Review: Becoming Human (Omnibus)

Adam, Matt and Christa

The backdoor pilot to this online drama was thrown into the plot of Being Human 3.2 ("Adam's Family"), noticably one of the worst episodes of the series. However, the brief episodes, published on the Becoming Human blog, actually served as a more creative outlet for the writer's talents, managing to compress in a lot more drama and humour tan in the parent show.

     Adam (Craig Roberts), having arrived from "Adam's Family", is a bit more mature but still stuck with his teenage eighties mindset. There he meets reluctant werewolf Christa (Leila Mimmack) who's being stalked by ghost Matt (Josh Brown). Concerned, Adam tries to find out the cause of Matt's death. When Matt simply uses the two to pick on his old bullies, they focus on what he can remember of his death, and face mafia-daughter Brandey Crompton, who Matt was perving on in the changing rooms. After that goes down like a lead balloon, Matt reveals to Christa that he fell in love with her before he died.

Matt confesses all.

     Now suspicious of P.E. teacher Mr. Swan, the group check the CCTV camera but find all records missing. They hide out in the gym at night, planning to use Christa's enhanced sense of smell brought on by the Full Moon. She transforms inside a sports closet, and ends up trapped inside. When Adam lets her out in the morning, they discover Matt's corpse locked away. After being confronted by the teacher, they realise that detention teacher Mr. Roe was behind the whole thing, killing him in a fit of rage after having his car keyed and a career of irritating children. Matt begs Adam to spare Mr. Roe, and his door appears, but before he can pass over he is forced to send Mr. Roe through instead.
   For a teen drama, the acting is surprisingly sound; despite his experience, Craig Roberts is pretty much on-par with the rest of the trio, especially Josh’s moody and comic acting. Elsewhere, the series compliments the main show nicely; for example, it explains the exact reasons for the vampire-werewolf hatred (fear of their strength and envy of their “part-time” status). The plot's episodic format and dilution with badly timed teenage angst serves to muddle up the plot somewhat, but as with the parent series the characters themselves are enjoyable to watch in said environment.

     I would have, at least, wanted a better and more satisfying conclusion to the series than what eventually arrived, but all in all Becoming Human was a lot better than most would have expected - a more quirky take on the Being Human universe with a lot more humour. It's as if Being Human has moved so far away from its original student demographic that something like this was necessary to bring its universe back in line.

     Despite its muddled and hormone-addled plot, Becoming Human was an enjoyable weekly comedy/drama that still stands up in its omnibus format.  

Thanks.

(Next time... Lost 3.8: Meet Kevin Johnson)