Last year, I wrote nice things about Being Human series four. Despite running out of cast members and starting almost from scratch, they made it work. The replacements were likeable, the plots worked, Mark Gatiss was in it – one of their best series yet, a nice surprise.
So, now it’s time to do it all again! We’ve got new ghost Alex (Kate Bracken) joining successful returners vampire Hal (Damien Molony) and werewolf Tom (Michael Socha) – can lightning strike twice? Watch on iPlayer first to avoid spoilers, if that’s your blood-bag.
The Most Adorable Ickle Werewolf In All The Land
Fortunately, we covered the introductions to Alex last year, including turning her ghosty, so The Trinity can move on and start doing things immediately. The result is one of the most rammed series premieres I’ve seen in a while.
Many shows would take introducing a covert operation that cleans up supernatural mess as enough business for one week. Or creating a new vampire nemesis/dark mirror for Hal. But no, this episode does both, and then throws in the actual goddamned Devil as well.
Whilst simultaneously putting Hal and Tom in a new job, pitting Hal against his own dark nature, showing Alex adjusting and… Tom, once again, is reliably adorable, but lacks a major subplot of his own. Hope he’ll get something soon, he’s too fun to ignore. But yeah, we have a lot of material here, chugging along at a real pace, and it’s only a six week series – excited to see how they get through this.
Don’t Step On My Bloodstained Shoes
And the presentation is good, the acting is fun, Damien Molony in particular nailing it as Hal, but all the lead characters are relatable and funny here. Hugely enjoyed the first scene, in which Hal is strapped to a chair to detox after drinking blood, moaning about… not his thirst, but the other housemates not pulling their weight on the cleaning.
Yes, the Captain Hatch reveal at the end was predictable quite early on, and I’m not sure the parallels between Hal’s flashback ritual and the present-day situation with the office vampire really worked, but these are nitpicks and overall, this was a good episode.
Great to have them back. Shame it’s for six weeks rather than the usual eight, but nonetheless, looking forward to the second episode already. Bravo, Being Human.
More Being Human on Dork Adore | Being Human: The War Child – Dork Review
Emma Cossey says
Almost missed this, was it just me or was it poorly promoted? I only realised it was on when I was flicking through the guide.
Nick Bryan says
I haven’t seen much promo beyond a couple of posts on Digital Spy. but I don’t know how much it usually gets…