TV - Being Human makes a comeback

As one of a series of pilots screened earlier in the year, Being Human seemed doomed to oblivion as one of the other series had supposedly already been selected for production before going to air. But, it seems that audience reaction still can play a roll in what makes it to the screen as Being Human has been commissioned for a six episode series.

Being Human relates the lives of three characters, a Ghost, a Werewolf and a Vampire who share a flat and their problems as they try to reclaim normal lives. It manages to avoid falling into the trap of becoming something akin to Abbot and Costello meets the Universal film monsters, the mawkishness of a Neil Gaimen book, the desperate oversexed underthunk nonsense of Torchwood and the hormonally imbalanced Buffy. Quite a feat in modern telly.

Instead it had touches of American Werewolf in London, Withnail & I and a genuine warmth coming from believable relationships between the characters.

For me the pilot had the most potential of a horror genre program since Ultraviolet, which was only shown at a time when vampires were watching, and it presumably wasn't to their taste. Let's hope Being Human fairs better and it's a big hit for 2009.

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