Being Human (U.S.): Season 2 (2012)

*CONTAINS SPOILERS*

What I liked:

• Josh’s social anxiety is hilarious. Just think of how he guzzled the wine when Sally’s mother was there for that awkward dinner, or how he edges out and avoids uncomfortable situations. I love it.
• Demonic, dark side Sally is actually really entertaining, hectic plot to watch. The introduction of the Reaper and then all the things that subsequently happen? So good.

• Seeing Aidan delve deeper into the world of the vampires, and it is messy, ugly, and digs up another side of him altogether, which is quite cool to see.

• More of Aidan’s past was also welcome.
• The friendship between Aidan and Josh will just always be awesome. They are definitely besties.

• Zoe was a character I liked. She was so awkward and amusing, but I also felt so sorry for her later on – the Nick situation was a killer.
• Aidan and Josh banding together to save Sally – friends for life! It was also quite funny to see how they had no other choice but to let Zoe know that they are totally not normal humans.

What I didn’t like:

• Nora irritated the crap out of me this season. I really like her and Josh together, but this new Nora? Nah uh! What a bitch.
• Those thoroughbreds are a real issue – they come in out of nowhere, make issues for Nora and Josh, make Josh to feel a fool, nope. Just not on man.
• So many story arcs were introduced, rushed through, and then discarded. Like, really? What was the point of all that?
• Josh and Julia being together again was something I wasn’t a fan of. Not because Josh isn’t allowed to be happy, it was just a silly plot device.

Rating:

Yep, another really entertaining season if you ask me. Aidan will just never get the freedom he wants, to lead the life he chooses, there is just always something lurking about to make him miserable. The assumption was that the end of Bishop would have bought him his freedom, but instead left him in the precarious place of leading Boston. Never mind that, it put him in the line of fire of Mother, an acient vampire, and Suren, her daughter who crushed his heart many years ago.

Josh and Aidan are trying so hard to just be normal, and it is failing miserably. Aidan is still judged super harshly for ever slipping or just for being loyal, but is still expected to carry the world. I was pleased to see in this season that Nora knew all about Josh’s werewolf secret, and thought it was going to be amazing (after they dealt with the fact that she, too, is a werewolf). But oh no, it could never be that easy with Josh, and instead we got these annoying thoroughbreds introduced to us, and they just got right in there what with tearing Josh and Nora apart. She was such a bitch and so cruel in this season, really, she annoyed me the whole way through. ICK.

While Sally can still make things all about her, it was interesting to see how her arc went this season, what with her making friends, learning about possession, getting hooked, and leading a Reaper into her world. The consequences were rather dire there, and the way she snapped was fantastic. Seriously, it was worth a watch. Something that amused me endlessly was Aidan sleeping with Julia, only to find one super awkward morning that Julia is, in actual fact, Josh’s ex-fiancé. I know it sounds bad, but that scene was handled well. The friendship between Aidan and Josh survived it, so all is well. However, later, after Nora and all her stupidity, when Josh and Julia were together again? Not a fan. It’s just not supposed to work that way. Nope. Plus, he belongs with Nora. She just needs to get over her crap.

Aidan and Suren was a relationship that needed to grow on me, and I still don’t think they were properly suited, but definitely better than Aidan and Rebecca, that’s for damn sure. Suren originally grated on me, but she gets better. Still not a huge fan, but better. I also happened to thoroughly appreciate the story she told of how Aidan kept a black orchid from her mother alive once a upon a time. It was beautiful. The effects are still a bit sketchy, and there are times where the narrative stumbles a bit, but Being Human is still a damn fine show that I would highly recommend to anyone that wants a supernatural comedy/drama mix. Worth your time, for sure.

Being Human (U.S.): Season 1 (2011)

*CONTAINS SPOILERS*

What I liked:

• Sally, Josh, and Aidan becoming so tight, especially after the guys initially tried to send Sally away.
• Tony helping Sally to be a more interesting ghost. This was quite amusing for me.

• Josh and Aidan’s struggle to be normal can be quite amusing at the best of times. Things work, and then they don’t, and then there are, of course, these insane complications. Makes for an interesting watch.
• Josh and Nora and their super quirky, strange relationship – it’s hilarious, and they really click quite well.

• Josh’s facial expressions are pure gold.
• The intricate relationship between Bishop and Aidan. You get glimpses of it throughout the season, and while you don’t get far too much depth from it, you get enough to know it’s actually quite good.
• This dinner scene, that went from amusing to hilarious (convince the family Josh is not a werewolf, let the vampire consume garlic, and wham, there we have it):

• Josh reconnecting with his family was also a good thing – the show didn’t drag it out for forever and six days, when it would have lost its impact.
• Sally’s death reveal – sheesh, that was some crazy stuff, but I think it was handled really well.

What I didn’t like:

• Rebecca. This character just grated on me. So many of my complaints about this season come purely from her, and her antics.
• Ray, and how  he tried so hard to split Josh and Aidan apart when they are such besties.
• The camera work is a little sketchy at the best of times.
• Sally really can make everything about herself.
• Rebecca and Aidan being painted as this epic love story confused me. They were not that tight before she passed, they were not that tight after she was turned, but we are supposed to buy into them being each others everything? CONFUSED.

Rating:

The first time my husband and I watched this show (although the rewatches have just been me), we put it on as a filler something to play on the TV while we munched some junk food and chilled. What happened, however, was us burning through five episodes and getting to bed late (it was a weeknight) because we got hooked. I had it for a while but the premise just sounds absurd: “A vampire, a ghost, and a werewolf live together in an apartment and try to be normal”. It sounded so silly, and yet, when you watch it, it just works.

The show is so stupidly entertaining, but I can’t get enough of it, flaws and all. I think it is a crying shame that it was cancelled what with only four seasons. I know that this is based on a U.K. show of the same title, but that I have never watched. After this, I don’t know if I can ever watch it. This is actually quite a solid introductory season, and it has a smaller budget, sure, you can see this, but it never really detracts from the entertainment. I quite enjoy the characters, or I do, for the most part.

Sally, while she can be annoying and supremely self-centred, is also very sweet and exceptionally loyal. Then there is Josh, who is constantly overthinking things, but he is smart and quirky. Aidan brings up the last leg of this trio, and is the character I enjoy the most, because he is (so far) the most layered of the lot, but I suppose it is easier to create a more complicated character if they have been around for a few hundred years. Aidan is constantly sorting everything out for Josh and Sally where he can, being the loyal friend, pushing them to do more, to be more, always being supportive, but is also the one that gets the most flak if something goes wrong, which I really don’t think is fair. He is judged the harshest all the time, and expected to be perfect, when he is just a flawed individual.

Anyway, the show also has its share of superbly irritating characters – Rebecca and Marcus definitely top my list here. For one, Marcus was jealous and competitive and whiny, not to mention he did’t have a backbone. Then there was Rebecca. She was just some chick Aidan went out with one night, banged, and killed. Yes, that is bad, but then the show paints it like some epic love story when she comes back to life (thanks to Bishop) and all. I just didn’t get it. I could have bought into it if they just left it as a purely sexual thing, but they tried to force emotion into it the whole time and that was just awkward. Not to mention, she does super questionable things. The worst was when she turned Bernie, which crushed Aidan, who was forced to kill Bernie, and then Rebecca was all torn up like she had lost everything when she knew this kid all of one day? I don’t get it man!

The effects are a little dodgy, sometimes the pacing is a little off, but Being Human is packed with awkward humour, is tons of fun to follow, and has three great leads that carry this show really well, making it one heck of an entertaining watch, something I definitely didn’t initially believe it had any right to be.