Sally Gets Her Groove Back
“It Takes Two To Make a Thing Go Wrong”
Being Human
Syfy, Monday, 10 PM E/P
Written by Jeremy Carver & Anna Fricke
Directed by Charles Binamé
Note: This review covers the American version of Being Human, considered by itself and without reference to the original British series on which it is based.
“Am I supposed to be over the whole ‘wrongful death’ thing by now?” — Sally
Last week we found out that Sally’s fiancé, Danny, accidentally caused her death. Devastated by this news, she has become the Moaning Myrtle of the brownstone: brooding, clogging up drains, shaking the house. All these actions are inadvertent, expressions of her supernatural subconscious. As time goes on, however, Sally is learning to harness and channel these ‘powers’; unlike her housemates, supernatural change does not come naturally to her and she must learn how to be who and what she is, rather than merely accept an involuntary response. As such, she is potentially the most interesting character in the bunch, because she is closest to a rational human being. During this episode, she visits her mighty wrath on Danny in a series of ever-more-destructive sequences, culminating in a scene where Danny and Bridget come home to his apartment to find it literally shredded, with the bits and pieces spiraling inward on his living room floor in a pattern that ends with the engagement ring. Personally, I think Danny has it coming if only because he’s a lousy landlord: the house he’s renting to our threesome is in dire need of paint. It looks like the Addams Family mansion.
“She’s speaking to you?” – Aidan
Josh, meanwhile, is making more progress than anyone, least of all Josh, expected him to make with blonde Doctor Nora (Kristen Hager, CSI: Miami). Even she can’t resist those puppy dog eyes; she even calls him “Doe-Eyes” at one point. After some awkward moments, mainly caused by Josh’s reversion to high school sophomore, they manage to arrange a date. Does Josh take her to a nice restaurant, a movie or a club? Oh, no. He has to invite her back to his place for a home cooked meal (he apparently still has several pounds of rump roast left over from Ray’s last visit). And there’s a measure both of Josh’s cluelessness and Nora’s interest in him, that he would invite a guest to that wreck of a mansion and she would consent to eat there. That must be some crème brulé. This is marvelous progress, considering his dating-suicide moves two weeks ago with this same woman. I’m glad the writers are giving Josh at least a hint of sensuality; after his tearful breakdown last week with Ray he needs to man up a little.
“You don’t want me back. You would be nothing all over again and you know it.” – Aidan
Aidan, meanwhile, is getting a very interesting wake-up call from Bishop: Rebecca sends him a vampire porn snuff film, which he plays for the whole household. Apparently neither Josh nor Sally realized just how ugly a vampire feeding could get. Josh recoils in horror and Sally covers her eyes: “She’s eating his face! Ew ew ew!” Aidan tries to pass the whole thing off as a mistake or a prank, but he can’t quite bring himself to get rid of the DVD. In the privacy of his room, he watches it again, pausing on Rebecca’s face. Despite his every resolution, he is still obsessed with her. It’s an interesting question whether he wants her for herself, or because she was temporarily sharing his “diet” of non-living blood, or because she is the dark temptress calling him back to the vampire fold. His confrontation with Marcus is of note mainly because of the hint that Aidan, at some time in the past, was a dark prince of this community, and Marcus only succeeded to his old position because Aidan relinquished it. We’ve seen plenty of vamp politics in True Blood and even (a little) Vampire Diaries, but this is the first time we’ve seen this level of it on Being Human.
“You killed me, but he made me.” – Rebecca
Rebecca, as usual, gets all the good lines in her scenes with Aidan. She’s being drawn as a more complex character now, one who may or may not want out of the vamp community Bishop is running, one who may or may not be trying to lure Aidan back to the dark side. Is Aidan in love with her? Increasingly, he seems to be, but for the life of me I’m not sure why. Perhaps he sees in her a potential convert, although after she abandoned him in a hotel room weeks ago that seems long odds to me. She says Bishop is controlling her, but is that true? I appreciate the ambiguity seeping into this character, if only to add depth to the character of Aidan. There seems to be some dark chemistry between these two, perhaps a co-dependent relationship, and to find Aidan more into it than Rebecca is refreshing.
“Why are we shaking?” – Emily
Josh’s life gets suddenly complicated when his sister Emily (Allison Louder, Crawler) shows up. She has just broken up with her girlfriend and needs a place to stay. Josh naturally complicates everyone else’s lives by inviting her to stay with him. She spends her days moping about the house, eating cereal in her pajamas and drinking vodka straight from the bottle. Sally would love to hang with her, but all she does is make Emily shiver with cold, or causes the house to shake. Josh persuades Aidan to take his sister out of the house so he can have some time with Nora; unfortunately Aidan the idiot takes this half-drunk child to a club. Distracted by Rebecca, he doesn’t notice when she slips away for a smoke. In the alley, a stranger offers her a light – and then attacks her. When she comes home to Josh and Nora, she is bleeding and weeping; I suspect her attacker was a vampire, but we have to wait until next week to find out for sure. I really liked the moment Aidan came home and immediately reacted to the smell of Emily’s blood; he knew exactly what had happened to her and hardly waited for Sally to tell him she was at the hospital. It was a good character moment for our handsome vampire.
“I lived through the Sixties. I can talk about karma without irony.” – Aidan
It’s getting better. It’s still not a great show, not even a good show, but it’s better than dreck. For the last two weeks, I’ve been able to watch it without cringing, like I did with V and Flashforward. Josh’s gentle nerdiness, Aidan’s conflicted angst, and Sally’s bubbly good cheer are a good mix for three roommates, supernatural or not. I would like to see more hints about Aidan’s and Josh’s backstory – how did two “natural enemies” become friends? I would also like to see Sally’s story meshing more naturally with the other two. I don’t know whether we’ll get a chance to see this happen, since Being Human keeps falling in the ratings. Last week it was down to 0.4 adults in the ratings, a 30% fall from the week before. At this rate, the trio in the brownstone will soon outnumber their audience.