Being Human

In an effort to remain as human as possible, a vampire and a werewolf move into a house in Bristol, paying their rent with money earned as hospital porters (U.S. orderlies).   The house is already occupied by the ghost of the landlord’s fiancee who loves having people around who can see her.  The whole show revolves around death:  vampires are a source of death and not dead themselves, ghosts are dead but unseen by anyone who isn’t supernatural themselves, and werewolves should have died, but instead face a fate worse than death.

The show revolves around the three housemates attempting to be normal, trying and often failing to be what they no longer are.

Based on summaries of the show, I knew it would make an attempt to explain what it means to be human.  It would analyze people, society, and have a deeper message.  I didn’t expect it to be done so well.  Rather than attempting to make the message subtle, each episode’s variation on the overall theme is described by one of the main characters in the opening scene’s voice over.   the issues are very real, fully-formed concerns of the characters themselves, rather than some overarching theme they remain largely unaware of over the course of the show.

Some other interesting things I noticed were that, despite the fact that there are vampires, werewolves, ghosts and God only knows what else running around, much of the show comes off as slice-of-life.  You have three housemates with problems, some domestic and some personal, and you see how they react to those problems and to one another.

Another interesting choice was to start up the over-arching supernatural politic plots early in the show, rather than building up the characters entirely first.  I think this enhances the believability of the show by throwing life at the characters right off, rather than letting them get settled first.  After all, life isn’t usually kind enough to give you a break when you desperately need one.  Rather than overwhelming the viewer with too much, too soon, this serves to strengthen the bond between the viewer and the characters, making us want to see them succeed and knowing that they very well may not.

Over all, I’m delighted with the first season and can’t wait to get my hands on the second and then the third.

Enthusiastically,

Phantastic Student

 

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“Positively Primeval”

A couple weeks ago I was reminded that I hadn’t watch SyFy’s Alice miniseries when it aired last fall. Lo and behold, the campus had a copy and I swooped down and scooped that sucker up like a hawk snags lunch. It was pretty cool. Which, in my opinion, is an understatement. I gushed about it for a couple days and have added it to my must-buy list.

As with any media I’ve enjoyed, I immediately set about looking for links to other films/series/miniseries to keep me entertained and moderately sane. In this particular instance, Alice led me to Primeval via Andrew Lee Potts. I’ve been watching the show on Netflix Instant-Play for the last couple of days (I’m on episode 2.5 as I write this) and really enjoying it.

Brief synopsis: Something is tearing holes in the fabric of space/time and prehistoric animals are appearing in the modern day. Two paleontologists, a paleontology student-slash-conspiracy theorist and a herpetologist team up with a government agency to figure out what’s going on and to keep people from being eaten.

It’s very much a monster-of-the-week show, though there are some interesting ongoing plots. Basically, it’s like a monster movie marathon, but with ongoing character arcs! And slightly better FX (brought to you by the people responsible for Walking with Dinosaurs and Walking with Prehistoric Beasts). While the monsters are fun, I really watch this show for the characters. It’s nice to have the action and excitement of a monster movie without sacrificing character development and interaction.

Gleefully,
Phantastic Student

P.S. Bonus points if you know where the post title came from!

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