Being Human (SyFy – Monday, 9:00 p.m.)

Being Human is a re-imagining of the acclaimed BBC original series that follows three 20-something roommates: A ghost, a vampire and a werewolf who are struggling to keep their dark secrets from the world, while also helping each other navigate the complexities of living double lives.

The series will star Sam Witwer (Smallville, Battlestar Galactica), Meaghan Rath (The Assistants), Sam Huntington (Cavemen, Superman Returns) and Mark Pellegrino (Lost, Supernatural). – Syfy

8 out of 10

After being thoroughly disappointed in season three of True Blood and having no interest in the teen-soap silliness of The Vampire Diaries, we approached Being Human skeptically to say the least.  A ghost, a vampire and a werewolf live in an apartment together… yes, we know.  It sounds like the beginning of a really bad joke or a sit-com on FOX, but believe it or not, after watching the first three episodes, we’re happy to say that it doesn’t suck… at all.  Well, Aidan (Sam Witwer) the vampire sucks… but he’s working on that.

Since we mentioned our disappointment in True Blood, we’d like to take a moment to discuss why we’re so disappointed in that series and why Being Human is a breath of fresh air for the genre.  As we see it, True Blood, like many-a-series on HBO, now tends to focus on excess for the sake of excess because… well, it’s premium cable and they can damned well do what they want short of porn and snuff films.  Unfortunately, excessive sex, violence and profanity is replacing quality narratives and strong character development.  Subtlety and nuance are virtually non-exist on True Blood, now, and what was once a compelling storyline has devolved into the arena of pure melodrama that it is completely unbelievable and inaccessible.

Matt Volke of The Movie Bros. was at Casa De ‘Tastic in May and just happened to stroll into the room for one five-minute segment of True Blood and he couldn’t stop laughing at the absolute absurdity of the show.  Our immediate reaction was to make excuses for it and say words to the effect of, “Yes… that was ridiculous but it’s normally not like this.”  The sad fact is that absurdity is now the norm on True Blood. For the record, this is not the first time this has happened to a show on HBO.  The Sopranos, Rome and even Alan Ball’s other HBO hit, Six Feet Under, are all prime examples of once-great shows that ended up choosing shock-value in place of good story telling and style over substance.

This is why we like Being Human so much.  Being Human does not have the crutch of excess to use in place of strong character development and compelling story lines.  In other words, because it’s on basic cable, it can’t cheat.  Now, don’t get us wrong, Being Human is quite dark at times and it does have its share of violence but the “horror” violence for the most part is simply alluded to and implied (the first bite of a vampire on a female victim, the aftermath of a werewolf attack on a deer, a flashback of the aftermath of an entire wedding reception being slaughtered by vampires, etc.) whereas on a show like True Blood, the same type of scenes of violence would be graphic and gory, leaving nothing to the imagination and a complete sense of detachment.

Despite its darkness, Being Human excels in levity with its three main characters who all interact with each other quite well and they all bring their own unique sense of humor associated with their own supernatural affliction but at the end of the day, they are all very relatable and – here’s that word, again – accessible to audiences.   We truly love the storyline so far and Mark Pellegrino (Lost) is brilliantly cast as the shades-of-gray villainous vampire, Bishop, in this outstanding addition to SyFy’s lineup.

As a final word of warning, we would highly recommend that you ignore any critique of this show that compares it to its BBC predecessor.  We’ve never seen the BBC version, which we are sure is great, but we believe it’s irresponsible to judge a series based upon another series and not on its own merits despite the fact that they are based on the same material.

Watch full episodes of Being Human, here.