Recently Seen: Being Human U.S. "There Goes the Neighborhood, Pt. 1"

Being Human (photo courtesy of SYFY)

The British version of Being Human has been a favorite of mine for a while now. From the lovable charisma of Russell Tovey (George, the werewolf) to the sexiness of Aidan Turner (Mitchell, the vampire) the U.K. version set a path in creating a different genre show from the rest of what was offered at the time.

Now, the series has been brought over to North America. Originally, when I heard about this, I had many reservations. British television shows tend to get butchered when produced over here (Life On Mars, Doctor Who: 2006 movie, AbFab to name a few).

I was pleasantly surprised by the first episode, "There Goes the Neighborhood, Pt. 1." It seems writer, Toby Whithouse (Doctor Who) has taken the time to tighten/fix some of the looser elements of the original series while adding newer elements (Josh's sister). Actors Sam Witwer, Sam Huntington and Meaghan Rath give good performances as the main cast. It's also great to see Mark Pellegrino (Lost, Dexter) in the cast as vampire leader, Bishop.

I hope that the level of quality remains of this caliber — new series have a hard enough time as it is.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Update: I've now watched the second episode and am glad to see that the high quality has been maintained. Though I wonder how soon this version of the show will have to find its own path as it runs through so many of the original shows' storylines rather quickly.