Trinities

(This posting is going to include a couple of hefty spoilers. Mostly out of date ones - covering the end of series three and the beginning of series four. We're into series five, now, but I still figured it was a good idea to include a warning.)

Every year, the three TV series that I wait for are Misfits, Being human and Doctor Who. And this year, Being human has the full cast change in place and ready for the start of the fifth series.

When I watched it two years ago, I was a little upset that Mitchell got staked... but it was hardly unexpected. I was more upset at the demise of Nina, and all that implied for George at the beginning of the fourth series. And then, when he died, I was even more upset again, but - to be fair - you can't have George without Nina. So, it was the nature of the deaths of those two characters that upset me more than the actual deaths.

Nina died off camera, between episodes - in fact, between the third and fourth series. It would have been pretty brutal and satisfying way to go, if we could have seen it, so it seems like her character got a bit short-changed in that department. But George was worse. Yeah, he sacrificed himself, but Russell Tovey was definitely let down by the special effects and the concept. He did something that had never even been hinted at before and went out in some kind of Deus Ex Machina kind of setting. Frustrating as ****.

I admit that I didn't want a new vampire, werewolf, ghost setting. One thing that Mitchell seemed to prove was that vampires will inevitably fall off the wagon, with catastrophic results. I had hoped, instead, that Tom, George and Nina - with the help of Annie - would start seeking out and recruiting new werewolves. We really haven't seen enough of them.

I also thought that recreating the same setup as before would be stretching credibility a bit. But rather than ignoring the cliche, it seems that it's been addressed. There have, apparently, been lots of similar setups.

George, Mitchell and Annie.
With the later inclusion of Nina. This was the group we were introduced to.

Adam, Christa and Matt.
In the third series of Being human, we were introduced to Adam. He later got an internet spin-off called Becoming human. I gathered and compiled that story here.

Hal, Pearl and Leo.
A third trio. We're introduced to them at the start of the fourth series, just as their group is about to fall apart, leaving Hal stranded and without direction.

Annie, Tom and Hal.
The new trio, after George, Nina and Mitchell get their respective deaths. A worrying time of transition for fans of the series as we all wonder how well it's going to cope. We already know Tom, which makes it easier. And we've known Annie since the first episode - if you discount the pilot.

Hal, Lady Catherine and..?
Damn it. I can't remember this bloke's name. But it was a short-lived group.

Tom, Hal and Alex.
Because Alex was introduced and then killed and then Annie got her door, just as we start wondering whether there are going to be two ghosts from now on. I didn't see that coming. It was definitely nice to see Annie stick around for another few episodes, though. That prevented the changeover from turning into one massive cull.

So... the concept of the trinity appears to be a recurring one.

And thankfully, Hal wasn't just a Mitchell clone. In fact, he's a completely different character. He handles his bloodlust through strict self-control, manifested by a series of Obsessive Compulsive Disorders. He doesn't quite fit in to the modern world and his "courting" of Alex is genuinely funny to watch. The highlight of the entire fourth series is a message he leaves on her answering machine where he clumsily and haltingly tries to ask her out dancing.

And now the new series. The new status quo has been established, but the events of the previous series are still very fresh. Hal is being dried out and Alex has still not come to terms with her death. A couple of early scenes have a bit of comedy value that gets milked, but that - thankfully - doesn't overplay the raw emotions that are part of them. She harbours genuine rage towards Hal for his part in what happened. But the real standout moment comes later, when she responds to Tom's clumsy attempts to comfort her. This is not yet a tightly knit group.

The one moment that perhaps doesn't quite work is where Hal has a wee sweary. Fair enough, it's a good indication of his stress when it slips out in his choice of language, but perhaps it might have been better left for a really dramatic moment, when he's really stressed.

There are a couple of moments with poorly justified character motivation. I don't really get Hal's motivation for turning Crumb and I definitely think that Alex should have known better than to release him. Two clumsily judged moments that clearly exist to nudge the plot along.

Dominic Rook, though... very interesting character. I'm going to enjoy watching him. Just a shame he showed his true colours so quickly with that pen. Sometimes I kind of prefer the bad guys to be subtly ambiguous, rather than bad. Too often, though, they have to do something violent or brutal, just so they can be justified as bad guys.

And Captain Hatch. Barely used, but very, very chilling. Definitely a bad guy, but in his case, there was never any need to go for "subtly ambiguous". I just hope that he lives up to all the foreshadowing, because Being human has a track history (the wolf-shaped bullet and Eve) of being a little disappointing with the conclusions.

Anyway... one episode in, and I'm already hooked.