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Being Human USA 3.03 “The Teens They Are A-Changin’” REVIEW
Episode Number 3.03
Writer: Mike Ostrowski
Director: Adam Kane
THE ONE WHERE Josh and Nora hear the patter of not-so-tiny feet.
VERDICT This is one of those episodes that seemingly has everything going for it, but which feels flat in the final execution.
Nora’s still alive – that cliffhanger is dispensed with in the opening scene – way to build suspense, guys! Aidan and Henry are still searching in vain (or should that be in vein?) for uncontaminated blood, and when Aidan asks Josh to help him out by screening some patients and passing him the addresses of anyone with clean blood, Josh – of course – says no, but it’s evident to anyone who has watched more than a few episodes of the show that he’s going to relent. Henry visits the hospital, and becomes tempted by all the blood he sees, but we never quite believe that Henry is as desperate to feed as he keeps telling us – not until the end of the episode, but that’s more to do with his make-up than with his performance.
Meanwhile, Sally’s feeling understandably guilty about causing the death of her friend, and most of the episode’s best moments come from the interactions between Sally and Trent’s ghost. Such a shame, then, that we won’t get to see more of him. He had a Ryan Reynolds quality that suited the character, beautifully.
A new character that we probably will see more of, though, is Erin – an annoyingly whiny teen who has been scratched by a werewolf and who is taken in by Josh and Nora. The scene where they explain to Erin that she’s going to turn the following night should have been comedy gold, but it merely raises a reluctant chuckle. But when Nora and Erin do change together, is that jealousy we see in Josh’s face? Does he secretly miss the curse?
Sally’s overeating is lightly-played, but it’s too early to tell if this is merely a gag that doesn’t quite work, or if there’s a more sinister aspect to it.
The episode is saved from a 2.5 star rating only by the final scene in which Trent finds his door, only to discover that it leads to the witch (“I was wondering when I’d get my first delivery”), who promptly shreds his ghost. For some reason his spirit doesn’t just disappear, but turns into a pile of dust. The witch begins to eat this, becoming visibly younger as she does so. An intriguing end to an otherwise frustrating episode.
BAD TIMING The opening is set three weeks after last week’s installment, but it isn’t common for a funeral to take more than a week or so to arrange. And as the wolves turn at the end of the episode, the episode must take place over the course of a week, but we never get the sense that anything more than a day or so has passed, so the “three weeks later” caption at the start is too long for the funeral, too short for the transformation. Sloppy.
BEST LINES:
Josh: “I don’t turn, anymore.”
Erin: “Why not?”
Josh: “Because I broke the curse by bashing in the skull of the man who scratched me.”
Erin: “Dude – you’ve got layers!”
Lee Harris
• Read our other Being Human USA reviews
Watch has recently acquired US Being Human to air in the UK – details soon
