Summary: Being Human returns from its uneven second season with a premiere that brings wildly new directions and improvements, though still possessing some of the same flaws. Also, lots and lots of gravedigging.
If you have not seen this episode yet and don’t wish to be spoiled, don’t continue reading.
Recap
15 months after the events of last season, Aidan is still trapped underground and Sally is trapped in Limbo with Stevie and Nick. Josh and Nora have been visiting psychics to try to contact Sally, but to no avail. In flashbacks, we learn that Josh did end up killing Ray—but tragically, it cured him and not Nora.
Eventually, they find the psychic who attempted to exorcise Sally back in season 1. She refuses to help because of how dark things have gotten, but gives them a name of someone else—Donna, a witch. Donna says she’ll need to use blood magic, which requires the heart of someone Josh or Nora killed. They reluctantly dig up Ray’s body and steal his heart, but when they begin the incantation, Donna reveals that they’re actually going to bring back Sally from the grave completely, so they need her body. The witch explains that she’ll be brought back not as human, but not as a true zombie either, because she’ll be aware. That could, however, be a problem; she can never have reunions with people she knew. In limbo, Sally tries to get the Stevie and Nick to go through the door that’s just opened. and all three of them go through. Suddenly, Sally’s begins reanimating. She wakes up, and reveals that Nick and Sally are both “with her.” Elsewhere, Linda does an incantation and discovers Ray’s body.
On Aidan’s side of the story, he gets rescued from the burial, who reveals that many of the other vampires are dead. There’s a disease that’s affecting vampires, it seems, and he’s keeping Aidan captive, and taking his blood, thinking it’s a cure. Hadley stakes the Aidan’s captor and takes Aidan for himself. He reveals that Mother and the other vampires are all dead or have disappeared looking for a cure for their disease, which was caused by a strain of the flu. Meanwhile, Aidan is hallucinating seeing Sally, Josh and even Bishop. After some persuasion from his delusions, Aidan attacks Hadley, but he overpowers him and bites him. However, instead of curing him, he just gets worse and passes out. The car they’re in crashes, and Aidan is left alone in the field, murmuring ”We’re not going to die.”
Review
Being Human had a number of ups and downs last season, thanks to what seemed like a lack of foresight and cohesion for what it wanted its big stories to actually be. Part of that can be traced back to that season premiere, which certainly had some interesting developments, but began the fragmented structure the rest of the season had with stories that were more of the same of season 1’s material. This time around, though, the season premiere feels like a nigh-reboot on the premise, while still somehow tying more back to the core concept of “best monster friends” than it had before. Josh is cured, but Nora isn’t! Sally is a not-quite-zombie! Aidan isn’t a slave to Deena Aziz’s overacting! There are witches now! The developments aren’t centered so much in expanding the mythology as giving the characters new things to explore while living with each other. The change in showrunners that occurred between seasons seems readily apparent now; the results of last season’s events don’t seem like they organically grew from their causes, but they do reinvigorate the show and open up plenty of story possibilities.
The biggest improvement from last season here is the simple fact that the core roommates are squarely in one another’s sights. Season 2 attempted to go to dark places and explore the major characters’ selfishness and need to overcome that, but it caused the aforementioned fragmentation of the show. More problematic was that it just made it all less interesting; the best part of the show is the interaction between the very-different-yet-very-alike roommates and their evolving friendships. The characters’ goals in “It’s a Shame About Ray” are reuniting with each other, and it already feels like a much more cohesive show because of it.
Additionally, the episode works overall because, even in dire circumstances, there’s a certain lightness and optimism throughout. There’s some great lines and humor throughout, much of which is certainly goofy and not at all things real people would say, but still fit into the world. Observations about the weird world they live in (like commenting on the cemetery worker apparently getting bribes from people who dig up bodies all the time) are some of the best parts of the episode. It doesn’t come close to Joss Whedon’s “Buffy speak” or anything, but it’s a unique enough voice that it feels different from what we see from the genre these days. You can’t expect it to be insightful—as the voiceovers from the past two seasons proved, it’s cheesy when it tries to be smart—but if you accept and embrace the silliness of the Stevie Nix gag or Delusion-Sally making a “rape whistle” joke, it’s quite fun.
However, this also magnifies one of the show’s big flaws: the melodrama fails in comparison. Being Human is definitely a drama and surely has its dark moments, but sometimes it tries too hard to lay on the grimness when it isn’t necessary. There are points when it works, particularly towards the end of season 1 or the strong middle section of season 2. But more often than not, the fun and engaging lighter material is put on the back burner for way less interesting or unique monster-drama, and it doesn’t jibe. This episode does a much better job at balancing it all out, and succeeds at the humor, but it fails when it lays on the sap in scenes it doesn’t need to.
Nora’s huge chunk of exposition when she and Josh dig up the body, for example, is probably the worst offender here. It’s clunky, it’s unnecessary (we can tell they’re guilty about what they did without saying it) and doesn’t jibe with their attitudes in the rest of the episode. Other than that scene, Nora and Josh’s story works incredibly well. They’re definitely affected by what happened, but unlike the last couple of seasons, it’s not dragging them down every second of the day, because they can’t. Josh’s breakdown towards the end doesn’t feel as forced as his tantrums throughout the first two seasons, because it’s not so much constant complaining as an overwhelming build-up of his constant failures. He isn’t hating the world for how much his life sucks anymore, he’s ashamed at his incompetence and inability to save people. The guilt stemming from these more understandable events is much more believable, and for the first time Josh’s complaints feel more worthy of complaining about than “Being a werewolf is lame!”
Aidan and Sally didn’t have as much to do, but it didn’t feel like they were given the shaft. Sam Witwer got some very good material, even if brief, and managed to keep all his blank stares and murmuring relatively engaging. The repeating theme of “We’re not going to die,” changing the meaning from one of hope to one of fear for not being able to die, was an intriguing one, which could feasibly resurface throughout the season. And it’s actually a stellar development that the larger vampire community has been taken down. It’s disappointing that the society’s dissolution occurred completely offscreen with absolutely no fanfare, but it’s also been the weakest (and yet most dominant) aspect from the start. Getting rid of the big vampire mythology and bringing the show back down to the characters’ everyday lives is a step in the right direction.
The new developments for the characters introduced here can easily carry it for a while, not to mention potential themes that could come up as it progresses. We also got our new series regular Donna, portrayed by a competent and charismatic Amy Aquino, who already feels like a fresh enough element by simply not being an unnaturally pretty 20something. But best of all, “It’s a Shame About Ray” focused on the right factors and plotlines—and focus is a very promising sign for this show.
Odds & Ends
- They’re posting the episode titles now, it seems. Fitting, considering how much work goes into these puntastic titles.
- 15 months is an oddly random span of time between seasons. However, displaying “15 months later” on the dream sequence helped sell that fake-out pretty well.
- What was with the cheesy romcom music during the first of Josh and Nora’s psychic visits?
- Donna showing Josh the mealworms seems like it could have been a quiet reference to Sam Huntington’s zombified role in Dylan Dog: Dead of Night.
- The obnoxious 80s-looking guy who held Aidan captive reminded me of French Stewart’s guest appearance on Community last year. Probably because of the jacket.
- Oh, Mark Pellegrino had a fun little cameo too. Though he seemed to be channeling more Lucifer from Supernatural than Bishop.
- My first assumption about Stevie and Nick going through the door first was either that one of them would inherit Sally’s body, or all three of them would be in her head, fighting for control for her body. I wonder if the latter could still be true.
- “It’s not like driving from Pennsylvania into Delaware to buy a cake.” “I…didn’t think it was like that…”
