Review: Being Human 1.2

"It's a chicken on a piece of string."

Second week, and Being Human is already delivering on its premise. This week took a focus on George in particular, and his vicious backstory provided the fuel for the episode's main conflicts. At times it did rely a tad too much on its main guest, but said guest provided some excellent character development for George and Annie. The Vampire storyline, meanwhile, rumbled along nicely.
     Our main man was Tully (Dean Lennox Kelly), a brash womaniser who meets George in the forest, aware of and empathising with his condition and willing to help him prepare for his monthly changes. He's soon invited to move in, and starts taking over the household - George begins to idolise him, and he has Annie under his thumb. Tully outstays his welcome, however, when an altercation with Annie forces Mitchell to evict Tully and make George realise what Tully's been doing to him. Before they transform in the woods, Tully lets slip that it was he who originally converted George two years prior, and that he's been mentoring him. Angry, George makes it up with his friends and then goes back to the woods, facing Tully and warning him away.
     Another instantly interesting appearance was that of Nina (Sinead Keenan), who as my regular readers will know goes on to feature in the rest of the series. Nina's characterisation was very well done from the start, and her interactions with George felt natural. There was a moment of cringe-comedy as George tried Tully's masculinist charms on her, but by the end it felt as if they both had a natural chemistry.

Lauren tempts Mitchell.

     Annabel Scholey played another slightly awkward performance as vampiress Lauren, who this week arrived to give Mitchell something to do, tempting him with dirty talk and a vampire porn video. I feel as if Mitchell's storyline works better on the sidelines like this, especially when there's so little going on at the moment. The more condensed feel of this six-episode series means that everything flows more easily, so I guess I can pass this once. 1.1 was very Mitchell-heavy anyway, and this episode allows us to neatly focus on the other characters while he's resting.
     1.2 is predominantly a male-bonding character exercise, and the writing is superb. The vampire subplot was rather lacking, but all of the strands held together and ultimately all characters came out a little more three dimensional than they had in the premier. As a second episode, 1.2 does what it needs to do - develop character - and more so, taking on our heroes, and their pasts, with impressive gusto.

Thanks.