Contributor: John Keegan
Written by John Jackson
I’ve made no secret of my lack of enthusiasm for this series of “Being Human”, especially when I feel that the second season of the American version of the show is running narrative circles around the British original. Considering that this fourth series is only 8 episodes long, and there’s been hardly any sense of the overall story arc, one might think that this installment might feel like progress.
In a way, it is, but in so many other ways, it’s just nothing of the sort. For one thing, it’s great that they are finally doing something with Cutler’s whole plan of releasing the video of Tom turning into a werewolf as a propaganda campaign. On the other hand, it’s pulled into the limelight due to a conflict with “vampire management”, namely Golda, who is accompanied by a ridiculous idiot of a thug who literally speaks only in lines lifted from action movies. (Though his vain attempt at a dying quip was actually rather funny.)
If this season is succeeding on any level, it’s the double act of Tom and Hal. When the writers focus on them, to the near-exclusion of all else, the show actually starts to find that old spark again. Of course, this is largely because those scenes feel like they were taken out of a completely different show entirely. Still, it makes me think that the writers would have been far better served if they had abandoned this “grand plan” for the story arc, and just focused on the introduction of the new status quo and the inevitable character drama that ensues from such a move.
For example, taken in isolation, there’s a lot to like about Tom and his interaction with Allison. Allison is a lot of fun, somewhat Hermione-esque, and it would be great if she were to become a recurring character. My only reservation is that she is like a lot of the guest stars this season, in that she’s written with all the subtlety of a brick to the face. Like Michaela and Yvonne before her, Allison is largely defined by stereotypical geekiness.
To a certain extent, the same problem exists with Alex, as the forward modern woman to Hal’s repressed Old One. What makes it work is how the characters are used. For example, Alex is designed to give direct insight into Hal’s psychology. Not only is she a temptation for Hal, but she correctly points out that Hal’s personality is akin to religious self-repression. That’s a stereotype all its own, but it does work as a metaphor, since as the story goes, things get ugly when the repressed finally unleash. (Which, in fact, makes Alex a perfectly designed future victim.)
As has been the case for quite some time, the more the story works for the vampire and the werewolf, the worse it seems to get for the ghost. Annie continues to flounder in narrative purgatory in this episode, saddled with the curmudgeonly spirit of a neighbor she accidentally killed. It’s long been the pattern that Annie is weak and vapid until the script calls for her to draw on hidden reserves of strength and purpose, and that’s exactly the tired direction that the fourth series is headed.
Perhaps the final moments are the most indicative of this series’ problems. It’s clear that the young woman’s admission that she is the future Eve is meant to be a bit of a twist. There’s just one problem: it was blindingly obvious. So either she is telling Annie the truth, in which case it’s terribly predictable, or it’s purposeful misdirection, in which case it’s telegraphed to the hilt by being too obvious a solution. Either way, the heavy-handed approach robbed this plot element of any mystery.
Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4
Final Rating: 6/10