Review: Being Human 3.3: Type Four

"I thought we were supposed to be the scary ones?"

While last week tried for some dark humour, this week hit the funnies at my end of the spectrum, all the while supporting a brilliant plot that pulled on the heartstrings. The balancing of the four subplots worked incredibly well, with the central line holding the others together while subtley expanding the series' mythology. Notably, it contained a lot more intimate comedy moments, much resembling the tone of the first series in its quirky mix of group comedy and exaggerated gore.
     In the hospital morgue, a corpse awakens and frightens the coroner. While walking through a town centre at midnight, Annie is chased by the gobby Welsh girl, and is eventually invited back into the house so as not to arouse suspiscion. Aside from the smell (no doubt emphasised for Nina and George). Annie strikes up a connection with the girl, named Sasha, and a midnight trip to the morgue by her and Mitchell reveals that around two weeks ago, these "Type Four"s started appearing and the doctors started burning them alive. Through deduction, it's revealed that the Zombies were caused by Mitchell's escapades in Purgatory two weeks ago, essentially closing the door to the afterlife. Refusing to accept her death, Sasha visits her boyfriend (who rejects her) and eventually goes on a girls' night out with Annie and Nina, where she collapses. Brought back to the house, she finally loses consciousness and Sasha is able to properly "pass on".

Sasha, a "Type 4."

     Mitchell's storyline split off mid-episode, as he kept bumping into apparent "fan" Grahame, a relatively recently turned vampire. He starts coming round and chatting to Mitchell's friends, working at the hospital and following him around. Eventually Mitchell works it out; Grahame is one of the Box Tunnel 20 that Mitchell savaged in Series Two, and has come back to tell Mitchell (and his friends) about how he's going to become more famous, by carrying out a similar stunt. He eventually tracks him down on a train from Barry Island to Cardiff, and stakes him before he can kill anyone and spread the idea that Mitchell's actions are a good thing.
     As usual, George and Nina get relegated to the side, and that's not a bad thing considering their presence last week. Type Four's werewolf plot also concerned the events of Lia, in which the two werewolves had sex during a full moon. Apparently the pill doesn't work for werewolves. Nina's parental issues with her abusive mother make her want to get rid of it, but George wants a say in the matter. The other minor thread was Mitchell's acceptance of Annie's crush on him.
     The lighthearted tone of the first half hour was a much appreciated salve; an attitude Being Human holds ever less these days. The episode's shift in tone around the middle from that lightheartedness into something slightly darker and more serious is smooth but noticeable. The episode's complete ignorance towards last week's fiasco is also interesting, supporting my case that it was nothing more than a backdoor pilot. The undoubtable star of the show is Alexandra Roach, who manages to pull of incredibly subtle character development as Sasha accepts her death and finally realised what was missing in her life.

Grahame offers a hand in blackmail.

      Ultimately, Type Four was a massive improvement on last week, and on the rest of Series Three so far. It brought back a kind of nostaligic yearning for the days of Series One, where the show's main aim was comedy and the drama came extra. The characters were written perfectly and realistically, especially the eponymous character who stole the show without overshadowing anyone else.   


Becoming Human
Not a lot to say this week, other than it was far too short and took far too long to be released online. By the time the BBC Engineers had fixed the problem, I was past caring, and the episode itself was a disappointment. Its problem was simply its brevity - something easily remedied. Get with it, Beeb.

Thanks.