Review: Doctor Who 7.3: A Town Called Mercy

The Gunslinger is a fun but complex figure.

Some people are claiming that Toby Whithouse, in this episode, is only writing a "standard Doctor Who episode," and are using that to dismiss A Town Called Mercy as forgettable, or unimportant. But what it does do is highlight a few problems that the Moffat era has posed, in that this was totally unlike its two predecessors. Mercy wasn't just a bam, sham, thank you ma'am romp, it was actually about something. it had a message, it talked about stuff that we need to be talking to our kids about. Sure, it didn't leave me with the... strength of emotion that I felt last week or the week before, but it's certainly the first story of this season that I'll be inclined to watch again.
     The Doctor and co. arrive in Mercy after attempting to head to Mexico, finding the Western town surrounded by a border enforced by an alien cyborg known only as the Gunslinger (Dominic Kemp), who has demanded that they turn over "The Alien Doctor." The townsfolk are well aware that their Doctor, a Kahler scientist named Jex (Adrian Scarborough), isn't from around here, and thus have let him rig up the town with leccy and cures for most of the contemporary diseases. The Doctor tracks down Jex' ship, using Rory and the protective Sheriff Isaac as decoys, and discovers that Jex is in fact a war criminal whose experiments created cyborgs like the Gunslinger by torturing innocents. The Gunslinger is a rogue cyborg who has searched the Universe to destroy his creators, and The Doctor doesn't know whether to allow Jex to escape or to hand him over to save the town. Soon, his deadline comes up and Jex, having had a big moral debate with The Doctor, self destructs in his own ship. Without purpose, The Gunslinger takes up the position of the town's Sheriff, becoming its everlasting protector.
     After touching upon both the issues of faith and the doctor's own sense of guilt in The God Complex, Whitouse this time looks at a Star-Trek style moral dilemma between a monster rightfully seeking revenge and a war criminal seeking redemption to hold back his own guilt - a parallel that the post-Time War Doctor can clearly relate to. It helped that Adrian Scarborough is such a brilliant actor, and imbues Jex with a sense of fragility and regret that also keys into a sort of quiet desperation when the Gunslinger does come for him. After last week's Chibnallisms (I can't bring up the courage to actually call them "characters"), these more complex characters came thick and fast and they're absolutely divine to watch in this context. Whithouse, after Being Human and his previous stories, knows how to write for people as opposed to Chibnall's empty shells and Moffat's un-thought-out archetypes.

Jex is a complex villain - the first for a while.

     Of course, it wasn't perfect. The moments which I so loved didn't gel together as well as they should have. But I really didn't mind. Whithouse's story is immeditely the standout story of the ones so far this season, simply because I'm still thinking about it for reasons that don't include confusion, anger or pure hatred. Instead, I bloody loved this episode. It was thoughtful, intelligent and visually captivating at the same time, and that's exactly what I want from this show.

Thanks.

Review: Doctor Who 2.3: School Reunion

Nostalgia-fest galore as Sarah Jane and K9 cameo.

Doctor Who - Season 28, Episode Three - School Reunion Written 20/3/12.

I don't hate Season 28. It's not that. It's just that it contains some of the worst Who that I can ever claim to have seen. I would rather watch Time-Flight or Terror of the Vervoids, two of my least favourite Eighties stories, than ever touch upon New Earth ever, ever again. But that doesn't say anything about the season that surrounds it. In Being Human, Adam's Family is the lowest the series ever sunk to, but I'm prepared to say that Series Three was one of the series' best.
     The comparison to Being Human is particularly apt with today's episode, the final one in my examination of Season 28 over this Holiday period, School Reunion by Toby Whithouse. School Reunion is somewhat like a rose set into liquid nitrogen; it's a unique and precious thing to behold, but one that will shatter with the slightest knock. Like Tooth and Claw, School Reunion boasts a lot of high-profile sci-fi ideas, but this time the characters are enough to keep it afloat when the plot's hull strikes the iceberg. This can be blamed, in part, by something that warms my Whovian heart - the return of Sarah Jane Smith and K9.
     Let's take a second to discuss The Sarah Jane Adventures. Season 28 was the one that pretty much launched both of the RTD spinoffs, Torchwood (for the Good Captain) and The Sarah Jane Adventures, a Softer and Lighter version of the main show following Sarah Jane and her entourage of children. While I loved the first series, I gave up after the main companion Maria (Yasmin Paige) bogged off after the first series and I detected either a drop in quality or my own movement outside the target audience. Nevertheless, the series continued to contribute towards the Whoniverse many times, including cross-overs with the main show, something that Torchwood never did. While I didn't like it, I recognised that it had a large fanbase amongst younger fans and I was greatly saddened by Elisabeth Sladen's untimely death in 2011.

Anthony Head is great as Finch.

     School Reunion, like Tooth and Claw, is the seed story for the spin-off, and so has to juggle that with any other ideas it may have. The main plot follows The Doctor, Rose and Mickey's investigations into Deffrey Vale School after Mickey reads news reports about lights in the sky and strange staff changes. It turns out that Sarah Jane is investigating also, and together they discover that the new Headmaster, Mr Finch (Buffy star Anthony Head, in a delicious performance), is a Krillitane who has brought some of his fellows to work at the school, and through using a special oil on the compulsory school dinners, they plan to brainwash all of the kids into solving an equation that will let them rule the Universe. The episode is a Scooby-Doo plot, and ultimately the day is saved when Mickey frees the kids and K9 uses his laser to explode a vat of the oil, which the Krillitanes are allergic to.
     I'll be honest, School Reunion's best facet is not its plot. The shambling element is pretty linear and it doesn't really go into much detail about just how interesting these ideas could be if properly exploited. But that's fine. Really, that's ok, because Whithouse is all about the Characters and their dynamics. Here, the quiet contemplative moments between Sarah and The Doctor are some of the best things in the season, and despite making references back to an event that occured 30 years prior (The Hand of Fear, 1976), it still manages to move even if one is ignorant of the subject matter. I chose to explore the Eighties when I looked into Classic Who, and I'm glad that I did, because I know that I have so much great Doctor Who left to experience from Sarah Jane's era.
     The weekly, "Complain about Doctor and Rose" bit? Well... more Rose than Ten. He is a little angsty here and there, but it's done with some panazz and as this is his fourth episode it isn't as tiring as it would become in, say, Season 29. In fact, this is the first episode where Ten shows some of the better aspects of his character - the rampant enthusiasm for the cosmos, the unrelenting battle against corruption, all that sorta thing. No, the annoying one this week was Rose, who apparently assumed that she and the Doctor were "special" and that the 900-year-old alien with a time-machine had only just decided to have a companion. (Here's a great piece on Deviant Art that describes this more simply.) It's not that I have a vendetta against Season 28 Rose, but she sure does not make it easy. I found the slanging match between Sarah Jane and Rose near-intolerable at times, because it seemed to stem out of Rose's immaturity more than anything else.

Goodbye, my Sarah Jane.

     Like Being Human, School Reunion's plot isn't much to talk about, but what is important is the way that he handled the return of the second-most important recurring character in Who history. (The first being the Brigadier.) The problems with the main cast still exist, but I found myself really enjoying School Reunion's mix of action and nostalgia, and the fact that I enjoyed it at all is a testament to how well the characters were written. Season 28 isn't all bad; episodes like this, The Girl in the Fireplace and the Impossible Planet two parter are some great Who. I think it's perhaps a statement about Doctor Who on the whole that whereever you look, in even the worst parts of the series, there will always be something to entertain.

Thanks.

P.S. I am literally in tears right now.

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.

Thanks.

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.

Thanks.

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.

Thanks.

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.

Thanks.

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

Review: Being Human 4.3: The Graveyard Shift

Hal and Tom fight alongside one another.
(And Michaela.)

It feels like Being Human has reverted to some form of embryonic stage in its development. The chemistry between the three main leads is getting there, but it still fails to acheive the same manner of comic timing and charm that the original trio got back in the third episode. There's also a sense that the series has stalled rather dramatically. Time will tell whether it's the fault of the driver or whether it's just out of gas. The episode started to get interesting by the end, but it was too little too late.
     Despite his fear that he would be unable to control himself, Annie and Tom forced Hal to get a job in the local greasy spoon where Tom works. They banter, and form a trusting friendship. Vampire honcho Fergus in in awe of Hal's return, and inadvertantly tells him about a raid on the greasy spoon the next day. He tells Hal to step aside and let them kill Tom. Hal, becoming friends with Tom over a strange emo girl called Micheala, instead protects him and they escape with Michaela back to the House.
     Meanwhile, Annie's lack of ability to trust her boys (who she sees as lodgers) saw her visit vampire-recorder Regus (Mark Williams, being a bit more sad and desperate), who had previously arrived at their door concerned to discover that the War Child was still in Barry. He makes Annie share her sexual experiences from memory in exchange for vital information, which didn't really sit right. He informs her of someone coming to take the Child, and says they have to escape. She ignores his request at first, and then invites him back to the House to start packing. When the boys return home, Hal is offered the leadership of the Barry Vampire coven by Fergus, but Hal just stakes him. After a battle, Michaela is resurrected as a vampire and goes off to be Regus' girlfriend, while Annie finally accepts her boys as part of a familial unit.

Oh wow, I hate you. So much.

     Usually I love character work, but this was just boring for the first 45 minutes. The character of Michaela could have been a fun subversion of several stereotypes associated with the genre. Instead, she's an irritating caricature who only serves to make the episode's more boring sequences nigh-unbearable. I think that her jokingly-managed transformation into a vampire took away from the series greatly; in Series One these issues were incredibly severe and treated as the height of drama. Here we get to see an incredibly annoying woman get to live forever.
     This ties into something that's distressing me about Series Four of being human. You can forgive it for not having the same chemistry as before, or the same temperment, but it doesn't know what it's doing. There's no point to anything, it's all just loose scraps picked up off the cutting room floor. The end of the episode saw the arrival of a campy ghost from the Afterlife. The one thing this series does not need right now is more characters. 
     The Graveyeard shift had a few moments of promise, and it seemed wary of its characters issues. But it didn't exercise their gradual reconciliation in an interesting way, and in the end it fell into farce. Being Human better book up its ideas if it hopes to reach the potential promised by the premiere, and it needs to do that before the series collapses under the weight of its own expectations.

Thanks.

Review: Being Human 4.2: Being Human 1955

Annie holds a "ceremony".

So we need a Vampire/Werewolf/Ghost dynamic, but we're currently stuck with one incomplete group and a full group half-way across the country. Being Human 1955 was, in short, an exercise in character manoeuvering - moving our characters into the right configuration so that the series can adopt some form of "standard". Unfortunately this meant that unlike last week, the episode was a lot more sedate, and tried to focus its lense on the characters - with various degrees of success.
      In the South, the trio of vampire Hal, aged werewolf Leo and 50s ghost Pearl heard an after-life radio message from The Woman (whom I refered to as "Future Eve" last week) telling them to head up to Bristol and find the Messiah. Despite their concerns, Pearl and Hal bow to Leo's wish to follow the message and they pop up to Annie and Tom. Tom and Hal share immediate animosity, even when they meet a shopkeeper who tries to kill them. Despite Annie's best attempts to "harness" Eve's messiahhood, Leo is still dying. It becomes apparent that Pearl loves Leo and the feeling is mutual, and both are able to pass on when they admit this to one another. Losing Leo and Pearl drives the usually controlled Hal into trying to kill Eve and later the shopkeeper. Tom stops him in time, and the three settle into an uneasy friendship. Meanwhile, Fergus asserts his authority over Cutter and discovers Hal's presence.
     Despite how well these characters are played, these characters and relationships are a little worn for my liking. Legendary Vampire who's fighting personal demons? Check. Animosity between Vampire and Werewolf? Check. The relationship between Leo and Pearl felt excruciatingly contrived - there was no real depth to it, just an attempt to get them out of the way as soon as possible. The fact that very little actually happened didn't make it any easier, and I really expected these characters to be phenomenal. They weren't.

Leo and Pearl love one another.

     I'm getting worried about Eve and this series' overall arc already. The episode didn't touch upon it all, aside from the Woman (who I deeply suspect is not Future Eve, but who knows?) appearing on a TV and on the radio. That was a far more fascinating part of the story, and I would love to have the Woman's character developed properly, and not just have her dip in now and then. But this is Being Human, and that's exactly what she's going to do. I just hope, really deep hope, that this will get better.
     Being Human 1955 tried to be a focussed character piece, but instead of developing the characters from the 1955 trio, it felt like a lazy way of reasserting the usual formula. It felt stagnant at times, and aside from a few decent monologues it didn't cover any ground that Being Human had ever fallen shy of. It wasn't messy or even boring, but it felt like one long retread of everything the show's already done. And that's not good form.

Thanks.

Review: Being Human 4.1: Eve of the War

Eve. In 2037. They went there. And it's awesome.

A lot of change happened since Series Three of the rather troubling comedy-drama Being Human. That series took it so far from its original comedy roots that it's often difficult to know how to approach the series. Series Four is now faced with the evacuation of three-quarters of the cast, with vampire Aiden Turner having left at the end of Series Three and werewolves George and Nina tleaving too. The question on everyone's lips is whether Being Human can survive this near-catastophic change, or whether it can stay the course.
     Funnily enough, whereas previous premiers in the series have been quick to establish a new formula, this episode managed to deal with all of the previous themes of the series while setting up this series' arc. Previously it felt like the characters fought against common sense to establish their main character groups, but Eve of the War took a very, very different path that was almost like its cousin The Fades.
     There were a lot of sudden cast changes in between the series, but not of the sort that Being Human is alien to. Nina (Sinead Keenan) is suddenly dead, five-minute character Wyndam (Lee Ingleby) is dead and everyone has been affected as a result. George (Russell Tovey, who's being a bit more sedate) is resigned to sitting in front of his daughter's cot with a stake, and Annie is tired and depressed, despite help from werewolf friend Tom (Michael Socha). The Vampires, waiting for the Old Ones to arrive and begin a mass invasion, kidnap the baby believing that it's the first Organic Werewolf.

Griffin leads the Vampires.

     The full-moon arrives, and the baby doesn't change. Vampire leader Griffin, the one responsible for Nina's assassination, locks up George as a consolation - before the local historian, the Vampire Recorder (Mark Williams), realises that the child is the War Child - a human messiah, born of werewolves, who will kill all of the Vampires. Sacred to his prophecy, he helps Annie and Tom save the baby as George triggers a half-transformation to break out of his cell. He kills Griffin, but they soon realise that the half-transformtion has fucked up George's internal organs. He dies, but not before naming his daughter Eve.
      One part of the episode that was distinctly exciting for me was a side of the plot set in the future of 2037 - a world where Vampires rule and Humanity is a resistance movement serving under Eve.When Eve finds the manuscript to the final part of the Vampire prophecy, she asks to be killed and then she heads into the Afterlife, announcing her intention to kill the War Child. And, finally, in Southhampton, our new Vampire Hal worried with his ghost friend Pearl about his long-time werewolf buddy. He survives his penultimate transformation, but they realise that something has to change.
     When I expected Being Human to have changed, I didn't really expect this complete turnaround of themes and ideas. Since Series One, the series has been about humanity; the original brief had very human character with problems like drug abuse and agoraphobia. Where there the Vampiric prophecies were treated like the doctrines of madmen, Here they are embraced as part of the series' fabric, and that's fine. It really is. But I'm really hoping that the series can still portray human characters like it usually should do.

Eve isn't a werewolf at all.

     Am I sure about the futuristic elements of the premier? Not really. But they were incredibly fun, and I would have loved it if we could have spent more time there. It's not really a logical place for Being Human to go, but any nods towards a more Sci-fi-oriented show is music to my ears. It added to an atmosphere that managed to build upon layers and layers of dark atmosphere that have been increasing since Series Two.
    Eve of the War had the balls not to rush into finding somewhere comfortable for the series to go. It may be claimed that it was just killing off old characters so we could get some frash blood in, but even so it was executed in a way that left me wanting more. The series' new direction may be slightly shakey, but so far I'm confidant that if it can pull this off, it will become one of the most revolutionary shows on TV. If it can't, then at least we have new actors to cushion the blow.

Thanks.

P.S. Playing a particularly dickish recurring character is Dexter from Survivors.