Being Human meta: If Nick Cutler were a song + pimping a podfic
It might come out a bit immodest because the podfic mentioned above is actually... mine. XD A few days ago croissantkatie messaged me asking for permission to record Full of Broken Words, my Eve-centric short. I feel like a celebrity. Maybe it's a common feeling for some people, but I usually display two reactions: OMFG! (b/c who the hell would notice my fics like that?) and *squee!* (b/c it's extremely flattering). Check out the podfic HERE.
And since we've already started taking about the audio theme, I've got a question for you: do you obsess about music as much as I do when you write? Do you pick out songs for your characters, make mixed playlists, choose music to fit the mood and/or try writing counter to some music? Because I do. I do that a lot. Needless to say, poor unfortunate souls Being Human characters are not the exception, and right now I want to talk about Cutler, Nick Cutler as I see him through music.
image: BBC
If I were to remember the very first music piece I'd connected with Cutler in my mind, I'd probably fail. But it most likely had more to do with Hal/Cutler anyway, and this post is supposed to be Cutler-centric... more or less. So let's start with the first canon song that springs to mind:
Timbuk 3 - The Future's So Bright (I Gotta Wear Shades)
gifset by caremkefo
I study nuclear science
I love my classes
I got a crazy teacher, he wears dark glasses
Things are going great, and they're only getting better
I'm doing all right, getting good grades
The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades.
This is the song Nick first appears to (in the scene shown in the gifset above) - and let me tell you, I love his entrance to pieces. It's a bit misleading: it kind of makes Nick seem cooler than he is. Because Nick is not cool but he clearly thinks he is, and this song, nonchalant, hooligan-ish, overfree, accentuates it perfectly. There he saunters in, pushes some girl out of his way like she's a minor nuisance, grabs a bottle of blood, takes a swig and tosses it into the bin. An elmost full bottle! Like he couldn't care less. And he goes to get Regus ("You're a dick. - What did you say? - The meeting's started.") and he acts like he's better and smarter than everyone, flat-out criticizing Griffin's invasion plans. But little by little, even in this first episode, it becomes pretty obvious that Nick isn't as cool as he wants to seem. One of my favourite scenes in this ep is the one between him and Griffin.
pic by fadeanddecay
I don't care who you are or who your maker was. He's gone now. This is a distraction. You're a distraction. Now make my fucking tea.
It turns out most of Nick's assumed coolness comes from the part his maker (his "crazy teacher") had played in the vampire community. Well-well. XD The sad thing about the song is that Nick's future is anything but bright and it gets darker and darker, ending in the story of the ultimate failure: rejected by Hal yet again, his plans foiled, his death meaningless and, let's be honest, rather ugly.
Another thing I like about this scene is that the song is actually playing in Regus's headphones when Cutler comes to collect him. I find it pretty symbolic because I always thought Regus and Cutler had a lot of things in common. They are both more or less outsiders in the vampire community, doing work that nobody else finds important, yearning for respect and not getting any.
Now we are more or less entering the realm of my personal headcanon. Ever since I stumbled upon this interview of Andrew Gower, I've established for myself that Cutler must like Joy Division. Why? Because: How’d you come up with Cutler’s modern ticks? - We looked at Ian Curtis from the band Joy Division. He was a very ultra cool, non-expressive character. For me, it's not a big leap because if a character's appearance is based on someone, then the character immitates someone (unless the character is Spike and Billy Idol has stolen his looks from him).
Ian Curtis
Joy Division's music and poetry have this special touch of almost apocalyptic melancholy, mixed with strangely ethereal gentleness and resignation. This would be the part of Cutler nobody actually gets to see. Gower says in his interview: Cutler is confident, but people sometimes mask their insecurities with confidence. That’s what Cutler does-or that’s how I played it, as somebody who speaks out and is constantly putting other people’s opinions down. The way I see it, the previous song, the introductory song, represents his feigned confidence, whereas the whole of Joy Division covers those "insecurities". In one of the RP's shirogiku and I have played, we had to establish Cutler's musical preferences, so we went for Joy Division, INXS, New Order, the Smiths, Radiohead, The Cure, etc. But I should reiterate: I think it's a deeply personal preference that nobody gets to see. Not because he's ashamed or anything, but because he doesn't care to share. That said, I don't see Cutler as an expert on music. He seems like someone who would listen to it intuitively and not gush about it pretending to know much about it. I can see him doing it when he is alone, possibly after a kill, just sitting and maybe reminiscing about Hal or his evil plans. He had to live many decades on his own, without Hal, and I assume it wasn't a very happy life.
Joy Division - Decades
We saw ourselves now as we never had seen
Portrayal of the trauma and degeneration
The sorrows we suffered and never were free
Where have they been?
I often associate Joy Division with 2037!Cutler. I had him think of the song above in Lonely Rivers: He wants Hal to say something, to talk to him about anything, but obviously Hal’s superb “portrayal of the trauma and degeneration” would go down the drain if they have a real conversation. He is supposed to have a scene listening to the band in the fic's sequel. He recognized the quote from the song Colony in the Forbidden Fruit RP:
Guy declaims like poetry, "A cry for help, a hint of anaesthesia, The sound from broken homes,We used to always meet here." [He] toasts and drinks. "So what's your story, mate?"
"Colony." Nick will take this over poetry any day.
And the following would be the two songs that make me think of future!Nick most of all.
Joy Division - Autosuggestion
Everything is kept inside
So take a chance and step outside
Pure frustration face to face
A point of view creates more waste
So take a chance and step outside
Lose some sleep and say you tried
Joy Division - Disaster
I've been waiting for a guide to come and take me by the hand
Could these sensations make me feel the pleasures of a normal man?
These sensations barely interest me for another day
I've got the spirit, lose the feeling, take the shock away
It's getting faster, moving faster now, it's getting out of hand
On the tenth floor, down the backstairs, it's a no man's land
Lights are flashing, cars are crashing, getting frequent now
I've got the spirit, lose the feeling, let it out somehow
What means to you, what means to me, and we will meet again
I'm watching you, I'm watching her, I'll take no pity from your friends
Who is right, who can tell, and who gives a damn right now
Until the spirit new sensation takes hold, then you know (3)
I've got the spirit, but lose the feeling (2)
Feeling, feeling, feeling, feeling, feeling, feeling, feeling.
The latter for me is the ultimate 2037!Cutler/Hal/Eve song.
But Nick is nothing if not versatile. He comes from the 40s and the 50s but I don't really see much of that music in him. It's more Hal's area. I once created a crack mix detailing Cutler's misfortunate love life: Teenager In Love. The songs there pertain more to the "in love" thing than to Cutler's character per se (not to mention it's a crack fanmix), but for some reason I enjoy the idea of Nick being, in Spike's words, "love's bitch". It's a matter of perspective whether he is in love with Hal or not (as a slash shipper, I say he is but I'm not one of those shippers who scream their OTP is canon and force their opinion on others; besides, I do recognize other forms of love, and let's say Nick's twisted desire to make Hal proud is a form of love).
Dion and the Belmonts - Teenager In Love
One day I feel so happy
Next day I feel so sad
I guess I'll learn
To take the good with the bad
I can't help thinking that Nick is a bit childish still and if he's this "uncool" as a grown-up vampire, he must have been a total failure as a teenager. If he'd been a modern teenager, then this would have been his song:
Wheatus - Teenage Dirtbag
And he doesn't know who I am
And he doesn't give a damn about me
‘Cuz I'm just a teenage dirtbag baby.
I have this headcanon that he met Rachel in school (I checked, co-ed schools existed in the 30s) but he was so shy and tongue-tied that they didn't really hit it off until after the war. I think Nick has it in him to be a bit of a geek and a loner. Not Regus's level of course: that is, he doesn't draw himself as a superhero saving a fair maiden in return for blood and sex (then again, maybe he does, ask Lord Toby). But just look at him with his laptop and his phone, the main attributes of a fundamentally lonely person. I bet he's not only on Twitter but on Tumblr too.
If we talk about oldtime classics, I can see Nick liking Hitchcock films (or at least finding them entertaining) and James Bond movies (because James Bond is the ultimate cool English guy, right?). So I suppose OSTs from those are a go. Not to mention that things like The World Is Not Enough sound like a Hal/Nick dream come true. XD
Speaking of dreams, we know that he has a few: making Hal proud, getting his name down in history books, getting a statue and "maybe Brazil". Yours truly naturally latched on to the mention and declared Brazil Nick's favourite country. Which leads to bossa nova in this mix and songs like:
Pink Martini - Brazil
Brazil, when stars were entertaining June,
We stood beneath an amber moon
And softly murmured someday soon...
We kissed and clung together.
And if you want more, here we go: Ipanema by Nicola Conte & Rosalia de Souza, Agua de beber by Stan Getz & Astrud Gilberto, Copacabana by Barry Manilow, etc. Never mind the words: it's the mood of these songs that matters. I believe that somewhere deep inside Nick has a capacity for dreaming (not only about power) and being romantic. I think he and Rachel had a pretty happy marriage and maybe he wanted to earn a lot of money to take her places (including Brazil). I've never been to Brazil (and neither has Nick, I suspect), so it's easy for me to imagine it as a warm, dreamy ideal of a place. Nick's desire to own Brazil kind of reminds me of the Master's desire to own planet Earth and the Doctor telling him in The End of Time. Part II: 'Cause you don't need to own the universe - just see it. To have the privilege of seeing all of time and space... that's ownership enough.
This desire is actually pretty childish. You can only successfully "own" a country in a cartoon (which they don't live in, according to Hal). I don't really know what Nick is thinking. Does he really see himself fit to run a country? But like I said, I do see him as childish. There was a post on Tumblr explaining what Trumpton was (I don't think I can find that post now, sorry). It got my attention that the show started when Nick was not only a grown-up but already a vampire. This is where his headcanon liking for childrens' shows stems from, I suppose. We know Nick is potentially well-versed in modern pop culture (considering how long he's lived, a lot of things were "modern" to him), so I wouldn't be surprised if he watched (and appreciated) films like Shrek, Toy Story, Monsters Inc., etc. Oh, and the Wallace and Grommit cartoons just because. And continuing from the subject of Brazil, I think Real In Rio should be added to this mix. This is not necessarily a song Cutler himself would like but it's the song that makes me think of him and his impossible dream of Brazil.
And then, there's always the matter of that statue.
pic by caremkefo
Regina Spektor - Us
They made a statue of us
And it put it on a mountain top
Now tourists come and stare at us
Blow bubbles with their gum
Take photographs have fun, have fun
They'll name a city after us
And later say it's all our fault
Then they'll give us a talking to
Then they'll give us a talking to
Because they've got years of experience
We're living in a den of thieves
Rummaging for answers in the pages
We're living in a den of thieves
And it's contagious
Willie Nile - They'll Build a Statue of You
They'll build a statue of you to commend the deeds you've done,
Face your figure to the West to gaze off in the sun.
They'll build a statue of you, of your heritage and fame,
Pay you all the due respects, like here's to whatsisname.
And finally, the horror! I can imagine Nick also listening to modern pop music. Like Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, etc. Now that he probably hides from people because he's ashamed. XD If we go back to crack, Teenage Dream and/or E. T. could totally be his "Hal" songs. But shhh, that's crack, and crack as we know is non-canon most of the time. ;) (But really, imagine Cutler dancing dorkily to music like that and singing along - and unlike Hal, he has a decent singing voice if we go by Andrew Gower's music... and then Fergus comes in!))))
Now, we've established that according to me, Cutler is a pretty eclectic musical creature. But still, there are a few things I can't imagine in Nick's mix. Classical music is a no-go. It's too Hal. And it's too complicated. Nick, at the heart of it, is a rather uncomplicated person, he doesn't have that many layers. I also can't see rap or various sentimental ballads in his mix. True, a lot of older songs (including Teenager In Love) are sentimental, but I mean more contemporary pop ballands. Like Celine Dion, Whitney Houston and other sappy stuff. (That is not to say I don't appreciate that kind of music; I listen to everything depending on my mood.)
To sum it all up, Nick Cutler is a bit of everything: post-punk, rock music, bossa nova, children's songs, dance pop, time-tested oldies, etc. So if Nick Cutler were a song, it would probably be either something very pretentious, theatrically aggressive and cocky to gloss over his multiple insecurities, or something like this:
Muse - Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want
Good times for a change
See the luck I've had
Could make a good man turn bad
So please, please, please
Let me, let me, let me
Let me get what I want
This time
Because as I've said, Nick Cutler is not cool. He only thinks he is (like many musicians actually do). But you know what? He doesn't have to be. Because to quote the great Lester Bangs: The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool.
All graphics found randomly via Tumblr and Google and belong to their respective owners. Being Human is property of the BBC and Toby Whithouse.
Now, if you've read all this/listened to all this, you love either Cutler or me very much. ;) So tell me: should I make such posts for other characters?
And since we've already started taking about the audio theme, I've got a question for you: do you obsess about music as much as I do when you write? Do you pick out songs for your characters, make mixed playlists, choose music to fit the mood and/or try writing counter to some music? Because I do. I do that a lot. Needless to say, poor unfortunate souls Being Human characters are not the exception, and right now I want to talk about Cutler, Nick Cutler as I see him through music.
image: BBC
If I were to remember the very first music piece I'd connected with Cutler in my mind, I'd probably fail. But it most likely had more to do with Hal/Cutler anyway, and this post is supposed to be Cutler-centric... more or less. So let's start with the first canon song that springs to mind:
Timbuk 3 - The Future's So Bright (I Gotta Wear Shades)
gifset by caremkefo
I study nuclear science
I love my classes
I got a crazy teacher, he wears dark glasses
Things are going great, and they're only getting better
I'm doing all right, getting good grades
The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades.
Click to viewThis is the song Nick first appears to (in the scene shown in the gifset above) - and let me tell you, I love his entrance to pieces. It's a bit misleading: it kind of makes Nick seem cooler than he is. Because Nick is not cool but he clearly thinks he is, and this song, nonchalant, hooligan-ish, overfree, accentuates it perfectly. There he saunters in, pushes some girl out of his way like she's a minor nuisance, grabs a bottle of blood, takes a swig and tosses it into the bin. An elmost full bottle! Like he couldn't care less. And he goes to get Regus ("You're a dick. - What did you say? - The meeting's started.") and he acts like he's better and smarter than everyone, flat-out criticizing Griffin's invasion plans. But little by little, even in this first episode, it becomes pretty obvious that Nick isn't as cool as he wants to seem. One of my favourite scenes in this ep is the one between him and Griffin.
pic by fadeanddecay
I don't care who you are or who your maker was. He's gone now. This is a distraction. You're a distraction. Now make my fucking tea.
It turns out most of Nick's assumed coolness comes from the part his maker (his "crazy teacher") had played in the vampire community. Well-well. XD The sad thing about the song is that Nick's future is anything but bright and it gets darker and darker, ending in the story of the ultimate failure: rejected by Hal yet again, his plans foiled, his death meaningless and, let's be honest, rather ugly.
Another thing I like about this scene is that the song is actually playing in Regus's headphones when Cutler comes to collect him. I find it pretty symbolic because I always thought Regus and Cutler had a lot of things in common. They are both more or less outsiders in the vampire community, doing work that nobody else finds important, yearning for respect and not getting any.
Now we are more or less entering the realm of my personal headcanon. Ever since I stumbled upon this interview of Andrew Gower, I've established for myself that Cutler must like Joy Division. Why? Because: How’d you come up with Cutler’s modern ticks? - We looked at Ian Curtis from the band Joy Division. He was a very ultra cool, non-expressive character. For me, it's not a big leap because if a character's appearance is based on someone, then the character immitates someone (unless the character is Spike and Billy Idol has stolen his looks from him).
Ian Curtis
Joy Division's music and poetry have this special touch of almost apocalyptic melancholy, mixed with strangely ethereal gentleness and resignation. This would be the part of Cutler nobody actually gets to see. Gower says in his interview: Cutler is confident, but people sometimes mask their insecurities with confidence. That’s what Cutler does-or that’s how I played it, as somebody who speaks out and is constantly putting other people’s opinions down. The way I see it, the previous song, the introductory song, represents his feigned confidence, whereas the whole of Joy Division covers those "insecurities". In one of the RP's shirogiku and I have played, we had to establish Cutler's musical preferences, so we went for Joy Division, INXS, New Order, the Smiths, Radiohead, The Cure, etc. But I should reiterate: I think it's a deeply personal preference that nobody gets to see. Not because he's ashamed or anything, but because he doesn't care to share. That said, I don't see Cutler as an expert on music. He seems like someone who would listen to it intuitively and not gush about it pretending to know much about it. I can see him doing it when he is alone, possibly after a kill, just sitting and maybe reminiscing about Hal or his evil plans. He had to live many decades on his own, without Hal, and I assume it wasn't a very happy life.
Joy Division - Decades
We saw ourselves now as we never had seen
Portrayal of the trauma and degeneration
The sorrows we suffered and never were free
Where have they been?
I often associate Joy Division with 2037!Cutler. I had him think of the song above in Lonely Rivers: He wants Hal to say something, to talk to him about anything, but obviously Hal’s superb “portrayal of the trauma and degeneration” would go down the drain if they have a real conversation. He is supposed to have a scene listening to the band in the fic's sequel. He recognized the quote from the song Colony in the Forbidden Fruit RP:
Guy declaims like poetry, "A cry for help, a hint of anaesthesia, The sound from broken homes,We used to always meet here." [He] toasts and drinks. "So what's your story, mate?"
"Colony." Nick will take this over poetry any day.
And the following would be the two songs that make me think of future!Nick most of all.
Joy Division - Autosuggestion
Everything is kept inside
So take a chance and step outside
Pure frustration face to face
A point of view creates more waste
So take a chance and step outside
Lose some sleep and say you tried
Joy Division - Disaster
I've been waiting for a guide to come and take me by the hand
Could these sensations make me feel the pleasures of a normal man?
These sensations barely interest me for another day
I've got the spirit, lose the feeling, take the shock away
It's getting faster, moving faster now, it's getting out of hand
On the tenth floor, down the backstairs, it's a no man's land
Lights are flashing, cars are crashing, getting frequent now
I've got the spirit, lose the feeling, let it out somehow
What means to you, what means to me, and we will meet again
I'm watching you, I'm watching her, I'll take no pity from your friends
Who is right, who can tell, and who gives a damn right now
Until the spirit new sensation takes hold, then you know (3)
I've got the spirit, but lose the feeling (2)
Feeling, feeling, feeling, feeling, feeling, feeling, feeling.
The latter for me is the ultimate 2037!Cutler/Hal/Eve song.
But Nick is nothing if not versatile. He comes from the 40s and the 50s but I don't really see much of that music in him. It's more Hal's area. I once created a crack mix detailing Cutler's misfortunate love life: Teenager In Love. The songs there pertain more to the "in love" thing than to Cutler's character per se (not to mention it's a crack fanmix), but for some reason I enjoy the idea of Nick being, in Spike's words, "love's bitch". It's a matter of perspective whether he is in love with Hal or not (as a slash shipper, I say he is but I'm not one of those shippers who scream their OTP is canon and force their opinion on others; besides, I do recognize other forms of love, and let's say Nick's twisted desire to make Hal proud is a form of love).
Dion and the Belmonts - Teenager In Love
One day I feel so happy
Next day I feel so sad
I guess I'll learn
To take the good with the bad
I can't help thinking that Nick is a bit childish still and if he's this "uncool" as a grown-up vampire, he must have been a total failure as a teenager. If he'd been a modern teenager, then this would have been his song:
Wheatus - Teenage Dirtbag
And he doesn't know who I am
And he doesn't give a damn about me
‘Cuz I'm just a teenage dirtbag baby.
I have this headcanon that he met Rachel in school (I checked, co-ed schools existed in the 30s) but he was so shy and tongue-tied that they didn't really hit it off until after the war. I think Nick has it in him to be a bit of a geek and a loner. Not Regus's level of course: that is, he doesn't draw himself as a superhero saving a fair maiden in return for blood and sex (then again, maybe he does, ask Lord Toby). But just look at him with his laptop and his phone, the main attributes of a fundamentally lonely person. I bet he's not only on Twitter but on Tumblr too.
If we talk about oldtime classics, I can see Nick liking Hitchcock films (or at least finding them entertaining) and James Bond movies (because James Bond is the ultimate cool English guy, right?). So I suppose OSTs from those are a go. Not to mention that things like The World Is Not Enough sound like a Hal/Nick dream come true. XD
Speaking of dreams, we know that he has a few: making Hal proud, getting his name down in history books, getting a statue and "maybe Brazil". Yours truly naturally latched on to the mention and declared Brazil Nick's favourite country. Which leads to bossa nova in this mix and songs like:
Pink Martini - Brazil
Brazil, when stars were entertaining June,
We stood beneath an amber moon
And softly murmured someday soon...
We kissed and clung together.
And if you want more, here we go: Ipanema by Nicola Conte & Rosalia de Souza, Agua de beber by Stan Getz & Astrud Gilberto, Copacabana by Barry Manilow, etc. Never mind the words: it's the mood of these songs that matters. I believe that somewhere deep inside Nick has a capacity for dreaming (not only about power) and being romantic. I think he and Rachel had a pretty happy marriage and maybe he wanted to earn a lot of money to take her places (including Brazil). I've never been to Brazil (and neither has Nick, I suspect), so it's easy for me to imagine it as a warm, dreamy ideal of a place. Nick's desire to own Brazil kind of reminds me of the Master's desire to own planet Earth and the Doctor telling him in The End of Time. Part II: 'Cause you don't need to own the universe - just see it. To have the privilege of seeing all of time and space... that's ownership enough.
This desire is actually pretty childish. You can only successfully "own" a country in a cartoon (which they don't live in, according to Hal). I don't really know what Nick is thinking. Does he really see himself fit to run a country? But like I said, I do see him as childish. There was a post on Tumblr explaining what Trumpton was (I don't think I can find that post now, sorry). It got my attention that the show started when Nick was not only a grown-up but already a vampire. This is where his headcanon liking for childrens' shows stems from, I suppose. We know Nick is potentially well-versed in modern pop culture (considering how long he's lived, a lot of things were "modern" to him), so I wouldn't be surprised if he watched (and appreciated) films like Shrek, Toy Story, Monsters Inc., etc. Oh, and the Wallace and Grommit cartoons just because. And continuing from the subject of Brazil, I think Real In Rio should be added to this mix. This is not necessarily a song Cutler himself would like but it's the song that makes me think of him and his impossible dream of Brazil.
And then, there's always the matter of that statue.
pic by caremkefo
Regina Spektor - Us
They made a statue of us
And it put it on a mountain top
Now tourists come and stare at us
Blow bubbles with their gum
Take photographs have fun, have fun
They'll name a city after us
And later say it's all our fault
Then they'll give us a talking to
Then they'll give us a talking to
Because they've got years of experience
We're living in a den of thieves
Rummaging for answers in the pages
We're living in a den of thieves
And it's contagious
Willie Nile - They'll Build a Statue of You
They'll build a statue of you to commend the deeds you've done,
Face your figure to the West to gaze off in the sun.
They'll build a statue of you, of your heritage and fame,
Pay you all the due respects, like here's to whatsisname.
And finally, the horror! I can imagine Nick also listening to modern pop music. Like Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, etc. Now that he probably hides from people because he's ashamed. XD If we go back to crack, Teenage Dream and/or E. T. could totally be his "Hal" songs. But shhh, that's crack, and crack as we know is non-canon most of the time. ;) (But really, imagine Cutler dancing dorkily to music like that and singing along - and unlike Hal, he has a decent singing voice if we go by Andrew Gower's music... and then Fergus comes in!))))
Now, we've established that according to me, Cutler is a pretty eclectic musical creature. But still, there are a few things I can't imagine in Nick's mix. Classical music is a no-go. It's too Hal. And it's too complicated. Nick, at the heart of it, is a rather uncomplicated person, he doesn't have that many layers. I also can't see rap or various sentimental ballads in his mix. True, a lot of older songs (including Teenager In Love) are sentimental, but I mean more contemporary pop ballands. Like Celine Dion, Whitney Houston and other sappy stuff. (That is not to say I don't appreciate that kind of music; I listen to everything depending on my mood.)
To sum it all up, Nick Cutler is a bit of everything: post-punk, rock music, bossa nova, children's songs, dance pop, time-tested oldies, etc. So if Nick Cutler were a song, it would probably be either something very pretentious, theatrically aggressive and cocky to gloss over his multiple insecurities, or something like this:
Muse - Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want
Good times for a change
See the luck I've had
Could make a good man turn bad
So please, please, please
Let me, let me, let me
Let me get what I want
This time
Because as I've said, Nick Cutler is not cool. He only thinks he is (like many musicians actually do). But you know what? He doesn't have to be. Because to quote the great Lester Bangs: The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool.
All graphics found randomly via Tumblr and Google and belong to their respective owners. Being Human is property of the BBC and Toby Whithouse.
Now, if you've read all this/listened to all this, you love either Cutler or me very much. ;) So tell me: should I make such posts for other characters?