Being Human 4.1 + 4.02
Feb. 14th, 2012 06:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which having watched several seasons of Spooks as well as the writing level having risen incredibly in s3 of this show turns out to be very helpful to this viewer.
Spooks of course murdered off or wrote out its ensemble except for Harry on a regular basis, and you can see where this is good training. (See also: Torchwood.) Also thanks to an indiscreet interview with Russell Tovey during the long hiatus I knew that George and my beloved Nina were for the chop, so it wasn't quite the shock it otherwise would have been. I'm assuming Doylist reasons here (i.e. actors leaving), and Toby Whitehouse having to do a JMS and stuffing the holes accordingly. This being said, I really wish he'd written out both George and Nina some non-lethal way, but I suppose having set up the war scenario this would have been difficult to justify. Still: Niiiiiiina! (And to a lesser extent: George!)
However: it says something about just how much I loved s3 that this didn't mean I decided to give up the show. Spooks precedent notwithstanding, I think if they'd killed off Arvin Sloane I would have probably given up Alias, and I recently gave up Dexter due to the general decline in writing and characterisation. The s4 opener, otoh, had enough to keep be intrigued and entertained and now I've just watched the second episode and decided for good that yes, I'll stick around.
Bad stuff first, other than the fridging of Nina, I mean. Hal in the second episode gets some characterisation (in the first he's just sort of there), but the obsessive-compulsive thing still isn't enough to distinguish him from generic vampire on the wagon and/or Mitchell, early days. It doesn't help that there's another copper vampire around who obviously recognized his name.
On to the good: new media vampire, otoh (Cutler, I believe?) as well as record keeping vampire (Regus?) are neat ideas. Respecially Regus the record keeper, and when he started to rattle off quotes in the fake ceremony of 4.1. to stall and give the werewolves time to arrive I had a delighted grin on my face. (Not sure what to make of the fact the gag with the ceremony and the quote rambling is repeated with Annie in 4.02; foreshadowing or just repetition?) It seems there's unlife in the vampires yet to prevent the lot from feeling been there, done that.
On the werewolf side of things, it's a good thing Tom was introduced last season at leisure because his joining Annie feels organic and makes sense. And despite my complaint re: Hal above, it makes for a very different dynamic with Hal considering Tom's entire life as a vampire hunter so far. In 4.01 I wasn't sure whether or not Leo-Pearl-Hal as what George, Annie and Mitchell could have been had worked for me, especially since I thought repeating the exact gender and supernatural order instead of, say, making Pearl the werewolf or vampire and one of the two men the ghost or something like that was straining my suspension of disbelief, but it offered an important shot of hope in the darkness of the show, pointing out that the goal of living in the human world as a supernatural being without harming it but as a part of it was achievable after all. In 4.02, as we got the know the alternate trio better, I completely came around to their existence. And no, Pearl and Leo having gone to a Beatles concert together and stealing Ringo's drumstick as a souvenir isn't the only reason, though it's definitely one of them. :) I also loved the opportunities this alternate trio provided for Annie: her reactions to them, both the slight tetchiness with Pearl and the openness to learn and empathy, complete with determined cheerfulness and fixation there should be a point to it all were so very her. Annie's refusal to go the brooding avenger path and belief in affection and humanity in all its forms comes across not as naive but as knowing and courageous now, and is very endearing. If Leo's and Pearl's exits were predicable they were also well done and worked emotionally. (They still felt far more individual and fleshed out than Hal so I was sorry to see them go anyway.) And it's amazing how much humor there was in what easily could have been an angstfest, in both episodes.
In other news: Eve is the new John Connor, obviously. Colour me amused and approving. Though less so with her method of trying to change the past, though I assume there'll be more than meets the eye to this, and at any rate it's a way to make Eve a person who can make choices without magically growing her up from baby status, so I'm on board for supernatural time travel. Also I really like we're dealing with a female chosen one for a change. Plus I'm impressed by the casting as the actress actually looks a bit like Nina.
My current guess is: given the last season's big arc was about a self-fulfilling prophecy (i.e. Mitchell made it true by the way he reacted and the choices he made, not because it was determined), we won't find out either the apocalyptic vampire ruled future or an alternate vampire free one is destiny, but that how the characters (i.e. now Annie, Tom and Hal plus future!Eve) respond and the choices they make will create whatever will be. Bring on the next episode!
Spooks of course murdered off or wrote out its ensemble except for Harry on a regular basis, and you can see where this is good training. (See also: Torchwood.) Also thanks to an indiscreet interview with Russell Tovey during the long hiatus I knew that George and my beloved Nina were for the chop, so it wasn't quite the shock it otherwise would have been. I'm assuming Doylist reasons here (i.e. actors leaving), and Toby Whitehouse having to do a JMS and stuffing the holes accordingly. This being said, I really wish he'd written out both George and Nina some non-lethal way, but I suppose having set up the war scenario this would have been difficult to justify. Still: Niiiiiiina! (And to a lesser extent: George!)
However: it says something about just how much I loved s3 that this didn't mean I decided to give up the show. Spooks precedent notwithstanding, I think if they'd killed off Arvin Sloane I would have probably given up Alias, and I recently gave up Dexter due to the general decline in writing and characterisation. The s4 opener, otoh, had enough to keep be intrigued and entertained and now I've just watched the second episode and decided for good that yes, I'll stick around.
Bad stuff first, other than the fridging of Nina, I mean. Hal in the second episode gets some characterisation (in the first he's just sort of there), but the obsessive-compulsive thing still isn't enough to distinguish him from generic vampire on the wagon and/or Mitchell, early days. It doesn't help that there's another copper vampire around who obviously recognized his name.
On to the good: new media vampire, otoh (Cutler, I believe?) as well as record keeping vampire (Regus?) are neat ideas. Respecially Regus the record keeper, and when he started to rattle off quotes in the fake ceremony of 4.1. to stall and give the werewolves time to arrive I had a delighted grin on my face. (Not sure what to make of the fact the gag with the ceremony and the quote rambling is repeated with Annie in 4.02; foreshadowing or just repetition?) It seems there's unlife in the vampires yet to prevent the lot from feeling been there, done that.
On the werewolf side of things, it's a good thing Tom was introduced last season at leisure because his joining Annie feels organic and makes sense. And despite my complaint re: Hal above, it makes for a very different dynamic with Hal considering Tom's entire life as a vampire hunter so far. In 4.01 I wasn't sure whether or not Leo-Pearl-Hal as what George, Annie and Mitchell could have been had worked for me, especially since I thought repeating the exact gender and supernatural order instead of, say, making Pearl the werewolf or vampire and one of the two men the ghost or something like that was straining my suspension of disbelief, but it offered an important shot of hope in the darkness of the show, pointing out that the goal of living in the human world as a supernatural being without harming it but as a part of it was achievable after all. In 4.02, as we got the know the alternate trio better, I completely came around to their existence. And no, Pearl and Leo having gone to a Beatles concert together and stealing Ringo's drumstick as a souvenir isn't the only reason, though it's definitely one of them. :) I also loved the opportunities this alternate trio provided for Annie: her reactions to them, both the slight tetchiness with Pearl and the openness to learn and empathy, complete with determined cheerfulness and fixation there should be a point to it all were so very her. Annie's refusal to go the brooding avenger path and belief in affection and humanity in all its forms comes across not as naive but as knowing and courageous now, and is very endearing. If Leo's and Pearl's exits were predicable they were also well done and worked emotionally. (They still felt far more individual and fleshed out than Hal so I was sorry to see them go anyway.) And it's amazing how much humor there was in what easily could have been an angstfest, in both episodes.
In other news: Eve is the new John Connor, obviously. Colour me amused and approving. Though less so with her method of trying to change the past, though I assume there'll be more than meets the eye to this, and at any rate it's a way to make Eve a person who can make choices without magically growing her up from baby status, so I'm on board for supernatural time travel. Also I really like we're dealing with a female chosen one for a change. Plus I'm impressed by the casting as the actress actually looks a bit like Nina.
My current guess is: given the last season's big arc was about a self-fulfilling prophecy (i.e. Mitchell made it true by the way he reacted and the choices he made, not because it was determined), we won't find out either the apocalyptic vampire ruled future or an alternate vampire free one is destiny, but that how the characters (i.e. now Annie, Tom and Hal plus future!Eve) respond and the choices they make will create whatever will be. Bring on the next episode!
no subject
Date: 2012-02-15 03:19 pm (UTC)I was very, very unhappy about the way Nina's death was handled.
the idea that they will shape the future in the present is a good one -- it would be nice to see some development on Eve's part over the course of the season as well on this front, since right now she's playing the role she believes the prophecy requires.