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Monday 4 March 2013

"I'm only the fucking Devil, sweetheart."

Just one more episode of Being Human left, ever, which is, as Supernanny would put it, "unasseptible." Of course, if you'd told me back in 2008 when the show hadn't been picked up after the pilot, that we'd end up with 40 episodes over 5 years, that would have been better than I'd ever hoped for, but that's what happens when you keep the quality up for that long, people want more.

"No Care, All Responsibility" by Sarah Dollard, directed by Daniel O'Hara. Spoilers under the cut.


- On the other hand you've got to be glad the series is going out on a high rather than hanging around like a bad smell years past its prime, like so many shows do. And it's not like Being Human didn't have a dip of its own in Series 3. The turn Hal's character's taken is fine for now, but given another year I can see it just replicating Mitchell's from the third series, which took the show in too dark a direction, and it would be particularly cruel on the viewers to watch Hal go through it.
- Of course the quirks of Hal's personality mean even as he descends into his darkest place, with a pub massacre looking like his own version of Box Tunnel, there's a lightness that stops the show from being pure nastiness; there's the Gilbert and Sullivan that starts as a joke then ends up quite a moving attempt to keep himself sane, Molony as usual knocking both out of the park. And how about an actual vampire doing an unconvincing job of baring his teeth at Rook?
- Plus, a callback to Hal's mysterious relationship with Kia-Ora!
- Other things this series is doing better than S3: A vampire/ghost relationship. Never mind the interesting idea of their relationship being partly responsible for her becoming a ghost in the first place, these two originally met as a potential couple, so their continued interest in each other is plausible. As opposed to, say, the show having two attractive single characters and deciding they want to do the sex after three years of showing no sexual interest in each other.
- And sex brings us on to Tom's continued, adorable innocence. His idea of McNair having taught him the birds and the bees is great, but the best moment in this subplot has to be the resigned way he undoes his belt when he thinks Natasha wants to jump him right there and then.
- Socha as Tom is probably going to be the biggest loss when the show goes off air. Great though the other characters and actors are, I just can't see how you could get a character anything like Tom onto TV again. He's actually so extreme, but in the show's universe where it's plausible that his father raised him in the woods, he makes sense.
- True to what I expected, Kate Bracken is growing on me just as it's too late, I thought she was very good in her later scenes with Hal. She still needs to enunciate better though. It took me a couple of goes to understand the Kia-Ora line, and you don't want to bury comedy gold like that.
- And a really cleverly nasty cliffhanger to end on, a suitably devilish act to trap a ghost in her own coffin. (Through a mirror, of course. All the scary stuff is on the other side of a mirror.)

Favourite lines:
- "What are your views on the quilt?"
- "She made you feel feelings? What a bitch!"
- "Soup du jour. Sounds good." "I've had that type before, it is good. I can also recommend the... wine."
-  "Is Health And Safety Turning Britain's Farmers GAY?"

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