Being Human: Wasted Opportunities [sort of meta on what could have been]

[istne_pieklo]

Series 5, with its clunky writing, does have moments that make me go 'oooh' instead of 'oh my God, why!?' Unfortunately, the bulk of these moments seems to be leading nowhere, so I thought I'd complain about that. Unsurprisingly (for those who know my history with series 5), a lot of that has to do with Rook.

Comments

[harlequinn823]

I totally agree with all points. And as S5 progressed, the setups became more and more heavy-handed, with virtually no payoff. Larry's killing was a BIG one. I didn't think much about the Rook and Alex thing, but I'm pretty ambivalent about Rook anyway. The biggest Rook screwup storywise, IMO, was Natasha. Natasha fucked his character up, she made Tom needlessly inconsistent, and she wasn't necessary to alienate Hal from Tom and Alex.

I would add the time Hal drank the flask of blood (an OMG moment followed by... a fizzle, basically); Alex getting sent to her own grave, then, as soon as the big scream ended, just "walking" out through the dirt; and Hal's big recruitment musical (which I have MAJOR MAJOR issues with in general), which seemed like a lot of setup to have every single one of the recruits killed in two minutes.

[istne_pieklo]

I couldn't agree more about Natasha. I have nothing against the character herself, but I don't get why she plays such a huge part in Rook's life all of a sudden. She's hardly the only person he's ever saved (probably not even the only child). As for Tom, I hate how quickly he decided he wanted to sleep with her. Why!? He wouldn't even sleep with Allison whom he'd known longer and whom he was obviously in love with. He tells Alex in 5x05 that he doesn't think Allison is his girlfriend, but he told Cutler in 4x07 that his future plans very much included her. I understand being attracted to someone else, but acting on it when you have a person you love and not even feeling conflicted about it? That's not like Tom.
Also, if Natasha stayed long enough to tell Alex that Hal didn't kill her, why couldn't she have done it two minutes earlier before Hal was kicked out of the house for something he didn't do!? (I have a lot of pent-up frustration about Natasha XD

[zoicite]

re: Crumb

[istne_pieklo]

I shudder to think what Cutler could have been like. The writing wasn't bad, but Toby did say that they never planned to make the audience sympathize with Cutler so much; it was all Andrew playing him the way he did. And that was brilliant. <333 If only they'd cast someone with that talent to play Crumb, the character could have been salvaged.
I often think that 22 episode seasons are waaaay too long, but a 6 episode season for a show like this is kinda brutal on the opposite end of the spectrum. I agree. They could have gone with 13, but then some shows make a mess of that too. Like Merlin f.ex. I loved that show but the writing could be sooo wobbly and they'd often have a bucketload of filler-like episodes that honestly added nothing to character and/or plot arcs. BH could have at least given this series 8 eps. Especially if they knew it'd be the last one. The finale alone is such a mess

[harlequinn823]

To me, the recruitment number was an absolute failure because it did something that the show had deliberately and successfully avoided for four series: making vampire killing cool and glamorous. That the show didn't do that was a big part of what made it so good, IMO. And on top of that, Hal was in his "bad" state, so the "real" Hal wasn't responsible and could still be likable and heroic. They might as well have ended the show at the end of S4 if they were going to do that.

I saw it as an homage to Severen in Near Dark -- which I love, but Severen was a thoroughly sadistic vampire with no redeeming qualities, an antagonist, not a protagonist or even anti-hero.

[zoicite]

I'm not sure I'd say that scene came off as particularly cool or glamorous, but they definitely did turn eight deaths into a lighthearted joke. Not a vampire death, but nine if you count the dude in the freezer with the jazz hands that they cut to right afterward (though frankly, the dude in the freezer with the jazz hands is by far my favorite part of the entire thing. I kind of love that shot.)