What is it with bloodsuckers lately? They’re everywhere – hot, sexy and in demand. The Twilight series is as popular as it’s ever been. The Twi-heads (fans) showed up in such high numbers at the recent Comic-Con that it threatened to bring down the whole thing. The passion for the lead vampire, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) continues to grow daily.
HBO has True Blood, which also features a brooding, reluctant vampire lead, Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) and is slightly more explicit than Twilight. Somewhere in the middle of these two is BBC America’s new series Being Human. It isn’t as saucy as True Blood, but it isn’t as tame and maudlin as the Twilight films, which is probably a good thing all the way around.
Being Human centers on three “monsters” who are just trying to cope with daily life: a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost. It hardly sounds like this could be shaped into a really good show but it has been, thanks in large part to the writers who deliver laugh-out-loud jokes amid the horror. And it’s due to the seriousness of their individual predicaments – the ghost is in love with her ex-fiance after her sudden death. The vampire can’t really date women because eventually he’ll need to feed on them. The werewolf feels and acts the most human but every once in a while he must transform.
Finally, the success of Being Human lies with the talented actors who never stop believing who they are, thus, we don’t really stop believing either. At some point, their alternate forms become not unlike our own manifestations. We’re not in the supernatural realm but we know loneliness. Annie (Lenora Crichlow) plays the ghost who can’t stop making tea (even though she can’t drink it) because it makes her feel human. George, (Russell Tovey), the werewolf who can’t bear his new life, works at the hospital with Mitchell (Aidan Turner), the vampire du jour.
The pattern of the vampires stories lately seems to be that there are good ones and bad ones. In Being Human, the three characters who live together are still stuck on the good side of things. They are constantly being threatened by the bad ones to come to the dark side.
In the latest episode, Annie has figured out how that while some humans can see her, some can’t, most notably her ex-fiance. She can’t yet let go because she feels the way she did the day she died. He, of course, has now moved on with a new girlfriend. Annie keeps bringing him back. This is how a true haunting is born.
There is a rivalry between Mitchell and George where women are concerned. Mitchell is the cute one, but he’s also the more dangerous one. The trouble with vampires is that they’re very hard to resist. This is true of all of our popular vampires of late. Women can’t say no to a little friendly nibble. The more they love their women the less likely they are to bite.
Being Human airs on BBC America. Check local listings.
