h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Major, major spoiler for Being Human S4








http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/nov/12/russell-tovey-why-im-leaving-being-human?CMP=twt_fd

Russell Tovey won't be in series 4. I think I've just felt all interest in the show evaporate.

Same.

ditto.
BH is dead. TBH, where S3 ended is pretty much a good place to leave it, it completes the story of the characters and their attempts at 'being human'. It doesn't need any more. They might come up with something good for next season, but it will be more like, to my mind, a spin off from the original than a continuation.

But yeah, they should just let it die. Sometimes it is best to quit when ahead. And I can see Tovey going on to bigger and better things like Aidan, although perhaps slightly different roles!

The previews for S4 have started

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00n0z23

Whether I bother with it all depends upon whether they give George and Nina a decent send-off. The preview isn't bad, it's kinda piqued my interest, I'm just not sure Critchlow is a good enough actress to carry the show, even if just for a few episodes.

Looks amazing.

As usual - some very talented young actors. I continue to feel like Being Human is a stage play that somehow burrowed out of the theatre and found it's way on TV.

The promotion for S4 is really getting into gear now

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2012/jan/11/being-human-toby-whithouse

I feel like an ex-addict relapsing: I said I wouldn't be watching S4 but I can already feel that resolve waning.

A waxing moon...

Fresh blood flowing inside arteries...


an irresistible urge to transform....




I gave in and just re-watchded "Though the heavens fall" on Iplayer.


"and people would say I've gone soft."

ep1 s4 tonight 9pm

dunno if I just missed it, but haven't seen anything like the advertising for it. Maybe just not watched much bbc3 this year.

There's been quite a bit on the website. Dunno about BBC3 - Being Human is the only reason I ever watch it.

Oh god. That was brutal.

They need to make a choice right now whether they want to make Being Human a comedy or a melodrama/tragedy because combining the two now isn't going to work, the stakes are too high. Having a character prance around in teatowels and spouting nonsense really falls flat when they're talking about murdering a child. They can have the character notes and the warmth, but the humour is really out of place with the incredibly dark place the series is in right now so they need to dial back the humour or the darkness: comedy or tragedy.

I liked how they weren't subtle: they took the heart out of the show and they didn't mess around making it feel subtle or natural. They tore it straight out and left the audience reeling which was the only way they could do it and give Nina and George's deaths meaning. I'm still not sure the show will work without George, Mitchell or Nina but they're showing a hell of a lot of ambition so I'll give them the chance.

I was quite surprised that I liked Hal's alternate supernatural trinity with Leo and Pearl: I was expecting it to feel a cheap way to slot Hal in as a straight replacement for Mitchell. As it was it made me feel oddly hopeful - it isn't all black and white, vampires versus everything else and that amongst vampires there's an urge to try and be different, to regain their lost humanity. We've seen it time and again over the past 3 years and, if a war is truly coming, that impulse might end up being crucial. It also showed us an alternate future for the original trio/quartet: Mitchell's fall wasn't inevitable after all and had events gone differently Annie, Mitchell, George and Nina might have had the life/unlife they tried for.

I'm going to reserve judgement on the future scenes we saw: I'm always nervous about time-travel in programmes that aren't Doctor Who. The woman we saw was baby Eve all grown up, wasn't it? That could get messy if she becomes the series Big Bad and her goal is to kill herself as a child. I hate paradoxes. I like the ambition of a war with the vampires, I just hope they can pull it off, and I hope the characters (which was always been Being Human's biggest selling point) doesn't get lost. To make it work Leonora Critchlow and the writers for her character are really going to have to raise their game: she's the weakest actor of the original cast Annie was the worst-written and now she'll have to carry the show, at least for the first few eps.

The episode managed to confirm my worst fears and simultaneously remind me why I'm so hopelessly in love with this damn show. It also broke my heart and left me crying like a baby: Being Human is well and truly back.

Am downloading it on IPLAYER now.

*meep*

"There's a special hat. It's surprisingly specific."

>>They need to make a choice right now whether they want to make Being Human a comedy or a melodrama/tragedy because combining the two now isn't going to work, the stakes are too high. Having a character prance around in tea-towels and spouting nonsense really falls flat when they're talking about murdering a child.<<

I agree, that felt out of place. I think the reason I literally wept tears of mirth at the special hat, line was it was like a wave-break from the unremitting gloom.

I'm kind of annoyed Nina's death was only described, it felt...well a bit hollow. Here's some major bit of plot between the two series that happened off-stage.

Glad they offed Wyndham in a sentence though, he was an irritating twit, who deserved the punctuation, but Nina....



>>I liked how they weren't subtle: they took the heart out of the show and they didn't mess around making it feel subtle or natural. They tore it straight out and left the audience reeling which was the only way they could do it and give Nina and George's deaths meaning. I'm still not sure the show will work without George, Mitchell or Nina but they're showing a hell of a lot of ambition so I'll give them the chance.<<



It's bold no question. It was always going to be tough to have half the crew left. Hitting the reset button accomplishes what a half-chewed fag-end of a mixed bag of pick n mix wouldn't.

>>I was quite surprised that I liked Hal's alternate supernatural trinity with Leo and Pearl: I was expecting it to feel a cheap way to slot Hal in as a straight replacement for Mitchell. As it was it made me feel oddly hopeful - it isn't all black and white, vampires versus everything else and that amongst vampires there's an urge to try and be different, to regain their lost humanity. We've seen it time and again over the past 3 years and, if a war is truly coming, that impulse might end up being crucial. It also showed us an alternate future for the original trio/quartet: Mitchell's fall wasn't inevitable after all and had events gone differently Annie, Mitchell, George and Nina might have had the life/unlife they tried for.<<


Spot on.


Future events seem a bit like a deus ex machina or like dramatic irony or something, we the audience and being given privileged access to events which the characters in the now/past won't be aware of but which are required to make sense of what happens. Kinda makes me wonder what the future scenes actually added?

Really hope that doesnt suck (no pun intended) like you said, "beware".


Poor George.

~ hoooooooooooooowwwwlllll....

Am wondering who the lieutenant vampire was - "they'll raise an army...on twitter." he seemed to have survived, but I admit I kept getting him confused with Hal.

well.
That was rather good I thought. It kept my attention, kept me wanting to watch. Introduced some new elements and mythology - werewolf blood is deadly to vamps? Useful And the third parchment - I saw the god entity and human moon baby on there - but can't remember the other one(s).

Humour - the campyness of the Vampire Recorder didn't really work, too many questions as to how he survived in such a position given the seriousness they gave to the mythology. Then again 'Oh I thought you'd have a silly name' (or whatever it was) worked. But then, perhaps if it hadn't been Mark Williams. I mean he's good, but I associate him with silly and funny. Perhaps a more sinister serious character would have worked those lines better.

Also liked 'Splodge' for the baby Made me laugh. Splodge the War-Child, destroyer of Vampires.

The humour that works is the humour of characters interacting, not slapstick. It's the humour of mates, of people thrown together by something bigger who have to work together, the things you say to each other which are funny because it was you that said it to them at that point in time. Splodge as a baby name is midly amusing. Splodge at that time and place, used to show exasperation and love on her part and show how far George had sunk was well done and completely right. And funny.

Same with what'sisfaces comments about their stocks of crossbows

The future stuff I liked. It really opened the show up, showed a global scale. I didn't mind that at all, it provided a context, a wider world view. It added something that hadn't been fully explained, merely hinted at. But it did so in a way that isn't concrete and can be changed.

Hal, hmm, not bad, I understand this is his first TV appearance/role. Could be good but I worry a bit over a notMitchel vibe.

You can tell George is gone - no bum shot

So, new mythology points I noticed:
Werewolf blood is toxic to vamps
Vampires literally smell werewolves (cf Lone Ranger kid and his sinuses). Or maybe not, Asian vamps in car didn't smell Tom?
Doesn't have to be the owner that invites Vampires in? Police bod hesitated until social services lady invited him in.
Vampires can harm ghosts with force and knives?????
Werewolves can half change by tricking their body but it is fatal.
Ghosts can use the Door and realm of death to time travel it seems.

if you twitter and book your face, this seems relevant:
http://twitter.com/#!/Lycurious

Stupid phone at my post.

2nd time of trying.


I see that they ignored your advice HI to lay off the comedy and go heavy on the tragedy so this episode felt to me rather a missfire (focus group vampire with a political gag about 10 years out of date) leo and pearl toddle off depositing Hal who goes a bit squirrely. All a bit 'meh' to be honest. It only really picked up a notch script and acting wise during the second showdown in the pawn shop when Hal vamps it up and we get the mexican stake-off.

I think I might need a spell on Hal's dominoes as, dare I say it, the fast forward button was standing out like a virgin's jugular vein under a baleful moon.

Also is it me or do the vamp's fangs seem shorter/ blunter?

Yep Clive, and wasn't it excruciating? I don't know why they keep on putting Leonora in those kinds of scenes - she can't pull of the cringey type humour. It's a shame because the dramatic stuff which they need is something Leonora excels at. Words cannot describe how much I hated that scene and the scene where she's reading the house rules to Tom.

It's so frustrating: at the end of S3 they dropped hints they were going to show Annie's more powerful side, show how she could turn out to be the most powerful person in the programme, but we're back to ADHD house-marm.

Annie's speech about how she was grief-stricken with the loss of Mitchell, George and Nina and how she needed Eve to be a god, for all that loss to be worthwhile, puts her behaviour into a sort of context did make sense. I'm just hoping that line can be where they turn Annie's character into something a bit more credible: I hope that's where she puts away childish things.

The stuff with Leo and Pearl was throwaway until their end, with the confession of love. It was neat too as a way of getting rid of both characters so the new trio could be created. I liked Leo but Pearl was too much like Annie and the Annie we have was annoying enough as it was. I'm interested by Hal - the first scene in the pawn brokers was good and the Mexican stand-off (with the new, improved Annie) was cool. I also like Tom even if his similarity with with his sister (Lauren Socha, Kelly from Misfits) is a bit distracting. Especially when he swears.

It's also a bit worrying that, despite a war supposedly kicking off, there's no palpable threat or Big Bad. The videoing, focus group starting vampire needs to develop a palpable threat before I can take him seriously and evil Reg Hollis is just as flimsy as that description sounds. Something proper also needs to happen with future Eve: whispering through a TV screen was a bit lame though I did wonder if she was the angel that sent Hal, Leo and Pearl to the Honolulu Heights.

The makers of the programme set themselves a difficult task in continuing without the main cast. So far they're not meeting that challenge and they need to raise their game.

I'll be the dissenting voice then!
Quite liked it. Little touches about masks and hiding emotions and displacement activity throughout, we've not really seen Annie or Hal as themselves in this series yet.
Tom is the ground at the moment, blunt, says what he thinks, does things without much though but essentially a rough diamond.
Hal's bit about 'Does it make it easier for you to think about? Then that's what it is.' shows his caring side and I thought he played the regimented bit rather well. He seems to be doing rather well I thought.

OK, Annie's OTT 'bring in the chosen one' or whatever and the ritual were painful. But then, she has always had that side to her, because she needs reality slammed in her face before she fronts up and starts ripping stuff up.

Reg Hollis - that's the fella - wasn't really a fan of The Bill after it turned soap so didn't place him.

This year we appear to be going for family feel rather than friends. Tom as the rebellious but naive teenager, baby as previous only child and Hal, hmm, estranged relation? Addict son returning to the nest? And Annie as mum, obv.

So, how does Evil Reg Hollis think of Hal and what does he know of him?

Still not convinced that woman on telly is Splodge-Eve. Wonder what it was abo

Wonder what it was about third parchment that set her off?

(sorry for break, keyboard went funny!)