While Season 1 played out similarly to the original British version, Season 2 is where Syfy’s BEING HUMAN really starts to stretch its proverbial legs. And it’s a good stretch.
Just so you know, there are mild spoilers ahead – I go over general plot points but I’m not revealing anything major.
Aiden (Sam Witwer – SMALLVILLE, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA) has been trying to hold everything together while waiting for his audience with Mother, essentially the Queen of All Vampires, who’ll decree who will run the Boston vamps. Things don’t turn out exactly as he expects and he must assist her daughter, Suren (Dichen Lachman – DOLLHOUSE). Meanwhile, Nora (Kristen Hagen – WANTED) and Josh (Sam Huntington – FANBOYS, SUPERMAN RETURNS) are trying to work through the supernatural stress that’s now weighing on their relationship and Sally (Meaghan Rath – THE ASSISTANTS, AARON STONE) further explores the powers and pitfalls that comes with being a ghost while coping with missing her after-life door.
Having watched the first two episodes, “Turn This Mother Out” and “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?,” I can say that I dig the “new” direction the story seems to be going in. They’re fleshing out the mythology and answering as many questions as they’re creating. There seem to be two big mysteries that will play out through the whole season with one potentially becoming the main driving force of Season 3. As a vague hint, I will say it has to do with dreams. You’ll know what I’m talking about soon enough.
Lachman is a great addition to the cast – from the second she’s onscreen you can feel the depth of her character and she has great chemistry with Witwer. I can’t wait to see what she does next. In fact, all the ladies are delivering – Hagen and Rath have excellent showings in both episodes as well. Nora and Sally have some big moments and the scenes are played pretty much perfectly.
Not to be left out, the guys are also shining in their parts. Aiden goes through quite a few emotional states and Witwer makes them all believable. He’s also very good at the “fighting for self-control” scenes which can go very wrong in the wrong hands. Huntington remains my favorite on the show. Josh is a tricky type of character and he plays it with sincerity and doesn’t overstate the comedy – I think he’s my favorite werewolf ever.
I have great hope for BEING HUMAN this season and I think they’ll deliver. If nothing else we’ll get to see Dichan Lachman being all kinds of awesome. Hooray for a remake that’s actually good!
“Being Human” premieres on Syfy on Monday, January 16th at 9 PM Eastern/Pacific.
