Being Human [Syfy, Mondays, 9/8C] returns with one big change – the series is no longer tied to the continuity of its UK progenitor. Although it continues to share its basic mythology, the U.S. version has struck out on its own – with intriguing results.
In the season two premiere, Turn This Mother Out, Aidan [Sam Witwer] is finding out that holding things together after Bishop’s death is a difficult task. Meanwhile, Nora [Kristen Hager] is trying to learn what to expect after Josh scratched her while in wolf form – but at same time, not telling Josh what happened, and why she’s asking all those questions. Sally, on the other hand, is finding herself less able to manipulate solid objects since her door to the afterlife disappeared and it getting rather frustrated.
Aidan’s situation is compounded when Mother [Deena Aziz], the queen of the vampires comes to Boston to assess the situation and assign a new leader for the area – her quite possibly insane daughter, Suren [Dollhouse’s Dichen Lachman], whom we will meet in the undead flesh in episode two, Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?
While Nora struggles with her secret, Sally stumbles onto some ghosts who give her new insights into what a ghost can do – with potentially dire consequences.
Written by Jeffrey Carver and Anna Fricke [the duo who developed the North American take on the series] and directed by Adam Kane, Turn This Mother Out quickly establishes the series’ new path as Aidan prepares for Mother’s arrival by trying to figure out a way to keep a faction of rebellious vampires from being put to death; Nora tries to learn what to expect as she nears her first changing and Sally sets out to find some way to interact with the real world again.
The premiere is fast paced and filled with the kind of action we’ve come to expect from the show. The moments when everyone is together in the house seem like moments in an oasis as our core cast feels the world becoming darker and darker around them. Humorous moments are fewer and further between, with the result that they serve more as relief from the drama surrounding the characters than as moments to develop the characters further.
Overall, the second season premiere feels fresher than much of the first season because we don’t have the original series to serve as even a basic roadmap to let us know when we’re nearing troubled waters. And yet, the first couple of episodes remain true to what we’ve seen before. The second season’s new path still builds on that original foundation – just in original, and thus unexpected, ways.
There are some minor speed bumps – perhaps the result of the pace with which the new season diverges from the UK show – but they come as the show’s tone darkens and becomes less predictable. Through the cast’s performances and Kane’s knack for finding character beats in unexpected places – and one helluva cliffhanger – Turn This Mother Out does a solid job of setting up the Being Human world as different and even more intriguing than we could have expected.
I was on the verge of giving up on the US version of Being Human because it wasn’t as different as it might’ve been over the first season, but with the first two eps of the season two, I’m hooked once again.
Final Grade: B+
Photo by Jeff Riedel/courtesy Syfy