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.
Joanna Starzynski shares her thoughts on Sherlock's latest adventure.
When Mitchell was killed off in series 3, it seemed a (ahem) natural ending for the character, his story very much feeling complete. Sure, it was leaving BBC3’s best show (followed closely by Middle-Aged, Slightly Overweight and Living off My Next Door Neighbour’s Rubbish) without one of its central characters, but hey, we still had Annie, George and the oh so marvellous Nina. However, slightly worryingly, it was announced that Russell Tovey would only be making brief appearances in the new series. And then, just last week, it turned out that Sinead Keenan has left as well, and hasn’t even filmed an exit! Wh- how- but-! So now we have to consider the very real prospect that series 4 is the beginning of the end for Being Human.
Obviously, head honcho Toby Whithouse has defended the new series, basically saying that we needn’t worry because it’s actually better than its predecessors. But when has somebody telling you not to worry ever really stopped you from doing just that? And, let’s face it, he wouldn’t really be doing his job if he’d have turned round and said: ‘Yeah, you’re probably better off switching over to Wild at Heart.’
Nobody wants to believe more than I that this series will be the highlight of the TV year and, as Whithouse himself has pointed out, the show has easily survived other pivotal changes such as the location change for series 3. But then, was it ever really the house we were connected to, or the people living in it?
Recall Being Human’s very first series. At a mere six episodes long, it’s amazing how much impact it had. Much of this was down to the exquisite writing, but it was the characters that really elevated the storytelling. I say characters, in my mind they were real people after just a couple of episodes. There was such a believable chemistry between them that you wouldn’t think it possible for it to have been forcibly created. Could it therefore be possible for that chemistry to be recreated with a new set of characters? We certainly won’t be able to start series 4 feeling like we’re catching up with some old friends, but will we grow to love the newbies in the same way? To help us ponder, let’s take a look at them.
The new werewolf joining Annie (who is, mercifully, still with us) is someone we already know: Tom (Michael Socha), Robson Green’s son from the last series. As a supporting character who cropped up every now and again, he was pretty good, but has he got the diversity of Russell Tovey to make for as compelling a character as George?
The new vampire is actually new. He’s called Hal, apparently very posh, and played by newcomer Damien Molony. The thing with newcomers is that they only ever fall into two camps. The Carey Mulligan camp for ‘Wow, they’re amazing’ or The Everyone Else camp for ‘Heavens, the extras on Emmerdale are better than them’. I’m not going to pre-judge (I’ve done that before when I told everyone how good I thought Matt Smith would be in Doctor Who, only to have spent the last 2 years moaning about how he has killed my enjoyment of the show), but if he’s anything less than superb, he’s going to see that humans have got fangs too.
So what do you think? Do you think that it can easily survive with new characters? Will you abandon series 4 if the characters lack the chemistry of the original trio? Are you actually going to bother watching it, or do you feel that it’s like having a series of Sherlock in which Benedict Cumberbatch doesn’t appear? Let us know in the comments!
Being Human returns to our screens later this month, and be sure to look out for The Yorker's very own series blog!
You must log in to submit a comment.
