After a few weeks of new Being Human cast bonding, with relatively little danger, it’s time for them to face their first actual threat. Can’t really dispute their logic– much as I enjoy the housemate banter, this isn’t a sitcom. So, here comes a manipulative ghost from the 1970s.
But is the groovy ghoulie a match for past enemies? Is this the new Herrick?
The Annie Disease Is Spreading
Well, no.
I’ve been fairly up on Being Human in the last couple of weeks, the new dynamic seems to really be working, and I find Hal a breath of neurotic fresh air after three years of Mitchell’s moody approach to vampirism. Annie’s still annoying, even more now she’s being presented as the main character rather than a distant third, but never mind.
So it doesn’t give me any pleasure to say that this one doesn’t work. I’ve gotten used to Annie acting like a moron, but this week everyone else joins her. It’s one of those times where the whole plot would be resolved if two of the characters had a rational conversation, but instead they don’t, for no reason other than to prolong the episode.
Oh, and the actual resolution happens in about two seconds, for no reason other than “because”. Seriously, the threads holding this episode together are tissue-thin.
Kirby’s Dream Land
On the other hand, I still enjoy the chemistry between the cast and they do sell the emotional scenes. Hal and Tom’s respective rejections are genuinely sad moments. It’s just unfortunate that it was all undercut by a sense of “… but there’s no reason for any of this to be happening…”.
James Vance has some darkly comic moments as Kirby the ghost, the kind of silly-yet-scary that Being Human does well. His bonding scenes with the cast feel forced, but that isn’t entirely his fault. Maybe if you imagine some form of subtle brainwashing is involved, even though it isn’t mentioned, this episode would work better.
So, yes, a bit of a stumble in New Look being Human, but the new cast are still working for me, so I’m just going to quietly hope next week gets us back on track. Check out the episode on iPlayer and let us know if you too were slightly disappointed.
More Being Human on Dork Adore | Being Human: The Graveyard Shift – Dork Review
Being Human Series 4 is available for pre-order on Amazon £14.97
Nick Bryan
Nick learned to read and write at an early age. This has developed into an unhealthy need to either write stories or consume them for later dissection. He reviews film and TV on Dork Adore and The Digital Fix, lives in London and enjoys a nice white beer.
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yeah, it’s like you and two other people who don’t like annie.
I’m sorry, that was really rude. I guess I’m feeling a bit more lovey dovey towards Annie because she’s the last *original* character left. As much as I adore Hal and Tom, I feel as though she does need to be at the forefront of the characters. Feel free to delete both comments, I just wanted to quickly present an apology for the last comment. I do like your reviews usually though…I’m sorry again!
Don’t worry, I know not everyone agrees with me there.. Also, I have found Annie a lot less annoying in the two episodes since I wrote the above.
(Although I also have a theory that they’re making her as lovable as possible because she probably won’t survive the series 4 finale.)
I only started watching Being Human this season and I quite like Annie. But this episode was dire! There was no plot at all, except “if they realised what was going on then there’d be no plot”. And as you wrote, the moment of revelation had no content at all, it was just time to resolve the issues.
I hope it gets better.
Happily this episode was definitely the lowlight of the year. Well, I wasn’t a huge fan of the first episode either, but the rest of them were pretty decent.