Contributor: John Keegan
After a mess of a “pilot” to kick off the fourth series of the severely revised “Being Human”, original UK flavor, the writers turn their attention to rounding out the new cast. This is essentially done by focusing on the “other” threesome of paranormal flatmates: Leo, Pearl, and Hal. Considering that the show already has a ghost and werewolf, guess which one makes it to the end of the episode?
That’s right: Hal. A vampire with serious issues, but surprisingly, not quite the same ones as Mitchell. OK, they are pretty similar, but Hal doesn’t go with the neo-gothic brooding so much as the nihilistic despair. Hal is fairly engaging, even if I found myself wanting Annie to go shuffling off through the double doors with Leo, so Pearl could hang around and help Hal through his current existential crisis.
A great deal of the episode involves the process of getting Leo and Pearl to admit their long-standing feelings for each other, as Leo prepares for the end of his days. Leo is also confident that someone told him that Hal belongs with the “savior” Eve. There’s a bit of time taken with Annie’s assumption that Eve and her latent power is somehow going to heal Leo, which the other characters accept for some reason, but things are a little more complicated.
The cute blonde from 2037, last seen as a ghost walking through a door to explore time travel, is actually the one contriving to get Hal into the B&B. And why? Because she knows that Hal is a good weapon to toss at Eve when she’s vulnerable, since he’s not entirely sane. It’s just a very long process getting to that critical point, which is filled with a lot of Annie’s irritating blathering and Tom threatening to stake Hal every time he takes a step.
The best moment comes towards the second half of the episode, when Hal and Tom are assigned to find a ring at a pawn shop. Tom, the resident expert in public relations, comes within a few inches of being killed. Hal runs through a very creepy monolog to scare the pawn shop owner into not only putting down the gun, but quite possibly ordering a lifetime supply of Depends.
Meanwhile, Cutler decides to test the impact of the video of George and Nina through the modern advancement of “focus group testing”, which is one of the funnier moments of the episode, to say the least. The fact that the focus group becomes the post-testing refreshment for the vampires is a nice touch.
This episode was a bit less ridiculous than the premiere, but the writers still haven’t sold me on the notion of this new core trio. For that matter, I’m not particularly keen on the whole “War Child” scenario. I was never convinced that making these characters the center of a movement to avoid or fight a war with the Old Ones was a good idea, and nothing I’ve seen has challenged my opinion. This is definitely better than the premiere, but some crucial elements are missing.
Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4
Final Rating: 6/10
