Tags
aidan turner, alex price, annie, bbc three, being human, clare higgins, george, ghost, gilbert, herrick, Jason Watkins, josie, lenora crichlow, Mitchell, russell tovey, series one, toby whithouse, vampire, werewolf
Now the dust has settled and I’ve had time to ponder the end of series five and THAT extra scene it feels like time to go back to the beginning.
(Oh yes. THAT ending. THAT extra scene. Harrumph. I can see I’ll have to come back to that.)
Having made myself choose a favourite series I’ve gone one step further in the search for the next best bit – my favourite episode. This is going to be fun, given that there are 37 including the pilot and I have no idea where to start to narrow them down. Not a clue.
(It was series two – are you not keeping up?)
OK. Here’s a plan. A short-ish blog to choose my favourite episode from each series and then a final choice from them of my absolute best ever episode. OK with you? No? Well, to be honest I’m in charge round here so that’s what I’m doing!
Let’s just go with the flow. (Who leads the flow?) (No one. It’s a flow.)
Anyway…
Series one, six episodes and immediately I have a problem. Yes another one. How do I choose between Tully and Gilbert? Between Josie and Bernie? Between werewolf problems and vampire problems and ghost problems? Do I pick the one with the best lines or try to take a scientific view?
I’m doing this from memory – if I do a rewatch or even read my own book I’m going to find so many little treasures that I’d forgotten about so to go on what has lodged in my tiny mind seems to be the way to go! So what does stand out? Herrick certainly had most of the best lines, while George got a good serving of angst and Mitchell wavered back and forth between the vampires and the humans. I see a theme developing there…
I loved Lauren and was so sorry she didn’t get to be the vampire she might have been. She stood up to Herrick – not many did – and with a bit less angst and soooo sooorry-ness from Mitchell the two of them could have ruled the vampires. She also had some cracking lines – who can forget her riposte to Seth’s “Aow” as he turned to smoke?* And on the subject of great lines (so many!) I really – really – want to use Nina’s put down of George’s Tully-inspired attempt to ask her out.** Yes all of it. Word for word.
I loved Ghost Town and Gilbert is one of my favourite one-show guest characters and – of course – his was the first door we saw, the first resolved UFB. And this was the episode in which we found out that Owen killed Annie, that Mitchell and Annie sort of kissed (‘It’s like being attacked by an ironing board’) and when George rather memorably (and rather vigorously) proved to Nina his premature ejaculation issues were – well, somewhat less serious and rather less premature than she may have thought!
But then there’s episode five – Where the Wild Things Are. It had Annie’s door, the wonderful Josie – all the memories in that simple gesture of remembering exactly how she drinks her coffee – and Owen being driven entirely mad and the policeman needing a different form. Ending with Mitchell bleeding in the hall, Herrick demanding to be let in, George pleading with Annie to go (and letting out a tiny bit of wee) and Annie in a state over pretty much all of it! It set quite a standard for penultimate episodes.
But the last episode – Sarky Mark and his wry humour, Josie sacrificing herself for Mitchell, Herrick so very sure he was going to win – and not just Top Trumps – and we see a hint of the power that takes Annie through four more series to save the world. And that final showdown. George does what he’d always dreaded and he does it for love. Bad Moon Rising had everything – pathos, humour, darkness, horror, Brecht, Nanna and not one but two very clever cliffhangers. And Herrick in bits on the cellar floor… but not before some wonderful final speeches that gave me the title of this blog.
Maybe I should roll a dice? Randomly pick a number?
No. I’ve decided.
Although I’d like to choose more than one my favourite episode from series one has to be episode six – Bad Moon Rising. That’s what my heart is telling me so all analysis is off. And I have to choose it for no other reason than Josie’s death made me cry – and nothing else in Being Human ever has.
* “Well, he won’t be staring at my tits when he speaks to me anymore”
** Nope. Not typing all that. Go watch it!
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So that’s my choice from series one – what’s yours?
I’d forgotten how much I loved this trailer for the very first series…
a house, a job, a TV licence... 
Favourite? Yes, probably 6. But most memorable? For me, it’s the Bernie episode.
I was a Johnny-come-lately. I watched S1 and S2 on DVD just before S3 started. The first three episodes were brilliant; I loved them.
Then I started watching the friendship unfold between Mitchell and Bernie, and the Laurel and Hardy DVD incident. It didn’t take a genius to work out what DVD was in the case, but there was still that “Oh my God, NOOOOO!” moment when it actually happened. I turned the DVD off, went for a walk, then came back and watched the rest. I physically could not watch that first time. That was the point when I realised I cared desperately what happened to the characters. And of course there was George’s high-pitched rant about the tomatoes. And the car… And another “Oh my God” moment at the end.
That episode totally raised the stakes (no pun intended) for me. I was invested.
I’ve always thought that was a brave episode and the DVD was such a lurking menace. You just knew it was going to happen but kept thinking it couldn’t!
Oh – and the pitchforks and the mad hats and the spelling mistake on the door!
I watched ‘live’ from the beginning and sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have been able to feast on it all fresh and in one go – although the anticipation of waiting a week made it special. There’s very little ‘event’ TV around for me at the moment.
Episode 4 is great for many of the reasons you’ve already mentioned – but it’s the hardest of season 1 for me to watch. I get really uncomfortable watching the neighbours mob and turn on George and Mitchell so quickly. It’s strange, because so many other, more awful things happen in the show (like the room full of humans that the vampires keep locked up to feed on, in the next episode I think) – but this episode gets to me for some reason.
Yay, a new post! Good surprise this evening. 🙂 I’ve rewatched Season 1 recently so it’s all pretty fresh in my head – I think for me, my favourite episode is 3 (Ghost Town) with 1 (Flotsam and Jetsam) narrowly behind.
Ghost town was the first ever BH episode I watched, so it holds a little nostalgia just for that. But there’s so many moments in it I loved, and watching Annie remember what happened to her is heartbreaking. Annie was always one of my favourite characters throughout the series – it was nice to have a character be strong but also get to be caring and insecure and ‘girly’. I loved the guy that played Owen – I thought he was great at appearing initially perfect, the grieving fiance, and then getting creepier thoughout until the big reveal.
Having said that, episode 1 is one I rewatch the most from Season 1. It’s an ace all rounder and setup to the series – loads of good lines, characters you care about straight away, and it includes one of my favourite scenes in all of S1 – the conversation between George and Annie when he tells her about becoming a werewolf and tries to console her.
Finally a new post! Have had ISP issues and no access for a few weeks but hopefully normal service is resumed!
I think this is the hardest series to pick an episode from as every single one has so much wonderful writing. E1 really did start the show off running and yes, Gilbert is a perennial favourite.
You’re so right about Owen – a fabulous performance and I think often under rated as he made it look so easy.
It was the Josie story that tipped the balance for me – I thought she was amazing. Strong, compassionate, clever and so very real. I fill up every time I watch that last scene!
I should be able to post the rest of my choices over the next week or so. I’ll be interested to hear if you agree!
Yes, Josie was fantastic! I was immediately invested in her relationship with Mitchell. It was really interesting to see Josie’s peaceful acceptance of death – I work with a lot of older people as part of my job, and it’s a common attitude that is refreshing to see portrayed in TV. (I say older people, although I wouldn’t really class Josie in that category – only compared to the other twentysomething characters on the show)
That’s an interesting point about older characters and got me thinking. Correct me if I’m wrong (O often am!) but I do think that none of the older, human BH characters are defined by their age which is unusual in TV drama. Even Nana! Whereas the vampires are very definitely defined by theirs.
There may have to be some further pondering on that that…
Ah, memories.
Mary, I was a bit worried I had already commented and forgotten, your comments are so similar to what I was going to say. Ep 3 is my favourite, partly because it was the first I ever saw. And also because every line is quotable. It’s funny, it’s sad. It swings you from one emotion to the next in the blink of an eye. And it has great music. And Gilbert!
I also have difficulty watching ep4. It’s good, just hard to watch. I really love all of Series 1. The last 2 episodes really have to be close to the best TV I’ve ever seen. Hooked me like a drug. Maybe it’s time for a rewatch. Sigh.
I haven’t done a full rewatch of any series since I wrote the last book – although I watched each episode of S4 a few times to review. Once these posts are all finished I think a proper wallow in the whole lot may well be in order!
To be fair I think I should re-watch the entire series – For science. :o) Great blog, I agreed with your reasoning but can’t bring myself to pick a favourite. As Neil Gaiman said recently about being asked to choose his favourite books: “it’s like being asked which of my limbs I’d least like to lose”.
Indeed. For science.
I almost gave up on choosing but – weirdly – I surprised myself on what stood out in my memory. It’s been an interesting exercise!
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