TV Review: Being Human

There's this weird thing that happens in the entertainment industry.  One country makes a thing, the thing is super popular, and then a different country makes their own version that is simply horrendous.  For instance, the movie Mostly Martha is this sweet, slightly cheesy German movie about an uptight chef.  A few years later, Catherine Zeta-Jones ruined it in English with No Reservations.  Please, don't rent No Reservations.  You're only feeding the beast.

Sometimes these adaptations work.  Unfortunately, for every Office, there's a Coupling or Viva Laughlin.  The latest entry into this pantheon of hits and embarrassing misses is Being Human, currently running on the Syfy channel.  I would call this one more miss than hit, at the moment.  It is a show about a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost who are roommates.  To me, this sounds like the set up to a joke, but most of the characters are incapable of pushing their faces into smile shapes, so it's more of a drama.

Aside from their general humorlessness, they're also whiny and not terribly interesting.  Aidan, the requisite hot brooding vampire guy, is two hundred years old.  He used to be really violent and murderous, but now he's not, except for when he relapses once an episode.  He has this one vampire friend who is kind of threatening.  Then there's Josh, the whiny werewolf.  I keep thinking Josh will be the funny one, but he isn't.  He mostly sulks, because he's not old enough to brood.  Finally, we have Sally the ghost. Hey, what's that over there?  Oh, it's another feminist rant.

OK, you have three main characters, so two of the three have to be men instead of the other way around (of course), but the one female character is also a ghost?  The only one with no power to do anything at all?  The one who can't interact with any characters except the two main dudes because they're the only ones who can see her?  The one whose ultimate fate rests on her ability to find emotional closure about her life?  At least make some effort here.  I know the cast is based on the British version, but that doesn't mean it was OK when they did it.

Moving on to other issues, the show is supposed to be set in Boston, but the producers apparently didn't even spring for a few skyline shots to toss between scenes.  The only indication that they're in Boston is that one, someone casually referred to them being in Boston, and two, Josh was supposed to be attending MIT Med School before he got bitten by a werewolf and dropped out.  I can't even tell where in Boston they're supposed to be living.  I'm guessing they're in South Boston, but I'm not sure.  Didn't Good Will Hunting teach us all the phrase "Southie"?  Also, Josh goes off into "the woods" once a month to turn into a werewolf.  Where is he going?  What woods?  Why isn't anyone taking the T anywhere? 

I'm not expecting ol' Josh to be all, "Head down Boylston, take a right on Arlington, a left on Newbury, and it's by the Urban Outfitters across from Hynes."  But if you're going to go to the trouble of setting your show in a specific town and more than that, a large famous town, let the city give your show a little added flavor.  This show needs it.  So far, plot lines focus on how miserable everyone is.  There needs to be something else going on or else they need to make me care about these people more.  I mean, a show about poor whiny 20-somethings in Boston with a supernatural element is totally my cup of tea.  I probably won't give up on it yet, partially because it's already set up as a series recording on my DVR.  I suggest a second emotion for each character, as well as one of those famed "ongoing plot lines" to tie the episodes together. 

Final verdict?  Skip it, unless you refuse to let anything vampire-related pass you by or you can think of some other reason to watch it.