Human Again, Finally

So Being Human is back on TV... And it's the final series (for real).

After the patchy, recycled fourth series, I wasn't sure what to expect of the fifth. I guess I may have underestimated Toby Whithouse... As usual, there's a background story arc - which is enormous to the point of being perhaps a little too much - but each episode is its own little vignette. Hal is back 'on the wagon' (kinda), Tom and Alex are settling in nicely, and the old chemistry between ghost, werewolf and vampire is nearing the giddy heights of the first couple of series. The most recent episode focused on Tom and, while he doesn't necessarily develop as a character in the sense of convincing the audience (or me, at least) that he's learning from his mistakes, Michael Socha put in a truly heartbreaking turn as the tormented feral boy trying to pretend he's just like everyone else. On balance, I still prefer Russell Tovey's George, but Tom occasionally has an interesting role to play in the story, and his own story, and it's brilliant to see the actor given a bit more to do than staking vampires or standing around looking gormless.

I think I'm glad it's the last series... While the new trinity seems to have found its stride (let's face it, this is the first full season for the newly-completed team), the show has been trying to out-do itself in terms of supernatural peril with each new series, when the whole point of the show at the start was than the supernatural beings were trying to be human, to pass themselves off as just like everyone else... to fit in, and find their place. To me, that was always the most interesting part of the show... and the more supernatural stuff crept in, the more jumbled it seemed to get (series four, I'm looking at you!).

Ripper Street, meanwhile, had its first real low a couple of weeks back, with an episode that played on Drake's loyalties. The concept was good - albeit hackneyed - but the execution was the typically poor episodic telly stuff: Drake and Reid had been getting on perfectly well for several episodes, then all of a sudden, Reid has a complete change of personality just to make the story easier to progress. Surely Drake's dilemma would have been all the more powerful if he had no reason to question his loyalty to his Detective Inspector? Surely his urge to assist his former CO would have been more difficult to act upon? But, no, the writers went the easy route and turned his new boss temporarily into a complete dick, going against the way the character had been portrayed before and has been since... Ah well, the rest of it is still 'not bad', and I gather a second series has been commissioned...

Work this week is progressing, though perhaps not entirely to my satisfaction. Due to late-running work on some events materials, I still haven't started properly chasing this month's magazines, but there are so few ads it's hardly worth worrying about. Most of the delays are down to one specific person (not a Project Manager, but much of what I say in this post applies nonetheless) and their assumption that they can delegate certain tasks to their underlings and yet still exert creative control over everyone's efforts. It wouldn't be so bad if she actually had a creative bone in her body...