"I am a legendary swordsman."
Week 5 of Being Human and the same writer as last week but a much better episode; actually not that surprising since "A Spectre Calls" was well-written, it was the basic story I had a problem with. This time it's another fantasy staple, but a much better-handled one: "Hold The Front Page" by Tom Grieves, directed by Philip John.
- I'm going to start with what I think is the big news here, i.e. after zombies last year we get another supernatural creature added to the Being Human universe. Actually two because in the description of the succubus, we also find out demons are real. Throwaway comment? Or, if there's a Series 5 next year, is this what Toby Whithouse has in store for its main story arc?
- Craig Roberts' Adam is a welcome return, accompanied now by Selina Griffiths' Yvonne; Griffiths being a bit of a good sport really since much of the early humour in the episode comes from the unlikelihood of so many men being attracted to Yvonne, and Annie's open disbelief of the fact.
- Although the fact that Adam's real age is closer to Yvonne's than it looks means you can initially buy this as a "Frank Jr from Friends"-style storyline; not that the twist is ever hidden that much, Yvonne being able to see Annie is flagged up straight away as a clue that she's supernatural.
- Adam's constant, casual use of dog insults towards Tom is a reminder that vampires do this all the time so it does highlight that (under normal circumstances at least) Hal doesn't do this. But I love that, as ever, Adam's references remain dated, calling Tom "The Littlest Hobo" and "Fred Basset."
- And Socha's line of the week is a toss-up between Tom correcting Adam by calling himself "a wolf cocking his leg" and "trust me and my guns."
- On which note, it's nice to see that having a hugely incriminating scar on his bicep hasn't made Hal wear long sleeves, so committed is he to letting us see the gun show.
- When Hal does come up with a doggy insult it's under a spell and in a dream, and involves Hal asking if the hound wants another "hwhipping" which I couldn't help expecting to turn into a big Family Guy running gag.
- I pretty much called the dream-within-a-dream as Tom's death was a bit too casually presented, but the show did manage to leave me in a bit of doubt, after killing three leads in the space of two episodes you're never quite sure what they will or won't do.
- Annie does the Miranda Hart "mouthing the word sex" thing, at least when talking to a prim headmistress. Who is a sex demon.
- Sacha Dhawan, damn, just four weeks too late for a History Boys reunion! Maybe they can have one in the afterlife since Pete, unsurprisingly, doesn't last that long. He looks very good while he does last though, pushing Dhawan back to the always-in-flux position of Second Favourite History Boy. (He shouldn't rest on his laurels though, with the Jamie Parker Henry V only a couple of months away he'll have competition.)
- And at least we had an acknowledgement that Being Human has done the "vampire gets caught (not) on camera" story with Mitchell before. And this time less people had to die to resolve it.
- The ending's quite sweet really, and I'm pleased that, if continuity isn't always Being Human's strongest point (the way religious symbols work or don't work on vampires really is pot luck, isn't it?) the whole point of last year's finale and Mitchell's death still works: Mitchell couldn't stay off blood and had to die because of it, but that did leave Adam's story up in the air because his plan at the end of "Adam's Family" (and his character motivation in Becoming Human) was to emulate Mitchell and live blood-free. It also made it hard to introduce another good-guy vamp as the lead if staying clean was shown to be impossible. But Hal having gone to such an opposite extreme and developing a form of OCD to dampen the blood-lust works, and now so does Adam replacing one supernatural addiction with another one.
- And Tom wanders around in his pants. But we had an offscreen full moon? *tsk* wasted opportunity.
- I'm going to start with what I think is the big news here, i.e. after zombies last year we get another supernatural creature added to the Being Human universe. Actually two because in the description of the succubus, we also find out demons are real. Throwaway comment? Or, if there's a Series 5 next year, is this what Toby Whithouse has in store for its main story arc?
- Craig Roberts' Adam is a welcome return, accompanied now by Selina Griffiths' Yvonne; Griffiths being a bit of a good sport really since much of the early humour in the episode comes from the unlikelihood of so many men being attracted to Yvonne, and Annie's open disbelief of the fact.
- Although the fact that Adam's real age is closer to Yvonne's than it looks means you can initially buy this as a "Frank Jr from Friends"-style storyline; not that the twist is ever hidden that much, Yvonne being able to see Annie is flagged up straight away as a clue that she's supernatural.
- Adam's constant, casual use of dog insults towards Tom is a reminder that vampires do this all the time so it does highlight that (under normal circumstances at least) Hal doesn't do this. But I love that, as ever, Adam's references remain dated, calling Tom "The Littlest Hobo" and "Fred Basset."
- And Socha's line of the week is a toss-up between Tom correcting Adam by calling himself "a wolf cocking his leg" and "trust me and my guns."
- On which note, it's nice to see that having a hugely incriminating scar on his bicep hasn't made Hal wear long sleeves, so committed is he to letting us see the gun show.
- When Hal does come up with a doggy insult it's under a spell and in a dream, and involves Hal asking if the hound wants another "hwhipping" which I couldn't help expecting to turn into a big Family Guy running gag.
- I pretty much called the dream-within-a-dream as Tom's death was a bit too casually presented, but the show did manage to leave me in a bit of doubt, after killing three leads in the space of two episodes you're never quite sure what they will or won't do.
- Annie does the Miranda Hart "mouthing the word sex" thing, at least when talking to a prim headmistress. Who is a sex demon.
- Sacha Dhawan, damn, just four weeks too late for a History Boys reunion! Maybe they can have one in the afterlife since Pete, unsurprisingly, doesn't last that long. He looks very good while he does last though, pushing Dhawan back to the always-in-flux position of Second Favourite History Boy. (He shouldn't rest on his laurels though, with the Jamie Parker Henry V only a couple of months away he'll have competition.)
- And at least we had an acknowledgement that Being Human has done the "vampire gets caught (not) on camera" story with Mitchell before. And this time less people had to die to resolve it.
- The ending's quite sweet really, and I'm pleased that, if continuity isn't always Being Human's strongest point (the way religious symbols work or don't work on vampires really is pot luck, isn't it?) the whole point of last year's finale and Mitchell's death still works: Mitchell couldn't stay off blood and had to die because of it, but that did leave Adam's story up in the air because his plan at the end of "Adam's Family" (and his character motivation in Becoming Human) was to emulate Mitchell and live blood-free. It also made it hard to introduce another good-guy vamp as the lead if staying clean was shown to be impossible. But Hal having gone to such an opposite extreme and developing a form of OCD to dampen the blood-lust works, and now so does Adam replacing one supernatural addiction with another one.
- And Tom wanders around in his pants. But we had an offscreen full moon? *tsk* wasted opportunity.