If you happen to know me, you know how obsessed I am with BBC America. I Love all shows BBC: Coupling, Skins, Hotel Babylon (this one not as much), Hollyoaks, Jonathan Ross (before he was a complete butt to Hugh Grant during an interview), Cash in the Attic, Countdown, The IT Crowd and more recently the absolutely addictive Being Human.
Being Human was a little gem I discovered a year or two ago on the BBC America preview list on Time Warner Cable. Although I only got a 15 minute peek at the show, I was instantly drawn into the wacky story line.
In the sleepy seaside city of Bristol, UK a vampire, werewolf and ghost try to live a 'normal' life despite the ever growing pull to assume their proper role in the universe. Basically, vampires are suppose to be blood driven vicious killers, werewolves should live quiet lives in the wild, and ghost should cross over immediately after death. Instead, there's a vampire that doesn't want to suck blood, a werewolf eager to regain his prior life as a friendly neighborhood everyman, and a ghost that wants to pick up where her life ended before her fiance killed her.
You would think that such a story line would have to lack in substance, but it does carry some weight in the meat department. Over time, you start to feel for the characters and their lust to live life as normal human beings.
The series was going rather great in the UK when news came stateside that US based cable network SYFY was set to air its own version of Being Human.
If this isn't a WTF moment, then I don't know what one is!
I wanted to be cool about it and be open about the whole idea but after viewing the US series preview, I can't help but to be annoyed. This was once again the US getting it wrong. One of the things I like about the UK, is that they cast people for reasons outside how someone looks. What made the UK series so great was that the characters weren't exactly what you would call classically good-looking. In fact, they're a bit strange looking and that's cool, because that makes them more real. On this new US version, all I can think about is how plastic and handsome they look. What's up with that? I'm so tired of sex selling.
Another problem I have is with how they changed the character's situations slightly. They made the US characters so much wimpier and cheesy. I shake my head in disgrace...generally in the direction of the SYFY channel. Shame on them for ruining yet another UK classic. Jerks!
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