Being Human Season 1 (North American) DVD Review (4-Disc Set)

DVD Review of the North American TV series Being Human following a vampire, werewolf & ghost roommates.


Image courtesy of Alliance Films
Legal Line © 2010 B.H. Productions (Muse) Inc. All rights reserved.

Dirs: Paolo Barzman, Charles Binamé, Adam Kane, Erik Canuel, Jeremiah S. Chechik, Jerry Ciccoritti
Cast: Sam Witwer, Meaghan Rath, Sam Huntington, Mark Pellegrino, Sarah Allen Gianpaolo Venuta, Kristen Hager, Vincent Leclerc, Angela Galuppo
Canada/USA (source), 2011 (TV)

Reason to see: A vampire, werewolf & ghost as roommate = perfect show for me.

Being Human is a TV series that follows a set of new housemates and their struggles from personal to romantic, professional and cultural all of which are complicated by the fact that they are supernatural beings (a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost) but have chosen to do their best and remain and be human.

I was first in line to check out a show that features a vampire, werewolf and ghost as roommates as I'm a huge fan of paranormal TV and this show brings a nice blend of lore, long-term story arc as well as budding friendships between the trio of vampire Aidan (Sam Witwer), werewolf Josh (Sam Huntington) and ghost Sally (Meaghan Rath) who do their best to deal with their supernatural situations. One of the most interesting dynamics of the series is that each of the three main characters is an underdog or outsider within their own supernatural community, none of them chose their fate and each is effected differently. For example, Josh being a werewolf is only out of control on the full moon, but the weight of his actions at that time can stay with him for the entire lunar cycle. Then Aidan is a long-standing vampire who has chosen to abstain from vampire culture and society but it's a continual and challenging position to be in. Then we have Sally, the ghost who’s transparent to the non-supernatural world and mystified at her own mysterious transition. It's three very different perspectives on dealing with a situation that has been pushed upon you and changed each and every one of their natural, but each choose to be, or at least attempt, to maintain their humanity.

Based on the UK series of the same name, Being Human is in a unique situation of running almost con-currently with its across-the-pond counterpart which has three completed seasons in comparison to this North American version (also referred to as SyFy Being Human or Being Human US even though it's and American/Canadian co-production shot in Montreal). They two versions are very aware of each other and they North American version even has a nod to the UK version with vampire Aidan who is a namesake of the actor Aidan Turner who plays the vampire Mitchell in the original UK version of the show. I really enjoyed the UK version therefore was skepitcal but hopeful about this new version, and I admit I went into the series after already seeing the first two seasons of the UK version and it took me quite some time to decide on how I felt about it. The two versions follow many of the same plot lines and characters, but the North American version also adds new plotlines although it does keep to the heart of the original series. I wouldn't necessarily recommend watching the concurrently, but if you pace out the two from each other it's a highly enjoyable series that pulls at the heart strings, shows the power of friendship, the grand struggle to stand apart from the norms and to take a stand for a greater cause.

I really loved both the comedy and the kindness in the series, the struggles of the characters to maintain their humanity and the challenging choice of whether or not to use there supernatural powers for or against humanity. They wrestle with the question if it's possible to remain neutral, when it's time to take a stand and is it better or worse to succumb to your own nature. And somehow in all of that they manage to go through relationship and romantic entanglements as everyday stresses of workplace and tenant/landlord relationships and challenges.

I did find that the series takes a bit to find it's feet, but it's worth giving it a chance because of the great characters and some stand out performances including reoccurring guest star Mark Pellegrino ('Supernatural') as the vampire power player Bishop and series regular Sam Huntington (Fanboys, Dylan Dog: Dead of Night) as the awkward werewolf Josh. The emotional journeys of all of the characters and interesting and overall I say it's a must-see for any fan of paranormal TV fan. I love the friendships and moral questions it portrays and I truly felt for all of the characters.

It's a great time to hop on the Being Human train and if you've not seen it yet you can easily catch up for it's return in Season 2 which will being to air in January 2012. I'll be waiting with baited breath to see where they go next.

If you want to hear about every episode of Season 1 of Being Human?
You can listen to reactions from Suzie & I from each and every episode right here at Hexed: Sisterhood of the Supernatural:

• Episode 1: There Goes the Neighbourhood (Part 1)
• Episode 2: There Goes the Neighbourhood (Part 2)
• Episode 3: Someone to Watch Over Me
• Episode 4: Wouldn't it be Nice (If We Were Human)
• Episode 5: The End of the World As We Knew It
• Episode 6: It Takes Two to Make a Thing Go Wrong
• Episode 7: See Your True Colors...and That's Why I Hate You
• Episode 8: Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things
• Episode 9: I Want You Back (From the Dead)
• Episode 10: Dog Eat Dog
• Episode 11: Going Dutch
• Episode 12: You're the One I Haunt
• Episode 13 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Me Killing You

DVD Extras (4-Disc DVD Set):

• The Making of Being Human (47 minutes) behind the scenes, series clips, interviews with co-execuative producer/director Adam Kane, executive producer/writer Jeremy Carver, actors Meaghan Rath, Sam Huntington, Sam Witwer & Mark Pellegrino, VFX supervisor Mario Rachiele, make-up artist Emilie Gauthier, SFX make-up artist Érik Gosselin, on reaction/connection the UK series, what drew them to the series, the interweaving of what's the urban setting and mid-20's journey, the genre elements & themes and the connection to real world scenarios, the unique friendship and connection between Sally, Aidan & Josh including the actors talking not only about their own characters but their perspective on the characters and their intermingled relationships; the monster rules for the show and how they've incorporating the traits from different cultures into the show plus discussing the expectations of genre fans regarding rules; discussing each of the types of supernatural creatures in the show with vampires, ghost and werewolves including the creature attributes, characters journey, challenges and connection to their supernatural world as well as the visual effects & make up application to create the visuals for characters including ghost make up and extensive footage on werewolf design creation & transformation.
• "What Would You Choose" Featurette (3 minutes) show clips & stills from both the North American & UK versions of the shows with actors Meaghan Rath, Sam Huntington, Sam Witwer responding to which supernatural creature they would choose to be plus brief description of the visual effects creation of their characters into their supernatural, plus actor Mark Pelligrino on the deep humanity of the show and his character; as well as response to how much each of the actors watched of the UK version of the show and the connection between the two shows.
• Interviews with Sam Witwer, Meaghan Rath & Sam Huntington (5 minutes) casual interviews with the cast at a premiere/carpet event chatting about season 1, their characters & journeys, speculation to season 2, reactions from fans. This feature has some really funny moments including casual chatting with some Sam Huntington & Sam Witwer chatting about who in their characters would win in a fight & their impressions of Meaghan Rath. Interviews are interspersed with clips from the show.
• Being Human Panel at San Diego Comic-Con (39 minutes) panel with actors Sam Witwer, Meaghan Rath & Sam Huntington, executive producer/writer Jeremy Carver and co-executive producer/writer Anne Fricke responding to questions including on how they came to the show, working together, where they want their characters to in season 2, how the team came together, the characters arcs and lots of love for Season 2 scripts and hints/questions/reactions on Season 2. I was a little disappointed in this feature, it's from pretty far away, the audio is pretty low in comparison to the other features, people constantly walking in front of the camera, there are no titles to indicate who is speaking but I enjoyed the casual nature of the discussions and the enthusiastic camaraderie especially between the members of cast.
• Trailer
  

Being Human Season 1 (North American) is available on DVD as of November 15, 2011. Check it out over at Amazon.ca & Amazon.com

Shannon's Overall View:
I enjoyed it, and grew to love it as the season progressed
I'll watch it again
I'd strongly recommend it to any paranormal TV fan

Return to Film Reviews or see more DVD Reviews

Originally posted at Movie Moxie on November 24, 2011
© Shannon Ridler, 2011

Haven The Complete First Season (DVD Review)

DVD review of Haven The Complete First Season, supernatural drama TV series based on the Stephen King novella The Colorado Kid


Image: Courtesy of eOne Films.

Haven, Season One (13 Episodes)
Directors: Adam Kane, Rachel Talalay, Tim Sotham, Keith Samples, TW Peacocke, Ken Griotti, Rob Lieberman, Rick Rosenthal, Lee Rose, Mike Rohl, Fred Gerber
Cast: Emily Rose, Lucas Bryant, Eric Balfour, Nicholas Campbell, Richard Donat, John Dunsworth, Mary-Colin Chisholm, Michelle Monteith, Anne Caillon, Maurice Dean Wint, Stephen McHattie
Canada, 2010

Shannon here. I'm cross-posting my review of Haven The Complete First Season (DVD Review). You can see my original post over at Movie Moxie.

Reason to Review: Haven was easily my favourite TV show of Summer 2010. I loved the supernatural tone & charismatic characters, plus it successfully plotted out a long arc mystery as well as episode-by-episode intrigue. Suzie & I chatted about the show episode by episode here at Hexed: Sisterhood of the Supernatural last summer and now I can't wait for Season 2!

Based on "The Colorado Kid" novella by Stephen King, Haven follows FBI Agent Audrey Parker (Emily Rose) who follow a routine case which takes her to Haven, Maine, a place where nothing feels routine. Haven is a small town where we see people afflicted by what they call "The Troubles", which are supernatural-toned powers or phenomena which are often unwanted or denied and defy explanation. The Troubles intrigue Audrey, who tries to unveil the mysteries along with the help (or hindrance) from the locals including cops Nathan (Lucas Byrant) and Chief Wournos (Nicholas Campbell) and importer/smuggler Duke Crocker (Eric Balfour of Skyline, Dinoshark). Looking past the everyday, Audrey also sees a possible personal connection to the sleepy town of Haven.

There are so many things to love about Haven. I love that although so much is shrouded with mystery, it's actually rather sweet. Audrey approaches the problems, or rather The Troubles, with the perspective of trying to not only solve the case but help the person involved. And it's not an either/or but rather a both - she cares and she's wants to solve the case. I love how the show often is very grey, not only visually as it's shot in beautiful Nova Scotia, but also in terms of the history of the characters and the action to deal with the troubles. When you see a show that has cops and a smuggler as the main characters, it feels like it will be black and white in terms of right and wrong, but it isn't. It's grey, misty and moody all the way but maintains a beautiful human spirit and accepting nature, even if there is no understanding. That is so rare, as and it's one of the many reasons I love the show.

The cast is fantastic, and they really bring the world of Haven to life. Emily Rose is brilliant as Audrey who plays the logic card with heart at each step and it's so exciting to see a strong, smart female protagonist in the lead of the series. Eric Balfour is great as the charismatic smuggler Duke and Lucas Byrant really won me over as the cop-who-can't-feel (literally) Nathan. We also have Nicholas Campbell who is great as no nonsense stick in the mud Chief Wournos, who has the knowing-but-distant thing down and is highly quotable to boot! And that's just the main cast. We are also treated to an array of locals including kind hearted medical examiner Eleanor Carr (played by Mary-Colin Chisholm) and the hilarious Haven Herald newspaper brothers Vince & Dave Teagues (played by Richard Donat and John Dunsworth), along with occasional appearances from Audrey's FBI boss Agent Howard (Maurice Dean Wint).

Watching Haven does require a few leaps of faith along the way as the stories can seem far-out, but it's worth it to go along for the ride. Each episode has it's own mystery along with at least a crumb more into arc mythology leading us deeper in to the mysteries of Haven. I love how the show plays both the long arc game and episodic mystery, which gives the viewer curious and wanting more, without feeling like the characters are in imminent peril until the next time we see them. It's a slow burn style is a great parallel to the idea of a small town not taking in newcomers right away, just as the audience watches Audrey try to unravel the mysteries into Haven.

DVD Extras
I had a blast watching the extras on the DVD set, they are a lot of fun and include lots of behind the scenes footage, interviews and 12 commentaries. Great quality, highly enjoyable and one of my favourite things: not much repeat content over the different extras. Yay! Here are the details.

3 Making of Featurettes:

• Welcome to Haven (18 minutes) behind the scenes footage, show clips, interviews with co-executive producer Adam Fratto on how he came to the novella The Colorado Kid, interviews with executive producers & writers Jim Dunn & Sam Ernst, executive producers Shawn Piller, Lloyd Segan, supervising producer Stefani Deoul, director of photography Eric Cayla, production designer Jennifer Stewart, actors Emily Rose, Lucas Bryant, Eric Balfour and Nicholas Campbell on the script, Haven's surrounding mythology, the challenge of the developing into a TV series and production partners, casting, characters, possible locations, the beauty & challenges of the location including Lunenberg, creating Haven including the interiors and working in the Stephen King world.
• VFX of Haven (5 minutes) behind the scenes, show footage and interviews with interviews with executive producer Shawn Piller, visual efects supervisor STARGATE STUDIOS Kris Wood, director of photography Eric Cayla and actor Emily Rosediscussing the use of effects, choice of what kind of effect to use, how they blend them into the real world and lots of show footage of transitions of how the effects pre and post from aerials, day to night, lights - I was so impressed by this and how many of them are really enhancing the environment that I had no idea were actual effects.
• Mythology of Haven (6 minutes) interviews with co-executive producer Adam Fratto, executive producers & writers Jim Dunn & Sam Ernst, producerLloyd Segan, production designer Jennifer Stewart, actors Eric Balfour, Emily Rose and Nicolas Campbell, on how the series is about secrets and the creation of an entire world and the layers and the importance to have the episodes self contained aas well as having a huge amount of mythology, that intentional seeds that are planted along the way, and the actors discuss the experience of shooting when they don't know where their characters or the stories are going, plus the fun of the homages to Stephen King in the episodes and touch on the amount of mythology that has the potential to play out.

6 Behind-the-Scenes Video Blogs

• What is Haven to You? (4 minutes) show clips plus interview responses from actors Emily Rose, Lucas Bryant, Eric Balfour on what the show means to them and working on a Stephen King project, their characters and working together.
• Let the Good Times Roll... (4 minutes) pretty funny behind the scenes with Emily Rose on location with in Chester, Nova Scotia during the filming with a particular look the effects and jokes surrounding the props for.
• Episode 2, Location, Location, Location (2 minutes) on location with Emily Rose at Peggy's Cove (so beautiful! and windy), on the water with Emily Rose & Eric Balfour.
• Emily Rose Q&A (3 minutes) from the SyFy office answering questions on how she is like her character Audrey, the mysteries of her character, possible romance, her favourite episode, what her supernatural power would be.
• Stephen King References in Spiral (3 minutes) selections of the episode Spiral with pop ups explaining Stephen King references.
• Sci Fi Wire Interview with Emily Rose (2 minutes) includes her take on her character, connecting to her character, her response to reading the novella it's based on.

Commentaries (12 Episode Commentaries)
Huge amount of commentaries included for one season and Episode 1 even has 2 different commentaries! All in all, all but three episodes (7, 9 & 10) have a commentary and some even have two (Episodes 1 & 5) which is amazing for a TV on DVD set. Really impressive. I did really enjoy the especially on episode 1 and 5, they have a great, relaxed and fun feel to them with lots of jokes and really shows a sweet camaraderie between everyone. I would recommend watching the entire season and then checking out the commentaries as they will mention now and again references from future episodes and reveals in Season 1 and there even feels like a few quiet hints beyond that as well. There are lots of notations to the series arc & mythology, working on location, how certain scenes and effects were created, the audition process, and stories from the cast & crew working together. The commentaries feel like they are being recorded as the season progresses, as along the way they aren't sure if the show will get picked up for Season 2 (which is has and will start airing in mid-July 2011) until late in the commentaries. Here's a detail of the commentaries:

• Episode 1 Has 2 Commentaries: Commentary 1 is with Cast and Producer Commentary with executive producers Lloyd Segan & Shawn Piller, co-creaters, executive producers & writers Jim Dunn & Sam Ernst and actors Lucas Bryant & Emily Rose and Commentary 2 Director Commentary with episode director Adam Kane.
• Episode 2 Commentary with co-creaters, executive producers & writers Jim Dunn & Sam Ernst.
• Episode 3 Commentary with co-creaters, executive producers & writers Jim Dunn & Sam Ernst and co-executive producer Jose Molina.
• Episode 4 Commentary with co-creater, executive producer and writer Sam Ernst & co-executive producer Jose Molina.
• Episode 5 Has 2 Commentaries: Commentary 1 is a Cast and Producer Commentary with executive producers Lloyd Segan & Shawn Piller, co-creater, executive producer & writer Sam Ernst and actors Eric Balfour, Lucas Bryant & Emily Rose and Commentary 2 is with co-creaters, executive producers & writers Jim Dunn & Sam Ernst.
• Episode 6 Commentary with co-creater, executive producer & writer Jim Dunn
• Episode 8 Commentary co-creaters, executive producers & writers Jim Dunn & Sam Ernst
• Episode 11 Commentary with executive producer Shawn Piller, co-creater, executive producer & writer Sam Ernst and actors Eric Balfour, Lucas Bryant & Emily Rose
• Episode 12 Commentary with consulting producer/writer Charles Ardai and publisher of crime novels including The Colorado Kid
• Episode 13 Commentary Cast and Producer Commentary with executive producer Shawn Piller, co-creaters, executive producers & writers Jim Dunn & Sam Ernst and actors Lucas Bryant & Emily Rose

Plus:

• Cast Interviews with actors Emily Rose (2 minutes), Lucas Bryant (2 minutes) and Eric Balfour (2 minutes) on describing the show, the town of Haven, their characters & their characters relationship to Haven and preparation and challenges of their roles.
• Seasons Two Writers' Room Sneak Peak (4 minutes) interview and discussions with executive producers & writers Jim Dunn & Sam Ernst, head writer/show runner Matt McGuinness and discussions in writers' room (I didn't watch this, I want to be surprized!).
• Season One Trailer

Haven The Complete First Season is available on DVD and Blu-Ray as of June 14, 2011.

Shannon's Overall View:
I loved it
I can't wait to watch it again, and for Season 2 to start
I highly recommend it to fans of supernatural and/or mysteries stories as well as drama fans

© Shannon Ridler, 2011


Lucas Bryant and Emily Rose in HAVEN.


Eric Balfour in HAVEN.