Monday, January 31, 2011

My Review of Being Human's 3x02: "Adam's Family"

Written by Brian Dooley
Directed by Colin Teague

Nina: “Stay in touch, yeah?”
Adam: “You so want me.”
George: “Good luck, yeah?”
Adam: “George, one more thing – you are such a sad arse.”

And it’s goodbye to you, Adam. If we ever wanted to see George and Nina in parental mode (and I have a feeling this episode sort of set that up), then their taking care of young vampire Adam was a pretty good case in point of proving how great they would be whenever they have their own kids. Notice I didn’t say if there, right?

I liked that Adam’s arc in some ways was more or less resembling Jessica’s from True Blood or even Caroline’s from The Vampire Diaries. Take a baby faced teenage vampire and try to help him survive in the big bad world now that his father has passed on. George and Nina didn’t have to help the lad but they’re better people for doing it though.

Adam didn’t make it exactly easy for them with his initial werewolf-phobic behaviour and penchant for running off and nearly snacking on a random girl but I did feel incredibly sorry for the guy when George and Nina originally handed him over to rich vampire couple, Richard and Emma. Thank goodness the pair of them saw sense.

Richard and Emma as vampires pretty much proved that all the money and privilege in the world still makes you a total div. They had care for the humans they drank off, in spite of their nifty little system and their attitude towards George and Nina definitely made me want to stake them as well.

Fortunately when it came down to the crunch, Adam chose a more complicated life over the idea of being stuck in a rich nightmare freak show with Richard and Emma. I’m guessing the idea of numbered gimp and having to shag Emma on a billiards table wasn’t exactly up Adam’s alley after all.

However while George and Nina did step up to the plate and got Adam away from the mad pair, why do I get the feeling that Richard’s threat of repercussions wasn’t just him blowing hot air? This season is supposed to be giving all kinds of villains and I would definitely be surprised if Richard and Emma didn’t surface later in the season to get their own back on George and Nina.

As for the goodbye scene with Adam, I thought it was absolutely a nice way of sending the character off. He’s already got his own journey to make and online spin-off with Becoming Human, so it’s definitely not the last we’ve seen of him. That’s great, because despite some of his doltish behaviour and the fact that he looked horribly unkempt for the first half of the episode, he was definitely a more entertaining vampire than Vincent was in the previous episode.

Less entertaining this week was Mitchell. I can understand his reluctance in telling the gang that he’s got a werewolf related death coming his way but I found myself getting annoyed with him throughout this episode for multiple reasons – taking so long to help Adam out being one of them.

But the main was his attitude with Annie. Yes, he had some great moments with her and while he was right to tell her not to define herself by the gang, he’s also doing a lot of harm to her by lying to her as well. I really do hope that we don’t have to wait until the finale for Mitchell to let everyone else know that he’s got a nasty prophecy hanging over his head.

Also in “Adam’s Family”

Becoming Human can be seen on the BBC3 website as well as the red button and will continue for the rest of this series.

Annie: “It wasn’t actually all that bad.”
Nina: “Annie, you were in purgatory.”
Annie: “Yeah, I know but I’ve been to the Isle Of Wight, so it’s not really that much of a culture shock.”

Adam's dad mentioned having a thing for Anneke Rice. My bad.

Nina: “I know what you are.”
Adam: “So you know what I can do to you if you come any nearer, Goldie.”

Richard (re Mitchell): “I expected some demon. What do I find? The last Russell Brand in the shop.”

Richard tried to get Mitchell to go to South America on behalf of the Old Ones. Mitchell should be a lot more worried that Richard knows about the Box Tunnel Massacre.

George (to Adam, re Annie): “You’re a 46 year old vampire who dresses like a child. Don’t call her freaky.”

Adam: “Just because you’re a vampire doesn’t mean you have to smell like the undead. One word, Mitch: deodorant.”

Despite no appearances from McNair and Tom, more hints of Mitchell’s death by werewolf came with a fantasy sequence news announcement. In better news, he managed to bag another cleaning job.

Richard (to George/Nina): “You may not understand our little arrangement here but at least accept that it works.”

Who was that hand that we saw at the end of the episode? I don’t remember anyone being turned in this episode.

George: “Did you just realise that I’m zipping up my coat and going back there?”
Nina: “Yeah and I’m coming with you.”

Richard (re George/Nina): “These are not your people. These animals ...”
Adam: “Yeah, tell it to someone who gives a shit.”

I couldn’t find any of the music credits for this episode and not much time has passed since “Lia”. Annie mentioned a day or something.

“Adam’s Family” isn’t as good as the opening episode but it’s certainly a nice set up for the character and his online spin-off and while the Mitchell/Annie bits were a little disappointing, I think George and Nina more than made up for it.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

5 comments:

Paul Reed said...

Hey Shawn, nice review. I think Adam's dad said Anneka Rice not Anneke Wills, though.

shawnlunn2002 said...

I checked it, just changed it there. Thanks for the heads up.

Damaduende said...

Im really enjoying this season so far. Haven´t seen the third one yet, but so far so good. The scene with Adam saying "I choose them" and the reasoning why, cracked me up.
And the first one was rather good too, although I thought that after all the crap Annie went through, the fact that it all was just to catch Mitchell´s atention was kinda sad. Poor girl.
The american version, didn´t really like it. I tried, but I find it lacking. I may learn to appreciate the too buffed up vamp and the annoying girl ghost, but I don´t think anybody can hold a candle to George :)

shawnlunn2002 said...

Me too, this season is definitely a lot more organised and plot driven but the character moments are there along with the emotional content. Enjoy the third episode when you get to see it.

The US version isn't awful but I get where you're coming from with it lacking. It's doing well in the ratings so it's likely to get a second season and if so, here's hoping that it improves.

Unknown said...

Greetings Shawn,

Did you notice that two different versions of this episode were aired in the US? I DVR-ed it last weekend (Feb 26, I think). The recording kept freezing, so I wasn't able to watch the middle section. In trying to isolate the bad part, I found a scene in which the vampire "mom" lead Adam down a flight of stairs, commented on his nice suit, and told him he'd be taking his place where he belonged. They then walked into a total porn scene (bare breasted woman on her back on an ottoman with some guy on top of her), and the "mom" introduced him around. I didn't watch anymore of the scene, because I wanted to see the whole episode. I DVR-ed it again this weekend (3/5), and that scene was gone! Not that I was on pins and needles for the boobs, but they edited the episode and I wonder what I missed!

It looks like you're in the UK, so you probably saw the full episode. Are there full episodes online I could check out? I really think Adam's suit in the second version (dark colored) was different than it was in the first version (cream), so I wonder if they reshot the whole thing.