Being Human 4x1

[vaznetti]

Hello, Livejournal! or Dreamwidth! I am sorry I haven't posted in more than a month. And I am sorry that this isn't any kind of personal update (maybe I should do that?) Instead I have comments on the season opener of Being Human below.

I was spoiled for the casting changes, which was probably a good thing for me. I still don't like them -- I especially don't like the lack of Nina -- but I'm willing to see how the writers cope. I can only imagine that the actors only made the decision to leave the show after the last season was done, since otherwise it was a bit stupid of the writers to give them a pregnancy storyline -- especially since it would have been much easier to have Nina killed at the end of the last season. Who knows, she might even have had a death scene! (I am assuming that since the actress didn't come back at all that something is up; I like her work and hope she's OK.)

I'm reserving judgment, overall. There was more that I didn't like than I liked, but I'm willing to see how things pan out.

Things I liked:

• I am glad, given the other changes, that they kept Tom; I liked that he was more than a bit lost. And hey, he's easy on the eyes.


• New Media Vampire is amusing, and might make an interesting opponent.


• The keeper of vampire history was also a good new character -- especially the sacrifice scene. Achilleus est in horto! (Obviously I don't know anyone's name yet, but Wikipedia tells me that New Media Vampire is named Cutler and Archivist Vampire is named Regus.)


• The other trinity of house-sharers. A bit stupid, but cute. Except that I had my "actors all look the same" problem, and for a while thought that Hal and New Media Vampire were the same guy.


• In the future, the role of John Connor will be played by Eve Pickering-Sands. I really, really loved that.

Things I didn't like:

• That the way Eve is going to save the world is by killing herself. Because of course women can't save the world except by self-sacrifice. At least when Buffy tried it she already had a couple seasons of averting the apocalypse the normal way. I really, really hated that. If there is no clever way out of this plot development, I may just wash my hands of the show.


• Nina's off-screen death. I assume that there were Doylist reasons for this, but it played out as just another fridging.


• Actually, it all felt very boys-club to me. Only three new, speaking female characters that I can think of, of whome one is a ghost and the other two die by the end of the episode (but Eve will presumably be back again...)


• George. Not his death or death scene, but all the scenes where he sat there with his back to his baby. I get why they wrote it like that, but I didn't care for it, and it made his death scene feel a bit cheap to me -- after all, he didn't really want to keep living.


• More vampire bullshit.


• And vampire mythology. I just feel that digging into vampire mythology never ends well. I don't mind it on a cheesy show like The Vampire Diaries, because their history is actually hilarious, but I can't really see how it will fit with Being Human, which has much more of a "real world" vibe.


• It was gripping and moving and all that, but I miss it being a funny little show about people with problems trying to get by. I like plot arcs, but I like humor too.

I am sure that part of my problem with this episode was that I don't like "children in danger" plotlines, and especially not babies in danger. So I did not enjoy watching the episode, and thought about giving up once or twice. (I'm glad I didn't, because the sacrifice scene was priceless.) What I would really like is a more active solution to the Eve problem (one that doesn't involve suicide by time-travel), and for Annie to play a major role this season. I mean, if Eve doesn't avert the future dystopia, but Annie does, I would be happy.

So I'll see how it goes.

Comments

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

I agree with pretty much all of this -- as you can mostly observe from the very long-winded half-flail/half-overanalysis I just posted. *wry g* So I won't repeat all that.

I can, however, assure you that Sinead is (a) perfectly fine, and (b) a regular on the new series of Lip Service, which was shooting approximately concurrently with BH in Glasgow. Nobody has said publicly whether Russell or Sinead was first to put in their notice, but both definitely did so after S3 was in the can. So this was definitely all inter-season adaptation to circumstance.

I realized yesterday that, for all BHUS' flaws, Sally and Nora started reliably passing the Bechdel test before Nora could even see or hear her. Meanwhile, Annie is stranded among a bunch of dudes again. This does not please me. Nothing against Hal (or for him either; not enough of an impression yet), but I don't think I'll ever stop wishing they'd filled the vampire slot with Nancy.

[vaznetti]

I saw your post and thought -- aha! we are of one mind here!

Like you, I do like shows which are narrative-heavy and all about avoiding the apocalypse, but even so I just miss the different vibe that Being Human has in its first seasons. Given the problem the writers were handed when Russell and Sinead left they... did OK, I guess. I do wish they had been a little more conscious of the gender-imbalance that resulted from their solution, and of the "the only good woman is a dead woman" vibe that we've been left with (are there any living female characters at this point? I suppose baby!Eve should count.) I watched Supernatural for three seasons and it was never quite this bad, despite the lack of a female protagonist altogether.

Anyway, must run and prepare lecture.