Review: Being Human 1.6

"It doesn't remove my humanity. It... proves it."

The pace of this first finale really doesn’t reflect the series’ tight plotting at this early stage. Being Human really has a problem with finales, and of course, this is where it all started. However, like later finales, it does have some excellent climactic elements and it follows up on its preceding cliff-hanger in both an exciting and logical way. Most of all, it finally did justice to the character of George, whose cutesy little subplot with Nina felt like an unnecessary add-on up to this point. With Annie and Mitchell incapacitated in story-terms, George takes a rightful centre-place in an excellent climax to the series that would ripple in series to come. It also acts as a swansong (well, for now) for Jason Watkins' character Herrick, who uses this episode to royally ham up.

     The action is preceeded by a prelude that shows the two main characters first meeting - Mitchell saved George from being killed by a bunch of Vampires, led by Seth. 
      While Mitchell recovers from his staking (which is convenient, seeing as every other staking we see is pretty much instant-death for vampires – Mitchell’s second staking included) in hospital, George watches over him. After being surprised by a visit from the hospital vicar, played wonderfully by bit-part actor Michael Begley, the two ward off two vampires sent to finish Mitchell off. Mitchell recovers and, after Josie dies in her sleep, arranges to fight with Herrick in exchange for George and Annie's lives. George is understandably angry, but after visiting the Chaplain once more he arranges the fight as promised and tells Mitchell that he accepts his choice.
     Dumping Nina via letter, George makes his way to the hospital at the same time as Herrick and Mitchell. Instead of fighting on the roof, Herrick finds himself in the dungeons where a transforming Geroge prepares to finish him off. Mitchell and Annie come to see him, and try to persuade him to stop. Nina rushes down and, ignorant of George's condition, she gets scratched. George, who all this time has been told that the werewolf was taking his away his humanity, asserts that his act of sacrifice instead proves it.

George and The Chaplain face off two hitmen.

     Yes, it was a satisfying end to this particular storyline; the often clichéd and laughably stereotypical vampire plot to take over the world ending with a massive showdown. The storyline had the potential to be so much more. I won’t reiterate what I said about the vampire storyline in 1.5, but the waste there meant that this episode was all the more bittersweet from my point of view. It certainly helped that  Jason Watkins was given free reign in this episode to give as many long-winded speeches and diatribes as possible, which are all enjoyable and at times make up for the lack of plotting.
     Other than that, I haven't much else to say on Being Human Series One. It was a fundamentally well-constructed show with excellent dialogue that was not only funny in all of the right ways but explored deeper ideas central to deconstructing those cliches. Mitchell himself is a deconstruction of the "Freindly Neighbourhood Vampire" archetype, while Annie's storyline is a near-perfect example of an abusive relationship. It really is just text-book well done, with the right amount of charm and wit to bolster the novel premise. The finale to this series, while not number one from a plot point of view, was a brilliant character piece. 

Thanks.