What’s on the Telly?
Are you guys tired of talking about Being Human yet? I hope not! Because we’ve got two episodes and some exciting news to catch up on, and even some spoilers (for American viewers anyway, most of whom don’t have access to the magic I use in order to see these episodes as they air on British TV!).
Scroll down to the next section is you don’t want to know what Being Human viewers are currently seeing across the pond.
After a fair bit of faffing about and sketchy character development this season, Being Human finally hit its (albeit uneven) stride this week, and holy blood-stained Bible, it’s getting good!
We finally got some insight into why exactly Professor Kemp is so dead set on eradicating vampires — He was a priest! They killed his family! — which was obvious, but heart-breaking and nicely/creepily played by Donald Sumpter.
We also saw, in convenient flashback form, Mitchell’s (Aidan Turner) first attempt at going dry and how extremely needy and dependent that makes him, proving that he is yet another bad boy vampire in need of a woman to save him. Et tu, BBC? Say it ain’t so.
George (Russell Tovey) fell in love and moved out of the house he shared with Annie and Mitchell, and in with his new girlfriend, Sam, and Sam’s daughter, Molly, who is either creepy or downright manipulative (possibly both!). It’s still up in the air whether or not he’ll have any more luck with this girlfriend and what I mean by “luck,” well, not turning her into a werewolf would be a good place to start. Things don’t look great for George’s love prospects though, not with the apparent return of Nina (Sinead Keenan) next week. She’s been hoodwinked by the nefarious Professor Kemp, who wants not only to destroy all of Bristol’s vampires, but to put all of Bristol’s werewolves into some sort of pressure chamber as well, and squeeze the wolf out of them. Good luck with that, Professor.
Annie (Lenora Crichlow) got a bit of something old and something new these past two weeks. She spent the entire fifth episode babysitting a ghost baby, who she named Tim. (Later to be revealed as Rufus. We prefer Tim.)
While this was clearly just a plot line to give Annie something to do during a heavily Mitchell-centric episode, it was adorable to see a ghost baby delighted by Annie’s poorly told ghost stories and come on: doesn’t the dead girl deserve a laugh?
Episode 6 also took us to the other end of the gambit, when Annie, distraught by George’s decision to move out, took to wandering the streets and wound up encountering a convenient plot point, Alan The Psychic. Through Alan, Annie made contact with her mother and helped her heal from the pain of Annie’s death. She also helped another ghost resolve his own death so that he could pass through Death’s Door.
(By the way, if anyone understands why Annie is so keen to help other ghosts pass over, but is herself desperate not to, let me know in the comments, yeah?)
And Mitchell. Poor, poor Mitchell fell off of the blood wagon and into love. Those supernaturals fall hard and fast, don’t they? Unfortunately, he fell for Lucy Jaggat (Lyndsey Marshal), who happens to be in cahoots with Professor Kemp. Together they plotted to blow up of Vampire Headquarters, with all of Bristol’s vampires inside. We’ll have to wait until next week to find out whether or not Mitchell was killed (I’m guessing not), but we did find out how vampires organize their meetings in their funeral parlor — they Tweet it!
Hey, why not? Works for the rest of the world.
For the record, here’s what I think those Tweets might look like:
Bits and Pieces
If you’re skipping past the spoilers, here is where you want to pick up! Exciting news of American Being Human fans. BBC America has announced that they’ve secured the rights to not only the show’s second season, to begin airing late this summer, but to the yet to-be-produced third season (which is moving to Cardiff — Torchwood crossover much?) as well. (Thanks to Vincent Austin for the heads up!)
But even though they’re losing Being Human, Bristol can continue to boast just a little. Keeping themselves entertained during this long, cold winter break, Star Wars fans took to the streets there on Saturday. More than 100 Jedi, of all shapes and sizes (and with all manner of light saber) turned out for a relatively impromptu flashmob, organized through the power of Facebook. If only we could get them all together with the Harry Potter fans who still have months to wait before the release of the first Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows film. That’s a duel I’d love to see.
If you still need to sort our your own wand work, maybe you should check out the new Harry Potter board game. Warner Bros. announced this week that they’re releasing a new Hogwarts game, as well as new Lego sets this fall, in anticipation of the upcoming films. Maybe that, along with the news that ABC Family will be premiering Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on February 27th will help make the wait a little more bearable.
Merlin fans are also stuck in a holding pattern, with the show’s third season just beginning production. Pierrefond’s (Camelot, to you Muggles) website has been updated to reflect the start of filming in April, with the show’s premier still set for September. And until then, C21medianet.com is reporting that Merlin has magicked up an iPhone app! It’ll be available in April in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. Apparently, it’ll be a role-playing game and you can be either Merlin or Arthur.
Personally, I’m picking Merlin. He does hold the power of life and death, after all.
That’s all for this time. Until next week, mischief managed!
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Welcome to The Tinder Box! This is a new weekly column here at TheTorchOnline.com, appearing every Friday. In it, we editors can give our opinions on the week’s big stories in fantasy entertainment, spill some insider-y scoops and gossip based on recent tips and interviews, and also tell you whatever the hell else happens to be on our minds.
But I’m not quite sure what to think of the even more bizarre tale of fantasy author (and Nebula finalist) John C. Wright, who responded to the news that the SyFy Channel, after years of ignoring gay and lesbian characters, was going to try to be more inclusive, with a blog-screed that read, in part:
SPEAKING OF BOOKS…
THE TINDER BOX TAKES ON THE IDIOT BOX
. Nice idea: a send-up of cheesy 50 sci-fi movies (which I confess I love).
You’ve heard it a million times: the cast of a television show insist that they’re all the best of friends, and that the close friendship you see on the screen is exactly the way it is in real life.
“Even while filming, we’d all end up in one of our apartments,” says Lenora Crichlow, who plays the ghost. “For different reasons. They came to my apartment to eat, we went to Russell’s to watch TV, and we went to Aiden’s to chill out and listen to music.”
Q: I watched the first couple of episodes of Being Human, and liked it okay, but it bugged me that the girl had to be so passive and emotional. I know that’s what you’d expect of a ghost, so why didn’t they break the stereotype and make her the werewolf? What do you think? — Linda, Whidbey Island, WA
Q: Is it true that the Laurell K. Hamilton series of novels, Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter, is being made into a movie or TV show? — Kethlyn
But Tolkien and Lewis did have occasional fallings-out, sometimes serious ones, for all the ordinary reasons: disagreements over religion (Tolkien was annoyed by Lewis’ embrace of the Anglican Church, which Tolkien detested and considered anti-Catholic), and women (Tolkien felt that Lewis’ relationship with Joy Davidman, the subject of the movie Shadowlands, intruded on their friendship).
“I feel safe here,” one character says of their flat. “There are monsters outside.”
