American Being Human
I just watched the American Being Human and I have a confession. I liked it. I still prefer the BBC version but I actually sort of liked the American Being Human. If you're not familiar with it the plot of Being Human is about supernatural creatures that secretly live among us and a werewolf, vampire and ghost share a place together while trying to pass as human. That's the plot of both the BBC version and the American version in a nut shell.
When it first started the voice over gave me this uneasy pseudo-intellectual impression of talking down to the viewer with simplistic while terms trying to sound deep, a major turn off for me. But it gradually got better. The main plot is very obviously taken from the early 2008 Being Human pilot from BBC 3, the major differences start with the character names and the supernatural powers.
The vampires are different. The vampire protagonist in this is named Aiden instead of Mitchell. And unlike Mitchell Aiden can't eat human food. Aiden also seems physically stronger than Mitchell. Aiden's also over two-hundred-years-old where as Mitchell was only a hundred, having been made a vampire during World War 1. He also has the power to enthrall people like the vampires of Forever Knight, a power the vampires of the original Being Human did not have. Aiden's maker is the local vampire lord or king, Bishop, who in the original BBC version was named Herrick but otherwise serves the same exact purpose. Aiden also lacks Michell's personality quirk of wearing hand warmers / finger-less gloves everywhere. This character quirk was established early on in the original BBC series and does not exist in the Syfy version for Aiden.
Aiden is more intellectual than Mitchell. He quotes Byron and is a fully qualified nurse. Mitchell a janitor in the original BBC version. Both work in a hospital with the werewolf character. One thing I don't like is the make up when he's feeding looks obnoxiously like Edward Cullen's make up in Twilight. Please don't mix Twilight with my Being Human... I also didn't care for how the fangs looked. The fangs look pretty bad. I guess I'll get used to them but I think the BBC version had better fangs and had really cool looking black vampire eyes which I haven't seen on this one.
Even though Aiden is named after the actor currently playing Mitchell he behaves like the very first Mitchell actor from the original 2008 BBC series and not the actor who plays him for the on-going BBC show.
Sally is a LOT like Annie from the original Being Human. They even have the same outfit. Where Annie was murdered by her fiance, Owen, who tried to flush evidence down the tonight (causing the house's plumbing problems) it seems Sally was killed by her fiance Danny (and behold there are plumbing problems). However Annie had a quirk of liking to make lots of teas, coffees, and hot chocolates and leaving them around the house. Sally (so far) can't interact with the world around her. The supernatural creatures can see her but she can accidentally fade out of view for them too (a nice effect the BBC version does not have). And even our Supernatural boys Josh (the werewolf) and Aiden (the vampire) can't physically touch her (yet) unlke Annie who had no trouble interacting with other supernatural creatures. One thing I did NOT like was she made a twilight comment about the werewolf and vampire. The original show has never done this. Please don't mix Twilight into my Being Human...
Josh is the biggest change. He's the werewolf and in the BBC version his name is George. Before and after his werewolf transformations they do not show his behind at all but this is to be expected, somehow in the last ten or so years the butt crack has become taboo on American TV. We USED to be able to see the butt crack. I don't know why we can't now. There's a little joke about Josh and Aiden possibly being lovers when they first move in but it's very glossed over. The scene is a lot funnier in the BBC version because George is a very spastic and neurotic character who babbles when he's nervous and has very geeky, intellectual nerd traits. Josh is not a spastic nerd which takes away some of the charm. In fact he comes off as somewhat of a jerk. I am not too thrilled with the personality of the werewolf. His potential love interest, a character named Kara (Nina in the original BBC version) seems to have more of the original neurotic, babbily, awkward geek personality that George originally had in the BBC version. This is a cute character trait. Nina was actually a little bitchy in the original series. I feel the Josh and Kara personalities are a reversal on the George and Nina personalities. A funny joke that was borrowed from the original series where George and Mitchell (now Josh and Aiden) are mistaken as a gay couple has lost it's edge because Josh doesn't have the spastic awkward response George had. Blink and you'll miss it.
The werewolf transformations were better than the usual CGI syfy creature feature effects BUT the BBC transformation scenes are still superior for visual quality and detail.
Another change made was in the original pilot it was George's exfiance that showed up at the hospital and would later unfortunately follow him to where he makes his monthly transformation. In this version it's Josh's younger lesbian sister who follows him.
One thing I wish they had changed from the BBC version but they didn't is in both versions they have the werewolf only change one night a month. Technically the full moon is three to four nights a month. Also George changed at Moonrise. The moon was already up in this and Josh hadn't changed yet. He clearly doesn't change until the sun has gone down.
The American version felt a little rushed, plot-wise. The time progression is uncomfortable and jerky whereas it seemed smoother in the BBC version. The British version is set in Bristol while the American version is set in Boston. The background music was also pretty good.
In general I still prefer the original BBC version but this was a lot better than I thought it would be. I thought I'd hate it. Instead I actually want to watch it and see where it goes... assuming it doesn't get canceled.