"Flinging crockery around like a common poltergeist"
Well it's a good job there's an extra two episodes of Being Human this year isn't it? I don't think anyone would have been too happy with that as an end-of-series cliffhanger.
- I think Toby Whithouse said he'd once again written 4 episodes this year, which means Lisa McGee is the last guest writer for Series 2. Charles Martin takes over as director, which I guess means shooting block 2 was the short one, with only two episodes; makes sense for this one to be bundled with the next two since it looks like it's going to have to follow straight on.
- Speaking of the guest writer, is it wrong that I automatically equated a female writer with the fact that we got some acknowledgement of Mitchell and George's popularity in slash circles?
- So a flashback to Kemp's origin story to start us off this week, and it was the murder of his, what, sister and niece? I mean he appeared to be a Catholic priest at the time, so if they were his wife and daughter he wasn't a very good one, in which case he probably shouldn't be quite so judgemental.
- After the "all Mitchell, all the time" of last week it's nice to get a more balanced episode with, if anybody, Annie getting a touch more screen time. Also, despite the central trio's physical distance increasing this week with George actually moving out, Mitchell considering it and even Annie wondering if she could go on the road, the relationship between the three seemed back to being more caring, less abrasive.
- Overall this was a fairly low-key episode, the ending obviously excepted, but none the worse for it. I certainly liked it a hell of a lot more than last week's.
- Although hello continuity error: When Molly confronts George, he has his glasses on in the close-up; cut to a long-shot where they're on his head; back to close up with the glasses on. A few seconds later George puts the glasses up, so that one long-shot must have been from later in the scene, mistakenly cut in there.
- So while we're on George's story, despite him moving out this week it was pretty much the "C" story. The most interesting stuff was with Molly, especially her nightmare. Was it genuine, and a sort of "kids are a bit psychic" thing, or was she making it up to make him reconsider, and just hitting on a very apt image by chance?
- Mitchell's story, still a progression of the earlier stuff but properly kicking into gear now. Lucy is certainly one who could still go either way; whether she'll be the one to turn against CenSSA and save the trio at the last minute, or the one who looks like she'll do that but then order something horrific to be done, I really couldn't say at this point. But I'll be disappointed if she doesn't have a big climactic moment of that sort.
- After a shaky start Paul Rhys' Ivan (who, it turns out, has arm-wrestled Colonel Gaddafi) has made himself indispensible, with some of the best lines of the episode in his brief appearance. "Only alcohol tonight I'm afraid, none of the hard stuff." "I'm special needs." "I've got most of them on my Twitter feed so it'll be OK." And then after becoming indispensible, he's dispensed with. Or is he? We saw his body but if vampires are dead-dead shouldn't they crumble and float away like Lauren? Another reason I think Ivan will survive is "I have my Daisy. Everyone deserves a Daisy." Much as I don't want to see her gone, what if it's Daisy who's died in the explosion, and as well as everything else we now have to find out just how bad Ivan is without her?
- Annie's story is the biggest emotionally this week. Nice work between Lenora and Simon Paisley Day as Alan Cortez, and a really good basis for a story, of a genuine psychic losing his ability in an accident, and Annie (who may not be visible but is still somewhat more than just any other ghost) helping him get it back. The super-honest psychic session that resulted between Jimmy the wetsuit-ghost and his cheating widow was lots of fun, followed by Lenora doing so much with so little, in her facial expression as Jimmy's Door arrives - a door that he wanted to go through, despite all ghosts knowing about TMWSAR, and that she helped him achieve, but that she herself sees as a terrifying fate.
- And then the fun story gets a new twist with the arrival of Carmen, Annie's mum. Jacquetta May was very moving I thought; the actress is also a writer, who wrote the Torchwood episode "Random Shoes." Annie making the paper flower was a lovely scene.
- This may be the sort of in-joke only I get, or it may just be a coincidence but it seems like a big one: Robin was played by Aimeé-Ffion Edwards (if you're struggling with where you've seen her, she played Sketch the stalker in Skins) and I last saw her on stage in Jerusalem (and as far as I know she's still in the cast now it's gone to the West End.) It's actually Aimeé-Ffion's character who sings the eponymous song in the play, and what song is it she's humming when Alan can finally hear her? Yup, "Jerusalem."
- I don't know if anyone noticed, but the episode also ended with an explosion.
Poll
- I think Toby Whithouse said he'd once again written 4 episodes this year, which means Lisa McGee is the last guest writer for Series 2. Charles Martin takes over as director, which I guess means shooting block 2 was the short one, with only two episodes; makes sense for this one to be bundled with the next two since it looks like it's going to have to follow straight on.
- Speaking of the guest writer, is it wrong that I automatically equated a female writer with the fact that we got some acknowledgement of Mitchell and George's popularity in slash circles?
- So a flashback to Kemp's origin story to start us off this week, and it was the murder of his, what, sister and niece? I mean he appeared to be a Catholic priest at the time, so if they were his wife and daughter he wasn't a very good one, in which case he probably shouldn't be quite so judgemental.
- After the "all Mitchell, all the time" of last week it's nice to get a more balanced episode with, if anybody, Annie getting a touch more screen time. Also, despite the central trio's physical distance increasing this week with George actually moving out, Mitchell considering it and even Annie wondering if she could go on the road, the relationship between the three seemed back to being more caring, less abrasive.
- Overall this was a fairly low-key episode, the ending obviously excepted, but none the worse for it. I certainly liked it a hell of a lot more than last week's.
- Although hello continuity error: When Molly confronts George, he has his glasses on in the close-up; cut to a long-shot where they're on his head; back to close up with the glasses on. A few seconds later George puts the glasses up, so that one long-shot must have been from later in the scene, mistakenly cut in there.
- So while we're on George's story, despite him moving out this week it was pretty much the "C" story. The most interesting stuff was with Molly, especially her nightmare. Was it genuine, and a sort of "kids are a bit psychic" thing, or was she making it up to make him reconsider, and just hitting on a very apt image by chance?
- Mitchell's story, still a progression of the earlier stuff but properly kicking into gear now. Lucy is certainly one who could still go either way; whether she'll be the one to turn against CenSSA and save the trio at the last minute, or the one who looks like she'll do that but then order something horrific to be done, I really couldn't say at this point. But I'll be disappointed if she doesn't have a big climactic moment of that sort.
- After a shaky start Paul Rhys' Ivan (who, it turns out, has arm-wrestled Colonel Gaddafi) has made himself indispensible, with some of the best lines of the episode in his brief appearance. "Only alcohol tonight I'm afraid, none of the hard stuff." "I'm special needs." "I've got most of them on my Twitter feed so it'll be OK." And then after becoming indispensible, he's dispensed with. Or is he? We saw his body but if vampires are dead-dead shouldn't they crumble and float away like Lauren? Another reason I think Ivan will survive is "I have my Daisy. Everyone deserves a Daisy." Much as I don't want to see her gone, what if it's Daisy who's died in the explosion, and as well as everything else we now have to find out just how bad Ivan is without her?
- Annie's story is the biggest emotionally this week. Nice work between Lenora and Simon Paisley Day as Alan Cortez, and a really good basis for a story, of a genuine psychic losing his ability in an accident, and Annie (who may not be visible but is still somewhat more than just any other ghost) helping him get it back. The super-honest psychic session that resulted between Jimmy the wetsuit-ghost and his cheating widow was lots of fun, followed by Lenora doing so much with so little, in her facial expression as Jimmy's Door arrives - a door that he wanted to go through, despite all ghosts knowing about TMWSAR, and that she helped him achieve, but that she herself sees as a terrifying fate.
- And then the fun story gets a new twist with the arrival of Carmen, Annie's mum. Jacquetta May was very moving I thought; the actress is also a writer, who wrote the Torchwood episode "Random Shoes." Annie making the paper flower was a lovely scene.
- This may be the sort of in-joke only I get, or it may just be a coincidence but it seems like a big one: Robin was played by Aimeé-Ffion Edwards (if you're struggling with where you've seen her, she played Sketch the stalker in Skins) and I last saw her on stage in Jerusalem (and as far as I know she's still in the cast now it's gone to the West End.) It's actually Aimeé-Ffion's character who sings the eponymous song in the play, and what song is it she's humming when Alan can finally hear her? Yup, "Jerusalem."
- I don't know if anyone noticed, but the episode also ended with an explosion.
Poll