Thursday, April 14, 2011

Review – Syfy’s Being Human Season 1 Finale “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Me Killing You”

Photo courtesy NBCUniversal

Being Human aired on Syfy, Mondays at 9 pm.

Good.  A good finish to a generally excellent rookie season for this reimagining of the UK original.  It lacked the excitement of the antepenultimate episode (that’s two episodes ago, kids), the gut-wrenching emotion of the episode prior to that, and the sheer joy of listening to great lines from the episode prior to that.  In other words, it got better and better, then less so, but then finally wrapped up nicely.

I’m not exactly sure why they brought Aidan to the hospital when all they needed was blood, especially since he would have been – ironically, given the attack – generally safer at home, it being unlikely that Bishop would want to undergo a second scorching.  The hospital setting, however, was clearly required, since it was the best way to bring in Celine and Nora and to allow Bishop to see that Aidan had survived.

I am pleased that they did indeed have a use for Celine in this episode.  If you read my review of last week’s episode you’ll recall I did say that I hoped her storyline was introduced for a reason at that point in the season, but that I was going to trust the writers.  I am SO pleased that the faith was well-placed.  Her offering of herself helped to strengthen Aidan physically, just as her telling the story of what Bishop had done to her helped to strengthen Aidan psychologically.  And it made a great deal of sense that she would offer herself, not only because she was terminal, but because Bishop had seen her in the hospital and would now likely punish her by attacking her family.

So Bishop’s punishment for entering Aidan’s home without invitation was being burned in much the same way that vamps burn in sunlight in other interpretations of vamp lore.  That was a nice touch.  Maybe I’m an idiot, but I only just realized that the reason Bishop attacked the police officer was because he needed live blood to heal, just as Aidan did.  Silly me, I thought Bishop was just being cranky.

It was great that Aidan and Bishop were allowed to actually fight it out, though I was distracted by the stop-action style of the scene; it felt cheesy to me.  Still, pretty cool ending.  I love that Sally was there and tried to help, and actually did help by distracting Bishop long enough for Aidan to get the jump on him.  And show of hands, how many thought Aidan was just choking Bishop?  My hand is raised; I was thinking – what the heck?  Choking won’t kill him!  Right up until his head came off…  Really well done.

How wonderful that the episode led up to a battle that they all at least intended to join.  Josh’s being locked out – or literally, locked in – was a huge kindness to him by Aidan.  Josh very likely would have won that battle, as the lore in this series is that vampires almost always beat werewolves in a fight UNLESS it’s the full moon, when werewolves would almost always win.  But that would add one more kill to Josh’s tally, and as Josh told Sally in the last episode, you don’t want death on your hands if you can avoid it, there’s no getting over it.  Besides, Aidan needed to finally and permanently break with Bishop and all that he stood for.  Aidan’s line to Josh and Sally beautifully summed up his regret that they were involved at all.  “This should have happened lifetimes ago, and I am truly sorry that it had to happen during yours.”

Looks like Josh’s lockout was a sort of good news/bad news thing for Nora.  The good news is that she now knows Josh’s secret, and she is in fact wonderful about it.  And come on, how adorable was Josh’s furry face under the door?  It was further good news that Josh was alive to learn that Nora had a miscarriage (presumably because of the full moon) and was able to be with her once he had recovered.  The bad news was, of course, that one, JOSH IS A WEREWOLF, two, she had a miscarriage because JOSH IS A WEREWOLF, and three, she may now have been infected by Josh because he scratched her when he was a werewolf because JOSH IS A WEREWOLF.  Seriously, I was kind of expecting a bigger response from her to the fact that her lover is a werewolf.  A WEREWOLF.  I know she’s a nurse and has seen a lot, but COME ON.  And it was lovely that she said it didn’t matter that he didn’t tell her, that she wouldn’t have believed him, but again, COME ON.  Does no one think there was a possibility that little baby Lupin or Lupine might have CLAWED ITS WAY OUT OF HER WOMB?  Just a thought.  I’m happy that she survived, and that they don’t have to deal with what might have happened, as they will likely to have plenty to deal with as a new couple anyway.  I like them together, and I’m looking forward to seeing how their relationship develops next season.

Speaking of things I liked, I really liked Sally this episode.  She was very – sorry – real.  Her interactions with Josh and with Aidan were comfortable, sincere, honest, genuine, true to character, not whiny, and totally natural.  Like someone I’d love to meet at Starbucks so we could catch up.  When she made the suggestion to Josh that he take on Bishop, she wasn’t desperately freaking out like she was when she was trying to get Josh saved from the werewolf fight.  She was intense but fully invested in the plan.  And maybe that’s part of why it worked so well; she had a plan, she wasn’t flailing, and she believed in it.  Sally is always at her best when they allow her to be strong.  I did love it, though, when Josh warned her to not tip off Aidan with special “looks” - “you know, don’t Sally it up.”  And I was so pleased that when she locked Josh up, she was equally strong about that.  Sure she got stressed when the 500-year-old vampire lunged at her, that was totally supportable.

Just a quick note about the flashbacks.  The audience is really owed a bit of help, unless the when-are-we is part of the story, and it wasn’t in this case.  More than once, Josh’s bruises from being beat up by Marcus were the only visual clue we were given that we were back to the early days of Aidan and Josh.  We needed, or at least I needed, more than that.  I did enjoy getting the Aidan-and-Josh backstory, and it felt fitting to have it during the season finale.  Without the issue of flashback mechanics it would have been even stronger, but it was still well done, particularly at the end.

The three of them together in the apartment when it was all over felt like the perfect denouement for the season.  Sitting together, taking stock.  Fittingly, this is when we got my favorite lines of the episode:

“We should get cable.”  “Why?”

“I think I’ll learn crav maga.”

When Heggeman showed up at the door: “She wants to meet you.”  Oooo!

And during the final flashback, as Aidan and Josh are planning to get an apartment:
“You don’t even eat.”  “I like the ritual.”

Kudos to everyone involved in this series.  I can’t wait for the DVDs, and for season two.

And finally, now that the first season is complete, and the third season of the UK original is also complete, and both have been renewed for another season, this seems a good time to award kudos to the rookie adaptation, both for the benefit of long-time watchers of the original as well as for those who have not yet seen the highly-recommended UK series.  I love the way the US series kept some storylines completely intact, changed up others, and added in entirely new ones.  What a wonderful way to adapt a series for a different audience while – here’s the tricky part – recognizing that the new show’s audience will be comprised of both newbies and veterans.  The fact that some story lines were nearly identical paid homage to the excellent original and its fans.  That some story lines were changed or took a different turn – sometimes quite dramatically – meant that veterans could still be surprised.  What a gift to the veterans (yes, like me).  And wow, how bold of the US series to use aspects of all three seasons of its parent in its own first season.  Granted, the US first season had twice as many episodes as the UK first season, but still...  I’m sure it was no accident that some of the plot points in the US Monday broadcast actually used plot points from the preceding Saturday’s broadcast of the UK version on BBC America.  Excellent coordination, mates! 

And here’s one of my favorite things of note: none of the changes made in the US version, at least none that I can think of, directly contradict something in the original.  The personalities of the leads and the ancillary characters differ from one version to the other, but that’s okay: all of their names are different.  I realize this is likely because the US showrunners wanted more “Americanized” names, but it also works to point out that they are not in fact the same characters.  Some of the supernatural aspects invoked differ between the series, but again, they do not contradict each other.  Thank you, US production, for distinguishing your show from its parent in such a deft manner, without making us choose sides.  I love the original, and I love this reimagining.  I can’t think of another instance in which an adaptation, whether it be a spinoff or a “remake,” has so successfully captured my loyalty.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Review - Syfy’s Being Human Season 1 Episode 12 “You’re the One I Haunt”

Photo courtesy NBCUniversal
Syfy's Being Human, Mondays at 9pm Eastern

“You can feel the storm gathering…”  so Sally says in the opening voiceover.  I wish I could feel the storm gathering.  I was definitely feeling that last week, in fact the storm had arrived and looked as if it would just keep getting bigger and bigger.  And then, this week, the wind got sucked out.  What happened to the momentum?  I don’t like a calm before the storm when it’s the second-to-last episode of the season.  Yes, yes, the ending was good.  Still, I just wasn’t feeling it this week.  Except -

HOW COOL WAS ZOMBIE SALLY?!  She looked AWESOME.  Kudos to the makeup department and to the actor, her carriage was so perfectly creepy!  I’ll admit that I was ever-so-slightly disappointed when she returned to normal.  And I’m sorry, but nearly killing Danny brought her back to normal?  Those are some really weird supernatural rules.  Revenge Is Good.  Hmm…  It was interesting seeing how her returned strength made her feel encouraged to torture and kill him.  Even when she stopped Aidan from killing him – and wow, how cool did Aidan look when he was looking down on Danny with those sunglasses? – she then told Danny he wasn’t being saved per se, just saved to be tortured.  Somehow it felt much more righteous when she inhabited the exorcist, or even back when she trashed Danny’s apartment.  I know I know, I have always maintained that Sally was at her best when she was strong, and I still believe that, but strong so that she can torture him doesn’t really feel strong, it just feels… creepy, and not in a good way.

But hey, it’s all okay now that Danny’s gone!  Except Danny isn’t “gone,” he’s simply turned himself in.  For now.  I don’t know, it all just felt kind of… rushed?  It just didn’t feel satisfying, like “yay, it’s all over for Danny now, he’s admitted it and Sally can move on.”  If they really wanted to sell that then I feel like Danny needed to be more emphatic, more terrified, or the police officer needed to have a bigger reaction, maybe radio in the homicide team, just SOMETHING.  And THAT’s why Sally got her door, Danny saying that he killed his fiancee?  It certainly wasn’t because Sally forgave him, because she didn’t, she promised to make his life a living hell.   Really, really “interesting” rules for the supernatural in the Syfy Being Human world.  But there it is, Sally’s door, floating in the living room.  I did like how flustered Sally was about the door, it felt very authentic.  Because the door mythology in Syfy’s Being Human is different from the UK version, I really have no idea what’s coming next, and I am interested.  Not exactly dying to find out, but interested.

A good example of where the energy went all quiet was the Aidan flashback.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but it didn’t feel like the right story at the right time.  I’m sure there’s a reason and I trust the writers, I learned this from LOST.  They’re the professionals, and they have a plan.  I would have thought it was to lay the foundation for increased rage from Aidan, if Celine had told him what had actually happened, that Bishop had attacked her and threatened her family.  That would have helped push Aidan back into the Dutch camp, or at least even further away from Bishop.  And why didn’t  she tell him what happened when he asked?  In nearly her next sentence she referenced the fact that Aidan had said that Bishop was gone.  That would have been perfect timing.  I suppose she felt it didn’t matter anymore, and that she had lived a happy life after a while, but still.  Again, it was a good story, and it gave Aidan the opportunity to see the benefit of offering to turn someone.  And of course, it gave the costume department a chance to go 70s, which was a riot, and gave post production a chance to use a purple wash on those scenes – so very clever, making the scenes look like what 70s photos now look like.  For you youngsters who may not have seen them, photos from the 60s and 70s now look like they’ve had a purple wash on them, it’s the way the chemicals on the prints have deteriorated that gives them that effect.  Lesson over.

I thought I might be able to get through this review without having to mention actual storylines from the UK version, but I have to with Josh’s story line.  If you want to see the UK version but haven’t yet, or at least haven’t caught up to the latest episodes on BBC America, skip the rest of this paragraph.  Now for the rest of you – I find it so interesting that the Josh/Nora pregnancy is mimicking the George/Nina pregnancy.  We only recently learned that Nina’s pregnancy is greatly accelerated, and now, appropriately, so is Nora’s.  There are of course several differences, beyond just the fact that one relationship has been around for much longer than the other.  But Nora isn’t a werewolf, at least as far as we know, and though it was the night of a full moon, George hadn’t turned when he got Nora pregnant.  So either the two worlds are different, or we know that having one parent be a werewolf, even if not in beast form, is enough to affect the pregnancy.  That rapid growth will likely prohibit Nora from having an abortion, if she was still considering it.  Other than the rapid growth, though, it appears that both pregnancies are normal.  So far at least.  I don’t relish the idea of Nora’s abdomen being ripped open from the inside.  Which is why I found Aidan’s advice to “hold on to the good part, the rest you’ll deal with as it comes” more than a little ridiculous, especially as he’s never heard of a werewolf pregnancy before.  Please please, again I implore the showrunners/writers/powers that be to NOT have Josh prolong the reveal, please have him tell Nora about his condition soon.  I like Josh and Nora very much, and don’t like this particular aspect of their situation.

UK Spoilers Over.  So, was that Bishop who flew in through the widow uninvited?  If so he didn’t look quite like himself (yes, I do understand that his flesh was burning), and if not, they should have used someone with different hair color.  Presuming it was, how badly did that intrusion injure him?  That might be a good and interesting twist.  But why oh why did Josh simply hold Aidan’s arm and call and yell Aidan’s name?  Pre-med student Josh?  I sure don’t want him interning in an ER, that’s for sure.  It was fine as an initial reaction, but it went on waaaaaay too long.  And come on, do any of us believe that Aidan’s really going to die?

Okay, I’m done picking at it.  It really was a solid episode that moved the story along, but if they could have somehow switched last week’s for this week’s it would have been a much more exciting build up to the season finale.