Jasmine Sahu is well suited with this new American drama exclusive to Dave.
Lois Cameron explains why this series is much more than your average cosy period drama.
The last episode of this series sees Sherlock and Moriarty attempt to solve the final problem with devastating consequences.
With major cast changes afoot, Jacob Martin ponders whether Being Human can live up to its own scarily high standard.
“But I will turn my back on you. I will wipe you from my memory and I will never mention your name again. I will never tell my son or daughter that I had a friend called Mitchell. It will be as if we’d never met. That’s it. Now you make your choice.”
The return of Herrick – an amnesiac, broken Herrick, but a terrifying one all the same – widens the already deep cracks in the group, as he preys on Annie’s insecurities, reveals Mitchell’s secret and forces George to face up to what he did to Herrick.
That might sound like a very basic episode, and in many ways it was: ‘The Longest Day’ was clearly the cheap episode, the one that exists to allow scenes like last week’s amazing bloody climax to occur. But being cheap doesn’t mean being bad, especially not when it’s done like this. The presence of a terrified, confused Herrick in the house brought to the surface many issues that have been bubbling up since the first series of Being Human, resulting in some ridiculously tense stand-offs between many of the characters that were written and acted to perfection.
But before we get to those, what of the two female guests? The dippy, slightly annoying social worker was about as far from Spooks’ Ruth as a character can be, and yet Nicola Walker was brilliant, offering some welcome comic relief amongst some decidedly darker moments. And it was great to see Cara one last time: the vampire’s devoted love to Herrick was oddly touching, and her decision to stake herself at his rejection was a sad shock, as Rebecca Cooper was one of the best things about the last series.
Apart from a few brief moments with Wendy, this episode was unrelentingly tense from the moment Herrick arrived at the house. All of the two-hander scenes, whether it was Nina against Mitchell, Herrick against Annie or George against Mitchell, were Being Human at its absolute best. Having Nina care for Herrick, unable to fully comprehend just how much hurt he caused the group before she was part of it, was a brilliant touch, and Sinead Keenan has never been better than in the moments following her discovery of Mitchell’s secret. George having to confront the fact that he did kill Herrick and that he was no longer willing to be that person led to an excellent stand-off with Mitchell. I really hope this isn’t the case, but it seems increasingly unlikely that the group will ever be completely together again.
And as for Jason Watkins. Marvellous, marvellous Jason Watkins: what can I say that will do justice to his performance? The Herrick of the first series was a classic TV character: charismatic, evil, all-too believably human, and the hole he left in the second was keenly felt. If anything, he’s even better here. Either Herrick’s playing the really long game, or his amnesia was real; either even if he’s not faking it, he’s still the same man he was before. This was never more apparent than in his scene with Annie. Even without any knowledge of who or what she is, he was able to pinpoint her weaknesses exactly, and sow the seeds of doubt in her mind. Herrick was evil and a vampire, not because he was a vampire, and the flashes of that wit and intelligence in this episode were perfectly played by Watkins.
I wouldn’t want Being Human to be like this every week – it was exhausting to watch, for a start – but as something different, to really set into motion the events of the finale, it really was an astonishing hour of television.
See the sixth episode of Being Human, ‘Daddy Ghoul’, next Sunday at 9pm on BBC3.
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