Thoughts on Being Human
Feb. 7th, 2011 10:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
charameiBeing Human is one of those shows that I find endlessly fascinating, rather than truly enjoyable. The writers have this knack of reaching up for something great, grazing past it, and crashing down into that special kind of mediocrity that you only get when you can see how amazing something could have been.
And, you know... that bugs me.
I think they're getting better: S01 was dire, and the only reason I watched past S01E01 at all was that I was a bored student and it was iPlayer or homework. But I struggle to think of an episode that hasn't had that grazed-past-greatness element to it, and some patterns are starting to emerge here.
[S03 spoilers are censored out with a black bar: highlight them to reveal.]
It still doesn't seem to know what its genre is. S02 did better at unifying its various plot elements than S01 or S03 so far, but it's never quite got itself down. I think this genre confusion causes a large part of the issues I have with the show: it's hard to shoot accurately for greatness when you're aiming for two or three separate targets.
And I can see at least two distinct targets: on the one hand, we have absurdist paranormal humour with George and Nina and sometimes Annie. This is generally pretty well-written and to my mind the best part of the show by far.
On the other hand, we have an angsty vampire antihero story with Mitchell. It's popular, it's fashionable, it seemingly never gets old. It's got a fairly solid, if convoluted, political plot ongoing behind it and as angsty vampire antihero stories go it's not bad. The only problem is that it doesn't mesh very well with the absurdist paranormal humour. It could do - S03E02&3 make some steps in that direction - but on the whole, dark political fantasy about a society of mass murderers isn't designed to include absurdist humour.
Look, either's fine. I personally have never seen the attraction of angsty vampire antiheroes, but I am demonstrably in the minority in that respect. They might even manage both, one day, if they get the mix right. But until they do, it just feels like someone on the writing team is trying to mix oil and water.
As a writer, especially for TV, you kind of shoot yourself in the foot when you set down that nobody can see or hear one of your characters. Annie's plot is claustrophobic and she never really gets a chance to develop, because she can't interact with the outside world. In S02, there was mention of this being a security blanket that she was slowly and actively overcoming, but that seems to have been dropped now. (That's another thing: Being Human has no follow-through.)
I get the feeling that they're out of things to do with Annie, and that's partly why she's being forced into a romance with Mitchell in S03. The thing is, they're really not out of things to do with Annie. If she's solid enough to make tea then she's solid enough to type, right? Get her a laptop and an Internet connection.
Furthermore, let's explore ghosts as a whole, please. They really get short shrift compared to the werewolves and especially vampires. There are a fair number of them in the world, so why aren't there, I dunno, ghost communes or something? If the only people who can see or hear you are people like you, you gravitate towards one another: that's just how humans work.
Dragging her out of the afterlife so early on felt like a waste of some good character development. Yes, Annie tends to panic, but she was there for how long? A couple of weeks, at least. Couldn't we see her trying to cope by herself?
Is a cliche, but hey, if people like angsty vampire antiheroes, they like angsty vampire antiheroes. Mostly I just wish he had either some redeeming personality traits (any redeeming personality traits) or less of a central role to the arc plot every season.
You keep doing what you're doing. Seriously, I love those two.
And, you know... that bugs me.
I think they're getting better: S01 was dire, and the only reason I watched past S01E01 at all was that I was a bored student and it was iPlayer or homework. But I struggle to think of an episode that hasn't had that grazed-past-greatness element to it, and some patterns are starting to emerge here.
[S03 spoilers are censored out with a black bar: highlight them to reveal.]
Genre
It still doesn't seem to know what its genre is. S02 did better at unifying its various plot elements than S01 or S03 so far, but it's never quite got itself down. I think this genre confusion causes a large part of the issues I have with the show: it's hard to shoot accurately for greatness when you're aiming for two or three separate targets.
And I can see at least two distinct targets: on the one hand, we have absurdist paranormal humour with George and Nina and sometimes Annie. This is generally pretty well-written and to my mind the best part of the show by far.
On the other hand, we have an angsty vampire antihero story with Mitchell. It's popular, it's fashionable, it seemingly never gets old. It's got a fairly solid, if convoluted, political plot ongoing behind it and as angsty vampire antihero stories go it's not bad. The only problem is that it doesn't mesh very well with the absurdist paranormal humour. It could do - S03E02&3 make some steps in that direction - but on the whole, dark political fantasy about a society of mass murderers isn't designed to include absurdist humour.
Look, either's fine. I personally have never seen the attraction of angsty vampire antiheroes, but I am demonstrably in the minority in that respect. They might even manage both, one day, if they get the mix right. But until they do, it just feels like someone on the writing team is trying to mix oil and water.
Annie
As a writer, especially for TV, you kind of shoot yourself in the foot when you set down that nobody can see or hear one of your characters. Annie's plot is claustrophobic and she never really gets a chance to develop, because she can't interact with the outside world. In S02, there was mention of this being a security blanket that she was slowly and actively overcoming, but that seems to have been dropped now. (That's another thing: Being Human has no follow-through.)
I get the feeling that they're out of things to do with Annie, and that's partly why she's being forced into a romance with Mitchell in S03. The thing is, they're really not out of things to do with Annie. If she's solid enough to make tea then she's solid enough to type, right? Get her a laptop and an Internet connection.
Furthermore, let's explore ghosts as a whole, please. They really get short shrift compared to the werewolves and especially vampires. There are a fair number of them in the world, so why aren't there, I dunno, ghost communes or something? If the only people who can see or hear you are people like you, you gravitate towards one another: that's just how humans work.
Dragging her out of the afterlife so early on felt like a waste of some good character development. Yes, Annie tends to panic, but she was there for how long? A couple of weeks, at least. Couldn't we see her trying to cope by herself?
Mitchell
Is a cliche, but hey, if people like angsty vampire antiheroes, they like angsty vampire antiheroes. Mostly I just wish he had either some redeeming personality traits (any redeeming personality traits) or less of a central role to the arc plot every season.
George and Nina
You keep doing what you're doing. Seriously, I love those two.