(no subject)

[srin]

If I had posted about this Sunday night it would basically have been a lot of WTF WAS THAT EVEN, but I have been thinking about it since then and think I can be a little more coherent about my issues with it now.

Firstly, just to get it out of the way: WEREBABY LIVES, WHHHHHY, WHY MUST YOU DO THIS TO ME SHOW, WHHHHHHHHHHY. >:[

But apart from that, I think my unhappiness mainly boils down to two things, one of which is all about me and one of which is the show's problem.

So, the first thing. I made a crack last week about my flatmate's :O I THOUGHT IT WAS SIT-COM reaction, but it's actually kind of appropriate. I never expected Being Human to be a sit-com, but I did get invested in it in the first place primarily for the characters and the cracky funtimes rather than for the more serious stuff. I can deal with heavy, dark, depressing shows - I adored Battlestar Galactica - but they need to be shows that I've embraced as heavy and dark and depressing from the start, or at least ones where I care more about the plot than I do about the individual characters. What I wanted from Being Human was basically supernatural OT3/OT4 fun with some more serious stuff, but since series 1 the serious stuff has been overshadowing the fun a bit too much for me. So that's one thing.

The other thing, the thing that I would consider the show's problem rather than just mine, is that I feel like it really can't decide how it feels about vampires, which leads to a lot of bothersome inconsistency. It bothered me that earlier in the season Annie was all "I don't care what you've done, it's in the past, I love you" when Mitchell was trying to confess things, while at the end she was all "I am appalled and you need to go to jail so their families can have closure." I would accept that that inconsistency is a human failing of Annie's, that she's naturally a lot more bothered by terrible things she's directly exposed to the aftermath of than terrible things at a distance, but I feel like the show itself has the same view.

Don't get me wrong, the Box Tunnel massacre was a horrible, appalling thing. But the show seems to want me to see it as a uniquely horrid thing that makes Mitchell irredeemable, and I don't see why this case of killing people is more horrible and appalling than all the other random killing the vampires on the show do, why it's more horrible than the probably-a-lot-more-than-twenty other people Mitchell's killed at various times. If Mitchell needed to be arrested and go to jail so those families could have closure, why didn't he need to do the same for the families of all his other victims over time? Why did they need to kill Herrick instead of sending him to jail so his victims' families could have closure?

Basically, if murder by vampires is an evil equivalent to murder by humans, then I feel like this show should be about Annie and whoever else making a concerted effort to do something about, if not vampires in general, at least the specific vampires they know about. But when it's anyone other than Mitchell, it seems like killing people is just a thing vampires do and we don't really care about their sins until they start trying to take over the world.

Which brings me around to another vampire thing that's been bothering me for a while - I've never been entirely clear on how exactly the need for blood works in this universe. Sometimes it seems like it's a craving but not an absolute requirement - we never really see Mitchell sipping donor packs like the Buffy vampires used to do - but other times it seems like they physically cannot survive without it, like when Adam was collapsing because he couldn't feed off his dad any more. This is relevant mostly because I feel like there's a significant difference between vampires who are basically predators whose prey happens to be human, and vampires who are basically willing serial killers with fangs - and I feel like the show isn't entirely sure which of those it's going for at any given time. The Box Tunnel thing was clearly not necessary, but on the whole I'm still not sure if Mitchell's inability to totally go off killing people is a personal failing of his, or an intrinsic part of being a vampire that the rest of them are just a lot less angsty about. If Mitchell needed to die because he's Mitchell, okay, but then I'm grossed out that the show spent three years treating him as a sympathetic character and, at least in series 1, making me really like him; if Mitchell needed to die because he's a vampire, then I'm grossed out that everyone seem happy to let the other vampires carry on doing their thing.

Ultimately, I think my biggest problem is that I feel like the Box Tunnel massacre was a Big Deal not because it was actually a big deal as compared to all the other shit that happens on the show, but because the show decided it was going to be a Big Deal. Which made it difficult to get worked up about it to the extent that I'd need to in order to connect with Mitchell's arc or be relieved that he died. If I accept that a vampire killing a lot of people is unforgivable, then Mitchell was never okay and I have to be horrified and disgusted by him all along and all the other vampires too. If I accept that killing people is just a thing vampires do in this universe, as inevitable as werewolves ripping apart anyone they happen to come across at the full moon, then the Box Tunnel massacre is, while particularly unpleasant, really not a good enough reason for Mitchell and his friends to decide he needs to die. There are two options, the show doesn't seem to know which one it's going for, and I really don't like either one.

Some other, more minor issues:
-I don't get why Lia had the power to pull all that shit with Mitchell and Annie, since no other murder victims seem to receive an Orchestrate Elaborate Revenge kit upon dying.
-On a related note, Mitchell didn't love Annie enough before? Really? He seemed a hell of a lot more concerned about Annie and Annie's feelings at the start of series 3 than he did by the end of it, though I guess that could've been an in-world failing of Lia's plot rather than the writers fucking up.
-Still confused and annoyed by the apparent on-off switch on Mitchell's desire for immortality.
-I feel like that last scene was meant to be an empowering Defenders-of-the-Universe thing, but to me it came off more like a Bolivian Army ending - even if the vampire guy doesn't immediately go LOL YOU DIE NOW on George and Nina, I really don't see how they're supposed to stand a chance against this ancient vampire who clearly has no end of lackeys and connections and strings to pull. Especially now that they don't even have Mitchell to clue them in on vampire stuff.
-WEREBABY >:[

If there's a series 4 I suppose I'll probably watch it due to my inability to look away, but I can't say I'm particularly happy about the prospect, since it's likely to be a lot of George and Nina freaking out about WEREBABY and Annie cooing over WEREBABY (since that thing about her being able to gain confidence and become visible again is apparently never coming back, so I don't know what else she would have to even do with Mitchell out of the picture) and WEREBABY WEREBABY WEREBABY. Have I mentioned how much I hate WEREBABY? :P