Preview Being Human Series 4 – And Get Ready for Some Big Changes!
So, click on through to get a first look at the brand new trailer for Series 4 and dish on some of the big changes headed our way.
Created by Toby Whithouse (whom many of you may know from his work on Doctor Who), Being Human tells the story of three supernatural flatmates who live together in Bristol – Mitchell the vampire (Aidan Turner), George the werewolf (Russell Tovey) and Annie the ghost (Leonora Critchlow). Honestly the premise sounds a bit like the start to a “a ghost, a werewolf and a vampire walk into a bar” joke, but the series is charming, creepy and emotionally satisfying, as despite it’s fantastical premise, it’s grounded very thoroughly in character development and the wonderfully rendered friendships between our three lead characters. In the second series, George gets a werewolf girlfriend named Nina (Sinead Keenan), rounding out our set of leads, and the gang all moves to Wales in an attempt to lead more “normal lives.” (I’m leaving out a lot of plot here about Mitchell sort of going crazy and committing a fairly horrific murder, George turning Nina into a werewolf, Annie disappearing into purgatory for a couple of months, Nina being pregnant, and a lot of dry bits about vampire politics, but you can get a full plot breakdown online if you're really curious.)
Anwyay. The third series ultimately ended with Mitchell’s death – big change one for Series 4 – as Turner had decided to leave the show to go off and be a dwarf (I think he’s Kili?) in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit. The loss of Turner and his compelling portrayal of Mitchell was a blow to the show, which has since been hit by further cast shifts. Though the final shot of Series Three ended on a strong image of George, Nina and Annie, it seems that character grouping will not feature much in the new episodes.
A little over a week ago, it was announced that Tovey would also be departing the series. He will exit sometime during the fourth season, and though no details were given about George’s departure, it seems safe to assume that it will happen fairly rapidly, given other storyline factors. Following this announcement, Keenan tweeted that she too was out, and that Nina hadn’t filmed any Series 4 scenes at all.
That leaves just Critchlow’s Annie as the last original character standing and a fanbase that’s reeling as they realize that their beloved show has almost completely changed its skin. New regular cast members are joining the fold: Damien Moloney plays posh vampire Hal and Micheal Socha returns as young werewolf Tom, who appeared in four episodes last season. And it wouldn’t be surprising if we see some familiar secondary characters pop up at some point. So, yeah, it's a huge change.
Whithouse has certainly done an admirable job at completely revamping his show so quickly. Introducing the new series on the official BBC site, he even insists that “this series is our strongest yet.” Well, I suppose we’ll see about that. Unfortunately, the heart of this show has always been the friendship between the three leads and while Critchlow is a very charming actress, it’s not clear whether she’s capable enough to carry this show on her own as our last link to the "old"Being Human. Personally, I’m willing to give Series 4 a try, but I don’t know that I feel entirely optimistic about it. We’ll have to wait and see.
The first trailer for Series 4 has just been released - so take a look for yourselves and see what you think. And I have to admit, it does look intriguing, even if I'm not completey convinced yet.
