Comments | beinghuman_fans: Being Human, UK vs US Flavors: or, A Tale of Two Angsty Hot Vampires

mswyrr in beinghuman_fans

Being Human, UK vs US Flavors: or, A Tale of Two Angsty Hot Vampires

Mar 25, 2011 12:25

I caught up with the second half of the US Being Human. I'm very impressed by the way they're doing it. It's like a really well written AU fanfic with, you know, a full staff of writers, actors, and a budget. lol ( Read more... )

being human, being human syfy, vampires, mitchell, meta

Comments 87

lifefailsme March 25 2011, 19:38:20 UTC

I have to say, I have nothing else to add to this post, except, I agree with everything. Very insightful and made me think about aspects and differences between them, that I had never considered before.

troyswann March 25 2011, 19:43:28 UTC

Hmm. This is very interesting.

Frozen in time. Undead memorial.

Very interesting.

Thanks for this. Gives me lots to think about.

alizarin_nyc March 25 2011, 19:46:54 UTC

Well-written, well-argued, in short, an astounding piece.

I am watching but not enjoying the US version, and this captures some of why... it's a problem I'm having overall with current US television. It's in a rut, and mainstream TV often fails to cut to the emotional core or to step outside of the chosen mantras of materialism, patriotism and good ole boys.

mswyrr March 26 2011, 02:47:59 UTC

The US version is enjoyable enough. The only things I've really liked about the changes were (a) Josh's lesbian sister (b) meeting Josh's family so early and with such detail (though, TBH, I think what we discovered about George's family in S3 is so much better and more nuanced) and (c) that Sally got to have a ghost!sex life with a hottie boy ghost.

But Aidan is such a square jawed dominant alpha male American hero type all the way down the line that, even as the pretty works its magic on me, I find myself missing Mitchell so much. His complex relationship to power and exploitation, his war, his lower class standing (making Aidan a nurse and leaving Josh a porter, imo, just makes the power imbalance there even worse), his girly hair... <3 Mitchell ( ... )

mswyrr March 26 2011, 03:49:10 UTC

Your lovely sentence about the "mantras of materialism, patriotism and good ole boys" made me think of an article I was reading a while back with this awesome quote about what the author called "Disneyfication." The basic argument was that the unsustainable and massively unjust nature of the current global system is one that is "morally. . .an almost complete dystopia. . .and materially (economically) on the razor's edge of collapse, distributive and collective" and that this nightmare requires strategies of "Disneyfication" to be employed to shore up people psychologically to endure it without resisting. So narratives are produced which perpetuate the ( ... )

starry_laa March 25 2011, 19:47:32 UTC

That was really interesting. I haven't watched the US version, so can't comment on that but I've always wanted to see more about Mitchell before he turned into a vampire- what his life was like, who his family was, what he was like as a young man and it's a shame because now we'll never know.

His youth was stolen during WWI. First by human leaders, and then by a vampire leader. He never really got to live. Only instead of being in a grave somewhere, he's trapped in his young body. Frozen in time. Undead memorial.

Those lines really resonated with me. Wow. Wonderful analysis.

iddewes March 25 2011, 20:18:22 UTC

That's true actually, we never did really see that. The prequel only really showed him when he was killed. I wonder if they WOULD have gone into that more if Aidan Turner hadn't been stolen away by hobbits...

mswyrr March 27 2011, 01:12:09 UTC

From what people have been sharing here about what was going on in Irish history at the time and such, they would have had some very fertile material to work with.

mswyrr March 26 2011, 10:47:06 UTC

I've always wanted to see more about Mitchell before he turned into a vampire- what his life was like, who his family was, what he was like as a young man and it's a shame because now we'll never know.

I think the way they ended his arc was brilliant, but I agree with you about regretting the missed opportunities. There was a lot more material for them to explore. Other people here have mentioned the political situation that was going on in Ireland when he died, for instance; it would be so great to have found out how that shaped his life. And I'd really have liked to have gotten more information about his class background and family, as you say -- it seems like he was working class, but details would have been very cool.

And, unlike with Angel over on BTVS and A:tS, we could have had BH vampire!flashbacks to Ireland with non-sucky accents. lol.

lady_bracknell March 25 2011, 20:11:51 UTC

I haven't watched the US version, but I wanted to stick my head in anyway and say I think your take on Mitchell in regard to WWI is fascinating. I'd never thought of it quite like that - I'd thought of it terms of Mitchell always having been forced to fight a battle, by his army superiors, then by vampires, then against himself - always having this struggle in his life that means his life is never his own whether he's dead or alive. But the idea of him as a memorial to all those lost men and the embodiement of something huge (like the tomb of the unknown soldier, one person to signify the sacrifice of everyone) is really powerful and totally fits. I'd be fascinated to see if the writers actually thought about this (if they do one of those Ask Toby things on the blog again, I'd love to see you ask and link them to this), or if it's more subconscious than that, that it's SO part of our national psyche to have these feelings about WWI that it sort of seeped in.

Thank you so much for sharing this ♥.

mswyrr March 27 2011, 02:02:06 UTC

I'd thought of it terms of Mitchell always having been forced to fight a battle, by his army superiors, then by vampires, then against himself - always having this struggle in his life that means his life is never his own whether he's dead or alive.

OH. MY GOODNESS. I love the way you said this so much. <3 <3 So true.

But the idea of him as a memorial to all those lost men and the embodiement of something huge (like the tomb of the unknown soldier, one person to signify the sacrifice of everyone) is really powerful and totally fits.:D Very glad to hear it resonated with you! I just re-watched the first episode of series 1, and what's interesting is that we're shown images of Mitchell standing at an actual memorial in Bristol, which visually kicks up the metaphor a bit. Because there the two of them are, you know. And makes me think about what he chooses to remember and how he does that -- is there a certain day he chooses to go out and visit a place of remembrance so he can push it to the back of his mind the rest of the time, or is ( ... )