Published: Monday, 26th January, 2009 9:30am
The morning after the night before
So. Being Human episode one aired last night. *Now* do you understand why I was so giddy?
Over the last couple of months this blog has - thanks to a mixture of juggling other priorities of my day job, tied in with the impending launch of Being Human - become a de facto place heralding the beginning of the show and not really covered much else. In part that's because I've been lucky enough to get some fab exclusives which it would be daft not to take advantage of in terms of interviews and access and the like, and partly it's because I got to see the first episode (well actually the first few) early and thus have been filled with glee at how brilliantly it's turned out.
The concern with me blogging so much about the show and being so fulsome in my praise about it is in part though that, as some of the lovely Digital Spies suggested, it may have looked to the outside world as if somehow I had developed a soft spot for the show so vast that I overlooked the cast changes, the alleged change in tone (which now we can talk about it I'd suggest is darker and more gory than the pilot ever was) and the like because I'd met some of the people involved.
Hopefully last night put that to rest.
In ironic fashion, the high winds of the last few days meant my digital TV was knocked out last night, so I spent the evening watching Dancing on Ice, while reading comments from viewers across the land in the Being Human LJ comm. While ">Todd Carty's ice dancing stumble was very amusing I think it's fair to say it wasn't *quite* the same.
So. What did everyone think? For me, episode one was - on reflection and repeated viewing - even better than the pilot. While both Andrea Riseborough and Guy Flanagan were great, Lenora Crichlow and Aidan Turner had completely won me over by about half way through, both showing that they can do humour and real drama assuredly. The dynamic between the three housemates was as warm as ever, and the comedy ("You smell like a Polo. Do you have a hole?") left me laughing out loud.
The thing I think I like best about the show is how it flits between being very funny to actually quite sad and bleak. George's realisation of the full circumstances of Lauren's death made me cry, and the end... Well I think it's fair to say all those comments about what to make the tone lighter and fluffier were guff really weren't they?
The soundtrack was great too - and highlights how you can use funky apt music (kudos especially to the person who used the Arctic Monkeys singing 'They say he changes when the sun goes down' for George's transformation montage) without beating the audience over the head. I'm assuming this is what Demons episode 1 was trying to do with the use of Ruby. Shame they failed.
The fact that it is already the top programme on the BBC's iPlayer (eclipsing even the return of Jonathan Ross) has to be a good sign. It also means you can watch it here if you missed it, although being BBC Three it is basically being shown about every 96 minutes in between reruns of Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps.
For my money I think Being Human has the potential to be the best British genre show of many years and shows that - if we try - we can do something funny and moving and ace that is quintessentially British rather than some kind of rip off of whatever's big Stateside at the moment. Of course, Being Human's status as this won't be confirmed until some American network buys the rights to do a remake, but on the promise of the first few episodes (it gets even better fact fans) it's only a matter of time...
It's the best hour of TV you'll see this week (ok, tied with Battlestar Galactica, but it's at least a thousand times cheerier) so go look, and then come back and join in the debate. Did you enjoy it? What did you think about the recast? Are those Hollyoaksified fears finally dying down?
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