Being Human: series 4

[aelfgyfu_mead]

I'm really writing mostly about the last two episodes, but of course they spoil for everything before that.

I had to watch the last two eppies as close to back to back as real life would allow. I knew they's sort it, I knew everyone wouldn't die or turn evil, but I had to see how it came out! (Unlike some show I could name, where it's only a slight exaggeration to say that everyone dies or turns evil.Torchwood, I am so looking at you.)

Mark Gatiss is amazing. His Mr. Snow was truly frightening. I found Kirby deeply creepy, but Snow verging on terrifying.

Does Whithouse take a big role in the casting himself? He, or whoever it is, has done a brilliant job. Gatiss was great in a guest-starring role, but Damien Molony had hardly any tv or film experience at all before this program, and he's compelling. Kate Bracken (Alex) also had almost no experience in front of a camera, according to IMDb, but she held her own with Damien and with Lenora Critchlow and Michael Socha. One heck of a cast.

I have very mixed feelings about the last two episodes.

What I hate: fridging women
I can't avoid saying this, because I can't avoid thinking it. Women suffer deeply and undeservedly on this show. Annie has been through just too much: her own murder, losing her friends, and then having to kill the baby that's as much hers as George and Nina's. Moreover, Annie was killed by her boyfriend. She is repeatedly, for the whole run of the show, victimized by men for whom she has romantic feelings and some who don't.

Nina, of course, died horribly and pointlessly. George's own death had a point, and we got to see him leave happily.

Alex tried to have a fling with a guy who caught her eye. When he turned really creepy, she sensibly left—but she'd already been targeted by other vampires, and so she died horribly. At least Annie died quickly, and Mitchell's death was positively humane. Alex suffered and then spent hours in the room with her body only to get into a big argument with a man who drank her blood (and who laps it off the floor later).

Eve loses everything. She not only dies, she is erased from history. She has never lived past infancy. She made tremendous sacrifices: she had someone kill her, she sent a man she thought was a monster to live with the woman she considers her mother and kill her, and when that failed, she sent the ghost of a serial killer to live with them (and briefly believed that he had destroyed her mother). When all else failed, she persuaded her mother to kill her. Then all that disappeared, and only Annie's memories of what Eve told her and showed her remain. The boys know much less of it.

I love the show, but I'm really, deeply disturbed by the way women are victimized and erased. The ghosts have power, but their power is more often talked about than shown, and the ones with lasting significance have all been women: Annie, Pearl, Alex, Eve. The men, however, have physical presence and generally superhuman physical power (although some of them only have it once a month).

I don't know how to reconcile loving the show with being really disturbed by the depiction of women. It feels like misogyny to me. I know some of it may be accidental; Whithouse and the other writers have to work around the departures of cast members.

What I like:
Even while I'm disturbed by what happens to them, I am glad that Annie and Eve show the most strength of anyone (feel free to argue with me in the comments, but I doubt I'll change my mind!). Eve has herself erased from history. She drags her mother and herself through her own painful past, and Annie's possible future. She dies twice to save humanity—once in the future, and once in 2012.

Annie is the only one who can kill Eve. Tom and Hal were already compromised; neither could have lived with having to do it. In the end, neither was in a position to do it, either. Annie surprises Snow, with his centuries of experience and tremendous power, and destroys the Old Ones (except Hal).

I really like Alex and hope she stays (despite the misgivings above about having another female ghost). I was saying to BH, "It's really too bad she's dead; she's Hal's equal!" when we both went, "Wait a minute—aren't they about to need another ghost?" I like how quickly she picked up what Annie was teaching her and her pleasure at moving the beans and "rent-a-ghosting". (Is that really the term? Because it really doesn't make sense!) I was still going "What?" to Annie's "Hal is not a living thing" when Alex sussed it and got him out of harm's way. I can see them doing a lot with her next season: her family has to be told, especially because I don't think the police got the body. She can also keep Tom and Hal in line in a different way than Annie.

Tom and Hal shone in very different ways. Tom was so sweet trying to get Hal and Alex together; I knew he was making a horrible mistake, but I couldn't blame him for trying! And he never was building a swimming pool! Hal and Annie think he's such a "boy," but he outwitted them both!

I was horrified that McNair taught Tom to make bombs but didn't teach him to make timers, and of course Tom had no time to learn. I wasn't surprised that he was willing to sacrifice himself. I wasn't entirely surprised that Hal offered to back him, and I loved them both for it.

I was surprised when Hal walked in with the bomb, and then I was horrified that he succumbed to Snow.

I love that Tom and Alex are both going to help Hal through withdrawal, and Tom's simple "You're my best mate." I realized that Tom never really had a best mate before. He only had McNair. Hal, at least, had Leo and Pearl for over five decades.

Milo was interesting: a werewolf aligned with vampires purely for survival. I thought it would have been even more interesting if they'd had a woman be the werewolf here, but I can't have everything. I like that he got Tom out when he knew things were going bad.

I felt for Cutler in these last two episodes when I had only laughed at him before. He always seemed pathetic; he wanted the humans to like him! Learning that what he was is largely Hal's fault came as quite a surprise to me. Cutler wanted to impress Hal—but ultimately, he tried to kill the baby because he Hal got through to him. Too bad her death would have been pointless if he'd succeeded them.

I like the new trio. I'm a little sad that we didn't get to see Annie see her friends; I was still holding out hope that she'd see George and Nina, and we'd see them, all happy together, on the other side. (I knew we couldn't see Mitchell, if only because his actor was on the wrong side of the world! I'd have liked it best if we'd seen them all together. I don't see how vampires can be damned for something done to them against their will [in most cases], and some of them fought to choose good.)

I want series 5 already! Bring me more Hal and Tom and Alex! (And maybe a peek in by Annie? As Eve says, she's not at all good about following rules!)