Air Date: 01/17/11
Created by: Toby Whithouse (UK Version)
Starring: Sam Witwer, Sam Huntington, Meaghan Rath and Mark Pelligrino
It seems like every time you turn around these days they are remaking British TV shows for the American market. In recent memory this endeavor has met with varying degrees of success. Ranging to breakout hits like The Office and Hell's Kitchen to crimes against our senses like Viva Laughlin!, I'm sure some people earned a special place in hell for that one. Thankfully this Syfy channel remake of the excellent British show has got off to a fairly decent start.
For anyone who has seen the original, Being Human will be instantly recognizable. The story follows three friends, Aidan (Sam Witwer), Sally (Meaghan Rath) and Josh (Sam Huntington). Aidan is a 200 year old vampire trying to kick the habit of drinking from living humans. It's a hard road that he slips from occasionally, his latest slip sees him accidentally kill Rebecca, a fellow nurse at the hospital where he works. Luckily for Aidan these things happen and there are contingency plans in place. Bishop (Mark Peligrino) is a Lieutenant for the Boston police department, he's also the leader of the local vampire community and one of Aidan's oldest friends. At least he was, now he see's Rebecca's death as a way to bring Aidan back into the fold by using his guilt against him.
Josh is a werewolf, he doesn't want to be and he certainly doesn't like it. Josh believes he is a monster, not just the three days of the month he actual is one, so much so that he has cut himself off from his family. Until a chance meeting with his sister at the hospital. Still unwilling to share his secret he attempts to distance himself once again, with consequences he could never imagine. Each of their struggles pushes them to find their lost humanity, first step? Renting an apartment, which happens to be haunted by Sally. Sally died in the apartment when she lived there with her fiance, she hasn't let it bring her down too much though, especially now she has other supernatural roomies that can actually communicate with her.
The story of this episode closely follows it's British counterpart but you can already see where they plan on branching out. The inclusion of Josh's sister is a nice touch, especially considering the unfortunate situation they find themselves in at the end of the episode.So far that's the only notable difference but hopefully they will try and build on that and establish their own identity.
The cast was great, i thought it would be hard to find someone who could match the performance's of the original but I realized they don't really have to. They found a cast that can make these roles their own and i think that will be part of the key to this shows success. Witwer is great as Aidan, he nails that brooding, I've seen it all attitude and he definitely has the overall acting skills to show the emotional depth the character needs when it's called for. Huntington makes for decent comic relief but what really impressed me about his performance was his agonizing portrayal of the outcast and the monster. Rath has the bubbly free spirited thing going for her but the thing I loved about Lenora Crichlow in the original was the lovable airhead vibe she brought to the role and I'm not seeing that from Rath yet. She was definitely the least utilized character of the three in the opening episode so it's no disservice to her performance to say she was the weaker of the three this time around although she did show great emotional depth in her scene with Witwer. Rounding out the main cast we met is Pelligrino, what can't this guy do? He is only seen briefly but he already exudes the menacing, don't mess with me vibe.
Overall it was a good start, with a few missteps that can easily be rectified. I am interested in where the story is going with Josh's sister, from the way the episode ends it looks like they might tread a little familiar ground with this one but I'm hoping it can find it's own identity as well. It will be interesting to see just how closely the Rebecca story mirror's the original as it was a fairly big part of the first season over in that version. One thing I am really hoping for in the next episode if some more of Meaghan Rath, I want to see more so we can get a better idea of how well she can do in that role, a role that becomes more central to the storyline in the British version. If they can pull this show off each week it would be great, more Being Human could never be a bad thing in my eyes.
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