Being Human

[lovingboth]

I have enjoyed the BBC version since the pilot programme. (The US version is an abomination.) Apart from the 'you what?!' moment towards the start of s4e1 where the revelation that werewolf blood was deadly to vampires called into question why that hadn't bothered anyone before - including the vampires close up to the 'dog fights' - all of the first four series were fab.

But I was not at all convinced by s5e1 because although it had some lovely lines, it didn't work in terms of what happened in it. Was this the reason that this was to be its last series?

So the genuinely creepy s5e2 was a delightful surprise. And it stayed high quality with the amusing s5e3 - both the failed TV personality and the long dead Lady were great - and the touching s5e4.

It wasn't just me who thought so - by s5e4, according to WP, it had put on a quarter of a million viewers from the start of the series, going from just under three quarters of a million to just under a million.

So by the end of s5e5, with a variety of things going horribly wrong for our heroes, things were set up for a wonderful conclusion...

... which s5e6 failed to provide. Exactly like s5e1, there were some great lines, but apart from the temptations sequences, is anyone satisfied with it?

I don't think it's a coincidence that the first and last episodes of this series were the only two written by the series creator Toby Whithouse. He got a cameo part in the last one, and it would have been better if he'd been satisfied with that and not tried to write it too.

Comments

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

I think the writers must have had instructions from BBC to end it in such a way that it couldn't be revived - probably to minimise the howlings (hah) of its dedicated fanbase. A series that has had no qualms about killing off major characters before is difficult to bring to a decisive conclusion - the ending they chose, although a wee bit deus ex machina, was probably the best way to do that while tying up loose ends.

[lovingboth]

I am not complaining about the 'no more, we mean it' conclusion, although I have to say that the ideas that a) doing that to the Devil would have that effect and b) in a world where the Devil is real, he has been powerless throughout the 20th Century are.. odd.

It's more the structure and the overall plot. It was almost Lost in its 'I don't care that this doesn't make much sense, but it will look neat'-ness.

I nearly didn't bother watching the rest after the first one. I am glad I did, but it would have been better to end it on the cliffhanger of s4e5. Soap wasn't diminished because it stopped mid-plot.