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Mar. 24th, 2011 10:52 am2011 Books
21. Being Human: Unofficial and Unauthorised by Joanne Black
For those of you that are fans of the U.K. series, Being Human, you will probably really enjoy this as much as I did. It covers seasons 1 and 2 of the series, which has now finished season 3. I'd love to get her take on this season. Maybe she'll do another one if it goes to, as i expect, season 4! She describes the origins of the show, how they cast it and all about the pilot and the recasting for the series itself. Then she goes through each episode with a summary and her own observations and comments, including things like continuity misses, "cheers and jeers" typesof things, and background on any guest actors in that episode ("where have you seen xx before") At the end of the book, she lists various locations used for filming, what they were previously and she mentions the Being Human blog as well. It's a chatty book, and well written. Definitely a good read for fans.
I've seen some of the new U.S. version of it and it's not bad but not nearly as bloody and visceral, and the actors, especially for the Vampire and Werewolf, while again, not bad, are a tad too "boy next door", clean cut. Joanne Black describes Russell Tovey (George) as having a face that's made for worrying (which makes me laugh, because it's so true!) but the werewolf character in the US series whose name is Josh has a face that just looks a bit more bewildered. He does look like a Josh though. The vampire's name is Aidan, a node to the UK actor that plays Mitchell, Aidan Turner, and the ghost's name is Sally instead of Annie. The Herrick character in the American version is called Bishop and doesn't have nearly the insanity undertones as the original. He feels much less menacing as does the main vampire character. With Aidan Turner's Mitchell, you most definitely know that he's not a nice guy that happens to be a vampire but can be very cold and nasty when pushed.
As i said, though, the American series isn't too bad. I've only got through about 5 episodes so far, there will be a total of 13 though i think we're only up to 10 as of this week. As usual, though this isn't a bad recreation, the U.K. version is still better, darker, more violent so far.
eta....
I"ve read up on the episode summaries on the SYFY website and i'm getting the distinct impression that the US series has been cleaned up some and doesn't sound nearly so scary as the UK one could be. It's got a whiff of PC and Mitchell seems to come across and a bit more sancitmonious. I'll still watch the rest of the episodes to see if my hunch is right. Probably if you've never seen the British series, you might like it but apparently it has shown on BBC America. Why on earth do they bother recreating a good series if the original was already shown there. If it was popular enough to warrant redoing, would people even want to watch the more or less same storylines over again with different actors? Yes, ok, that's exactly what i'm doing but mainly for comparison's purpose and so i can be sanctimonious and say it's not a patch on the original ;)))
21. Being Human: Unofficial and Unauthorised by Joanne Black
For those of you that are fans of the U.K. series, Being Human, you will probably really enjoy this as much as I did. It covers seasons 1 and 2 of the series, which has now finished season 3. I'd love to get her take on this season. Maybe she'll do another one if it goes to, as i expect, season 4! She describes the origins of the show, how they cast it and all about the pilot and the recasting for the series itself. Then she goes through each episode with a summary and her own observations and comments, including things like continuity misses, "cheers and jeers" typesof things, and background on any guest actors in that episode ("where have you seen xx before") At the end of the book, she lists various locations used for filming, what they were previously and she mentions the Being Human blog as well. It's a chatty book, and well written. Definitely a good read for fans.
I've seen some of the new U.S. version of it and it's not bad but not nearly as bloody and visceral, and the actors, especially for the Vampire and Werewolf, while again, not bad, are a tad too "boy next door", clean cut. Joanne Black describes Russell Tovey (George) as having a face that's made for worrying (which makes me laugh, because it's so true!) but the werewolf character in the US series whose name is Josh has a face that just looks a bit more bewildered. He does look like a Josh though. The vampire's name is Aidan, a node to the UK actor that plays Mitchell, Aidan Turner, and the ghost's name is Sally instead of Annie. The Herrick character in the American version is called Bishop and doesn't have nearly the insanity undertones as the original. He feels much less menacing as does the main vampire character. With Aidan Turner's Mitchell, you most definitely know that he's not a nice guy that happens to be a vampire but can be very cold and nasty when pushed.
As i said, though, the American series isn't too bad. I've only got through about 5 episodes so far, there will be a total of 13 though i think we're only up to 10 as of this week. As usual, though this isn't a bad recreation, the U.K. version is still better, darker, more violent so far.
eta....
I"ve read up on the episode summaries on the SYFY website and i'm getting the distinct impression that the US series has been cleaned up some and doesn't sound nearly so scary as the UK one could be. It's got a whiff of PC and Mitchell seems to come across and a bit more sancitmonious. I'll still watch the rest of the episodes to see if my hunch is right. Probably if you've never seen the British series, you might like it but apparently it has shown on BBC America. Why on earth do they bother recreating a good series if the original was already shown there. If it was popular enough to warrant redoing, would people even want to watch the more or less same storylines over again with different actors? Yes, ok, that's exactly what i'm doing but mainly for comparison's purpose and so i can be sanctimonious and say it's not a patch on the original ;)))
