BEING HUMAN (British version, Season One)

 

Official DVD of Season One of the original British version of the BBC3 TV show Being Human (© Toby Whithouse/Touchpaper Television/BBC3 – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Me being me, rather than watching something festive with snow and Santa Claus on Christmas Day 2018, I was instead totally immersed in a binge-watching session of Season One of the original British version of the hit BBC3 TV comedy/drama with a distinctly supernatural slant –  Being Human.

Directed (and also written) by Toby Whithouse and first broadcast in 2008, this first series of Being Human stars a pre-Kili (in the LOTR movie trilogy), pre-Ross Poldark (in the BBC1 TV series Poldark) Aidan Turner as reluctant vampire John 'Mitch' Mitchell, together with Russell Tovey as equally unwilling werewolf George Sands, and Lenora Crichlow as very fetching albeit somewhat bemused ghost Annie Sawyer. This potentially terrifying trio share a house, but instead of unleashing horror and mayhem upon their neighbours and others, they do all that they can to help one another in trying to keep their true natures a secret from the outside world,  by being human - or as near to human as they can manage.

I actually bought the DVD of this on 12 September 2011 (the till receipt for it is still inside the box). Yet somehow I never got round to watching it previously, but having finally done so, I thoroughly enjoyed it - better late than never!

After completing my viewing of the entire first season, I read up on the four subsequent ones, because a friend told me that from Season Two onward the humour is pretty well gone and horror/gore replaces it, which my reading seems to confirm. Consequently, I may not continue with this show, as that isn't my thing at all. Indeed, it was the quirky humour and subtle little Brit in-jokes (such as one regarding Howard from the Halifax building society, and another concerning Digby the World's Biggest Dog from the UK movie of the same name) that I enjoyed so much in Season One.

Interestingly, I also watched the original British Being Human pilot episode, in which two of the three characters (Mitch the vampire and Annie the ghost) were played by different performers (Guy Flanagan and Andrea Riseborough respectively). However, in my opinion their portrayals of these characters were less memorable than those given in the main series by Aidan Turner and Lenora Crichlow, so I'm glad that these latter two performers took over the roles.

Worth noting is that there is a US version of Being Human, inspired by the original British show (which has also been screened there, on BBC America) but starring different performers, although so far I haven't watched any episodes from it.

If you'd like to see an official BBC America trailer for Season One of the British Being Human, be sure to click here to watch one on YouTube, where there are also trailers for the four succeeding seasons. There are also a number of complete episodes currently available to watch for free on there, plus some from the US version.

And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film/TV reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE! 

 

Full cover of the official USA DVD for the original British version of Being Human, Season One (© Toby Whithouse/Touchpaper Television/BBC3 – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)