The Real Hustle was great.

What channel did True Blood go out on in the US? There's a lot of nudity and gore in that, from what I've seen (half an episode).

HBO...the channel synonymous with boobs + swearing. (ie Same channel that aired Deadwood & Sopranos)

was thinking more that there was a kid involved but then i remembered that The Wire had lots of scenes with children and guns... so i guess kids and porn isn't that much of a stretch?

i still don't know what SyFy's like wrt to things like nudity and violence anyway.

I made the mistake of watching the pilot first, and man, do I prefer the casting/acting/directing - even the accents! - of the pilot to the first episode of the first series. Kind of bummed, but I still want to give it time.

I don't remember the pilot but this makes it look way more lol goth than the series proper:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BeingHumanPilot.jpg

does wikipedia block copyrighted images?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BeingHumanPilot.jpg

Finished S1, that finale was RUB.

How so?

Inconsistency of tone, pace, characterisation. All out of the blue too, it'd been fine up to the end of E5. Eg That scene where George vists the priest and seems to leave with a new found sense of confidence...but then in the very next scene he's blubbing at the kitchen table about being scared. The ghost lady suddenly getting superpowers was clunky. The fact they'd been building up to something huge for the whole season, only to switch to "ah, if we just kill their leader it'll probably all die down again". And a few other bits and bobs along those lines. Didn't hate it enough that I don't want to carry on with S2, but it was definitely a sudden and surprising dip in quality.

I like batshit morally ambivalent vampire dude. "Tonight, we're listening to Miss Kate Bush" - of course you are you big goth.

am now just catching up and bummed that ^^this guy is dead. dude was the only non-annoying vamp around.

he was great. i didn't catch how mitchell survived?

yeah me neither. he said ivan saved him... how, i don't know. chalking it down to being human logic (anyone who can tell me the exact extent of annie's powers - whether she's a poltergeist or not, if and when she lost/gained any of her haunting powers - gets a cookie).

Ivan jumped on top of him to shield him from the explosion.

I do not understand Annie's powers, like the randomness of who she is visible to, and why her clothes change in small ways but she's doomed to stay forever in a grey cardigan, leggings, white t-shirt/vest and big boots, albeit infinite variations thereof. And how she can carry solid mugs but still walk through walls and stuff. And how she, for example, must still wash her hair and whathaveyou.

i think up until her bad boyf tried to drag her over, she'd become visible to everyone. now she's back (for unclear reasons admittedly) to only being visible to other paranormals. even the psychic stageshow guy couldn't see her.

i saw the bit where ivan jumped on top of him and it still made no sense to me as to how mitchell survived. that was a massive explosion.

Annie's visible to other supernatural beings and once upon time was also visible to humans before she almost got dragged through the door? it seems like everytime the door appears she becomes more of a ghost, and the longer she goes without seeing it the more solid/human she becomes. but then there's too many inconsistencies in between for that to be true too so... *shrugs*.

It was the bit where she made the wee origami thing for her mum that got me thinking about her carrying cups of tea around - would it just look like a floating cup of tea to a normal venturing into the house?

Also, the clocks always go back on a Saturday night/Sunday morning. Do they have parents' evenings on a Sunday nowadays, do they?

(I don't really care though. I still love this show.)

Yes, that annoyed me too! But I am easily annoyed. It is the last episode tomorrow, and this makes me very sad.

What the hell happened at the end of Episode 8?

I don't know!

Really liked the ending, but it's scoring a 9 on the WTF-O-Meter

Just watched this, actually shout WHAT THE FUCK? at the telly. Apparently pouring blood on dead vampire bones makes them live vampires ("like, why didn't they do that before?" says my resident vampire expert), but, y'know, it was totally fucking random and WTF-tastic.

The Annie stuff was heartbreaking (though I did burst out laughing when she whooshed in the door and ran Kemp back through it, because it was basically rubbish. Is Lucy a ghost now - that was meant to be her door, right?)

The really heartbreaking bit was Annie in the TV screen apparently trapped in an endless secretive bureaucracy.

Was that Eric who came out of the earth at the end then?

Herrick? aye, it was.

Every Annie thing was a tearjerker tonight, the scaredness at what was going to happen, her "suicide note", the boys crying at her through the screen, "don't forget me". Am sniffling a little bit just thinking of it.

Would have though Ivan would have been the more obvious candidate for revival, tbh

But, then again, maybe being blown to bits doesn't make him as easy to put back together. I dunno. I need to learn more vampire stuff.

I would assume Crazy Mitchell brought Herrick back to wage all out war? Felt a bit tacked on, seeing as ending with George and Mitchell staring into the TV screen and vowing to get her back would have been a great ending. This was a bit naff, you kind of need to understand a cliffhanger in order to care about it.

("like, why didn't they do that before?" says my resident vampire expert

I'm assuming, since it was Mitchell as hid the bones, he was keeping it a secret (since he was trying to keep the vampires under control), but then in ep 7 when he thought "Fuck it, let's kill everyone", he told Daisy where to find them.

xpost

Also also also, was Herrick all werewolfy? Because George killed him, aye, so he could have caught werewolf from him?

It felt like the WTF bits they always fling in in Heroes that they really don't need to do. Dudes, we were going to watch the next series anyway!

Scariest bit was Annie McBride in the chamber, and I liked the general Silent Hill style of the climax in the facility. People being dragged into helldoors is always worthwhile, less convinced about the afterlife as bureaucracy.

Also also also, was Herrick all werewolfy?

I think you are right, vampwolf! But yeah it's always a worry when shows feel a need to turn things up to 11.

I was kind of surprised that series 2 didn't introduce a new kind of beastie, but then there's nothing so obvious after vampires/werewolves/ghosts... Black Lagoon sea monsters? Zombies, I suppose.

yeah i think a new zombie housemate would lack a certain gravitas. although is resurrected herrick technically a zombie? a zombvampwolf.

It's a bit difficult to get into an argument with a zombie about whose turn it is to do the washing up. Zombies fail the Being Human litmus test I think.

does this mean annie won't be in series3 (in corporeal form at least). wasn't the three types of supernatural thing kinda key?

they're gonna get her back, man!

but they can have Lucyghost, since Annie stole her door, not letting her pass over. And because Mitchell wuvs her and Nina hates her, hilarious japes will obviously ensue, with George and Mitchell's bromance tested to the hilt into the bargain.

(note: this is a shit idea, and do not actually want, but it could satisfy ghost-requirement, even though Annie >>>>>>>>>>> Lucy)

delayed reaction to this but yes, wtf?! why didn't the first exorcism on annie at the house work? also how did she pull kemp's solid, non-spirit body through? I mean, if she forcibly dragged his soul out of his body, it would've needed minimal effects and been 100 times more believable. nothing really wrong w/ the idea of Annie saving them from the other side, but the way they did it was basically crap.

Felt a bit tacked on, seeing as ending with George and Mitchell staring into the TV screen and vowing to get her back would have been a great ending.

^^yeah i thought rather than sticking it at the end there, herrick coming back would've been a nice pre-credits prologue in series 3.

still wish it had been ivan but herrick was a pretty great villain and i don't mind him back, esp if it was as a zombvampwolf.

watched the premiere (?) of the american version of this series on syfy (?) last night. like the premise, but man, the execution was so goopy, po-faced and dull. they spent hardly any time developing the characters or their situation. we're simply plunged into their respective family melodramas knowing little more than that they're gloomy, selfish and basically insufferable. and that the world is apparently crawling with undetected supernatural beasties of every imaginable variety. like you can't throw a shoe without hitting one, but their presence somehow escapes detection, despite no real attempt at concealment or subtlety on their part.

was the BBC series notably witty or interesting in terms of its writing, direction or performances?

The BBC series brings the lols throughout. It's as much about the stupid trivial dramas of three people living together as it is about vampires and werewolves, that's kind of the whole point.

And apparently Series 3 begins on Sunday, yay.

It's as much about the stupid trivial dramas of three people living together as it is about vampires and werewolves, that's kind of the whole point.

that's what i was hoping for. some decent/goofy situational observation stuff, plus monsterism. this felt more like underworld, what with the mopey sufferings and intimations of dread conspiracy.

guess i should just watch the BBC series

BBC series is great and easily torrentable.

I saw the trailer for the US version a week or so ago and was so turned off I just blocked the whole show out of my mind.

<3 the BBC version.

There can be only one, etc etc.

Sunday for s3? Awesome!

Very good news for S3. Made it 4.5 minutes into the overwrought US version before punching out.

PSYCHED FOR THIS.

May need to torrent...when is bbc America putting it on in the US, anyone know?

(hi I am lazy, lol)

omg i just saw this for the first time and it was kickass!!! stacey slater!!!!

kinda sucked ass that she was just a one off character tho

Well, that was pretty good. Welcome back.

Robson Jerome!

Never mind that. RHYS!!

Love this show. It was only a matter of time before George ran into a dogging circle.

So yeah when a man werewolf and a lady werewolf love each other very much can they make baby werewolves? Because I think George and Nina probably did in that episode.

Not sure about the prospect of a Mitchell/Annie love story, although it helps that she's just about the only person he can't kill.

stacey slater said she had a little bro i bet it was robson greenes son and theyll try and kill the vampire guy to AVENGE her and that will be the big climax of the series im just guessing

i just ran this theory by my sister and she said uh the vampire can smell werewolves so

The werewolf cage fighting was bit reminiscent of Weevil Fight Club from Torchwood.

I went off this a bit during the last series and didn't watch it all, but really liked the new ep. My wife remarked that Michael Socha (Robson Greene's son) looks and sounds so much like his sister (Lauren Socha from Misfits) that it's almost weird.

That was great. I wasn't too grabbed by the Fight Club thing, but it seemed to get sorted out quite satisfactorily at the end.

<3 Lacey Turner so much.

I liked paul kaye's vampire running the werewolf fight night, shame he had to buy it.

I dunno. I thought he was a bit cut-price Mad Max. I was glad not to have to see more of him.

I sort of enjoyed it, but it was all a bit thinky and I was too distracted by the fact that Annie's got a new hairdo and new clothes (did they give her those in purgatory?) and the new house has obviously been dressed to deliberately have NO nice furniture in it. I couldn't just relax and enjoy what was going on.

> I dunno. I thought he was a bit cut-price Mad Max

Spike meets Keith Prodigy / Lyden i thought. didn't twig it was paul kaye until the credits.

Annie's hair and clothes have always changed depending on her mood - it's one of those things that has never been explained. It's always some variation of white tshirt, grey cardigan, grey legging, boots though, but the length/existence of sleeves and the general style of the outfit has been varying all the way through.

I had Dennis Pennis as a cross between Keith Flint and that bloke that ran the carnival in Heroes.

Spike meets Keith Prodigy / Lyden

This is exactly what he was.

ok, i think i zoned out for a minute or two this morning and missed something.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

what was mitchell's forfeit for rescuing annie?

It's not a forfeit, Stacey Slater said he has to go back as it's his destiny to get killed by a werewolf.

Didn't enjoy this one so much. Anyone else watch Becoming Human afterwards? Not sure they can run a similar series in 10 minutes episodes at the same time, but it might have potential.

I loved this one! It was 50 minutes of squirming awkwardness punctuated with a huge LOL. Didn't watch Becoming Human, assumed it was some tedious 'making of' shite. I guess not?

Basically, Adam goes somewhere and decides to live as a teenager and go back to school, where he *gasp* meets a werewolf and a ghost.

The best bit of of Becoming Human were the lols that stemmed from Adam trying to be down with the cool kids despite not having been one for decades, and all his cultural reference points being ridiculously out of date. "We banter, like Hale and Pace".

I actually wanted more of the whole thing than the 10-minute mini episode we got. Also, I laughed at 'Egg Miliband'.

I really liked the proper episode. Dogging circles and swingers' hotels = never not funny. And Adam is a great character. If this series is guilty of anything right now it's underusing Annie, who is the best thing about the show.

The best bit of of Becoming Human were the lols that stemmed from Adam trying to be down with the cool kids despite not having been one for decades, and all his cultural reference points being ridiculously out of date. "We banter, like Hale and Pace".

See, that just annoyed me. He was living in the real world looking like a 16 year old, he must have picked some stuff up since he was actually 16 - Mitchell manages to be obsessed with The Real Hustle despite being about 120.

There were hints of things to come, with that guy offering Mitchell his get-out to go away with the other vampires, George and Nina getting their parental skills on, some meh Mitchell wuvs Annie stuff, and whatever, but, I dunno. Didn't quite grab me. That said, I have very high standards and expectations for this show, so a below-par episode is still pretty good.

I thought it was great. I enjoyed it much more than last week's episode. I thought the guy who played Adam was great. Could have been 16, could have been 46, really. Very well cast. Also I lolled at "no-neck gaylord".

Bye bye little Scrappy Doo Vampire.

I also really enjoyed the Daily Mail racism of the vampire family, them putting papers down for the others to sit on was particularly classy.

I found this week's episode a little queasy making.

they seem to be going through secondary characters at a heady rate - paul kaye's vampire, adam, sasha, graham... at least robson jerome's coming back.

They've always gone through supporting characters pretty quickly, but an animated decomposing corpse wandering round the house was pretty nasty.

They're doing Mitchell and Annie pretty well though - minimal amount of drippiness, although that relationship is clearly not going to last. What with that + impending Mitchelldeath + werewolf puppies, I'm guessing this is the last series?

Herrick is taking his time turning up isn't he? He's been resurrected for three whole episodes now.

I still think Herrick might have caught werewolf since he was killed by George, and he's going to be the prophesied werewolf that kills Mitchell. A zombie vampire werewolf, obv.

I suspect I'm going to be very wrong with this.

Forgot to watch Becoming Human after, will catch it on iPlayer when I get home.

you may be out of luck there - i looked for it last week and it wasn't listed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/becominghuman/episodes/

Russell Tovey's shrieky panic demeanour is so great. And the dialogue in this show is fantastic (when they are doing 'real life' flatmate chat etc, not when they are doing portentious gothickery).

Good to see Dirge is still a go-to soundtrack for 'something unsettling unfolding via montage' in Brit TV drama.

Herrick is v. creepy. And a v. good actor.

So the next episode is the last one ever then? I'd assume that to be the case given that the guy who plays Mitchell is in the Hobbit film and will probably be proper famous from then on.

I enjoyed this episode enough but it felt like a necessary breather before the chaos hits. Compared to the fantastic one with the werewolves the week before.

Read an interview with Aidan Turner earlier where he said he wasn't sure when they were doing a fourth series and if Mitchell would be in it, but I didn't take it from that that it was over.

my friend wrote episode four, and he said they're already storylining the next series (though whether mitchell is still in it is another q - apparently the other writers apart from the show's creator haven't seen the finale yet). and there's three more episodes this series.

How can you storyline a series without knowing if you have one of the pivotal characters in it?

they might have been told, i haven't inquired too closely cos i don't want spoilers. i just know they haven't seen the last ep.

and there's three more episodes this series.

This is awesome news, it seemed to be building up to a finale.

the US series is growing on me but i'm pretty curious to see the original and just noticed that it's available OnDemand. how much is the US version following the UK version, i.e. will it be kind of a spoiler for the US show to watch lots of the UK show?

― oppet, Monday, 21 February 2011 09:03 (2 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Herrick is v. creepy. And a v. good actor.

Absolutely. I love his essential Herrick-ness coming through, icking you out just as you're starting to feel for this poor, addled man

No comments about the most recent episode? Twisty as fuck! I like the fact that they kept bluffing that the detective lady was going to die, then maybe not...and then just killed her(although come to think of it, she was still moving at the end, so then again...)

How come Nina's werewolfy sense of smell didn't pick up all that blood as soon as she went back in the house?

Whatever happens, I doubt Mitchell will be in the next season anyway, as Aidan Turner's off to New Zealand for The Hobbit. But even if he's killed off(which I think is fairly likely), they've included a handy backdoor way for him to return at some point in the future with the whole "inheritance" thing.

Bit pissed off they killed off McNair, but yeah, didn't get how Nina didn't smell a house full of dead people. Herrick's quick turnaround to stab her after all totally threw me though. That was a top drawer episode (and yes, we noticed that Nancy was still moving).

How am I supposed to wait 1 more week for the end?

And why does no helpful pirate put Becoming Human up where I can see it?

I watched the last 3 episodes back-to-back last night. My bf has been refusing to watch it since ep 1 of the current series, claiming it's 'gone off'. Has it 'eck. Brilliant. Not as much humour as in the early days, but still enough humour and enough charm to really keep you on the edge of your seat anticipating those turns for the dark.

I watched the episode after an afternoon of pub football watching so really need to see it again.

meant to post on Monday, but been a bit busy - yes, this week's was *superb*, possibly best ever episode imo. I went off the show a bit in series 2, but this whole run has been ace.

(and yes, we noticed that Nancy was still moving)

couldn't tell if this was because she'd been vampified or if the actress was just wriggling a bit? Guy who plays Herrick's acting is A+++++++.

Wiggling definitely not accidental.

I agree that it's "gone off". For me now, most of the episodes are boring up to the Herrick bit. But man, the last two Herrick shockers have been so very, very good.

missed the first showing because of a clash, missed the second due to stb error, taped the third but it was the 3am signed repeat so it had a big read border and a woman in the corner miming along. is repeated for the last time tonight, and, obv, is on iplayer.

am hoping they'll show all of becoming human as a one-hour long thing when being human has finished. it's good, but the 5 minutes a week thing is annoying.

(big red border)

fuuuuuuuuuuucccccccccckk

it was really confusing to read this thread until i realized that the 3rd season of the UK version is running at the same time as the 1st season of the US version, which i guess nobody here is really talking about. i just finished watching s1 UK and am about to start s2 UK, and i honestly like enough things about each version of the show that i can't really pick a favorite, both good shows.

OK, that was Good Telly. Am going to miss this so very much.

They even left it so they could bring it back despite losing two major characters, but I'm not sure if they will or not. But this Wyndham chappie that turned up at the end looks like a straight replacement for Herrick and I really wouldn't mind if they brought Adam back over from Becoming Human at all to fill the need for a new vampire. There's still so much to explore.

One minor point: how the hell did they get back into their house so quickly? Surely it's a major crime scene?

am hoping they'll show all of becoming human as a one-hour long thing when being human has finished. it's good, but the 5 minutes a week thing is annoying.

Think they're doing this next week.

"Episode Seven released 13th March
Episode Eight released 20th March online (9.45pm) and on BBC Three (9pm) at the end of the 50min finale. Don't miss it!"

(is odd seeing him in the Submarine trailers btw, seeing as he looks identical.)

Yeah they've created a pretty good universe with a fair few strong characters (Adam, Tom, whoever the new bad guy is) so they could go on without Mitchell pretty easily.

Loved this episode, the constant shifting of allegiances was done really well. Glad they bought Lacey Turner back as well. Not quite sure what was supposed to have happened with Tom - the whole additional werewolves subplot didn't really go anywhere.

Otherwise ace. George in particular absolutely killed it.

MITCHELL

Episode Eight released 20th March online (9.45pm) and on BBC Three (9pm) at the end of the 50min finale. Don't miss it!"

What 50 min finale?

I'm guessing the combined episodes of Becoming Human (as in its finale, not Being Human's one)? It's quite badly explained, aye.

is here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00ztff4

"Before going onto BBC Three, Becoming Human started life as an 8 part online drama on the Becoming Human blog. For fans wanting to delve deeper into the mystery there are mobile phone videos, newspaper clippings, character profiles and other updates revealed daily by the characters themselves. After the 50 minute special on BBC Three there will be one more twist, a final update added to the Becoming Human blog, so keep your eyes peeled!"

i haven't been following the blog updates or the sms messages or any of that, just watching the clips.

Yeah, me too. Might have a wee shufty through before the weekend though.

Before this series of Being Human, there were some clips on the BBC site of Annie's messages from purgatory, none of which I watched either.

yeah so i watched this finally. in short: penultimate episode great shock and awe stuff. ultimate episode something of an anticlimax, all the stuff in the cage with mitchell dissembling and george getting angry didn't really convince and the big emotionally moving climax didn't move me, unfortunately. and after all that, becoming human was a welcome return to the lighter hearted early days.

I agree. Last episode was just too much talking. More talking about the same stuff over and over. Kind of boring.

Think pretty much the whole season suffered from that particular malaise.

I don't know about the UK version, but the US remake is the WORST PILE OF POO I have watched this year. lol
God, that was crap. No season 2 for me. Ohhhhh nooooo.

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.