Being British
Following last year’s successful pilot, the BBC ordered a full 6 episodes of their “comedy drama” Being Human. I didn’t see the pilot, and when I heard the concept I was intrigued, but not particularly excited.
It’s the story of three flatmates – one is a ghost, one a vampire, and one a werewolf – and of how they cope with the loss of the humanity, or their struggle to maintain/regain it.
It was shown on BBC3 on Sunday night (25th January) and I watched it with Gina last night.
About 20 minutes in I asked G what she thought. “It’s alright.” she said.
Russell Tovey as the werewolf (and the only actor to return from the pilot) was good, but helped by a few decent lines and situations. The guy who played the vampire (I’m sorry, I just can’t be arsed to look him up at the moment) was about as brooding a vampire as you could imagine, and the actress who played the ghost was ok. Just ok.
We do “ok” well in Britain, and we tend to count ourselves lucky for it. If this was a big budget US production I’d have given up, but as it’s a British show I’ll probably watch next week to see if it has improved. If not, I might watch the following week, just in case. ‘Cause that’s what we do. We expect UK genre shows to be a bit shit, and if they’re a bit better than a bit shit we’re happy.
We really should demand higher standards of ourselves – not just as producers of genre TV, but as viewers.
So, yeah – Being Human? It’s a bit shit, but that’s ok, ’cause it’s our shit.
