Being Human (North American TV series)

Being Human
Genre	Supernatural drama Comedy Horror
Created by	Toby Whithouse
Developed by	Jeremy Carver Anna Fricke
Starring	Sam Witwer Meaghan Rath Sam Huntington Mark Pellegrino Dichen Lachman Kristen Hager
Country of origin	United States Canada
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	15 (List of episodes)
Production
Location(s)	Montreal
Running time	43 minutes
Production company(s)	Muse
Distributor	Zodiak Media Group
Broadcast
Original channel	Syfy (U.S.) Space (Canada)
Original run	January 17, 2011 (2011-01-17) – present
Chronology
Related shows	Being Human (UK)
External links
Website
Production website

Being Human is a supernatural drama television series broadcast on Syfy in the United States and on Space in Canada. It is being produced by Muse in Montreal and is based on the BBC show of the same name.

Synopsis

Main article: List of Being Human (North American TV series) episodes

The series revolves around three roommates living in Boston who appear to be in their twenties. The trio try to live a normal life despite being a ghost, a vampire, and a werewolf.

Cast and characters

Main cast

Main article: List of Being Human (North American TV series) characters

• Sam Witwer as Aidan McCollin, who became a vampire during the Revolutionary War; in the present day, he works as a nurse at Suffolk County Hospital in Boston.
• Sam Huntington as Josh Levison, a Jewish werewolf who works as an orderly at the same hospital.
• Meaghan Rath as Sally Malik, a ghost who haunts the house Aidan and Josh rent. She was engaged to their landlord, and had planned to live in the house with him before her untimely death.
• Kristen Hager as Nora (Season 2, recurring previously), Josh's girlfriend and a nurse at the hospital where Aidan and Josh work. After having sex with Josh she is pregnant with Josh's child (Though she later miscarries). At the end of season 1, Nora is scratched by Josh while he is transforming, and the beginning of season 2 sees her as another werewolf.
• Mark Pellegrino as James Bishop (Season 1). Born in England, James became a vampire during the 16th century and turned Aidan into a vampire. In the present day, he is a member of the Boston Police Department. At the end of season 1, he is killed by Aidan.
• Dichen Lachman as Suren (Season 2). The daughter of the powerful vampire known only as "Mother", she is chosen by Mother to take over as head of Boston following Bishop's death. She was put into exile 80 years ago for a bloody massacre.

Recurring cast

• Sarah Allen as Rebecca, Aidan's one-night-stand, whom he fatally drained of blood in a moment of weakness. Instead of disposing of the body as Aidan had wanted, Bishop had Rebecca revived as a vampire. She initially hates Aidan for leaving her for dead but embraces the dark side of her new existence. Eventually after many struggles trying to live as a vampire, she asks Aiden to end her life in Season 1.
• Alison Louder as Emily, Josh's sister. She came out of the closet as a lesbian just before Josh was turned into a werewolf and forced to disappear. She found Josh while visiting her girlfriend who was in the hospital because she broke her arm while "shrooming".
• Gianpaolo Venuta as Danny, Aiden's and Josh's landlord and Sally's ex-fiancé, who may be less friendly and helpful than he appears. After discovering that he was the one who killed Sally, Aiden frightens him with his vampire powers and he turns himself in out of fear.
• Terry Kinney as Heggemann, an 1,100 year old vampire and elder of the powerful Dutch clan. He was killed by a newly transformed Nora before he could kill Josh on Mother's orders.

Production

On June 28 2010, Entertainment Weekly reported that actor Sam Witwer had signed on to play the vampire in the remake, and Meaghan Rath had signed to play the ghost with Sam Huntington close to a deal to play the werewolf. On July 7 2010, it was announced that Lost and Supernatural alumnus Mark Pellegrino would be joining the cast as "Aidan's charismatic but menacing mentor Bishop".

On March 17, 2011, SyFy announced that they would be ordering a second season of its new drama series. It was also reported that since its inception there had been an average of 1.8 million viewers per premiere episode, a first for the network since 2005. Also, the show's audience is predominately female, a first for SyFy. SyFy has announced that Season 2 will begin airing on January 16, 2012.^{[citation needed]}

On June 29 2011, Variety reported that actress Dichen Lachman had signed on as a regular to play a reclusive vampire in season two.

Adaptation

Husband-and-wife team Jeremy Carver and Anna Fricke were tasked with adapting the British series for North American television. Carver said that he and Fricke hoped "to use elements of the original series while reimagining a series all of our own. I think that starts with many of the new characters and storylines that we created. I think you're going to see a show that gives a very nice nod to the original version." Carver and Fricke said they intended to retain the original program's dark and morally ambiguous qualities.

At the beginning of the first 13-episode season, the program roughly follows the narrative arc of the first season of the British original. Since that season was only six episodes long, the North American program developed new stories and arcs. Some similar elements were also developed in a different manner; Carver said, "We explore these moments and what the characters experienced in the British version and say to the writers, 'What if we do this differently? However, elements of the directorial style of the first two episodes followed the original pilot and first regular episode of the UK series, in some cases shot-for-shot.

One explicit tribute to the British series is the name of the vampire, Aidan; the character is named after Irish actor Aidan Turner, who played the vampire Mitchell in the original series. The other main characters in the North American version at first appear to correspond to their British counterparts (werewolves Josh and George, ghosts Sally and Annie, vampire leaders Bishop and Herrick), but actor Sam Witwer was keen to stress the differences between the characters in the two programs: "These are not the same characters.... There are a lot of similarities, but for example, Bishop is not Herrick. Not in the slightest. He's not the same guy.

As of January 2011, the North American series' writers have avoided watching the second series when it aired on BBC America. Similarly, the North American actors had seen little of the British series; Witwer told an interviewer that he had watched only the first episode, and avoided watching any more in order to avoid subconsciously mimicking Aidan Turner's performance. At San Diego Comic Con 2011's Being Human panel, the actors confirmed that since finishing filming the first season they have now caught up with watching the U.K. series, but that the writers have deliberately maintained their policy of not watching anything beyond the first series of the U.K. Being Human, in order to ensure the North American series develops down different paths as they move into the second season.

Reception

According to Bill Gorman from the website "TVbytheNumbers," "since the show’s January 17 launch, premiere episodes of Being Human have averaged 1.8 million viewers making it Syfy’s most successful winter season scripted series launch in 6 years. Through its first nine weeks on Syfy, and including repeat broadcasts, Being Human has been seen by 19.1 million total unique viewers."

DVD release

DVD Name	Ep #	Release dates			Additional features
		Region 1	Region 2	Region 4
Being Human: Season One	13	November 15, 2011	TBA	October 6, 2011	Making-Of Featurette, Interviews and recording of the Comic Con 2011 Panel.

External links

• Official website
• Being Human at the Internet Movie Database
• Being Human at TV.com
• Interview With 'Being Human' Cast at TV Squad