Being Human comes to the US as Becoming a Douche
Image by starbright31 via Fl** Disclaimer: I am a huge fan of the original British series, Being Human. Watch it. Buy it. Love it! **
Ok, I am not usually the person who writes posts like this. I try to keep a cool head, and many of you know, I don't always succeed. I've watched the first two episodes of the Syfy travesty, Being Human, and I am ready for it to go the way of the Dodo.
The show is beyond horrible. The writing is bad. The direction is bad which makes the acting bad. The camera work is annoying.
There are only two nice things I can say about the show:
The FX are better than the original.
The scene of Sally floating down the stairs in episode 2 is breathtaking.
That's it.
From Goth to Emo
My main beef with the remake is that the Syfy series trades in the Gothic Horror of the original for a self-pitying emo cry fest filled with weak-willed, shallow people who do not deserve my time or attention.
That might sound harsh, but I don't know how else to say it. Syfy robbed the characters any dignity they originally had.
Josh is a werewolf. He is an asshole who apparently thinks that the character that Shia LaBouf always plays in every movie he has ever been in, is a role model for how to live and act. WRONG! Two episodes and they have not given me a single reason to care about him. He is a jerk to his family, a bastard to his friends, and terrible to Sally. I agree with his self-hatred. He should hate himself. I hate to break it to him, but he was a monster before be became a werewolf.
Aiden is a weak-willed Vampire who just needs a stake through the heart. He had no backbone, no charisma, and no conscience. He is a character from the golden age of Soviet Cinema who has given up on life, embraced the grayness of his life, and doesn't have the courage to look himself in the mirror. The actor was cast because he is occasionally cute and has a hot body. I feel like he is just in the show to appear naked from time to time to distract us from the wreck of the story around him.
Sally, portrayed by Meaghan Rath (the only main actor whose name deserves to be repeated), is one of the only hopes the show has. Rath magically brings empathy and warmth to a poorly written character. As much as I want to savage Sally like I did Josh and Aiden, Rath's performance has earned a reprieve for the character.
Where is the tension?
I knew when I first heart this remake was coming, there would be some changes. I never imagined the main thing they would change would be to take the tension out of the show. From episode 1 of the original series, I was on the edge of my seat afraid, concerned, and hopeful about various things, and desperate to find out what was going to happen next.
The Syfy show feels like going to a movie with a friend who has already seen the film, and tells you what it going to happen before it does. They spoiled their own show too often. Even when they went off script from the original and did something new. That let me down more than anything.
Will I continue to watch?
Well... Yes. I have a 5 episode rule. Shows I want to be interested in, I always give them 5 episodes to hook me, and there are a few reasons to hope for improvement:
Meaghan Rath's Sally is vaguely interesting.
Rebecca is played well and makes me want to know what they are going to do with her.
Emily is a good addition to the show. I think she is going to be the new Nina, and maybe she will accidentally kill her brother (I can only wish).
Now, I am voting for cancellation, but the rating have been good (sigh).
Get your copy of the original British series, Being Human