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Moving in and moving on
THE ONE WHERE Hal and Tom move in, while Leo and Pearl pass on.
VERDICT An episode which, although unlikely to live long in the memory, serves its main function – establishing the new line-up – very well. It also occasions plenty of chuckles – so many, in fact, that at times it reminds you of the less heavy-going, arc-heavy days of series one. The Odd Couple relationship between Tom and Hal is already hugely entertaining, and the rivalry between Annie and Pearl is also mightily amusing. (Speaking of Pearl, I’m going to miss her – wasn’t she lovely? Hats off to Tamla Kari.)
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It’s pleasing to see Damien Molony – rather crowded out of the picture in the opening episode – given some material he can really sink his teeth into (so to speak). He’s capable of real gravitas, and his speech about what it’s like to kill is quite chilling. Also, who’d have thought that domino toppling could be invested with so much menace?
Petty complaints? Well, the depth of the love between Pearl and Leo could have benefited from being built up a little more – it does rather seem to come out of nowhere (although maybe that’s a matter of the age gap between the actors getting in the way – suddenly I feel ageist for not considering the possibility of a romance). And Annie’s little ceremony would have been more amusing if Mark Williams hadn’t done something almost identical last week. Odd episode title, too – I was half-expecting flashbacks to when Hal, Leo and Pearl first got together, and disappointed to find there were none.
NITPICKS Firstly, why is Annie so blasé about letting a vampire she doesn’t know from Adam (er, not that Adam...) move in, when there's a baby she's pledged to protect in the house? You’d think there’d at least be a discussion about that. Secondly, as a married man, I'm in a position to say this: if only finding exactly the right engagement ring was that easy…
A WARNING TO DAMIEN MOLONY Expect to start receiving parcels of Kia-Ora in the post very soon. Starting with ours.
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REFERENCES Annie warps the lyrics of “You Raise Me Up” and quotes Star Wars .
NOT ENTIRELY CONVINCING EXPLANATION OF THE WEEK “We’ve tried running and it didn’t work”. Bless the writers for at least addressing the whole why-don’t-they-just-move issue, but if it was me I’d definitely give running away at least one more try .
SPECULATION Cutler’s mysterious line in episode one about “showing [humanity] something worse” makes sense after seeing his focus group – “something worse” is clearly werewolves. How far will he go down this route? Will he reveal the existence of werewolves to the wider world? Could that video of Tom and George transforming end up on YouTube?
BEST LINE Hal rebuffs Tom’s invitation to join him in a trip to the shops: “I’d love to, but I’ve made plans to stay in and self-harm.”
Ian Berriman has been working for SFX – the world's leading sci-fi, fantasy and horror magazine – since March 2002. He's also a regular writer for Electronic Sound. Other publications he's contributed to include Total Film, When Saturday Comes, Retro Pop, Horrorville, and What DVD. A life-long Doctor Who fan, he's also a supporter of Hull City, and live-tweets along to BBC Four's Top Of The Pops repeats from his @TOTPFacts account.
