So, I know a lot of us were wondering what the future of Being Human would hold. We all wondered whether we could get by without our Fab Four, with the original cast number being taken down to one. We all wondered whether Annie would be strong enough to hold the show alone or whether the new characters would be as good as George and Mitchell without copying them.
Could the show cope without characters like Herrick as the Big Bad? Could the feared 'Old Ones' really be a massive threat? Could the show come up with a better plot than last years which foresaw the end of John Mitchell, every fangirl's wet dream?
But most importantly, would the show be able to survive the wave of unshakeable fan girls crying at the TV, "It's rubbish without Mitchell!"
Well, after all that wondering and with four episodes down (The Series half-way point) I can say this: Toby Whitehouse has kept the show fresh and alive where other show creators have failed.
For one thing the plot for Series 4 has so far bested all other plots to date. With a fantasy/sci-fi show there is always the pressure to 'top' what has come before. Take Doctor Who, for example. Once RTD brought back Gallifrey and the Time Lords in the New Years Special which also bid Bon Voyage to David Tennant's Doctor, we all wondered how the Hell Steven Moffat was ever going to top it. And what has followed since then?
Series 5 - The Destruction of the Universe and the Second Big Bang resulting in a BRAND NEW reality.
Series 6 - The Death of the Doctor, the Revelation of River Song's identity...
And what does Moffat have in store for the future? An answer to 'The First Question'. The only concern we have here is HOW much more than Doctor Who do after THAT? Because it is clear that the end of the last series foresaw the demise of the Eleventh Doctor (Who, by the way, is the Greatest Doctor of All Time. All Hail Matt Smith!) and from the sounds of things, this will be a regeneration that will make the Tenth Doctor's looking even more dreary and annoying than it already was!
Back to Being Human...
The plot of this series is definitely a step out of the comfort zone for many BH fans as the story has moved far away from its humble origins in a wafer pink house in Bristol. The story focuses on the destiny of George and Nina's daughter Eve who is apparently destined to bring about the destruction of the vampires. With the destiny comes two sets of enemies: on the one side we have the Old Ones, and elite group of vampires who fear the prophecy of the young baby. Then we have the mysterious Woman from the future, speculated by many to be Eve.
With the deaths of Mitchell, George and Nina, three of the original four line-up of Vampire, Werewolves, Human-Then-Werewolf and Ghost had been lost. Many people doubted before the show came back a few weeks back that the show could keep going after having suffered such heavy casualties on the cast list, leaving only the ghost Annie behind.
There is no denying that the original four characters were very popular, especially the vampire Mitchell. I, for my part, could not see the appeal of him as he seemed to demise as a character after Series 1 and by his death at the end of Series 3, he was my least favourite character. Even his finally getting together with Annie for a short interval felt a little empty because Mitchell had lost so much of what made him a sympathetic character. His desperation to hide and run away from his mass slaughter of the Box Tunnel 20 changed him and he had passed the point of no return. There was no going back. Aidan Turner was right to leave when he did because, in all seriousness, there was very little wriggle wrong for Mitchell's character any more.
However the loss of George and Nina, the Golden Couple of the show, did strike me as disappointing. Nina was my favourite female character: feisty and argumentative I grew to love her all the more my love of Mitchell declined. And as for George... he was always the heart and soul of the gang, but without Mitchell and Nina, he lost his edge and it right for him to die.
And so we were flung into Series 4 after the first episode with several things to get used to: a life without them, and a new life with Tom and Hal.
Tom we already knew from the last series as a young and not-too-bright werewolf, the adopted son of the Vampire Slayer McNair. With the death of his father it seemed only natural that he would move into HH with Annie and George, and with the death of the latter he has taken over in the show as Chief Werewolf. One of the appealing things about Tom is that he is so different from George and Nina. Although his lack of basic knowledge outside killing vampires and the cafe in which he works can be annoying at times, it is refreshing.
It is clear that the show is trying to re-create the friendship between the Werewolf and the Vampire with Tom's friendship with Hal. Of course, having spent most of his life killing vampires, this is difficult. Yet following Episode 3 in which Hal was forced by Annie to get a job and help support the household, it was nice to see the trust between Tom and Hal develop. It helps that they are really forced together by Annie, and by Baby Eve.
And as for Hal, the new Chief-Vampire in residence, he had an even tougher act to follow with the popularity of Mitchell. Yet all the fears of the fans have been averted and some (Including myself) actually prefer Hal. The king is dead, all hail King Hal!
The appeal of Hal's character lies in his classy self-control. Even people who still long for Mitchell admit also liking Hal, almost because he is impossible to dislike. He is oddly charming with his anal router of things he has to do to stay off killing and his enjoyment of the Antiques Roadshow (I think all of us regular viewers had a giggle by Tom and Hal's rejection of the "show about conmen...") and BBC Radio 4. But probably the reason why he is so difficult to dislike is because he has beaten Mitchell at one thing many fans, even the ones who adored him, held again him - his constant emo whining about how difficult it was to stay clean.
Hal is an Old One who has been clean of blood for fifty years following his live-in situation with another ghost-werewolf set. Mitchell was a one-hundred-and-twenty year old vampire he didn't manage to stay clean even once during the show's run despite his constant attempts. With every failure, sympathy for Mitchell faded but by bit. With Hal, we can start afresh. Here we have an odd-ball, strangely likeable vampire who has yet to fall off the wagon...
And all of us hoping he manages to protect Eve without killing someone in the process by feeding off their blood.
Could the show cope without characters like Herrick as the Big Bad? Could the feared 'Old Ones' really be a massive threat? Could the show come up with a better plot than last years which foresaw the end of John Mitchell, every fangirl's wet dream?
But most importantly, would the show be able to survive the wave of unshakeable fan girls crying at the TV, "It's rubbish without Mitchell!"
Well, after all that wondering and with four episodes down (The Series half-way point) I can say this: Toby Whitehouse has kept the show fresh and alive where other show creators have failed.
For one thing the plot for Series 4 has so far bested all other plots to date. With a fantasy/sci-fi show there is always the pressure to 'top' what has come before. Take Doctor Who, for example. Once RTD brought back Gallifrey and the Time Lords in the New Years Special which also bid Bon Voyage to David Tennant's Doctor, we all wondered how the Hell Steven Moffat was ever going to top it. And what has followed since then?
Series 5 - The Destruction of the Universe and the Second Big Bang resulting in a BRAND NEW reality.
Series 6 - The Death of the Doctor, the Revelation of River Song's identity...
And what does Moffat have in store for the future? An answer to 'The First Question'. The only concern we have here is HOW much more than Doctor Who do after THAT? Because it is clear that the end of the last series foresaw the demise of the Eleventh Doctor (Who, by the way, is the Greatest Doctor of All Time. All Hail Matt Smith!) and from the sounds of things, this will be a regeneration that will make the Tenth Doctor's looking even more dreary and annoying than it already was!
Back to Being Human...
The plot of this series is definitely a step out of the comfort zone for many BH fans as the story has moved far away from its humble origins in a wafer pink house in Bristol. The story focuses on the destiny of George and Nina's daughter Eve who is apparently destined to bring about the destruction of the vampires. With the destiny comes two sets of enemies: on the one side we have the Old Ones, and elite group of vampires who fear the prophecy of the young baby. Then we have the mysterious Woman from the future, speculated by many to be Eve.
With the deaths of Mitchell, George and Nina, three of the original four line-up of Vampire, Werewolves, Human-Then-Werewolf and Ghost had been lost. Many people doubted before the show came back a few weeks back that the show could keep going after having suffered such heavy casualties on the cast list, leaving only the ghost Annie behind.
There is no denying that the original four characters were very popular, especially the vampire Mitchell. I, for my part, could not see the appeal of him as he seemed to demise as a character after Series 1 and by his death at the end of Series 3, he was my least favourite character. Even his finally getting together with Annie for a short interval felt a little empty because Mitchell had lost so much of what made him a sympathetic character. His desperation to hide and run away from his mass slaughter of the Box Tunnel 20 changed him and he had passed the point of no return. There was no going back. Aidan Turner was right to leave when he did because, in all seriousness, there was very little wriggle wrong for Mitchell's character any more.
However the loss of George and Nina, the Golden Couple of the show, did strike me as disappointing. Nina was my favourite female character: feisty and argumentative I grew to love her all the more my love of Mitchell declined. And as for George... he was always the heart and soul of the gang, but without Mitchell and Nina, he lost his edge and it right for him to die.
And so we were flung into Series 4 after the first episode with several things to get used to: a life without them, and a new life with Tom and Hal.
Tom we already knew from the last series as a young and not-too-bright werewolf, the adopted son of the Vampire Slayer McNair. With the death of his father it seemed only natural that he would move into HH with Annie and George, and with the death of the latter he has taken over in the show as Chief Werewolf. One of the appealing things about Tom is that he is so different from George and Nina. Although his lack of basic knowledge outside killing vampires and the cafe in which he works can be annoying at times, it is refreshing.
It is clear that the show is trying to re-create the friendship between the Werewolf and the Vampire with Tom's friendship with Hal. Of course, having spent most of his life killing vampires, this is difficult. Yet following Episode 3 in which Hal was forced by Annie to get a job and help support the household, it was nice to see the trust between Tom and Hal develop. It helps that they are really forced together by Annie, and by Baby Eve.
And as for Hal, the new Chief-Vampire in residence, he had an even tougher act to follow with the popularity of Mitchell. Yet all the fears of the fans have been averted and some (Including myself) actually prefer Hal. The king is dead, all hail King Hal!
The appeal of Hal's character lies in his classy self-control. Even people who still long for Mitchell admit also liking Hal, almost because he is impossible to dislike. He is oddly charming with his anal router of things he has to do to stay off killing and his enjoyment of the Antiques Roadshow (I think all of us regular viewers had a giggle by Tom and Hal's rejection of the "show about conmen...") and BBC Radio 4. But probably the reason why he is so difficult to dislike is because he has beaten Mitchell at one thing many fans, even the ones who adored him, held again him - his constant emo whining about how difficult it was to stay clean.
Hal is an Old One who has been clean of blood for fifty years following his live-in situation with another ghost-werewolf set. Mitchell was a one-hundred-and-twenty year old vampire he didn't manage to stay clean even once during the show's run despite his constant attempts. With every failure, sympathy for Mitchell faded but by bit. With Hal, we can start afresh. Here we have an odd-ball, strangely likeable vampire who has yet to fall off the wagon...
And all of us hoping he manages to protect Eve without killing someone in the process by feeding off their blood.
