Being Human Review (Parts 1 & 2) – Does the New Americanized Version Work?

Being Human Review – There Goes the Neighborhood , Part 1

I’m going to fully admit upfront that I am one who is very anti-remake, as I generally don’t see the purpose of reworking something that’s already been done when there’s so much great original work out there not being put to good use.  Therefore, it was with some trepidation that I chose to watch this new version of Being Human, as I love the original BBC show.  Putting that hesitancy aside, however, I watched with an open mind and I was very pleasantly surprised by the opening sequence.  The initial voice over by Josh (Sam Huntington), the werewolf of the show, was phenomenal and I have to say that I loved that scene as much as, if not more than, anything that I love about the original.  Actually, I enjoyed almost every moment that the character of Josh was on screen.  Sam Huntington, with help from the writers, does a wonderful job of bringing the character fabulous wit and charm.  For me he was endearing and truly a joy to watch, even in his disturbing scenes.  I loved the song that accompanied the opening scenes, as well.  Actually, all of the music contained within the episode was great and well suited to the show.  Additionally, the episode was very visually appealing from beginning to end and the special effects were very well done in my opinion.  Another plus, something the British version does extremely well, was the dialogue.  It had its off moments without question, but for the most part, I found the dialogue to be very well written, and that was something that I had not anticipated.

Now for the not so good things about the show.  The first and worst for me is the character of Sally (Meaghan Rath), the ghost.  I honestly have to say that I’m not sure if it’s the character or the actress that is the problem here, but for most of the episode I found Sally to be unwatchable.  Her whining moments were beyond annoying to the point of being just plain intolerable.  I do give props to her final scene, however.   The moment when she reaches for the doorknob, in an effort to leave the house, was the only dramatically compelling point in time for the character.  Another negative for me was the character of Aidan (Sam Witwer).  I just have to question if the character name is an homage to Aidan Turner, the vampire Mitchell in the original show, or is it just an interesting coincidence.  Doesn’t really matter I guess, just something that made me wonder, but back to my thoughts on the character.  I admit to loving vampire characters for the most part, so I was very surprised to not care for Aidan.  Vampires should be dark, but they shouldn’t be dull.  Sadly, for me, this character didn’t appeal at all.

The thing that bothered me most about the episode was the preview sequence at the end.  Based on what was shown, it appears that this version is going to follow almost exactly the storyline of the original.  Not a problem for those who haven’t seen the original, but for those of us who have it will get really tiresome, very quickly, as we already know what’s going to happen.  I don’t know for certain that this will be the case; I’m solely basing that thought on the previews that were shown.  It is my great hope that they will be switching up more than just the character names to make the show more enjoyable for all of us, not just the newcomers to the Being Human world.

All of that being said, my overall feelings about the show are positive and I will definitely watch a few more episodes to see how it goes.  What the show does well, it does very well and I was beyond pleasantly surprised by that.  The things that aren’t so good are fixable and it’s my hope that they’ll work those issues out and change things up enough to keep it interesting and enjoyable.  Hopefully Syfy is listening.

Being Human Review- There Goes the Neighborhood, Part 2

I just need to state again, and can’t say enough, how much I really love the music used in the show.   Huge kudos to whomever is responsible for choosing it.  Keep up the great work!!  For anyone else who’s loving the music, here’s a link to Syfy’s  Being Human Playlist.

Now, for the rest of the episode.  I didn’t care for Sally’s opening voice-over at all, but did enjoy seeing a little of Aidan and Josh’s history during that opening scene.  I was very thankful that Sally didn’t whine quite as much in this second half of the pilot, but I still found nothing interesting or likable about her, I’m sorry to say.  I do still really love the visual effects used with her character, however.  Sadly, that’s all I like about her so far.  Moving on to Aidan, I was pleasantly surprised to have him grow on me a bit more.  I really didn’t care for him in the first half of the episode, again, as with Sally, there just wasn’t any appeal there for me.  Now, however, he seems to be becoming a character I could get attached to in time; and he had the best line of the episode when he says to Sally “You too, Amityville”.  Now to the darker side of his character, or maybe it’s my darker side.  Is it wrong that I was urging him to kill the very annoying nurse, as he did with Rebecca (Sarah Allen), or at least thought he did, in the first half of the pilot?  I completely admit being pleased when Rebecca got rid of her.  I wouldn’t have been able to tolerate another episode if that character stayed around.  I knew there was something I liked about Rebecca.  Bad me, I guess.  Actually, I’m guessing that her annoyance was purposeful for this very reason, but I could be totally wrong about that.  And finally there’s Josh, who was my favorite character from the beginning and he still holds that title. There’s a charm that San Huntington brings to this character that is undeniable and I truly enjoy every moment of screen time that he has.

Though I’m still not in love with the show, I’m interested enough to keep watching.  I  also want to reiterate that I really hope they’ll be making more changes to the original show than what they’ve done so far.  There was the addition of the character of Josh’s sister, Emily (Alison Louder), which was nice, and I hope that they’ll be doing a little  more changing up of the character’s storylines to keep it interesting for everyone watching.

So, what are your thoughts about the show?  I’d love to hear from both viewers of the original BBC show and from those who are for the first time being introduced to our roommate trio; so feel free to leave a comment.

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