My Top Ten Shows of 2013

Written 23/12/13.

This year I have watched a lot of TV. This was basically my dedicated catch-up year, and I've been watching so many more US shows that I've just neglected through the years. However, British TV has been quite good this year too. To make things fair, I won't make mention of the ridiculous amounts of stuff from previous years that I've catched up on this year, and focus on things that aired in 2013 (as well as giving each season a cheeky rating out of ten stars.) 

10.) The White Queen (Starz/BBC) ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

Following in the footsteps of The Tudors, our latest attempt at a medieval regal drama adapted the best-selling but controvertial set of books by Phillippa Gregory which attempted to put a feminist focus on the Wars of the Roses and examine the politics of three particular women - Elizabeth Rivers, wife of Edward IV; Margaret Beaufort, the mother of Henry Tudor who manipulated court to bring him to power; and Anne Neville, the wife of Richard III who helped him rise to the position of power he stood in prior to the Battle of Bosworth Field.
      The adaptation aspect of the production meant that quite a bit of the plot tended on the side of silliness, with some of the characters being possessed of real-world psychic powers and the way that the series is eminently Ricardian in its bias, instead blaming the disappearance of the Princes In The Tower as a political move suggested by Margaret Beaufort. Despite the weird way that it chooses to deiver its history, the cast of characters are all quite well developped and there isn't a dull performance among them - my favourites being Aneurin Barnard as the slimy Richard III and Amanda Hale as Margaret Beaufort, a character who I rooted for throughout the entire series as she played the Yorkist and Lancastrian sides against one another in order to allow her own illegitimate son to the throne.

9.) Shigeki no Kyojin (Season 1) ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

SIE SIND DAS ESSEN UND WIR SIND DIE JAEGER! Yes, it's everyone's favourite "trendy" anime series, with its fair share of depression, depression and depression with a side helping of badass teenagers and the devastation at the discovery that yes, yet another of your favourite characters has been mercilessly eaten by mindless homicidal giants. That said, SnK's worldbuilding and characterisation is absolutely second-to-none, and the fact that it's one of the few anime series I've seen which isn't deeply problematic in its attitudes to women is icing on the cake.
     Shigeki no Kyojin pretty much introduced me to the entire genre of Anime, which before had simply been, "those weird Japanese cartoons." And while they're still cartoons that are simulatenously weird and Japanese, the sheer depth with which SnK develops its post-apocalyptic world, the themes and characters within it and the mytharc behind it all, just blows me away. It's not something that I really ever get excited about, but when it is on and holds my interest it's always a fascinating and wonderful experience.

8.) Misfits (E4, Series 5) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Misfits had a really dodgy fourth series, and the show had been steadily declining since its peak in 2009-10. However, with its cast list finally set down in stone after constant shifting, the fifth season promised a large arc that would see the show through to a suitable conclusion, and for the best part that happened, with a season which was easily the best since that golden period. The characters were more thoroughly explored, the arc was well-built if a little anticlimatic at the end and it was certainly more funny than Series Four ever managed to be.
      I think the problem with Misfits was that after the second series, it began to very much drift away from its initial brief - that of a superhero-based sitcom seen through the "gritty" filter of Skins-esque TV. The powers were a factor behind our character's problems, and they added a fantastical elements to the characters' already outlandish personalities. The newer characters and their powers weren't as tailor-made, and the result was a series where the only useful or commonly-used power of the bunch was the strange one where Alex buggered people and stole their powers from them.
     However, whatever happened to it, I will miss that bit of grey superhero cheese on my TV every autumn, and I am quite honestly sorry that Misfits is at an end at all. Apparenty Howard Overman has a film written and the series is left open for more adventures in the future, but for now I wish the show and its legacy a sad goodbye.

7.) The Walking Dead (AMC, Seasons 3B and 4A) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Stuff... and things. Having caught up on The Walking Dead this year and having watched a series go from being an ethralling and atmospheric commentary on humanity to a prison-based runaround with a cartoonish villain (down to the eyepatch), I was a little apprehensive about the fourth season of AMC's post-apocalyptic drama. It seems that the production team for this show changes around so often that its tone is very rarely consistent, but the first half of the fourth season presented a show confident in its desire to both honour its comic book origins while simulatenously making its own brave decisions.
      The result was the plague storyline, which drove our characters to the limit in an interesting and game-changing way while a back-door look at the Governor at the end of the season tied up Season 3's loose end and prepared the show for a new start after an achingly long 24 episodes in the Prison. The checklist of things that needed to be done to get the series back on its feet meant that this half of the season didn't feel very consistent, but I for one am very much looking forward to the series' return in February 2014.

6.) Being Human (BBC, Series 5) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Like its strangely connected cousin Misfits, Being Human in 2013 was setting down a new cast after quite a few changes as well as recovering from a dodgey fourth season. Toby Whithouse's comedy drama had its final season reduced in length in a wonderfully symmetrical way, with a plot which led the series away from its hilariously mundane premise and into full on anti-apocalypse warfare tied in with buddy comedy. A little bit like Fawlty Towers. Except that every other guest is Satan.
     Most notable of all the episodes this year was the finale, which was one of the best finalés so far this decade, presenting a horrifying scenario in which The Devil analysed each of our characters in turn, tempted them and then set them down in a miracle scenario which may or may not be everything they've ever wanted. It was a summary of all the show's themes, from the capacity of redemption to the bare bones of what makes someone human. While it ended on an uncertain note, the show's final series did it justice in ways that not a lot of other shows can boast about in the past few years.

5.) Luther (BBC, Series 3) ★★★★★★★★☆☆

It's been two years since the last series of Neil Cross' fantastic drama, and unfortunately again this was to be the final one. Following the previous series' trick of two two-part stories forming four episodes in total, this time around we had a fantastic arc which led to quite a few dramatic moments culminating in the death of Luther's closest companion and the triumphant return of villainess Alice Morgan to lead Luther off into TV Movie territory.
     With writing as brilliant as ever and Idris Elba's acting as nuanced as I've ever seen it, the rest of the series' poignant arcs and creepy, creepy villains made Luther quite simply one of the best shows on TV this year. I've come to view Luther as something of an anti-Sherlock, in the way that it approaches so many things in ways that Sherlock, the far more popular show, could never hope to do with as much success. Luther has a range of well-written women and racial minorities, while Sherlock, written by Moffat and Gattiss, can only write bland archetypical women and demonises its single PoC character at ever turn.
     These shows need to stop ending, seriously. I hope there aren't any other final series' on this list.

4.) Cabin Pressure (BBC Radio 4, Series 4) ★★★★★★★★★☆

I'm cheating again, I know, but I really couldn't think of any other contemporary show and I've loved Cabin Pressure so much this year that it would have been criminal not to put it on the list. John Finnemore's talent for witty dialogue, flexible storytelling and powerful characterisations has been the radio show into a confident final series, one which will culminate in a one-off special at the beginning of next year. The final series saw the development of the relationship between MJN Owner Caroyln and suave pilot Herc, and the attempt by Benedict Cumberbatch's Martin to get a new (paid) job with Swiss Airways.
     This series' penultimate and ultimate episodes, Xinzhou and Yverdon-les-bains, are two of my favourite episodes in all of Cabin Pressure. Xinzhou is the quiet tale of the four main characters simply sitting in their snowed-in aircraft on a Chinese runway for a whole night, and yet it produces such fantastic comedy throughout that it's barely noticeable that it's an obvious bottle episode. Yverdon-les-bains, in which Martin gets his interview, has a lot of references back to the first episode of the show and ends on a cliffhanger which, despite being a mundane enough statement on its own - "They're going to get back to me," - is loaded with enough subtext and intrigue to sink a battleship. Or ground an airplane, in fact.

3.) In The Flesh (BBC, Series 1) ★★★★★★★★★☆

Hot on the heels of Being Human's finale, this excellent three-part series examining prejudice and love in rural Yorkshire was everything we needed, especially when funnelled through the brilliant, brilliant concept of sentient zombie-hood. The main focus was on rehabilitated zombies Kieren Walker, his former zombie-friend Amy Dyer and his secret gay lover Rick Macy, all of whom died in various circumstances which not only inform their post-mortem outlook on life but on how the prejudiced community of one small Yorkshire town. The show is heart-wrenching and thoughtfully written, and I really would reccomend you catch it somewhere, even given the fact that a new, longer series is coming next year.

2.) Game of Thrones (HBO, Season 3) ★★★★★★★★★★

What is there to say about G.R.R. Martin's epic fantasy other than, if you aren't watching it, why the hell not? It's a ridiculously well-written, well-performed and well-directed piece of television fantasy for the new decade, and the third series, adapting the first half of the third book in the Song of Ice and Fire saga, has been the best yet. And now I'm left in an awkard position because if I spoil this series in any way, you really aren't going to get the best out of it. So I'll stop here and say this - just go and see it if you haven't. Because Game of Thrones is some smashing television and in my eyes it can only get better.

1.) Orphan Black (BBCA, Season 1) ★★★★★★★★★★

A massive surprise for me this year, as this show wasn't even on my radar. But, surprisingly enough, my favourite new show of 2013 is Orphan Black, the brilliantly acted sci-fi mystery in which Tatiana Masleny single-handedly demonstrated how ridiculous her acting talent really is. As well as convincingly portraying six (or more) very different personalities over this first season, she also had to act out each clone pretending to be all of the others, due to the show's habit of putting the clones' similarity in appearance to good use. The result is a show where I am honestly baffled when I look at the cast list - simply because I can't believe that these varied characters with all of these different emotional states are played by the same person. And a show that can do that after one season is more than worth this year's top spot.


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So that's 2013's television. I hope you've enjoyed reading this article, and I hope you've enjoyed my reviews over this past year. For news about what's coming in 2014, look for my post about that on New Year's Day.

Thanks.
P.S. I would have maybe put Season Five of Breaking Bad on here, but I'm not quite there yet, so no can dosies.

Review: Being Human 5.6: The Final Broadcast

The trio get together to fight The Devil.

Five years ago, in February 2008, there was a TV pilot with a simple but unendingly fun concept. Now that concept has run its course, with the ominously titled The Final Broadcast bringing the series to its end after its shortened fifth series. Character changes and a lack of focus made this final season less epic than it could have been, but I still admired the commitment to characterisation that the show managed to balance with good humour and a mythos remarkably complex for a BBC Three sitcom. BBC shows have a habit of ending in very painful ways (looking at you, Merlin), but this was pretty much the best ending I could come up with.
     With the Devil telling everyone to kill themselves, the world is going very much to shit. Tom confronts an evil Hal and slaughters his newly recruited vampire army, but their confrontation is stopped by Alex, who reveals to Hal the Devil's presence. Deciding that they're willing to be peaceful while they fight the Devil, the three run into Rook, who reveals that Hatch has gone to a TV station to use emergency broadcasting to sweettalk the whole country. When the three try to carry out the ritual to destroy Hatch, he stops them and brings each into a parallel world of their own - Hal gets to die in the 1400s, Alex gets to live out her life with her family, and Tom gets to have a family with Allison. Despite being tempted, all three fight back because they're not with each other. Hatch inhabits Rook's body, setting the three unawares, but they finally cast the ritual at home and kill the Devil after all. They discover to their shock that with him gone, all Supernaturals have become Human.
     The finale was rather thorough in its identification of what all three of the characters were tempted with, and there were several nice summaries of what Being Human really means. Hal's musing towards Tom that their plan to be human had succeeded the moment they desired humanity really reached back to those first few episodes and the final scenario of the three finding humanity again (despite the inception-inspired twist shot) is just poetically perfect in a way which I couldn't really have imagined.

Phil Davies gets an episode full of awesome monologues.

     What struck me was just how much of the original spirit still remains, even this far down the line. Our characters may have changed since the beginning, our setting, our understanding of the immediate power situation. But we still have our three characters, desperate to simply live a normal life that celebrates the excitation of the mundane. And it's still funny - it was the funniest episode of this series, certainly, even while trying to fit that around a lot of quite sad and dramatic stuff to do with our characters.
     I expected to be emotionally drained and sad and miserable. In a wonderful, wonderful way, Being Human delivered a finale that left me with happy tears rather than sad ones. It was a perfect culmination of not just the ideas in this last series, but of the themes that run through Being Human as a whole, and I am so glad that Whithouse was given the chance to write a series knowing it to be the last one. I loved this finale, I loved this series and I am just madly, deeply in mourning for what has been one of the most consistently inventive shows that BBC Three has brought us. Thank you so, so much, Being Human. I'm going to miss you.

Thanks.

Review: Being Human 5.5: No Care, All Responsibility

Kathryn Precott is the double agent Natasha

The penultimate episode of Being Human, eh? We're hitting the bigtime now, and the plot movements allowed us some fun before the finale. In true Being Human style, the big drama came in this week's story, but for some reason it felt like the least epic of the pre-finales so far. Even though we're threatened with Captain Hatch destroying the world if he ever comes to power, the drama came more from the interactions between the characters than anything else. Impressive, considering how little time we've actually had to experience this lineup.
     We met new girl Natasha (Kathryn Prescott) who came to the Hotel after appearing to be chased by a bad ex. She was immediately fancied by Tom, whom she played along with, and recognised Hal's vampirism, offering him a little nibble now and then. While Alex was trying to investigate Bobby's death after last week, she also faced up to Hal and admitted that they still had the potential to have a relationship. It was revealed that Natasha is working for Rook based on him saving her from Vampires fifteen years prior, and she tells Tom that Hal has attacked her. Fearing that she's having second-thoughts, Hatch whispers to Natasha and makes her kill herself in a way that frames Hal. The trinity now divided, Alex faces Hatch, and is trapped inside her own coffin. Tom is getting ready to steak Hal, and Hal is recruiting en masse.
     Kathryn Prescott, aside from being ridiculously pretty, also provided what is probably Being Human's last Guest-Of-The-Week character, and one that made an instant impression. I did manage to work out that she was working for Rook before the reveal, but the way she wove herself into both Hal and Tom's stories really did work well. It reinforced a general sense that this trinity is not as tightly wound as previous ones, and Alex and Tom's final rejection of Hal felt more like the logical progression of their relationships' degredation.

Alex tries to help Hal, to no avail.

     It was that gentle degradation that gave the episode a lot of its impact, and also what robbed it of a lot of the punch. The cliffhanger we were left with didn't scream, "oh shit" as previous years have - the things that happened were on the cards for a while, and there was very little to surprise. It certainly wasn't a weak episode, but I was expecting something with a little more wallop for what it the penultimate episode of the entire series. Hopefully next week's showdown with Satan will leave us at a satisfying end.

Thanks.

Review: Being Human 1.0: The Pilot

The image you will find on all articles discussing the pilot.

Written 24/2/13

For the sake of completionism, seeing as Being Human is reaching its tragic and untimely end, I thought that I'd take a look at the Pilot that started it all. In 2008, BBC Three was undergoing a rebranding to appear less adult and more dynamic and cool. To facilitate this development, the channel chose to make three pilots for dynamic new series, two of which would be turned into fully fledged series the following year. These included the street-oriented West 10 LDN, the weird and wonderful Phoo Action and, as we see here, the original brief for a cheesy drama-comedy called Being Human.
     The only recognisable face in the cast (i.e. the only cast member to survive the crossover) is Russell Tovey, who is playing much, much camper version of himself. Mitchell actor Guy Flanagan is a much cooler and quieter take than Aiden Turner would later give it, feeling more like a stoner than a brooding heartthrob. Lenora Crichlow's position is taken by the much more Northern Andrea Riseborough, who I actually prefer in the role - she manages to capture the character's initial agoraphobia and loneliness in a way that's much more pulling than Lenora, whose Annie is much more awkward. There's little mention of her death, though, so it's debatable whether Riseborough could have gone forwards to work with that.
     Another interesting difference comes in the Vampires - the ones in the Pilot feel much more modern, hanging out in night-clubs and travelling by limousine, with Adrian Lester's much more subtle Herrick (I love Jason Watkins, before you all pounce on me) feeling rather weird. Lester's interpretation is much more of a PR guy, whereas Watkins' Herrick is called into so many other situations in which his madness and desperation are often brought to the fore. You believe that Watkins' Herrick is mad enough to try to take over the world from Bristol. Lester's Herrick... not so much. Elsewhere, and vampire Lauren (played here by Canadian actress Dominique McElliglott, Moon) goes from being this vulnerable and difficult woman in the main series to being the cheesiest performance I think I've ever, ever seen. (And that includes The Kandyman.)

The not at all scary and the scarily bad.

     It's a real shame, really, that the Pilot has been sorta hidden away for all these years. It has a feeling that's much more embryonic than that of the series proper, outlining a great deal of potential rather than developing anything too long term. It also doesn't have any predispositions - it works perfectly well on its own as an examination of humanity and our desperate desire for normality. It's also pretty funny, to boot. Simply put, it's as good an episode as any other and it more than justifies the lengths that many people went to in order to get the show a full commission.

Thanks.

Review: Being Human 5.4: The Greater Good

Crom runs the gamut of emotions.

Like last week, The Greater Good was another of Being Human's tried and tested Guest Star Of The Week stories, but the wonderful thing about Series Five so far is that said stories have avoided being formulaic and have done wonders to advance our characterisations. This week was another blinder for Hal, as well as a conclusion piece for excellent guest star Ian Crom. Adding to that was the return of the sinister Captain Hatch and of Mr. Rook, now in a more villainous capacity.
    With the power going out at Rook's facility, he shipped inmate Bobby (Ricky Grover, Eastenders) over to the House in order to keep him satiated, while demanding that Hal go and find Crom, who has converted his assistant, Alan, and gone on a killing spree. Bobby takes to Tom, and the young werewolf is able to help him slowly readjust. Similarly, Hal tried to help Crom get clean. As part of his program, Crom tried to go on a date with Alex, which was sabotagued when she admitted her lack of interest and when a plot by Rook and Captain Hatch nearly saw him torn apart by Bobby. Crom tortures Hal in the cellar, causing Hal's evil persona to surface once more, revealing that Hal is losing control. Crom chooses to not become like him, and so drinks a vial of werewolf's blood, killing himself. Hatch whispers The Secret into Bobby's ear, and he kills himself, but Alex becomes suspicious of him.
     Crom's entire storyline has been a weird and often wonderful deconstruction of Being Human's analogy. The people we've previously seen try to quit blood have all been people of purpose - Mitchell was a soldier, Hal was an ancient Lord. Crom is a lonely, quite creepy man whose life before conversion didn't offer him much happiness, and thus the attempts to return him to that time offer him very little release. It was a subtle examination of Being Human's analogy between vampirism and addiction, and Crom's decision to either drink the werewolf blood or become a monster put me in the mind of Shutter Island and its contempories.

This guy keeps getting cast as thugs and idiots.
Give him a break, guys.

      Captain Hatch, after a notable absence last week, returned with a less grotesque but certainly more sinister role. Much like the devil of folklore, his subtle manipulation of Rook's desperation in order to attempt to eliminate Hal and Tom was quite interesting. I like that the series is picking up the pace, and I appreciate that there was a need to develop our new trinity a little more before getting knee-deep, but I had hoped that there would be a much more intense pace, and next week looks like it can deliver the pre-finale slamdown that we have been used to in series prior. I am really liking this series so far, and I just really hope that when it goes out it does so with a bang.

Thanks.

P.S. This Tuesday, I take a look at Being Human's pilot episode! So, er, put it in your calendars, I guess.

Review: Being Human 5.3: Pie and Prejudice

Hal and the obfuscating Lady Mary.

This really is not fair. It's not fair in the slightest. Being Human is on its last series, it should be getting slowly crapper so that we don't feel so bad about its passing, and we can lament its depature and mourn for those old halycon days. But no, the writers are insistent. Against all of my expectations, this episode was bloody brilliant. If last week was the point where I accepted that the old team was gone, this was the point where I came to love the new cast just as much. Bracken, Moloney and Socha are astounding at what they do, and the scripts for this final series are allowing them to squeeze as much as they can out of their characters.
     Like the old style, the episode was split into two mixing subplots. The first involved shady weatherman Larry Chrysler (a star turn by Julian Barratt), who became a werewolf six months ago and has thus ruined his life while still pretending to be a successful personality. Tom becomes enamoured of him, and allows him access to the b'n'b in exchange for "teaching". Elsewhere, Hal revealed to Alex his old friend Lady Mary, a ghost he's been visiting for 250 years. She pretends to be prim and proper around Hal but, as Alex finds out, is thoroughly modernised and irreverent. She believes that she is the only reason that Hal is dry, wrongly believing herself to be his last victim.
     The two subplots came together in a way which allowed all of the characters to evolve. Tom was forced to come to terms withn the fact that the beast within him still affects his life outside his transformations (none of which are shown, which says something of the budget.) Alex, in seeing the delusions Lady Mary spun for herself, confronted her fear of having to be around for an eternity and accepted responsibility of Hal's inner madness. And, unknown to them all, we saw Hal's dark side when he, in response to Chrysler's taunts, lost his cool and strangled him with a TV cord. (In time to call a suicidial Rook.)

Julian Barratt is the slimey Chrysler

     That last scene especially amazed me. Damian Moloney has always had a very different approach to vampiredom than Aiden Turner, with Hal displaying a much clearer sense of the incredibly controlled personality holding back a monster. He looks shaken up after he lets himself go, just in his mannerisms you can tell something is different now. And to speak of the scene itself, well, that was just amazing. It wasn't just anger, it wasn't even primal - it was the concentrated hate and rage of someone who has killed many, many times before.
     It's subtle and powerful acting like that that makes me more sad than ever that this series is coming to an end. Given its tone, I didn't expect Pie and Prejudice to be much, but despite the fact that the Satan arc was pushed to the side, it's by far the strongest episode of this series so far and one of the best character pieces I've seen on the show in a very, very long time. I get the feeling that this more concentrated series is really doing the show good, and if the remaining three episodes (only three, egads) are as good as this, I will be very happy.

Thanks.

Review: Being Human 5.2: Sticks and Ropes

Alex is forced to look after the irritating if tragic Oliver.

After a decidedly lukewarm premiere, Series Five took a deliciously dark turn while still managing to throw in enough elements from across the comedy-drama checklist. It really felt like the premiere that we wanted last week, and we just had to get over some uninteresting backstory to get to the good stuff. We're not just talking decent adventure, we're talking fan-pleasing moments that we've been looking forward to since Annie's arc in the second series, and it was that second series that this episode seemed to emulate the most. It was really getting quite gruesome, to be honest. I don't know whether I think that's good or bad, though.
     At work, lusting boss Patsy set up an Employee of the Week competition in order to snag the still uninterested Hal, unintentionally creating a rivalry between him and the work-hardy, oblivious Tom. Alex, reminiscing about her younger brothers, called Hal and Tom home when she discovered Oliver, the ghost of a young Victorian boy who claims to have been hiding in the house since he died, afraid of the Men With Sticks And Ropes, the terrifying demons in charge of the afterlife. While for the most part Oliver hit all the symptoms of Annoying Child Actor Syndrome, I did enjoy when the storyline took a darker turn, Oliver explaining that he feels responsible for the accidental death of his crippled younger brother. While Captain Hatch (who last week was revealed to be the Devil) tried to fan the flames of rivalry, culminating in a food fight between the boys, Alex and Oliver were almost trapped by the Men With Sticks And Ropes, who tried to drag Alex to the afterlife. His plan foiled for now, Captain Hatch talks Patsy into killing herself.
     The episode's best performance by far came from Phil Davis, now comfortable and settled in the role of Captain Hatch and slowly becoming more menacing the more time he stays on screen. Unlike other devil figures that we tend to see on TV these days, he embodies something very crude and grotesque about the human condition, a physical embodiment of man's worst traits piled into one despicable and yet strangely addicting character. His final monologue, where he pretty much sets out his evil plans (mwhahahah, etc.) is probably up there with some of my favourite moments, as we see Patsy bleed from every part of her face at once. Bah. Wonderfully gruesome stuff.

Oliver is inadvertantly working for Captain Hatch.

     More importantly, this episode did a much better job of developing Alex than last week, and she finally, at least for me, feels rounded as a character. I think a lot of the hesitancy in the fanbase comes from accepting that the show's character dynamics have changed, and episode two post-Annie it's only really just struck me that the show's central matriachal influence, as slightly irritating as I found her at times, has made her absence felt. At the same time, it also blew away a lot of my fears, and Alex is as good a character if not better. She's fun to be around, she's got a great wit and she certainly seems like a more confident ghost than Annie was in her early days. If anything really is missing, it's probably the old feeling that the show gave of the Trinity being a family-esque unit, but we'll no doubt see that improve in the weeks to come.
     I only really give myself an hour to write these "live" reviews, and so it never really feels like it's gonna be enough. Suffice to say that this is gonna go down as one of the better episodes of the series as a whole, and it has certainly made me feel ready for what is now the final series. There was always a fear in the eight-part seasons that it was going to become too easy for filler to fit through the mesh, and now that this series only contains six episodes, I'm fairly confident that it's going to do the series proud. I'm loving the characters, loving the humour and, so far, I'm loving the new tone that the series has going. Keep it up.

Thanks.

P.S. Last week I said that the scenes set in 1918 were in fact set in the 18th Century. Thank God nobody reads these reviews, or I might have actually gotten in trouble for that.

P.S.S I dunno whether to call him The Devil or Captain Hatch. It's like Alisha and Alesha, I don't know.

Review: Being Human 5.1: The Trinity

Imagine the conversation at the writer's table. They had to try and find a way to set up their new season's plot while trying at the same time to establish a cast that's barely had any chance to settle in. None of the original cast is here, the brand identity for the show is practically demolished and it's all looking like a cruel, Fantasy-adapted metaphor for the Sugababes. I think it's a little early for me to call time on Being Human as I did with Misfits, as it can still do a lot to surprise me, but this premiere felt at times as if it was struggling to fit everything into place. I'm also a bit wary of the direction that the show is taking mythology wise, as there's very little sense of continuity of tone between seasons.

Flashbacks show an older Trinity.

     A few weeks after Alex was killed and Annie passed on after blowing up the Old Ones, the main trio have forced to look into new job opportunities after Hal and Tom have been fired from the Diner. They go to a Hotel, which is hiring new staff after an incredibly high suicide rate, implied to be because of a strange old man known only as The Captain (Phil Davies). As flashbacks to the 1800s show Hal summoning the Devil in an attempt to end a Vampire/Werewolf war, present Hal accidentally kills a man named Ian and locks him up in the basement after turning him, trying to make sure that he doesn't become a killer. When Alex and Tom find him tied up, Alex lets him go and the shady, government-led (but apparently not for very long) organisation led by Dominic Rook (Steven Robertson, Ashes To Ashes, Luther) has to pick up the pieces.
      I was afraid that Rook's organisation would end up being a carbon copy of Series Two's CenSSa - an organisation who looked into and tried to control the activites of Supernaturals. The Men In Gray, as they're called, have an all-the-more interesting layer of satire relating them to the Civil Service, which gave the enigmatic Rook a lot of great lines. At the moment I think he's probably my favourite character, and I keep looking forward to seeing him again. There's just something about his Reggie-Perrin-esque outlook on life and yet his sheer audacity in the face of centuries-old-monsters that endears him to me.
     That doesn't say much, I'm sorry to say, about our main cast. There are a few good lines here or there, and they're trying their best, and I'm probably just being unfair, but they didn't stand out. Tom is as bland as I've always found him, and Alex barely gets chance to do anything. Hal gets the most runtime as he attempts to control the delightfully insane Ian Crom (who for some reason appears to be a recurring character), and the exploration of vampire psyche is covered in a way which is remarkably subtle and nuanced. Damien Moloney is just fantastic, and he's doing a good job as the show's main vampire. The problem for me is that the rest of the characters just aren't as strong in the moment.

What could have been a boring government organisation
is improved drastically by a layer of satire.

     The show's mythology, also, is odd. The show's beginnings as a small-scale comedy that used supernatural elements as a funny framing device are by this point not just dead, but buried, exhumed, buried again and then used as a fashionable hat. Wheras last series decided to take the sci-fi ideas and put them into a very strong sci-fi scenario with time travel and alternate futures and ray guns (maybe not ray guns, my memories of Series Four are hazy), this series appears to be doing in the scientist and going straight for the Biblical, with The Captain being revealed at the end of the story to be the modern incarnation of The Devil himself, who has been making people kill themselves by telling them the Secret That Only The Dead Know.
     The show took a blow with the removal of its last original cast member, but it seems to be limping towards something fairly strong. My priority at this point really is to see that Alex becomes as developed as her contemporaries; Kate Bracken is a fantastic actress, but so far she hasn't been given anything to do as a Ghost. After four seasons of heralding Annie as the "most powarful goast evor", I struggle to see where her characterisation can go. That's got to be the show's main focus, as everything else in this new story has a lot of potential, be it shady government organisations or old Nick himself.

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Review: Being Human 4.8: The War Child

Gatiss is good as the impressive Mr. Snow.

"These eyes have looked upon pharohs.... upon the Son of the Carpenter.... and now they have to look at you." Mr. Snow to Cutler.

No real surprises came from this finale, but it did contain a few good character pieces. It felt like it was trying to be a normal episode but was stymied by its own nature as a finale, and I didn't really feel the tension that I needed to. Even when Being Human's finales were written badly, the stakes were high. Here the prophetic nature of this series' threat meant that it felt like they had plenty of time to sort themselves out.
     The Old Ones finally arrived, as it was revealed that the prophecy stated that Eve's death would destroy the vampires instead of saving them. While Tom worked on making a home-made explosive to destroy the Old Ones, Cutler dealt with his rejection by coming round to Honolulu Hights and trying to kill Eve. He was staked by a lamentful Annie. Hal, still fighting his addiction, was met by the evil Mr. Snow (Mark Gattiss), who tried to pull him over to the dark side. As Tom handed Eve over to the Vampires for her own safety, Alex tried to solve her unfinished business with Annie. Hal arrived with a bomb to try and get over his addiction and save the world, but Annie arrived with Alex just in time and got the main trio out of there, killing the baby and Mr. Snow and saving the world from immenent invasion.
     Mark Gattiss I expected to be terrible, but his portrayl was easily one of the best things about the episode - cruel, potent and deliciously creepy. His put-downs toward Cutler were Being Human gold and his exchanges with Hal were excellent. Werewolf Milo was less well-expressed, and he didn't seem to go anywhere. Alex improved by a vast amount this week, as we saw her working in very different situations, although it seemed a tad off when she and Annie had "ghost lessons." They felt much more like they were excercising another episode concept in the middle of this finale, and it had to be rushed in because Annie was going to go soon.

Alex joins the team as the new Ghost.

     About that. This is the woman who turned down the Door. Who made the people in purgatory scared. Who managed to drag her exorcisor into Purgatory with her, and then came back. This is the ghost who evaporated into nothing and then fought back through sheer will. And she just committed casual infanticide. I wanted Annie to go, desperately so, but I thought that it would have been done with a great more pizzaz than it ultimately was. This character, who we have followed through thick and thin for four years, disappears in a heart-beat. I wasn't really an Annie fan, but I recognised her importance in the Being Human universe and I was sad to see her go in such a pathetic way.
      The previews heralded this as the best finale Being Human has ever had, and in terms of character it was. But ultimately, The War Child was totally devoid of any tension, any suspense or any real drive. Our character just seemed to lull around for an hour instead of actually getting down to business, and the reliance on the Prophecy meant that when we did get our resolution, there were absolutely zero visible consequences. A fifth series has been commissioned, and I shall be watching, but as the beginning of a new era for Being Human, this hasn't been a powerful start.

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Review: Being Human 4.7: Making History

Cutler tries to impress.

Is it really the penultimate episode? I've spent so long for this series to really get going that it doesn't really feel right for the usually powerful pre-finale to be here yet. Nevertheless, Making History did not disappoint. While it wasn't as powerful as previous pre-finales, it advanced the plot and developed the characters in ways that this series desperately needs. And, while its cliffhanger didn't have the cinematic thump that I've come to expect, it did leave me hoping that this finale would be better than the three we've had so far.
     Cutler prepared Tom to supposedly destroy the Old Ones, the arrival being merely a day away. At the same time, Hal's investigations into the Vampire PR stunt lead him to Cutler - a man whom he made and tortured a few years before he decided to go clean. Being given blood by a scheming Cutler, Hal fights between his newfound sense of ethics and his primal urges, ultimately settling upon the former when Cutler explains his plan to introduce Vampires as the saviours of the world. The Vampires, copying one of Hal's old tricks, have killed Hal's girlfriend Alex and fed him her blood, but this only makes him more resolute.
     In the afterlife, Eve takes a confused Annie on a sight-seeing tour of the future, discussing how Annie has evaporated out of sadness, Tom was killed in a dog-fight after being put in a Werewolf/Human concentration camp, and how Hal has become the most ruthless killer in the Vampires' arsenal. Claiming that the final part of the prophecy says that the war-child must die, and that she herself is the killer, Eve tells Annie that she will have to kill her at some point.

Alex is a ghost now. Woo. (pardon the pun).

     I'm just going to take issue with this for a second. Now this is immensely stupid for two reasons. The first is something I brought up when this plot reared its head in the premiere: that this is Paradox 101 and if you're trying to be a clever sci-fi writer then you should know that this is impossible. We're not talking some obscure rule of Time Travel that might have gone over the writer's heads, this is really, really basic stuff to tackle when writing about Time Travel. The second is slightly more frustrating, in that this isn't a live Eve telling Annie this, this is Ghost!Eve. Eve thinks that the young version of herself needs to die when hey, SHE'S ALREADY DEAD! By dying and coming back in time she's changed the future enough for Hal to reject blood and try and save the world, her job is as good as done. She does not need to then be incredibly stupid and try and destroy the space-time continuum!
     Hal, with the ghost of Alex (whom I hope will become the Annie's replacement in the Trio), manage to help everyone escape from the hall where Cutler had planned on revealing Werewolves, and they stop Tom from killing anyone. As we see Hal get mauled (maybe), the Old Ones arrive.
     This week shone a light very much on Cutler, and that really pushed Andrew Gower to the depths of his character. It was revealed this week that his nervous exterior was simply the reaction his original making by Hal, who, as we see in the episode's flashbacks, tortured him in many cruel and unusual ways. It was really quite interesting to see how much the power dynamics between Hal and Cutler in 1955 and 2012 affected their behaviour. This followed the pattern of previous finales, having the vampire revert to his bloody ways, but this time it was done in a much more human way.
     Eve and Annie's storyline was the one that I was most interested in, although it didn't really have the impact that I expected it to. It felt very much like a budget-saving exercise; wandering around abandoned buildings while only sound-effects of these supposedly horriffic acts of torture and despair occurred. Aside from the odd mentality, as I covered about, there was something about Eve's attitude which felt a little off to me, which was probably from Gina Bramhill's interpretation. There was the hint of a mother/daughter-esque relationship between the two of them but because of all the conflicting storylines it never got a chance to shine.

Mark fucking Gattiss is head of the Old Ones.

     Making History certainly wasn't disappointing by any stretch, and its character work was really some of the deepest that we've seen in this series so far. It's really up to viewer to decide whether this character focus makes up for a plot that promised an epic scale and has, ultimately led to answers that we worked out six weeks ago. Now I can only hope that the finale will make justice of what has been a difficult rebirth for this troubled series.

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Review: Being Human 4.6: Puppy Love

Allison (Ellie Kendrick) and Tom fall in love.

Puppy Love felt like it came from a place a lot earlier in Being Human's development, both within this series and in general. One of the main issues, really was that the Guest of the Week formula was copied and pasted over every main character (including the villain, bizzarely). But underneath all that there was a whole bunch of really fun characters and this is by far the best episode of Being Human I've seen in a long time.
     Tom was met by geeky female werewolf Allison, who's the school debating champion and managed to track them down based on Cutler's Youtube video. They go to talk to Cutler, and Allison is shocked by Tom's violent ways. Cutler gets a visit from the Vampire Head of Britain, Golda, which peeves him off a bit. Annie accidentally kills an old man, Emrys (Merlin flashback) and has to help his ghost solve his unfinished business. Culter plays the nice guy and tells Tom and Allison that Golda is the one who spread the video, telling Tom to go and kill her. Hal, trying to adhere to routine and avoid temptation, meets a strange woman, Alex, who insists on flirting with him, and they leave on bad terms.
     Playing "revision buddies," Tom teaches Allison how to stake vampires and she teaches him debating skills, in a Hallmark montage to S-Club 8's "Puppy Love". As Tom tells Hal that he can't help him because of Allison, and Alex pops in. While Hal hides, Tom organises a double date. Emrys reveals to Annie that his unfinished business is never having been kissed, which turns out to be a lie. They then find out that Emrys is really mad about his cheating wife. He gives a bitter confession to his wife, but the door doesn't appear. Alex turns up for the date, which turns out to be at a museum's tea shop. Cutler tells Golda to go to a warehouse to get a werewolf (setting her up for Tom), and at learning of his fellow's demise, Golda's gold-coloured pimp lets out a loud, melodramatic, Noooo! (He's obsessed with film clichés). As Tom goes off to kill the gimp, Hal tries to resist the temptation to murder Alex. After managing to kill the gimp, Allison tries to get it on with Tom but he's avoiding things. Tom, brought up by old-fashioned McNair, is put-off by her modern sexuality.

Hal tries to resist temptation.

     Golda gets wise to Cutler's tricks but Allison goes off alone to confront her. Before she can kill her, Tom comes with an emotional appeal for Allison. As she lets Golda go, she tries to murder her, so Cutler stakes her instead. Tom calls Alex to try and get Hal to talk to her, and he leaves a voicemail. Tom tells Allison that they can't see each other again, because he doesn't want to change her. At his request, Emrys and Annie spook his ex-wife, finishing his business and letting him pass on. The Woman then comes through the door, and asks Annie to come into the Afterlife, telling her that she's Eve. (This isn't a revelation, really.)
      I'm going to be honest; this is the most fun that I've ever had watching Being Human, and I'm serious about that. Even when it was a pure comedy, it wasn't as funny and as entertaining as tonight's episode managed to be. And yet at the same time, it was a complete mess - totally unfocussed, overstuffed to the brim and filled with aspects that just don't add up. Together? It. Was. Awesome.
     This was in part due to the character of Allison. Ellie Kendrick, known only for The Diary of Anne Frank, is a superb character actress and I fell for her geeky nymphomaniac almost immediately. Her character over all others gave their respective main character something decent to do, and Socha's final goodbye to her is damn heartbreaking. The way that the episode dealt with love in general was actually really interesting; Tom and Allison showed young love, Hal and Alex showed celibacy and temptation, Emrys showed the bitterness of divorce and Golda's gimps showed hedonistic melodrama. Every aspect of the admittedly overegged story showed a glorious mix of completely over-the-top characterisation and something uniquely human and special.

Emrys showed that not all bitterness is bad bitterness.

      Yeah, I can't be allowed to continue gushing. Despite how many cooks were at this broth, it was most certainly not spoilt and I found myself loveing every last second of it. I may have been blinded to its faults, but it pushed all my buttons and I'm willing to call this the best episode of Being Human ever made.

Thanks.

P.S. There was even a reference to Daddy Ghoul. I was wowed.

Review: Being Human 4.5: Hold The Front Page

Annie and Hal discover a murder.

Becoming Human notwithstanding, child-star Craig Roberts' most recent contribution to the Being Human world was last series' "Adam's Family". I still see that as the worst thing in the series' history, and I stand by that. Luckily, without BDSM vampire orgies, Hold The Front Page was a perfect extrapolation of the character we saw in the aforementioned spin-off, and had both powerful character work and a fun new contribution to the mythos. It was a shame that this turned into a Merlin-esque, "brainwashed characters" storyline, but it was different and still provided some great entertainment.
     Adam, after the events of the spinoff, is seen to meet the headmistress of a posh public school, the middle-aged Yvonne (Selina Griffiths). The two then arrive in the present day, hounded by the press over their apparent toy-boy-style relationship. Despite her long-standing relationship with Adam, the visit to Hollywood Heights is an attempt by him to introduce her to the supernatural world, something which she rejects. Vampire-obsessed reporter Pete (Sacha Dhawan) catches some shots of Adam outside and matches them up with the tapes of Tom from last week, bringing them to Cutler - the man who released him. As part of his anti-werewolf pro-vampire PR campaign, he admits freely that vampires exist, but insists that Werewolves are the real threat.
     Soon, it becomes noticable that every man who comes in physical contact with Yvonne falls in love with her, the suspicions culminating in a dream-within-a-dream of Hal's in which he kills Tom and then baby Eve under her orders. This was a bit of a time-waster, but it was quite tense and because of Being Human's unpredicatability we really didn't know whether this was the intention all along. Pete meets Cutler in his hotel room, and reveals his hatred for Vampires - trapping Cutler in the room with a cross on the wall. When Hal and Annie investigate, they find that Cutler has mauled Pete and used him as a shielf. After all the boys have locked themselves in, Annie forces Yvonne to admit to herself that she is a Succubus, a fifth type of Supernatural. Adam leaves the house in order to decide for himself whether or not he loves Yvonne or is simply brainwashed, but he finally admits to her that he loves her. They move away to an Island, and Cutler spreads his werewolf video on the internet.

Adam (Craig Roberts) and Yvonne (Selina Griffiths) are
in love. Or so they think.

     Most of the humour came from the characters' interactions. Selina Griffiths' continually stuck-up and aristocratic personality is a perfect comedy archetype, but there were some issues. I got the feeling that we were supposed to get some humour out of seeing Tom and Hal's fetishes as expressed by the relatively conservative Griffiths, but like in Adam's Family I really wasn't feeling it. Instead, her more emotional moments showed how both she and Craig Roberts were perfect for their roles, and this episode, with its themes about the manipulation of emotions and the ability to distinguish what is genuine in your own mind, was incredibly emotionally charged.
      The Cutler storyline is looking more and more interesting, despite how little time it's had to shine amongst the rest of these subplots. Andrew Gower's portrayl is a little unnervingly stilted at times, but that adds to his rise as a villain. His subtle manipulation of PR is actually quite innovative and I love that even on three wheels Being Human can still bring up this kind of clever subversion.
     Hold The Front Page was a masterpiece of character moments and drama. A few of the laughs went awry, but this is the first time that I have felt total confidence in our main trio and the dynamic between the characters was a joy to behold. It's certainly not perfect and we've still got a long way to go, but Being Human Mark Two is at an all time high and I'm really loving it.

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Review: Being Human 4.4: A Spectre Calls

Kirby arrives from the other side.

Much better. A Spectre Calls didn't, like the previous two weeks, commit the cardinal sin of being boring. In fact, I could see a lot more promise from this week despite my niggling feelings about the series' future. The truth is that Being Human doesn't have a lot of potential left. What it did have left, A Spectre Calls pushed to the max and delivered an episode that, while flawed, was a vast improvement.
      Following on from last week's teaser, ghost Kirby (James Lance) arrived at the house claiming to be a friend of Nina's, as help for the baby Eve. However, our fascade was soon destroyed as we saw Kirby slowly manipulate each member of the household individually, turning them against each other. When Eve gets a temperature, they have to ring a GP and for the sakes of normality Hal and Tom have to pretend to be gay couple. And it's treated with all the sensitivity you'd expect from a BBC3 comedy. Bad form, Being Human, bad form. Soon Kirby's efforts escalate; he drives Tom off in a fit of adolescent anger, sets-up Hal as an uncontrollable monster and then manages to vanquish Annie by reducing her self-esteem to the point where she simply fizzles out.
     In the vampire storyline, Hal investigated newspaper claims that the decoy killer in the Box Tunnel 20 case, Jason Healy, had human blood in his system, tracking them down to a coroner being harassed by vampires. After Tom had been arrested for beating up a vampire, Cutler used CCTV footage to break him out, before killing the coroner to stop her from talking. Tom and Hal returned to the house, where Kirby gave his (lampshaded) expository speech: he was a 70s serial killer who would befriend children and then murder their mothers. He came to kill Eve on the orders of The Woman, who makes another TV appearance. Through the power of Deus Ex Machina, Annie's power was strong enough to return from being ghost-dead and destroy Kirby once and for all.

Kirby manipulates Tom.

     James Lance's Kirby was incredibly skilled in his intense and unrelenting creepiness, often appearing like one of David Walliams' deranged Little Britain caricatures. He was so creepy, in fact, that I didn't see why his character worked. I knew there was something wrong with him from the moment I saw him; the voice, the demeanor - the serial-killer glasses. This is a man whose entire career relies on seducing women, and he's so unsettling that you can't see him being invited into someone's home let alone being there long enough to murder them. Also, as Annie notes, this is not her first relationship, and, as she was the ability to read people's intentions via their auras, she should have seen this coming. What's more, his manipulation feels a little limp because these people don't need a lot to turn against one another. This plot type usually relies on the manipulation of people's idiosyncracies to see them wrenched from each other; at the moment they aren't truely together.
     I was glad that we finally got another wink to the main storyline, but that was balanced very nicely with the development of the main characters. I suppose the reason why there were so many one-off characters in Being Human's past is because the premise requires them to be there. So while I saw that A Spectre Calls did fall back on an old formula, it was only to strentgthen the characters to a point where they can fly on their own merits. At this half-way mark, things are slowly beginning to pick up for Being Human Round Two. And I'm enjoying it.

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NEXT WEEK: Oh dear god, it's Craig Roberts. Bugger off.