Just as I start to love a show, the BBC cancel it… Being Human S5E2 – Dork Review

This week on Being Human, things take a surprisingly OTT turn, as Alex confronts the minions of the Devil, whilst Hal and Tom confront each other in a literal food fight. The best part: it’s exactly as silly as it sounds, yet I still really enjoyed it.

Well, my enjoyment was slightly tempered by the recent BBC announcement that this would be the last series, but at least they’re going out on a high. Watch on iPlayer first to avoid spoilers, and then let’s get into this.

Alex Takes The Stage, Falls Through It

So, Captain Hatch has been officially unveiled as Satan, and now he can get on with terrorising our heroes. And so he does, drawing on Hal and Tom’s class divisions to sew tension – although it doesn’t really work, as they dealt with that last year – and trying to get rid of Alex much more forcefully, as her presence apparently messes with his plans.

Which means Alex the ghost takes centre stage in Sticks And Rope, and after a packed first episode last week, the new character deserves her big chance to impress. We see her background and a few choice interactions with Hal and Tom, all leading up to a showdown with genuinely scary Devil-Clowns, in a scene which cleverly plays off the established beats of Being Human ghosts passing over.

She even meets a non-annoying child ghost, – truly a rare breed. His old-school posh racism is good for a few laughs, and he even pulls off the sad bit. Well done, kid.

Captain Satan And The Sataneers?

The swing between flatmate comedy and horror has always been one of Being Human’s best tricks, and that ridiculous foodfight scene is a great example of it. If they’d put it in a sitcom, I’d have said “Isn’t this a bit ridiculous?”, but in this show with these characters, absolutely fine.

I could probably nitpick – Hal’s confrontation with Crumb should’ve given a better reason for Hal not just killing him, considering he’d turned up and announced he was murdering people – but once again, I’m enjoying this cast so much that I’m good with occasional plot blips. New addition Phil Davis, as Captain Satan, is clearly relishing the creepy material, and I’m looking forward to seeing how far he can take it.

And with that, another week ends, and this new Being Human series is definitely off to a good start. Maybe it’s because I’m so annoyed with Utopia, but I’m loving this even more than I expected to. Shame it’s the end in four episodes time – bloody typical for this series to end just as I was starting to really like it.

I suppose retrospectively, the news that the Devil was the big villain should’ve been a clue. I mean, how would they have topped him?

More Being Human on Dork Adore | Being Human: The War Child – Dork Review

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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