Pause for Squee!
I think I'm falling... No, I've definitely fallen in love with two tv shows. \o/ It's such a lovely feeling. :)
One is Being Human on Syfy. I knew I had it bad when I realized I was reading my third cast interview. There were other warning signs. Delaying our viewing for a day or so seemed a cruel and unusual request. The closing credits gave me a moment of deflated sadness (it's over?) followed by a quick uptick of excitement (only 7 days to the next one!). And, I got annoyed if my husband texted during the show. (How is he going to know what's going on if he's not paying attention?!? Don't you wish you lived with me? *g*) The final proof of my total smittenness? This post. :)
I'm still in the honeymoon stage. It's first season yet and at the moment, show can do no wrong. (They're brilliant! All of them!) So don't look for a ruthless critique. Also, this is the closest I'll come to pimping. Weirdly, I don't like encouraging people to watch shows I love. I don't want to risk them not liking it. Much better to run across shared squee, imo.
But enough of the buildup! Let's move on to the squee!! :D Oh. Wait, first let me tackle the enormous elephant in the room: This show is a copy.
Not a deal-breaker for me (obviously). Plenty of shows have successfully crossed the Atlantic. Some crashed and burned, sure (Couplings), but others became mighty (All in the Family). So there shouldn't be any shame in watching the US version of a British show. And yet... There's a part of me that feels like a sell-out, a square, a provincial rube for falling so hard for the remake, especially with the ongoing original still out there.
It'd help if I could watch both shows. At least then I could paint it as an analytical exercise. But... I can't. I just know I wouldn't be fair to the original. My love is too new. My reaction to the original would be all defensiveness and bile. George is no Josh, and such. That'll change. The 'new-show' buzz will wear off and I'll be able watch and enjoy a BBC marathon of Being Human. Quite frankly, I think it'd be really interesting! (Seriously, it'd be an awesome analytical exercise. *g*) But... not yet. Not yet.
So, that's the elephant taken care of... now on to the squee!! :D
For me, a show is nothing without good characters. And this show is the characters. The various plots, background mysteries, even the lovely setting that is Boston (okay, Boston as played by Montreal -- but Montreal is gorgeous!) aren't the show. They flesh it out, yes, but the characters are its bones. And that's just made of delicious for me. Because I love the characters. Every single one of them. (Honeymoon stage, remember?)
In the beginning, there was Josh: He's the first one we meet, the one who most clearly illustrates the horror and solitude and heartbreak of being a monster. He's a mass of awkward tics and soul-crushing angst; unsurprisingly, his outlook tends towards the pessimistic. Which is usually a huge turn off for me. But in this case, it totally works! I think because the awkwardness covers a steel-cored dignity. And the angst is held off by his determination to cope, to somehow continue on despite his condition.
There's a scene at his parent's house when a vampire shows up to kill Josh and his family. The family already think Josh is having some sort of breakdown (they know he thinks he's a werewolf). And when the vampire shows up and Josh scrambles around to find something to use to kill him, the scene could be hilarious. In many ways it is! He's running back and forth and slipping on rugs and his parents and sister are confused. It's very slap-stick. And yet, his family is anguished by his panic, his panic is very, very real, and (and this is the big one for me), Josh is preparing himself to go out and face down a powerful vampire. The chance that he'd win is pretty much zero. But he's going to try. And that moves his actions beyond humor into heart-clenching bravery.
And then along came Sally: She's the last monster to join our little gang of three. And, at first, she seems to have it the easiest. She's a ghost, which sucks in that she's dead. But she's not worried about hurting people and her original issue (cannot leave the house) is easily solved with a day of ghost-101. At first she seemed pegged to be the soother or healer of the group. (A take only strengthened by her helping her ghost-trainer move on.) I still liked her. She's got a great sense of humor and embraced her new roommates as soon as she realized they could see her. Her joy and enthusiasm was a great tonic for their worry and doom-predicting. But, on its own, her story was a little dull.
Then it got interesting. And continues to get interesting. Her fiance murdered her, is unimpressed with her ghostly threats, and has managed to manipulate her best-friend into an abusive relationship. (And how much do I love that Sally's strongest attachment to her living-past is her best-girlfriend? So much!) In a recent episode Sally full out stated that she has a tendency to take on the issues of the men in her life, subsume herself in trying to fix them, and lose herself in the process. She's trying to change that.
It's a fairly complex story-line for a genre show, I think. I'm really curious to see how they play it out. But I'm thrilled to see them underline that she's not just a support-character. Sally has a story in her own right. (Throw your hat up in the air and twirl, my dear.)
Finally, Aidan: He was the last character to grab me. On the surface he's the most trite. Because seriously, the smoldering, suffering vampire? What story doesn't include one of those? But, like Sally, his story has turned more and more interesting. Because his surface is all lies.
He's the oldest roommate and easily falls into big-brother-mode with the others. But he's also the biggest monster. He's actually killed people. In show, even. He's been a vampire far longer than he was a human. While Josh and Sally are trying to keep their humanity, Aidan is trying to find his way back to his. Also an overdone storyline, but Aidan's is taking a slightly different route. He plays big-brother and keeps his own struggles as secret as possible. He seems to have all the answers and yet he's flailing in the dark. He's a huge support for both Josh and Sally, but doesn't let them realize how desperately he needs them.
Aidan is the character that made this show happen in that he's the one who convinced Josh to find a place with him, and he's the one who wanted Sally to join. But he's also the character who most consistently pulls away from the family he created. He created the safe-haven, but it's his other family that most threatens it.
I find the contradictions fascinating. I'm curious to see how he turns out. I'm hoping his more human family wins. In other words, I'm hooked. :)
And the rest!: But wait, there's more! The supporting characters are all so very, very cool as well! I either full on love them, or love hating them, or I get a confused combination of both. (When Bishop called Marcus, "the mistake" I felt a great twinge of sympathy. For Marcus. And my confusion of feelings over Bishop himself after this last episode? That's a post in and of itself. *g*)
I could seriously list out the awesomeness of everyone whose had a speaking role. If I had all the time in the world. But I started writing this last week and want to post it before the season is actually over. So I'll leave it at, no character is wasted and they each have a weight to them and therefore make a real impact in the main players' lives when they show up.
In conclusion: I love my new show! :D
One is Being Human on Syfy. I knew I had it bad when I realized I was reading my third cast interview. There were other warning signs. Delaying our viewing for a day or so seemed a cruel and unusual request. The closing credits gave me a moment of deflated sadness (it's over?) followed by a quick uptick of excitement (only 7 days to the next one!). And, I got annoyed if my husband texted during the show. (How is he going to know what's going on if he's not paying attention?!? Don't you wish you lived with me? *g*) The final proof of my total smittenness? This post. :)
I'm still in the honeymoon stage. It's first season yet and at the moment, show can do no wrong. (They're brilliant! All of them!) So don't look for a ruthless critique. Also, this is the closest I'll come to pimping. Weirdly, I don't like encouraging people to watch shows I love. I don't want to risk them not liking it. Much better to run across shared squee, imo.
But enough of the buildup! Let's move on to the squee!! :D Oh. Wait, first let me tackle the enormous elephant in the room: This show is a copy.
Not a deal-breaker for me (obviously). Plenty of shows have successfully crossed the Atlantic. Some crashed and burned, sure (Couplings), but others became mighty (All in the Family). So there shouldn't be any shame in watching the US version of a British show. And yet... There's a part of me that feels like a sell-out, a square, a provincial rube for falling so hard for the remake, especially with the ongoing original still out there.
It'd help if I could watch both shows. At least then I could paint it as an analytical exercise. But... I can't. I just know I wouldn't be fair to the original. My love is too new. My reaction to the original would be all defensiveness and bile. George is no Josh, and such. That'll change. The 'new-show' buzz will wear off and I'll be able watch and enjoy a BBC marathon of Being Human. Quite frankly, I think it'd be really interesting! (Seriously, it'd be an awesome analytical exercise. *g*) But... not yet. Not yet.
So, that's the elephant taken care of... now on to the squee!! :D
For me, a show is nothing without good characters. And this show is the characters. The various plots, background mysteries, even the lovely setting that is Boston (okay, Boston as played by Montreal -- but Montreal is gorgeous!) aren't the show. They flesh it out, yes, but the characters are its bones. And that's just made of delicious for me. Because I love the characters. Every single one of them. (Honeymoon stage, remember?)
In the beginning, there was Josh: He's the first one we meet, the one who most clearly illustrates the horror and solitude and heartbreak of being a monster. He's a mass of awkward tics and soul-crushing angst; unsurprisingly, his outlook tends towards the pessimistic. Which is usually a huge turn off for me. But in this case, it totally works! I think because the awkwardness covers a steel-cored dignity. And the angst is held off by his determination to cope, to somehow continue on despite his condition.
There's a scene at his parent's house when a vampire shows up to kill Josh and his family. The family already think Josh is having some sort of breakdown (they know he thinks he's a werewolf). And when the vampire shows up and Josh scrambles around to find something to use to kill him, the scene could be hilarious. In many ways it is! He's running back and forth and slipping on rugs and his parents and sister are confused. It's very slap-stick. And yet, his family is anguished by his panic, his panic is very, very real, and (and this is the big one for me), Josh is preparing himself to go out and face down a powerful vampire. The chance that he'd win is pretty much zero. But he's going to try. And that moves his actions beyond humor into heart-clenching bravery.
And then along came Sally: She's the last monster to join our little gang of three. And, at first, she seems to have it the easiest. She's a ghost, which sucks in that she's dead. But she's not worried about hurting people and her original issue (cannot leave the house) is easily solved with a day of ghost-101. At first she seemed pegged to be the soother or healer of the group. (A take only strengthened by her helping her ghost-trainer move on.) I still liked her. She's got a great sense of humor and embraced her new roommates as soon as she realized they could see her. Her joy and enthusiasm was a great tonic for their worry and doom-predicting. But, on its own, her story was a little dull.
Then it got interesting. And continues to get interesting. Her fiance murdered her, is unimpressed with her ghostly threats, and has managed to manipulate her best-friend into an abusive relationship. (And how much do I love that Sally's strongest attachment to her living-past is her best-girlfriend? So much!) In a recent episode Sally full out stated that she has a tendency to take on the issues of the men in her life, subsume herself in trying to fix them, and lose herself in the process. She's trying to change that.
It's a fairly complex story-line for a genre show, I think. I'm really curious to see how they play it out. But I'm thrilled to see them underline that she's not just a support-character. Sally has a story in her own right. (Throw your hat up in the air and twirl, my dear.)
Finally, Aidan: He was the last character to grab me. On the surface he's the most trite. Because seriously, the smoldering, suffering vampire? What story doesn't include one of those? But, like Sally, his story has turned more and more interesting. Because his surface is all lies.
He's the oldest roommate and easily falls into big-brother-mode with the others. But he's also the biggest monster. He's actually killed people. In show, even. He's been a vampire far longer than he was a human. While Josh and Sally are trying to keep their humanity, Aidan is trying to find his way back to his. Also an overdone storyline, but Aidan's is taking a slightly different route. He plays big-brother and keeps his own struggles as secret as possible. He seems to have all the answers and yet he's flailing in the dark. He's a huge support for both Josh and Sally, but doesn't let them realize how desperately he needs them.
Aidan is the character that made this show happen in that he's the one who convinced Josh to find a place with him, and he's the one who wanted Sally to join. But he's also the character who most consistently pulls away from the family he created. He created the safe-haven, but it's his other family that most threatens it.
I find the contradictions fascinating. I'm curious to see how he turns out. I'm hoping his more human family wins. In other words, I'm hooked. :)
And the rest!: But wait, there's more! The supporting characters are all so very, very cool as well! I either full on love them, or love hating them, or I get a confused combination of both. (When Bishop called Marcus, "the mistake" I felt a great twinge of sympathy. For Marcus. And my confusion of feelings over Bishop himself after this last episode? That's a post in and of itself. *g*)
I could seriously list out the awesomeness of everyone whose had a speaking role. If I had all the time in the world. But I started writing this last week and want to post it before the season is actually over. So I'll leave it at, no character is wasted and they each have a weight to them and therefore make a real impact in the main players' lives when they show up.
In conclusion: I love my new show! :D