The Cellar - What TV Show Are You Currently Watching?

Being Human is back!!!!

Oh. Oh I love Mitchell. And Georgie-peorgie. And Annie's so sweet.

I was particularly pleased to see them back, having attempted the other night to watch the US remake's pilot episode.

To be fair, had I never seen the original, or had the US been the original, maybe I'd have liked it. It wasn't completely horrible. It's definately no Life on Mars(US), or indeed Red Dwarf(US). They've taken the basic elements and given it an American flavour. Also to be fair, this is the pilot, and they've tried to stay very close to the original series here, basically setting out much of what went on in the first series through the pilot and first couple of eps, then veering off onto their own turf with the premise set.

The original Being Human had some obvious flaws. It was made on a shoe string so the effects are ropey as fuck. The plot goes a little flat mid season then picks back, up from time to time things seem rushed. The North American version has a bigger budget, and a longer run, so it should be able to do the story more justice. The trouble is, there didn't seem to be much chemistry between the three leads. Their friendship didn't seem believable.

The dialogue isn't as good. To me anyway. And the voice over pieces are less subtle with much more in the way of outright exposition. Stuff that came through the interplay of character and plot is said outright by the characters far too often. The vampire's first scene has him discussing his love of the whole 'living breathing thing', quoting death related poetry and pointing out how beautiful death really is.

Terrifyingly, his date of the evening, then invites him in for a drink. Seriously, girlfriend? No warning signs?

Probably not fair to pick on a specific piece of dialogue or scene and judge the whole show on that. I couod easily find a scene or two in the original if I wanted to trash it.

But overall, it just seemed to lack a warmth, and lightness of touch. And chemistry. I'll give the rest of the series a go, because you really can never judge a programme by its pilot. Once they depart completely from the British series, they may find their feet and be worth watching in their own right.

There's a definate trade-off. Some good for some bad. The vampire underworld is more convincing in terms of overall scale, but the menace is too obvious. What made the vampire leader Herrick scary, was that he was entirely unremarkable until he chose to be scary. He was charming and avuncular and completely believable as a trusted man. What makes the vampire leader in BH US scary is a more overt sense of power and menace. Which works in its own way.

Likewise with the werewolf. The fully transformed werewolf in Being Human is complete pants. It looks, as various critics have noted, like a bloke in an alsation mask. very unconvincing, cheap effects. In Being Human(US) they've gone the CGI route. Which makes for a much more convincing wolf.

Unfortunately, they also CGI'd the transformation. The transformation scenes in Being Human were fantastic. The combination of Russell Tovey's performance, horribly physical animatronics, and rather brilliant use of the power of suggestion, make these scenes very, very visceral. They've taken their cues from American Werewolf in London. And it works brilliantly, giving a real sense of bodyshock.

The transformations in Being Human(US) aren't nearly as visceral. They serve the purpose of plot and character development, but they lose some of the horror.

Anyways.

Being Human season 3 began last night on BBC3. I loved it. was glad to see Mitchell's appalling crime near the end of season two wasn't just left behind with that season's conclusion. There are consequences.