WRITER: Tony Bagsgallop[SPOILERS] I liked the theme of this episode (basically the theme of the entire show), that Mitchell (Aidan Turner), George (Russell Tovey) and Annie (Lenora Crichlow) will never "be human" again because of their supernatural conditions, so desires for love and family are particularly rife with problems nowadays. The episode itself was of mixed quality (even its better storylines had some problems), so I'd chalk this one up as entertaining but somewhat hollow...
DIRECTOR: Kenny Glenaan
GUEST CAST: Jason Watkins, Donald Sumpter, Lucy Gaskell, Lindsey Marshal, Alex Warren, Ian Puleston-Davies, Charlene McKenna, John Paul Hurley, Sara Pascoe, Molly Jones & Glyn Grimstead
One subplot was an extended prequel for Mitchell, set in London during 1969, after a particularly wild night out with Bristol's vampire boss Herrick (Jason Watkins), making a fun return to the series through the medium of flashback. There are two dead girls in the flat they wake up in (entertainment and food for the night before), and after Herrick leaves Mitchell to clean up the mess and dispose of the bodies, the police are soon round to investigate and Mitchell's forced to take a neighbour called Josie (Charlene McKenna[*]) hostage in her flat until he finds a way to escape. This was basically some back-story to show us the moment Mitchell decided to "go clean", as Josie proves to be someone who opens his eyes to what he's allowed himself to become.
It seems that Mitchell really needs the support of a good woman to keep him on the straight and narrow, with Lucy (Lyndsey Marshal) lined up to fulfill that role in the present, it seems. Mitchell's contemporary storyline saw him being pressured into honouring the unspoken agreement vampires have with Chief Constable Wilson (Ian Puleston-Davies), who drags him into the station in the middle of the night to murder a paedophile he's arrested. Quite how Wilson will explain the savage, bloody murder of a man in custody is never really explained, but the choice is clear: Mitchell must become Wilson's "fixer" as quid pro quo for having any vampire attacks covered-up by the police.
Both of these plots had their moments for Mitchell's character growth, but they were still a little uneven for me. I'm still totally unconvinced by Turner's acting whenever he's required to play Mitchell as the vicious killer of old, because he just never seems very different from his current, abstinent self. We should feel horrified and repulsed by Evil Mitchell's antics, but this script chickens out by having Mitchell act like he barely remembers killing the two girls the night before (a drunken blur), and everything was played as darkly humourous.
I'm not even sure why Being Human doesn't have the courage to show us Mitchell as a truly savage, uncompromising vampire. That said, the script at least had the balls to end the storyline with Mitchell realizing he had to break his abstinence and kill Wilson to prevent himself being manipulated as a hitman, even if he did immediately rush to Lucy and confess all -- hoping she'd become the rock to keep his bloodlust at bay, as Josie apparently did. Speaking of which, what happened to Josie post-'69 exactly? How long did her and Mitchell's relationship last, and why did it end? Maybe we'll find out some day soon...
Also interesting, if unsurprising, was Lucy's refusal to take an easy opportunity to stake Mitchell while he slept in her bed, despite knowing he'd recently killed someone, which seems to suggest she'll eventually betray her colleague Kemp (Donald Sumpter) and side with those she's been researching and plotting to kill.
George's story was the least supernaturally-afflicted and more a straightforward piece of human drama, as his fledgling relationship with receptionist Sam (Lucy Gaskell) started to grow. He went to visit her shabby flat, where she lives with her frosty mother, and tried to form a bond with her daughter Molly (Molly Jones) by buying her magazines and making her packed lunches. In fact, George's sudden desire to grow close to Sam and get himself a readymade family soon became disturbing, as within two weeks he was announcing his intentions to ask Sam and Molly to move in with him -- and only Mitchell was honest enough to say George is just on the rebound from Nina.
There was perhaps too much of a rushed feel to George's story this week, which was certainly the (over emphasized) point, but I think it would have been more plausible if Sam had been introduced earlier, or this story had been left a few weeks.
Sometimes I feel that the short runs of homegrown shows are detrimental to plausible development and character growth, as there are already only three episodes left of this series. The upside is there's far less slack or possibility of boredom setting in with UK series, but the downside is that some storylines can feel too hurried and implausible because of the short time-span to fit everything in, which I think is what happened here. And not just in George's story -- I mean, why kill Wilson so soon? He was a great character with lots of potential.
Anyway, I actually found myself enjoying George's attempts to get himself a little family (it echoed something from my own life), despite not really considering the implications with regard to his lycanthropy (not something echoed in my life.) A man who turns into a wolf once a month isn't the best stepfather for a little girl, is it.
Finally, there was another frankly ridiculous way to keep Annie occupied, as a ghost called Kathleen (Sara Pascoe) arrived on her doorstep and left her ghost baby "Tim" in Annie's care. Needless to say, Annie quickly developed a maternal bond with the tot and came to regret the fact she hadn't had kids while she was alive. The story kept to the week's theme of familial regrets, but it was another relatively dumb way to give Annie's character something to do. As I've mentioned before, the writers really seem to struggle with Annie now, as series 1 effectively ended her character's raison d'etre, so now she's hanging around with little purpose.
Overall, episode 5 had enough notable developments to make it worthwhile (mainly stemming from Mitchell's storyline), and I enjoyed George's plot despite its hasty feel, and both helped ensure this wasn't a boring or pointless hour. It just felt resolutely average for the most part, kept alive by some inciting moments at regular intervals. Incidentally, I was never a fan of Herrick last year, so Jason Watkins' return here didn't give me much of a thrill -- I appreciate he was intended to be the opposite of what you'd expect a vampire boss to be (diminutive, cheeky), but I don't think Watkins is frightening or unsettling in the slightest. He just reminds me of a middle-aged Simon Pegg, miscast.
In addendum, The Real Hustle got another mention from George -- does this count as advertising on the BBC?
7 FEBRUARY 2010: BBC3, 9PM / BBC HD, 10PM
[*] McKenna was the real-life girlfriend of Aidan Turner (up until last year), although there wasn't much on-screen chemistry to my eye.
