Being Human: S4 - Ep.1

Last year Being Human went out with a bang – or more accurately a stake, a sneer, a lot of tears and a sense of impending doom. In short, the kind of classic, bittersweet cliffhanger for which Toby Whithouse’s supernatural soap-opera had become known . The question wasn’t whether Being Human was coming back but when... and would it bloody hurry up, please, because we wanted to know what happens next!

Sadly, the pragmatic side of the industry is sometimes more monstrous than anything going bump in the night and it became known, long before the new season’s first episode, that there had been some tectonic shifting of the more familiar pieces, dictated largely by cast availability and a need to drive the story onward.

The first episode of this fourth season moves time on in more ways than one and the inevitable feeling is that we’ve missed some key moments. Oh, we’re told some of what’s happened, to whom and why and there’s coffin-loads of emotional debris to constantly trip over,  but if you didn’t know better you’d think your Sky + or BBC iPlayer had forgotten to record a pivotal episode or some evil vampire had decided not to tear out your jugular, but just the climactic pages of your favourite book.

But you do what you can and there are three main strands in the Whithouse penned opener - working to differing degrees.  Seemingly un-connected, but ready for more focus in the second episode, are ANOTHER trinity of supernatural room-mates (another ghost, werewolf and vampire) who are coming to the end of their own flat-share because the elderly werewolf is reaching the end of his life). Though there’s clearly potential there with the new characters, one can’t help feeling at this point they are mere retreads hogging the screen-time that we’d rather spend with the originals, the survivors of last year’s battles. The second strand is back at ground zero with George (Russell Tovey) finding it hard to be measuring up to the burdens of being a new father to a child born of two werewolves. Annie (Lenora Crichlow) is doing her best to be the supportive ‘aunt’ and Tom (the werewolf introduced as Robson Greene’s adoptive son last season, played by Michael Socha) turns up warning he’s heard where the new leader of the vampires is hanging out. (Comedian Mark Williams - Harry Potter and the... etc -  turns up as a 'vampire recorder' to the Big Bad but it's a largely comic turn that is a little at odds with the angst elsewhere). Again, there's a shifting of loyalties and much gnashign of teeth which will be developed later.

The third story strand is equally hard to address without spoilers and largely because while we know WHEN it’s set we’re not quite sure its relevance or full context.  It feels like another type of genre show entirely and sits somewhat uncomfortably next to the other two - but it’s something that will no doubt impact the major contemporary action soon. While the vampires tend to posture a lot, make jokes about mirrors and Annie shows her ghostly credentials only when a cheaper Rentaghost effect allows, the werewolf effects get better all the time and provide the more visceral side of these dark tales.

There can be little doubt there is something of an innate awkwardness about this opener, scrambling to hoover-up the rampant shedding of  story-elements left dangling last time and playing tentative catch-up, re-establishing its credentials. We are walking and talking  at a time when many  expected  the show would come powering out of the gate with its mythology intact.  Within the restrictions he has to work with Whithouse does the best he can - some things as good as ever, some elements feeling wholly (unholy?) forced upon us and the characters. There's still plenty of darkness and humour and all the requisite elements that made Being Human a hit to begin with.  Perhaps it only lacks some impetus because of the sheer strength of what has come before and the fact that there’s some repetition in characteristics in new supporting players (a new conflicted vampire resisting temptation, a new emotional ghost, a new evil vampire clan boss who ahs a day job in the police, we’ve been to THOSE wells a few times already!)

By the end of the first episode, most of the expostion and chess-piece placements are done and after an emotional roller-coaster complete with a growing sense of dread and inevitability, there’s something of a new status-quo to work upon. This is a new run that is  not going to please all of long-term Being Human's fans and Whithouse and Co. may have to work extra hard to keep the faithful onboard, but judged solely on its own merits, this opening episode, entitled  'The Eve of the War' for several reasons, is an interesting start and there’s a good chance iyou'll be staying onboard for the ride.

8/10