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Blogged Around Philly: Farewell Edition
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Yes, we know, Phillyist is a Philadelphia cityblog. But once in a while, something related to our daily "Whiz of the Web" feature comes up that, while not perhaps immediately relevant to the city, resonates with our writers or staff. Enter "Whiz of the Web Reviews," a sometime-feature on Phillyist in which we step a bit outside of Philadelphia to let you know about something available locally, on TV or otherwise, that we thought you readers might enjoy.
BBC America's new series Being Human (airing Saturdays at 9PM) is about a werewolf named George (Russell Tovey) and a vampire named Mitchell (Aidan Turner) who live together in a house that's haunted by a ghost named Annie (Lenora Crichlow). It may sound a bit silly and contrived, and even a little cliche, but it's actually quite a clever show, and although it does get rather dramatic, it never takes itself too seriously, and makes sure to always take advantage of the comedy inherent in its rather bizarre situations.
Although our three heroes appear at first to be regular young folks of around 20, Mitchell had a bit part in Casablanca and actually fought in the second World War—in fact, that's where he was turned. He's quite friendly for a vampire and took the troubled, newly transformed George under his wing, suggesting they work as orderlies at a city hospital and rent a house together. It was pure coincidence that the house happened to be the scene of the recent death of a young woman. Something about her death remains unresolved, so she's still just hanging around. All three of them are fighting what they are—fighting to somehow remain human. They're always meeting other monsters who try to convince them to embrace what they are (a werewolf tells George, "You're a shark. Be a shark," and a vampire asks Mitchell, "Who are you saving, really? Have you seen Britain's Got Talent?"), but they just can't. Mitchell refuses to drink blood, and helps George lock himself up each month when he transforms. Meanwhile, Annie tries to talk to people as if she's alive, and is constantly making mugs of tea that she can't drink. To all of them the house is a kind of sanctuary where they can feel safe from the world outside—while there, they don't have to hide what they are, or even face the reality of it at all.
But that doesn't mean they're all happy and well.
All of them crave real human companionship. Annie died before she could marry her fiance, and she misses him desperately. But if she shows herself to him now, she'll only scare the crap out of him. Meanwhile, the women Mitchell has relations with tend to end up dead or turned into vampires themselves, and George is afraid something similar would happen to anyone he got close to. So they struggle along, hungry for blood and life and sex, pretending to be what they're not.
These are more than one dimensional characters, however. Mitchell isn't your typical guilty, emo vampire with a heart of gold, constantly whining about his terrible fate. He's actually quite cheerful much of the time, even as he's fighting his addiction to blood and keeping secrets about the other vampires in his life. And except for the one night a month when he's a ravening beast, George is a shy dork who has serious difficulties with social interactions. In fact, watching him try to talk to people is nearly unbearable. (As Mitchell puts it when comparing himself to George, "I can actually talk to women without weeping or setting fire to myself.") It's one of the only things about the show I really dislike, but I can't even really criticize it, as I only dislike it because it's so painfully realistic and believable. (Later Mitchell says, "I never know with you whether it's Jewish guilt or werewolf guilt," and George responds, "They're pretty much the same thing.") As for Annie, she's a very happy, bubbly, talkative ghost, but her relationship with her fiance was more complicated than it at first seems, as is her relationship with her own afterlife.
Possibly even more complex than the main characters are some of the secondary characters that drift into their lives, such as an ill-mannered ghost named Gilbert who's stuck in the '80s (and whose story is particularly touching), and a werewolf named Tully who serves briefly as a mentor and teacher to George. Tully seems confident and at peace with himself at first, but inside he's just as twisted and broken and desperately lonely as the rest of them. He starts to drive a wedge between George and his friends by revealing there are things that Mitchell has been keeping from them. The vampire that turned Mitchell, a powerful and dangerous creature named Herrick, has big plans for his people. He wants to start "recruiting" strategically with the ultimate goal of revealing the existence of vampires to humanity. "Everything's about to change and nothing can stop it," Herrick tells Mitchell. "This is nature; this is tectonic plates shifting. The only things you and me get to choose is which side we're on when it happens. Something to ponder." Mitchell, like the rest of his house mates, chooses to stand with humanity, even though they're all forever separated from it.
As you can probably tell, there's a lot going on in the show. And the great thing about it is that, like most BBC shows, it doesn't introduce a plot line and then just sit on it, dragging things out with loads of one-off episodes that don't tell you anything. Instead, in just the first three episodes shocking things are happening all the time—big revelations and huge events that change the dynamic of the characters' lives (or afterlives) dramatically.
Besides watching Mitchell fumble about with women, the only other thing I dislike about Being Human is the rather corny bits of narration that introduce each episode. The lengthy one that starts off the very first episode is particularly bad, but don't let it turn you away. The show is actually very smart, very funny, very moving, and very insightful. It even makes pretty brilliant use of contemporary pop music on its soundtrack (in fact, some of the song selections are almost too on the nose). And even though its three main characters are essentially monsters with problems none of us can reasonably expect to face, the show really is ultimately all about being human.
Image via BBC
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