Series 5 of BBC's "Being Human": Not the Original Cast, and Not Quite As Good, But Still With a Story to Tell

Tom, Alex, and Hal, ready for battle

Watch a TV show long enough, and it will invariably disappoint you.  For instance, I loved all the Star Treks, even Deep Space Nine and Voyager, which some fans didn’t care for, but I could never really get into Enterprise (and I’m not the only one, judging by the negative criticism and early cancelation).  Some say it got better after the hideous second season, though it ultimately proved to be too little too late.  The Dead Zone started out strong, and ended weak, and the same could be said for The X-Files and even Fringe, and don’t even get me started on Heroes!

A Werewolf, a Ghost, and a Vampire

    And so we have the fifth and final “series” of the BBC Being Human.  I hung in there!  After three strong years getting to know the vampire Mitchell, the ghost Annie, and the werewolf couple George and Nina and their plights, three of them left the show.  The only way to redeem the character of Mitchell, by this point, was by the character’s self-sacrifice, and then it was revealed that Nina had been beaten to death by vampires shortly after giving birth to a little baby girl in between seasons, and George died in the first episode of the fourth season trying to protect his daughter from superstitious vampires.  That left Annie and an orphaned werewolf named Tom to protect her, and then the vampire Hal moved in with them, and before the end of that season, a young woman named Alex was murdered, became a ghost, and moved in with boys after Annie made a final sacrifice during the climax of series four, exiting the show at the same time. 

     The British shows have always been on the quirky side of things, mixing some great dialogue and character development with elements of the supernatural, and often getting rather blatant and bloody, even back in the days of Annie, George, and Mitchell.  This most recent series, set around the new friendship of Hal, Tom, and Alex, has pretty much the same eccentric dark/humorous tone, as they fight the devil himself while the boys take jobs at a local hotel.  But when things get rather ridiculous with the plot or a bit too gruesome at times with some of the unstable, supernatural characters that surround them, you could always go back to the friendship between Mitchell, George, and Annie as the core paranormal triumvirate that was the real life of the series above and beyond any plot machinations.  In the end, with this final series, I miss the three originals (and Nina), and I’m not sure these new characters, as appealing as they can be, are able to fill their shoes and rise above some of the more outlandish plot elements.

Previous Being Human Characters:  Annie, Mitchell, George, and Nina; Aiden, Nora, Josh, and Sally 

     The American version on SyFy started out on shaky legs, but after a near carbon copy first season to get the ball rolling, they’ve taken their three supernatural houseguests - Aiden, Josh, and Sally - and werewolf Josh's girlfriend Nora, in completely new directions, and that series seems to be thriving and alive with possibilities and great storylines and characters.  The fifth series of the BBC show often (but not always) now feels like only so much ludicrous contrivance by comparison, and without the characters I came to know and love.  Hal, Tom, and Alex have their moments, to be sure, and there’s still a spark of creativity here, but not nearly enough to rival the great characters that came before them, in my opinion.  Perhaps that’s why series five is the last.  No one else could really make the jump after they lost their entire original cast.

     But they sure did give it the quirky old English try!

You see?  Even THEY were a little bored :)