Being Human Blu-ray Review
Twilight's second gleaming.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, December 26, 2012
Are we in a new "Golden Age of Monsters", one that even Carl Laemmle, Jr. himself might envy? The public has
seemingly always had a weird fascination with things that go bump in the night, and Gothic horror has been a mainstay
of several media for untold generations. A cogent case could be made that Universal Studios owes its very existence to
a coterie of hideous creatures, including
Frankenstein,
Dracula and
The Wolf Man. And a very similar
case could be made for Hammer Studios, which in fact recycled some of the iconic Universal offerings for a new
Technicolor generation in the fifties and sixties. But even taking a cursory look around the media landscape these days
reveals a veritable glut of successful "monster" franchises that seem to point out the fact that public interest in this sort
of thing hasn't waned in the slightest through the years, and may in fact be stronger now than it ever has been. While
the
Twilight franchise is probably the
most significant of these entries, at least from a pop culture or even sociological standpoint, all sorts of other goblins
and ghoulies have cropped up for years now in a number of other outings, including this Canadian reboot of a well
received BBC series that posits a werewolf, vampire and ghost living together as housemates. The premise reeks of
exploitation, and this series can never quite overcome its cliché ridden roots, but as with the
first season of the series, a sometimes whimsical sense of humor
keeps things from
totally deflating, at least some of the time.
Without giving away any spoilers about the first season for those who haven't yet sampled the series, the supposedly
major revelation that came out about ghost Sally (Meaghan Rath) takes a decided back seat as the second season
initially
focuses much more on the trials and tribulations of vampire Aidan (Sam Witwer) and werewolf Josh (Sam Huntington).
Aidan is reeling from his perhaps impulsive decision that provided one of the climaxes of season one, but which has now
left him a totally unprepared putative leader of Boston's vampires (at least for a little while). In the meantime, Josh is
struggling to come to terms with his driving quest to live a "normal" life, which now includes his new girlfriend Nora
(Kristen Hager). Nora is understandably worried about the scratches she received from Josh during one of his werewolf
episodes, wondering if that means she, too, is about to need some
serious electrolysis.
At least in the early going of this season, once again Sally kind of gets short shrift, despite occasional little story arcs (in
the first episode she returns to her high
school reunion where she discovers she can "inhabit" living bodies, something that finally helps her to perform physical
actions, which in her ghostly state she's never able to really do very well, to supposed comic effect). Aidan's opening
arc is probably the most compelling of this second season, especially when he's called before a nattily dressed vampire
council and has to deal with "Mother" (Deena Aziz), the imperious leader of all vampires, who rejects the council's
suggestion that Aidan be put in charge of Boston's blood suckers and appoints her daughter Suren (Dichen Lachman)
instead. She
does offer Aidan a "second in command" position and also promises him that if he helps her
daughter succeed, she will grant Aidan his wish of freedom. One look at "Mother" will probably lead many viewers to
doubt her ability to keep many promises, however.
A rather convoluted back story is then developed between Aidan and Suren, including several long flashback
sequences, which reveal some interesting tidbits about why Boston's vampires are a "hidden" group. This overall story
arc is often quite well done, especially when Aidan's attempts to kind of hygienically deal with his "affliction" go
seriously awry and he becomes almost like an alcoholic who's fallen off the wagon. There's a certain almost comic
dysfunction to the relationship between Aidan and Mother as Aidan's torrid relationship with Suren heats up, leading to
one of several cliffhangers as the second season comes to a close.
The Josh and Nora arc also picks up steam, especially after Nora discovers that those little scratches have indeed led to
lycanthropy. Josh, sometimes the most annoying of the three major characters in this series, waffles back and forth
between trying to "fake" a normal existence as best he can or trying to actually discover a cure for his (and Nora's)
"little problem", something that begins to snowball as the season progresses and leads to
their particular
cliffhanger. (The writers here utilize a little cliché once too often for their own good, namely the fade to black with a
gunshot effect happening afterward so that we're all horribly in suspense as to who has shot whom. Suffice it to say
my bets aer on the principal cast returning for the third season.)
To give credit where credit is due, Sally's arc actually starts to pick up several episodes into the second season, where
her newfound ability to hop in and out of bodies has both its benefits and its perils. In an arc that is strangely
reminiscent of one of the major subplots of the second season of the somewhat similar Canadian series
Lost Girl, Sally also finds herself
"stalked" in a way by a malevolent spirit whose motives don't become clear until late in the season. There's also an
interesting analogous "addiction" scenario for Sally that kind of mirrors Aidan's situation with blood supply, as she finds
herself almost inexorably drawn into inhabiting one body in particular.
Being Human is often a little too rote to ever really be very surprising, but along the way in this second season
there are a number of unexpected developments that give the proceedings a little sizzle. The best thing about this
season is that it actually gets considerably better as it goes along, with some compelling situations for all three major
characters leading to a number (maybe too
large a number) of cliffhangers as the final episode comes to a
close. The series continues to exploit a kind of cheeky humor a lot of the time, something that I personally still wish the
writers would push even further. Fans of this genre can get their soap operatic fill with outings like the
Twilight
franchise.
Being Human could really carve out a more distinctive niche for itself were it to take itself
considerably less seriously.
Being Human Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation
There is a glut of supernaturally themed television available these days (I personally have recently reviewed everything
from the aforementioned
Lost Girl:
Season 1 to
Haven to
Sanctuary). (Is it mere coincidence that all of these series are either British or Canadian productions?) Is
Being Human any different from its ghoulish kin? Yes—but perhaps not as much as it might be, and there's the rub.
Too much of this series plays like a slightly hipper version of
Dark Shadows, minus the outright camp, but adding in
some quirky humor. But a lot of this series just kind of hovers in a middling quality area that's certainly okay, but which
gives hints of having a
lot more potential. That potential
may be getting realized slowly but surely,
however, for this second season gets better and better as it goes along, building up considerable momentum and
delivering some decent chills as it careens toward three interlinked cliffhangers. It may not rise to the level of "must see
TV", but
Being Human manages to maintain interest enough to come
Recommended.
