I love British TV. I grew up with Benny Hill and was introduced to Monty Python in college by watching Life of Brian on VHS incrementally at the Everett Community College library (and it reached its apogee when I was invited to the opening of Spamalot in Las Vegas and was able to get Eric Idle to sign one of my books while standing within touching distance from Terry Gilliam and... wait for it...John Cleese). It grew with Red Dwarf and Blackadder. I remember watching a Blackadder marathon on a PBS station in Seattle in 1993. I still have the T Shirt and even went so far as to attend an Anglophile convention. I have so many British comedies on DVD and in my Netflix Queue plus am a huge Dr. Who fanatic (the original not the redux) so bad that I have drawn versions of the Doctor from William Hartnell through Sylvester McCoy. I love the show Little Britain (computer says no) and Coupling (which is the British and arguably better version of Friends). I am also quite addicted to BBC America. One of the best shows to come from this channel recently (besides Life on Mars) is Being Human. So, with much trepidation, I decided to watch the SyFy Americanized version of this great show. I loved the concept. A werewolf, a vampire and a ghost shack up in a flat while the hijincks ensue. I expected that the American version would suck all of the life and thoughtfulness out of the British version but they have taken a thoughtful show with 6 British episodes and actually took the 13 episodes offered with US TV and made the show better. I have seen the failure of Americanized adaptions so many times that this one show makes me look forward to Torchwood. The only problem I have with this version is that I don't like the cast as much. The ghost, Sally (Annie in the BBC version), is better British and I don't find the actor who plays the vampire attractive at all while the British one is super hot.
Hot! Plus he has an Irish accent.
Not so much.
The casting is spot on for the werewolf. Sam Huntington is adorable, likable and strangely sexy. Its good to see that we finally got a translation right.
And for comparison, here is the complete British cast:
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