Being Human

The last, and final of my summer shows, is Being Human, a show on BBC.

Very cool concept... basically, what happens when a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost all try to live together? Wackiness you say? Well, your wrong.

This show, while it has it's comedic moments, I think aspires more to be a drama. For the first few episodes it seemed to amble around to nowheresville, but now that some interesting relationships are being fleshed out (no pun intended) between the roommates and several outside characters it seems to be a little more interesting.

And now my problems with this show.....

Well, arguably the main character is John, the vampire (left). His supporting cast revolves around the vampires who made him way back in World War I, as John tries to, well, be human, and the other vampires would rather just fully embrace their darksides and kill, kill, kill. There's some back and forth tension there, and the most recent episode I watched, seems to have John given up on humanity after he had to turn a young boy into a vampire because of people's ignorance.
My beef with John is that he seems to follow NO vampire rules. What did the vampires say to Blade: "All of our strengths, none of our weaknesses?" John sleeps pretty much whenever he wants... doesn't really need to drink blood anymore (this is okay, it's neo-vampiric canon that older vampires need very little blood), but what really pisses me off is that sunlight is just bright to him. Awwww. Yeah, seriously... his reaction to the sun is your reaction to the sign on a bright day... you squint. Lame.

The second character is George, the Werewolf (middle). This character is pretty true to werewolf mythos, although he can "cage" himself on the full moon by locking himself in a room. Don't you think a wild beast would wanna get out no matter what?
George met a "friend" one episode named Tully, who claims to be a werewolf. He sure knows his stuff, but we never actually see him turn. Anyhoo, him and George eventually become close friends, despite the fact that Tully's a mooching douche, and eventually George sees the light, and Tully is gone. And buh-bye interesting character. This show is classic for this... only showing supporting characters for one episode, which I think is why it's taken so long for them to pique my interest.
George is now dating a girl named Nina, who is recurring, and recently revealed some pretty intense past physical abuse....we'll see if that goes anywhere, especially considering she has no idea George is a werewolf.

Finally, we have Annie, the ghost (right). When the show starts, she has no idea what happened that caused her death, she's just depressed because she's lost her one true love Owen, and no one can see her. While she pines for Owen, at least George and John can see her, so they all become friends.
Annie spends most of the episodes as a very minor character, especially because for a while it seems like she can't even leave the house. Under stress from Tully hitting on her, she finds she can, although she still doesn't do it very much. Her only starring episode in the beginning involved meeting another ghost at a club, Gilbert, who might as well be the ghost of Ian Curtis he reminds me so much of him. Anyhoo, Gilbert gives any a brief insight into the ghostly world and it's rules, which is very interesting being as this "monster" is the least explored of the three, especially as I'm concurrently reading the vampire and werewolf filled Southern Vampire Mysteries. Anyways, Gilbert also tells (and shows) Annie that each ghost is here to fulfill a purpose, and then they can be free to die. While Annie tragically thinks that her purpose is to "love Owen", a "beyond" induced flashback reveals that Owen actually killed her. While she hasn't acted on it yet, in the most recent episode, by finally splitting from Owen and destroying all their memories (in the form of photographs), Annie has gained corporeal form. Vengeance me thinks is nigh?

This shows alright... I don't like some of the liberties they've taken, especially with vampire rules, but it's a nice twist on your 20something drama, and if the supernatural is your thing, it's worth a peek.