redfiona99 | Entries tagged with being human

Apparently Being Human, the US version, is premiering tonight. If anyone who watches it feels like telling me whether it's bad, good or indifferent, I'd be obliged. Being Human (UK version) is a show I love rather a lot, and I'm worried that a bad US version might sour people on the UK one. I have seen photos of the cast, and, I shall admit, it does not look promising. They seem to have missed something important with George/Josh at least, which is very sad-making because he is my favourite character. And they seem to have made Herrick/Bishop far too obviously evil. Herrick's everyday evil (imagine if the Mayor from BTVS was a Bristol policeman) was one of my other favourite things.

Have seen nothing about who won what at the Golden Globes, but a lot about Ricky Gervais. No, US, you're supposed to like him, because if you do, you'll keep him and I won't have to put up with him being everywhere over here. On the matter of Ricky Gervais, I want two things known. 1) He wasn't funny when he was on the radio and he's not funny now. 2) When invited to perform at the Secret Policeman's Ball, he turned it down. In an interview later, he said that, as a comedian, it was his job to entertain and therefore he didn't do politics. In that vein, as a viewer, it is my job to be entertained, and therefore, I don't do Ricky Gervais.

The Golden Globes did lead to me gaining a love for Robert Downey Jr ("Aside from the fact that it's been hugely mean-spirited, with mildly sinister undertones, I'd say the vibe of the show is pretty good so far, wouldn't you?") and Tim Allen and Tom Hanks (Tom Hanks - "We recall when Ricky Gervais was a slightly chubby but very kind comedian." Tim Allen - "Neither of which he is now.").

On to happier things, an Austrian won in Wengen :D I now fully expect a Swiss skier to win in Kitzbuehel, but I'd love for Michael Walchhoffer to win there.

Day 27 - Favourite pilot

UK television doesn't really do pilots, probably because it's far cheaper to do a series of 6 and then let is sink rather than throw a lot of money at 1 episode and then decide whether to commision a series, as there'll probably only be six episodes in a series anyway. Obviously, in the US, it's different, as the company make 13 episodes instead so having pilots makes more sense for them. Over here, we don't see them as pilots, we see them as the first episode of a series, so it's hard to tell.

More recently, however, BBC 3 had a series of pilots. The idea was that 6 pilots would be shown, and the pilot that got the best response would get a series.

Now, unfortunately, the head of BBC 3 decided to screw this up, because he loved Phoo Action (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1116185/) so much that he demanded a series of it. The head of BBC 3 remains, to this day, the only person who liked Phoo Action. This caused a small problem for the remaining shows, as it was the first of 6 to be broadcast and the series was announced on the day it was shown.

The remaining 5 were shown.

The second of these was pitched as a dark-ish comedy where a ghost, a werewolf and a vampire share a house. You all know of my love of all things vamp, so I sat down and watched it. The milisecond it was over, I added Being Human to my interests list and tried to find out how I could keep this wonderful little show on the airwaves. Because of the mis-guided Phoo Action decision, us Being Human fans had only one recourse - the petition. If anyone wonders why I will quite willingly sign your TV petition, it's because ours worked and we got a series of Being Human (it's now up to 2 and number 3 is being filmed).

It's not that there we're changes, they certainly changed the tone of the series, but only slightly, and two out of the three leads were changed. But they kept Russell Tovey (George the werewolf) and that was important, because I love and adore Annie and Mitchell, but George is the heart of the show.

It's not like the changes were entirely bad, because I love Lenora Crichlow's Annie, more so that Andrea Riseborough's Annie (not a diss on Andrea Riseborough who is an actress of greatness beyond her years and made Maggie Thatcher sympathetic when she played her, which should tell you how good she is). I find it amusing that the series plays up the Annie and Mitchell thing, but I think they had more chemistry in the pilot, but that may have been more to do with the men with sticks.

And Mitchell got changed. Now, I'm in the part of fandom that prefered pilot! Mitchell, and it really is a total YMMV (or I'd go with your mileage will vary). In the pilot, he appears to be some sort of important vampire and there's a reason why Herrick wants him on-side. No such reason is given in the series. Herrick also changes, and he's one I prefer in the series, because ordinary every day evil trumps underplayed evil emperoring everyday.

In the case of Mitchell it comes down to whether you prefer your vamp angst to be 'help I'm immortal and can't seem to have sex without killing people' or 'help I drink human blood and hate myself (and can't seem to have sex without killing people although the reason for that is brilliantly explained)'.

I personally still want to write the crossover where the series and the pilot are neighbouring parallel universes, and one Mitchell slips between the two and runs into the other one (it'd be Mitchell after the pilot and Mitchell after season 1) and one warns the other and pilot! Mitchell would be all 'but George is okay, right?' because while Mitchell and George are adorable in the series, in the pilot they're out and out snarky adorkable.

I love the series, you may have noticed me squeakily blogging about it, but I fear part of me will always love the pilot more.

( The Other Days )

So, I've been back home this weekend because it was my Nan's birthday. We went out for a meal, which was fun. Girl cousin is looking a lot healthier than she has done previously.

Other than that, I went to the British National Fencing Championships. It's a lot less grand than it sounds because it's open entry, not restricted.

( Details )

Even more fun was that B and K were down, so I got to spend time with them. There was beer, burgers and chat, what could be better. Although B's sense of direction has not improved, at all!

T and a different B were also v. happy to see them. We should meet up more often.

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Just saw the German GP, I still hate the new Hockenheim, and I don't think we'll hear the end of the whole 'Massa had to step aside for Alonso' thing for quite some time. I think Ferrari's line will be that they didn't break the letter of the law. I'd also be very surprised if Rob Smedley is still there after the end of this season, which will probably mean Felipe is out of the door as well.

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The TV meme, day 2 - A show that you wish more people were watching

Being Human - http://www.bbc.co.uk/beinghuman/

In which a vampire, a ghost and a werewolf share a house. And oh they're such interesting characters. I mean, I still prefer pilot!Mitchell, but it does such interesting things with the premise and George is an absolute love and Annie, oh Annie! The people in it are lovely and horrid and wonderful and terrible and I love it so very much. Toby Whitehouse writes some excellent stuff, and it's a joy to watch. They also managed to make Terry Wogan creepy, in one of the most genius things I've seen in ages.

( The Other Days )

( Vampire Diaries Episode 3 )

I then made the terrible mistake of watching Being Human directly afterward, because it blew VD out the water.

( Oh George )

And then I watched Glee.

( The One With Single Ladies In It, mostly not impressed )

I'm sure Glee's good, but it's just not for me.

Sorry for the radio silence, it's been a bit busy in rl, about which there will be a long post, later. But first, more fun things.

Films:

Before Sherlock Holmes there was a trailer for Iron Man 2. Other than being amused that villains still get lumbered with stock Russian accent number 2, I think Mickey Rourke's character could be really interesting.

The thing that really made me gleeful about the trailer was the bit where Tony Stark, about to make his big entrance in costume, goes 'a kiss for good luck,' so Pepper kisses the mask and throws it out of the plane.

I hope they give her more to do than just be jealous of Scarlet Johanson's character.

Comics and Manga:

Because I got paid the second half of my money for demonstrating, I went on a bit of a spree. I got the next three volumes of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles and a 2000 AD book, which I haven't read before, called Murder 101. Yay, Sinister Dexter, which is probably the one 2000 AD strip you could easily turn into a film.

TV:

Last week's Being Human was interesting, inbetween the exquisite awkwardness of Annie's plan (Oh George, how do you get yourself into these things.), the vampire shennanigans and the reveal.

The thing I really like about Being Human is that, you know that thing when you're watching something, and a character gets a choice between action a and action b and they're both equally valid if not morally then functionally, and you know that they'll go for b because it's the 'right choice'. Being Human doesn't do that, so it gets to do interesting things, see also Karl the vampire from episode 2.

What I will say, is that the start of episode 3 contains the funniest take you'll see on the banality and beaurocracy of evil for quite some time. And also deeply horrifying at the same time.

( Spoilers )

I still haven't seen this week's episode because Being Human has reached that pitch of where I want to see the next episode but am terrified by the horrible things they're going to do characters I like.

Meanwhile, also on a vampire tip, I am greatly amused by the Vampire Diaries. They are the epitome of the cheesy but fun. Also - Ian Sommerhalder.

Fitness

The fitness drive is being complicated by my body being odd. You know the thing they tell you about how to weigh yourself at around the same time every day because otherwise you pick up diurnal variation, which can be as much as 2 lb. Make that 4 lb and that's what's entirely possible for me even if I weigh myself at the same time +/- half an hour. I have been assured that this is not a good thing by at least a couple of med students, but that's always been the way I've been.

Saw the Fast and the Furious 3 - Tokyo Drift.

Whoever told me Han was the best thing in it was so very right, either that or DK's paintjob or the car stunts. They were some lovely stunts.

I don't know if it's just because most of the other actors were not from the US, but the lead guy's accent stood out a mile. To the point of wondering if it's a put on accent. (Have looked it up. It's not. Even more of a shocker, that's Caleb from American Gothic!)

Also,
[spoilers] I wish to point out something that I shall refer to as the Toretto effect. It refers to the way that anything Vin Diesel says while playing Dom Toretto sounds like innuendo. And that this effect is doubled if it is dialogue about a male character. The one that really sealed it was, when he turns up at the end of the film and says that he'd raced against Han, and lead character dude goes 'I didn't think that Han was into American muscle cars', to which Dom replies 'He did when I knew him'. And it's like, there was no way that wasn't innuendo.
[/spoilers]

However, Tokyo Drift does break with the previous films in that its entirely possible for the plot to work without the assumption that the two lead male characters are romantically involved.

Brutal Legend rocks

I fear that should actually be 'rawks'. Very silly fun game, not the most user-friendly of playing systems but, as I say so very much fun and very clever.

I knew I recognised the new doctor from Being Human from somewhere

It's Cleopatra from Rome. She has a very distinctive voice, it was just odd seeing her in modern day clothing.

I'd love to be able to confirm my suspicion but that would involve the BBC actually putting up cast lists.

1) I will talk about the Henry Rollins gig eventually, I am still pondering a few things.

2) Being Human was awesome! Madly odd, but awesome. You know how a lot of shows have a couple of boring episodes in the middle as they shift between arcs. Being Human does away with that by cramming more than is entirely reasonable into every episode, so by now, at the end of the second episode, they've covered more ground than most shows do in who seasons. And all the character arcs are inter-related so there's not the same jumpiness. There was a really cool moment where [spoiler] left and I was all like well [spoiler] is going to be grabbed by either the evil religious scientists, the vampires or the forces of darkness as yet unconfirmed that are after Annie. Housemate P did pretty much hold his head and go 'there is no way they're going to cover all of this properly'. But I think they will.

( Discussion of themes and how they're building on stuff from the pilot )

( Actual discussion of episode 2 )

3) I am now on day 4 of no tea, coffee or cola. Sanity may eventually be restored, but thankfully I think I'm over the worst of the headache.

( Semi-liveblogging because I've already had two holy wow! moments and it's only 3 minutes into it )

Pick five of your favourite shows, in no particular order, before you read the questions below, then answer them!

1. Buffy
2. Torchwood
3. Being Human
4. Dr. Who
5. Star Trek (original series version, thank you very much.)

( Questions below )

[Error: unknown template qotd]

You think they wrote this for me or what?

I am not ashamed to say I have a vampire thing, and most people in RL know about it - the fantastic Dr. Stu even gave me his SFX Vampire special. So yes, this is going to be an interesting question to answer.

First of all, do they mean bitten or 'bitten' because while I have no idea what Bram Stoker intended (and yes, I know that Dracula wasn't the first vampire novel), enough other variants have played with the idea of feeding crossed with contact with what is both an intimate and erongenous zone.

( The next question becomes, what kind of vampire do I want to be? Because there are lots of different kinds. )

( What kind of person am I? Would I kill humans for my food? )

Of course, all that being said, it still leaves me with quite a lot of vampires. However, modern vampires, being weedy little emo vamps, seem to object to vamping other people. So I'd have to narrow it down to the vampires who would actually choose to turn people (which knocks out most of the Buffy vampires, certainly all the ones I'd actually want to have anything to do with). It also rules out Mitchell in either version of Being Human, although given the reason he turned Lauren (he has trouble separating feeding and sex and boy, do they enjoy using that one in that show), um, yeah. I'll just go with um, yeah. Then you get the problem of their intentions - so no, La Croix, I will not be used in your most recent attempt to wind Nick Knight up.

And then the consequences, certainly in the Blood Ties/Vicky Nelson/Tanya Huff books and TV show (damn you for cancelling it, whoever was in charge), you can't stand to be in the same town and vampires get very territorial, and I think, if I hadn't already ruled the Anne Rice vamps out on general principle, the same goes for them.

So I have a possible short list:

Dracula (Buffy version or Frank Lagella version), especially the Buffy version, Rudolph Martin is exceptionally attractive and his Dracula is nigh on unkillable.

Drake of Blade 3 fame.

Grampa from the Munsters, although it's possibly genetic in his case.

And of course, I can't leave out my favourite, who drinks/eats soap instead, but sadly I happen to know vampirism in that 'verse is genetic, plus Vlad is tiny and green but damn it, if I'm going to be a vampire, I want to be one with Vlad the Drac - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vlad-Drac-Ann-Jungman/dp/1903015227/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1248735490&sr=8-1

( Being Human )

( Folk Music, with lots of examples )

First, a brief introduction. The icon is original, pilot Mitchell (and is by _riot_girl_05_ ), and I shall be using it despite there now being series Mitchell, because, um, I still like this one better.

Anyway, on to episode 4, which wasn't quite as good as episode 3, but still rocked the house. Because ( They totally broke the cliche )

Muchly looking forward to this week's episode.

Episode 4 was awesome too, but we will get to that later.

I think I know why, structurally, episode 3 worked better than the other two, because all three lead characters got something to do. The first episode was mostly Mitchell, some bits of Annie's story and George flailing, the second was mostly George, some bits of Annie's story and Mitchell flailing, while the third part gave you parts of everyone's stories and everyone flailing. Also, especially the comedy bit when ( spoiler ), seems a lot closer to the pilot, as does the rest of the tone and the secondary characters.

As to the secondary characters ( Spoilers )

So yes, awesomeness. I will probably swap in a Being Human icon at some point.

Okay, so I made a huge mistake before watching the second episode. I watch the pilot on youtube. And no, the series really isn't as good and I want the proper Mitchell back. Am presently keeping myself amused with the idea that this is an AU and how the pilot versions of the characters would respond to what's happening to the things that are happening in the series.

I was pleased to see Dean Lennox Kelly in the trailers for episode 2, because he's never less than good and quite often he's better. He normally plays Northern scally with a heart of gold (people who watch less TV than I do will probably recognise him from the Shakespeare Code, and I loved them having a Northern Shakespeare) so I was interested to see how he'd do ( Spoilers from here )

I am stuck in the place between squee and unsquee.

Because it was good. Not as awesome as the pilot, but I think that's because BBC3 made them water it down (they wanted funnier, they got more mainstream and more straight forward laughs, but less of the pitch black belly laughs that they were getting). There are some pluses. I like new Annie more (nothing against Andrea Riseborough, she made the former PM known as Mad Maggie seem human so she can act for definite, she just didn't fit right), but I'm undecided on the new Mitchell. Really not the actor's fault, and like lots of other people have said, if I hadn't seen pilot! Mitchell I doubt I'd have a problem with him at all. It's just they've made him too human and not Mitchell enough. Oh well, at least I have the pilot at home.

( Now for more spoilery things )

As you may be able to tell, I did enjoy it, and I'm squeaky in advance of next week having seen the trailer and ooh Dean Lennox Kelly.

We're getting a whole series of Being Human. Casting is uncertain, but the writer is definitely staying and while the idea of the cast being changed makes me cry because they were so perfect, if the writer stays so do I. Article here - http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/apr/24/bbc.television

On other less cool and grooviness, I find it amusing that every time I post non-wrestle fic I feel guilty because I've not posted wrestlefic in ages. Most of the problem is that I barely get to see it any more so I can't root the fic in canon the way I'd like.

Is available to watch here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b0090xff.shtml

Do watch. Cannot sell it well enough.

BBC appear to be making TV designed to cater to my every whim again.

It's called 'Being Human' and there's a vampire and a werewolf, and the ghost haunting their new house and, while it sounds like the set-up for a sitcom, it's so much more. It's all about humanity, and what makes you human, and dignity and bravery and, with the exception of the vampires, I want to hug all the characters, and oh my God they made vampires evil and menacing again, in the same way that Ultraviolet did and did I mention every single one of my whims is being catered for.