Vampire Aidan (Sam Witwer) works as a nurse and survives on the blood he takes from the hospital. He doesn’t kill people…most of the time.
Werewolf Josh (Sam Huntington) hates being a monster and is a neurotic mess when he is human. He works at the hospital, and is friends with Aidan. They know about each other’s condition, and they are each other’s only ally.
Aidan, by nature, is the opposite of Josh. He is cool, confident and sociable. But he also wants to feel more normal, so he talks Josh into getting a place together. Their new house, unfortunately comes with its own ghost, Sally (Meaghan Rath).
Josh is at first reluctant to extend the monster friendship, but Sally has nowhere to go, and has the ghost skills of Patrick Swayze’s Sam (from the movie Ghost) when he first died.
Aidan, being more comfortable and friendly, welcomes Sally to their group and Josh also ultimately bonds with Sally. For the most part, the friendship is the only thing they have close to being human.
And of course, in addition to our wonderfully grey protagonists, we also have highly annoying and sadistic villains. For instance, the vampires are run by a vampire called Bishop, who also has a day job. As a cop. And yes, they can compel people.
Screw IMDB’s horror label. Sure, it has some its very dark moments (such as when Aidan loses his cool around a human or when he has sex with a vampire. Then the bloodbath is something to write home about.) But the occasional darkness and some thrills aside, Being Human doesn’t have a scary bone in it, and this is fine. Because it is immensely entertaining, occasionally very funny; with cool one-liners and some pop culture references. And it doesn’t have a romantic love story at heart. Love, guilt, regret, courage, fear, friendship, jealousy and lust equally dominate the season.
And it has violence and nudity, just not in the caricature-like, exaggerated way that True Blood does. And I love Being Human for that.
And our good vampire is neither Damon (raising hell for the sheer fun of it), nor Stefan (the impossibly strong reserve and self-control) of Stefan. He slips and harms people, but he doesn’t do it for fun. He just loses control, and feels bad afterwards. But he doesn’t feel as bad as Angel (who only fed on animals) after going “vegan”.
And he can walk outside without shining, and without having to wear a ring. He doesn’t hate/fear werewolves out of principle. Aidan is well… a breath of fresh air.
**
Yes, it is the North American version of a British show. I chose to watch this for two reasons: 1) It felt darker and more compelling, and 2) It is not all that under its original version, where user rating is considered. The original is rated at 8.2, and this one is at 7.6. Which should say enough if you consider the British comedy Coupling (a show I adored) is rated at 9, and its American version is at 3.6.
So it might be annoying to some fans of the original, but for those who haven’t, it really is pretty cool and awesome, currently lacking all the pitfalls of other vampire shows, even of the ones that I liked.
Go Being Human! May you get many seasons, and all your seasons be just as good!
(It is returning for season 2!)
Currently, my rating is 9/10- and that is if I have to be harsh: )
My Favorite Lines
Josh: (sarcastic) I’m awesome. I mean who wouldn’t want to meet their weredad?
*
Sally: (on realizing what her new roommates are) You are not going to go all Twilight on each other, right?
*
Aidan: She learned everything about being a ghost from Whoopi Goldberg.
*
Aidan: (when Sally recites from Bon Jovi) Are you trying to scare us with Bon Jovi?
My Favorite Episode: 7
I love all episodes, but episode 7 is just marvelous.
Josh goes home with his sister and tries to persuade his parents that he is not crazy and he doesn’t think he is a werewolf. And Aidan comes to rescue, portraying a healthy lifestyle for Josh. Unfortunately, food has garlic, his fangs come out, and Marcus, Aidan’s ultimate enemy, comes to attack Josh’s family.
The expressions of Josh’s family as he tries to make weapons out of furniture, hide Aidan’s situation and fight off Marcus are just priceless!
We also learn some sad but important facts about Aidan’s past.
