BEING HUMAN
“ALL OUT OF BLOOD”

Season 2, Episode 3

Review by Andy Greene

A show about ghosts, werewolves, and vampires (groan) based on a BBC show that still runs airing on Syfy. That has disaster written all over it. Instead, Being Human is one of the best shows on television. Just three episodes into season two, and it’s clear the show isn’t going anywhere. This week’s “All Out of Blood” is written by Chris Dingess (Reaper), directed by BH veteran Paolo Barzman and as we’ve come to expect, packs an emotional wallop with a shocking twist.

Note: If you haven’t seen this season’s premiere, skip down to the bottom to avoid spoilers.

The show’s central core is about how these monsters attempt and routinely fail at being human (hey, that’s the name of our show), and Aidan is always at odds with his hunger for blood and his desire to be a better man. In this week’s episode, Aidan (Sam Witwer) continues to see newcomer Julia (Natalie Brown), a woman about to start work at their hospital. He struggles not to devour her every time they meet, yet his feelings for her and his vegetarian diet stay his fangs, barely. To make it more difficult, the hospital he works at has finally amped up security due to the massive amounts of blood routinely being stolen from the premises. Video cameras presumably wouldn’t capture his reflection, but now only a supervisor has the key cards to get in to the blood, so Aidan’s stash is running out. There’s probably a simple solution here, but the guy’s starving and delirious, making Julia in danger of becoming his next meal.

While Aidan battles with himself in his burgeoning relationship and seeks out alternative methods to feed, Josh (the great Sam Huntington) and Nora (Kristen Hager) prepare for their second “turn” together (but their first when they know that Nora is, in fact, a werewolf). Sam has purchased two neighboring storage sheds and enlisted Sally to keep an eye on them. Nora, as the full moon approaches, has more and more disdain for this “safe” plan, wanting to be free and to explore the wolf side of her, with or without Josh. Josh is torn on whether or not to tell her that she’s a killer (she ate vampire heavy Hegeman in her first furry go round) to convince her to follow the plan.

Sally (Meaghan Rath) continues to figure out what the hell to do with all her free time. While werewolves and vampires have been done to death (nailed it!), the ghost mythology is relatively untapped in television or otherwise. I don’t count Medium or Ghost Whisperer and neither should you. As such, I always find myself the most interested in what the writers have planned for Sally and the ghost mythology they are slowly constructing. This week, Sally meets Zoe, a nurse who can see her due to her second sight. Zoe is a cranky medium, but helps ghosts be reincarnated in the newborn babies in the maternity ward. Creepy and controversial stuff. Sally immediately becomes drawn to the idea, and tries to convince Zoe of her worthiness for reincarnation. This leads to one of the weirder ‘job’ interviews ever with the whole gang, more insights into the supernatural, and another mild epiphany for Sally on life after death.

While barely in this week’s installment, fans of Dollhouse will recognize the newest addition to the cast, Dichen Lachman as Suren, the new head of vampires in Boston and a key figure in Aidan’s tortured past. Add Julia to the mix and you have perhaps a potent love triangle and more trouble for Aidan, and it’s exciting to fathom the possibilities, because you know the writers won’t shy away from anything.

More than the action and the horror, BH is about the friendship between its trio of monsters, and it’s a real treat watching these actors develop together. They get better with each episode, as their chemistry grows and their camaraderie becomes more rewarding to watch, almost to sitcom-like levels. Despite all of the horrifying things that routinely happen, this is a funny show, and this episode was particularly hilarious in terms of banter. Any show that has a Dawson’s Creek reference and a guy drinking blood out of a refrigerator deserves to be praised. The fact that an episode is funny when a massive, potentially heartbreaking twist occurs right before the third act that will warp the relationships between Aidan, Julia, Josh and Nora is a testament to the writers.

I’ll admit I have not watched the original BBC show, so I have no inclination of how much of the plot and pace of the source material they borrow any given week, but I know good television when I see it. Most shows drag out love stories, prolong reveals till finales or sweeps, while moving at a snail’s pace to keep the show’s foundation unaffected and its audience hanging on for way too long. BH does the opposite: so many unexpected things happen in each episode that fundamentally change the characters and the direction of the show, perhaps the perfect tonic to an audience likely fatigued by vampires and werewolves. But with the consistently excellent writing, acting and plot twists that Syfy and its creators infuses into Being Human every week, I’m in no danger of growing tired of this show.

If you’ve been reading this site recently, you know that we’re a bit crazy for MONOCYTE, IDW’s current bizarre feast of sci-fi horror by Menton3 and Kasra Ghanbari. You also know that we love us some 30 DAYS OF NIGHT and CRIMINAL MACABRE, two fabulous ongoing series courtesy of horror maven Steve Niles. So FM is incredibly happy to report that Niles and Menton3 plan to collaborate on a new project that will have monster fans everywhere drooling into their vials of fake blood.

The project? THE NOSFERATU WARS. That’s right, the writer who originally conceived of 30 DAYS OF NIGHT because he “hated vampires” is about to destroy mainstream conceptions of wimpy vampirism once again, and he’s enlisted the aid of the visionary Menton3 to help him do it.

Says Niles, “I’ve been waiting for years for an artist like Menton3 to come along. He’s an original. He gets it. I couldn’t be more excited to be working with him and I hope NOSFERATU WARS is the first of many dark, twisted projects we do together.”

The promotional images, including this new exclusive, look predictably amazing. Put us on the excited-enough-to-pee-ourselves list, please.

Synopsys (courtesy Marvel.com):
Blade’s mother was bitten by a vampire while pregnant, imbuing her unborn son with vampire strength and a thirst for blood, but without the vulnerability to sunlight. A master of weaponry with a desire to avenge the death of his mother, Blade finds himself in Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Cambodia in an effort to take down the evil villain, Deacon Frost. With vampire hunter Makoto at his side, they will stop at nothing to destroy Existence, a vampire organization with roots deeply embedded in Asia.

Synopsis (courtesy Burn Hand Film Productions):
“Fresh from seminary school a new Reverend embarks on his first parish. A small, low maintenance Chapel based in the quiet idyllic setting of a quiet country village. While on the surface the village seems to be a peaceful parish, with perfect residents, soon it becomes apparent that something more sinister lurks beneath the façade of a local businessman. On a wet, cold night a mysterious girl visits The Reverend at the chapel. Cold and upset she is welcomed in warmly, soon it becomes apparent that her visit is not for sanctuary but to deliver a message, a message in the form of a deep, bloody bite… Awoken with an unknown, uncontrollable thirst a confused Reverend can find no evidence of the girl from the night before, with nothing but the thirst and memory of the bite, The Reverend embarks on his mandate, to clean up the village and the neighbouring estate, by preaching or feasting. With striking visuals from one of Britain’s rising directors, a stellar cast of horror legends, packed with action sequences, gore, Vampires and chicks and an original story loosely based on the Biblical book of Job. The Reverend promises to leave you thirsty for more…”

The film has no US release date set yet. Stills and trailer below…

I finally broke down and bought a Kindle this year and no the world didn’t end. In fact I am very happy I did. I will first and foremost always love the feel of a real book; the fragrance, the crisp clean pages being turned and the weight of it gently held in my hands.

The Kindle has allowed me to read the back catalogs of many authors I love that I wouldn’t have otherwise been able afford to do. Plus, a lot of publishers and authors are sending me Kindle books for review, which is a lot better than PDF’s. As I had to print the PDF books out. So all in all, I believe the two mediums can co-exist in my life.

Now, I would like to thank all the publishers and authors that sent and continue to send me review copies. It is greatly appreciated as I seem to have a never ending supply of books to read.

I would also like to thank my readers who continue to follow my reviews, as well as follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

Without all of you this would not be worth it. I do what I can to give back to the genre that has kept me entertained for many a year, kept me sane, got me through some very tough times and continues to be my entertainment medium of choice. BOOKS RULE!!!!

I do have to say that 2011 was a banner year for horror fiction in my opinion. I read some simply amazing books this year. What follows is a list of every book I read during 2011. I read 64 books of varying lengths along with various magazines, newspapers, on-line articles etc. As you can tell reading is a big part of my life and who I am.

I probably started another 20-30 books or so,  but for some reason or another I didn’t like them. There are various reasons for this; I just didn’t like the story, poor spelling, grammar and punctuation, not my type of book etc. I will not read a book I don’t like just for the sake of doing a review on it. I have a huge TBR pile and don’t want to waste time on something I am not enjoying. I am not saying that they were all bad books I just didn’t like them and as we all know we can’t like everything.

I will also be publishing my Top Books of 2011 List in the next week or so, once I finalize my selections.

Garden’s Of Night – Greg F. Gifune
Lord Of The Mountain – William Ollie
Valley Of The Scarecrow – Gord Rollo
A Matrix Of Angels – Christopher Conlon
Regret – Gabrielle Faust
What The Night Knows – Dean Koontz
As I Embrace My Jagged Edges – Lee Thompson
The Bone Tree – Christopher Fulbright
Alice On The Shelf – Bill Gauthier
The Disappeared – David B. Silva
Willy – Robert Dunbar
The Pumpkin Man – John Everson
Fifteen Minutes – William Ollie
Dreams The Ragman – Greg F. Gifune
Vampire Hunters 2 – Scott M. Baker
It Drinks Blood – J.F. Gonzalez
The Gaki & Other Hungry Spirits- Stephen Mark Rainey
Bloodrush – Bryan Smith
Frankenstein- Dead City - Dean Koontz
Arena Of The Wolf – Jim Gavin
Midnights Angels – Tony Richards
Hunting The Moon Tribe – Darvid Arganoff
Heart Of Glass – David Winnick
Ursa Major – John R. Little
A View From The Lake – Greg F. Gifune
The Blackest Heart – Vince Churchill
The Five – Robert McCammon
Predatory Instinct – Michel McBride
Descent – Sandy Deluca
The Red Empire – Joe McKinney
The Kult by Shaun Jeffrey
Halloween Spirits – Edited by Lisa Morton (Anthology)
Little Boy Lost – TM Wright
Voyeurs of Death – Shaun Jeffrey
Kingdom Of Shadows – Greg F. Gifune
Martyrs & Monsters – Robert Dunbar
Valley Of The Dragons – K.H. Koehler
Iron Butterflies Rust – Lee Thompson
Beautiful Hell – Jeffrey Thomas
Planet Of The Dinosaurs – K.H. Koehler
Sea Of Serpents – K.H. Koheler
Into Hell – William Ollie
Midnight Solitaire – Greg F. Gifune
Dead Of Winter – Brian Moreland
Take The Long Way Home – Brian Keene
The Creeping Kelp – William Meikle
Kayla & The Devil – Brian Smith
Blood Harvest – James A. Moore
Fangboy – Jeff Strand
The Night Eternal – Hogan  – Del Toro
Subject Seven – James A. Moore
Verland; The Transformation – B.E. Scully
Catching Hell – Greg F. Gifune
Vampire Hunters 3 – Scott M. Baker
11/22/63 – Stephen King
Borealis – Ronald Malfi
Waiting Out Winter – Kelli Owen
Heretics – Greg F. Gifune
When The Leaves Fall – Paul Melniczek
Apartment 7 – Greg F. Gifune
Darkness Falls – Allan Leverone
In Poes Shadow – Anthology
Blindspot – Michael McBride
Where Darkness Dwells – Glen Krisch

A power surge from a nearby transformer? Spontaneous combustion? What exactly happened to poor Dennis Gabriel? The Detective in charge had the body taken to the lab and, after hours of rigorous tests and inspection, several interesting details were discovered.

Firstly, coroners found that Dennis Gabriel was not 34 years old, he was more like 1,427 years old. Furthermore, evidence pointed to the conclusion that Mr. Gabriel was not as recently deceased as they originally thought, his body had been dead since roughly 618 A.D.

They also discovered an ornate 17^th century pocket watch clutched tightly in his now ashen left hand. The watch was running precisely one hour fast.

Figure it out yet?

Yes. Dennis Gabriel was a vampire. Every year dozens of fanged fiends meet a similar fate. The culprit? Daylight Savings Time.

DST is a carefully thought out practice that was enacted in 1918 in an effort to save the lives of the solar-sensitive by adjusting time twice a year to account for the differing daylight hours between winter and summer. Unfortunately, no process is perfect and careless disregard of said time change can cause serious injury or, in the case of vampires, death.

So how do you protect yourself against such dangers? Update yourself on the most current DST practices. Most recently we experienced the Autumn “Fall Back” DST, where upon 3:00am Sunday morning became 2:00am. (NOTE: Remember that this happens only once. If you continue to change your clock back an hour every time 3:00 rolls around again, you will create a time paradox and will cease to exist in our timeline).

So buy yourself an automatically adjusted clock, get an extra tube of sunscreen to keep in your back pocket, and stay informed! You’d be surprised how such seemingly small efforts can help to end the epidemic and spare the lives of thousands of Vampires, Gremlins and Gingers.

Coming Up Next: A WARNING TO HUMANS – Daylight Savings Time also causes night to come an hour early; be on the lookout for nocturnal beasts and creatures seeking to devour your flesh.

If you like gore, comedy, zombies, werewolves, vampires (of course you do, why else would you be here?) then you should definitely make sure to check out MTV’s DEATH VALLEY if you haven’t already. It’s a horror/mockumentary showcasing the efforts of the Undead Task Force of the LAPD. Sample the show with some clips below:

 
New episodes of DEATH VALLEY air Monday nights at 10:30pm EST on MTV.

Check out the extended-gore trailer for MTV’s upcoming series DEATH VALLEY. The series premieres August 29th 10:30/9:30C.

A year ago, vampires, werewolves and zombies mysteriously descended upon the streets of California’s San Fernando Valley. Death Valley is the dark comedy that follows the cops that capture the monsters, and the camera crew that captures the cops. 

Follow the horrific yet comedic exploits of the newly formed Undead Task Force (UTF), a division of the LAPD created to combat the emergence of monsters in the San Fernando Valley. Death Valley showcases the outrageous and courageous men and women working the toughest beat in the US: Death Valley. 

Balancing dark humor with horror, the show is built upon cold-blooded conflict and character driven comedy, following the cops bent on keeping the streets safe from the presence of the paranormal. Documenting each case of zombie, vampire and werewolf encounter is the daring camera crew that is embedded within the task force, quickly revealing that the monster problem goes much deeper than anyone could have possibly imagined. 

Full of subtext about living in today’s insane world, Death Valley is at its core a fun, non-stop thrill ride featuring chases, hardcore kills, and extraordinary creatures. The zombies are disgusting, menacing and brutal, the vampires are dangerous, smart and powerful and the werewolves are beastly and insane. From “blood-for-sex” prostitution busts to undead traffic jams, every call from dispatch will take you to a place you’ve never been: right to the bleeding heart of Death Valley.