Are Americans Really More Emo When Being Human?

I am giving SyFy's Being Human time to grow on me. It won't be easy to live up to the original Being Human from the UK. So far I'm bit disappointed with some aspects of the US show.  At times it seems like it was hit too hard by the Twilight stick. All the same, I am hoping it will develop into something interesting. Unfortunately, I think the US show has a few obstacles to overcome before it can truly hit its stride.

The first hurdle the US show faces is with those viewers who are familiar with the UK Version. The best way to describe many reactions is what TVTropes refers to as “They changed.  Now it sucks.” In interest of full disclosure, I am often critical of adaptations. I usually like the book better than the movie. I liked Buffy the Vampire Slayer better without Dawn (Buffy's little sister who was added to the show in Season 5). I prefer the animated Avatar: The Last Airbender to The Last Airbender movie. Although I am excited about the upcoming Torchwood (international version), part of me is afraid of what might happen to the show as they try to broaden its appeal. 

On the other hand, some shows that change a good thing do manage to make their own mark. For example, I enjoy the dark comedy True Blood so much that I hardly ever point out the differences between Alan Ball's creation and the original Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mysteries. Showtime's Dexter is worth watching, even though the show is very different from the Dexter books. I love the urban fantasy genre, so I feel the more vampires, ghost and werewolves in mainstream media the better. If Being Human US can find it's own interesting twist on the original series without attempting to broaden it's appeal by lowering the quality, then I will give it my full fan girl support.

The second obstacle facing Being Human US is the deadly emo cloud that hangs over every episode. The angsty voice-overs may be meant to sound pithy, but they often come across as whiny. Part of the "woe is me" problem is the overall melodramatic style that sometimes drops on the viewer, but a larger part of it is the way the characters are presented.  Dark is a good mood for a show about monsters, but we also have to be able to like monsters a little if we are going to embrace them as they try to be human.

Each of the main characters has room for improvement.  The clean-cut hunky style vampire, Aiden ,seems too much like other popular US male vampire characters (Edward, Angel, Stefan) to pull off a good brood.  When he tries it, he just seems superficially sulky or Lestat Lite. Sally, the ghost, has a reason to be sad, but we never fully see the caring or nurturing side of her character.  Josh, the werewolf, is a lost puppy most of the time but he lacks adorkable appeal. Oddly, the most likable character at this point is the werewolf's sister, who is both fully human and minor to the plot.

It is a challenge to make each character fresh and have them show the good as well as the bad points of being supernatural.   Hopefully the show will find a way to give the characters feeling and depth without keeping them all in unending self-absorbed agony. After all, they are monsters not teenagers. Even in the US, 20-somethings do grow up.

The third issue facing the US Being Human is chemistry, or lack of it. The three main characters seem thrown together. At this point they are more like distant roommates than true friends. Each has their own story and each tries to show polite interest in the others. The feeling of genuine friendship is lost. They need to find more warmth and connection. If the characters don't really care about each other, it is harder to care about any of them.

The US Being Human needs more time to grow. The creators may find their own way to tell the story without feeling pressure to make the show “more marketable” based on generalizations about what Americans are supposed to want. It's true that nothing succeeds like success, but it is also true that mechanical imitations of things that are already popular tend to fall flat. Luckily, there are some good points to the US version of the show. I will keep watching to see what they do with it.