#weerewolf

Borthday gift for my co worker I did a few days ago

Werewolf

 The first werewolf--known now only as Alcmene--was cursed by her witch lover out of jealousy. After being told of Alcmene's affair, the witch hexed her to "become the bitch she was," turning her into a wolf. The result was a human/wolf hybrid monster, which terrorized the villages. The beast became a boogeyman, used to warn townsfolk from wandering the forests alone and to keep children on their best behaviors. That is until a young maiden with silver hair came upon her one night. Taking pity on an unlovable monster, Noemi calmed the werewolf's mental anguish and savagery and managed to befriend the beast.

Noemi found a way to pull the human out of the animal, returning Alcmene to her human form. Though they both knew the monster only lurked beneath the surface, Noemi had given Alcmene peace for the first time in years. If only that peace was to last...

Noemi's people worshiped Selene, goddess of the moon, and made offerings to the deity every 18 years, and on Noemi's 18 name day, she was chosen as the sacrifice to the goddess. Her death, which had to be drawn out three days over the full moon's reign, broke Alcmene. Succumbing to her despair, her rage, and her heartbreak, Alcmene transformed into the beast and decimated the village in Noemi's name.

US Being Human Season one: Review/rant

 Although not a film after watching this I really wanted to just get down my thoughts about the first episode. From now on the us version will be BHUS and the uk version will be BHUK.

The Vampire:

Aiden played by Sam Witwer.

Changes in the folk law used in the series really bugged me when it came to the vampire. In BHUK I feel that they played up or down aspects of the mythology really well in creating a really believable real life vampire, they could not be captured on tape or seen in a mirror, they could go out in the sun, they could eat food, in fact Mitchel (the BHUK vampire played by Aiden Turner) loves to cook, and eat (especially garlic!), the vampires drank blood not to live but because they were addicted to it (similar in BHUS but not the same), like a drug, donated hospital blood was not palatable because it was no longer living and so tasted wrong, they were immortal, they were stronger than humans, their eyes turned black and they had fangs but that’s about it…

…so cue the Americanised vampire. He doesn’t eat, at all, in fact he can’t, he lives on blood, mostly donated hospital blood, but sometimes he slips up and kills someone (and yet he acts high when he drinks…which makes no sense…) he can still go out in the light, but he can also see himself in the mirror. His eyes turn black, and he has fangs, just like the BHUK vampire. But check this out, he can wipe people’s memories and read their thoughts! …wow, how convenient!

I know changes have to be made in order to get a uk product to take in America, but the vampires from BHUK were awesome, now to give them these super powers seems so…over the top, and really un-necessary, and its really putting them in a similar vein to Vampire diaries and True Blood, don’t get me wrong, I love True Blood, but these are not supposed to be terrifying creatures of the night, they are supposed to be almost human. Also there is a really great story line in BHUK that stems partly from not being able to see vampires in mirrors, which…is completely lost here.

As for the man himself he just seems incredibly dull and brooding, much of the appeal of Mitchel (BHUK vamp) is that over and above his ‘vampiness’ there is also a really light hearted side to him, and that’s just not present in BHUS episode 1. 

 The Ghost

Sally being played by Meaghan Rath seems to have been cast largely because she looks like Annie played by Lanora Crichlow (the BHUK Ghost). My main gripe with this character other than the appalling dialogue she has been given and her tendency to just talk about what her character is like rather than to actually have some characterisation, she just seems really underdeveloped… also it really bugs me that she can’t touch anything….anything. In the pilot of BHUK  a lot of the humour came from the Annie character then played by a different actress messing with the others belongings…ie changing the order of their books/cd’s and nailing a chicken to the wall. It just seems like a shame that they have limited Sally in such a way.

She also lacks the kind of perky innocent optimism that Annie very often had, instead just coming across as a bit of a mental whining clingy bint…hopefully that will improve.

The Werewolf:

Josh, played by Sam Huntingdon is, quite frankly perfect for this roll, out of the three leads he is the only one that I would say was really really suited to what he is doing. Ok, so sometimes his dialogue seems a little forced, the “Welcome my lady” line being a very good example of the terrible writing this guy has had to endure. I assume that section was to replace the UK version where the werewolf George played by Russell Tovey comments on a fellow orderly changing her shampoo from vanilla to mint, then asking her rather innocently “Have you got a hole” before he realises what he is saying. It’s an incredibly funny and endearing scene that does not seen to translate well into Joshes mouth, the scene needed a lot more set up for it to have come off well…which it did not, shame.

All in all out of the main three Josh stands head and shoulders above the rest, and if it was not for him, I would honestly probably give up on BHUS and stick to the original!

The Vampire Cop:

I can’t do an over view of the characters without mentioning Bishop, played by Mark Pellegrion. I really loved the way he plays this character, it is in every way the perfect American Hennrik played by Jason Watkins. He plays the spurned fatherly figure trying to win back his son really well, and has been afforded possibly the best writing of the lot, I’m looking forward to seeing more of this guy!

 The Story:

It seems so far to be much the same as HUK, although they have combined bits of the uk pilot and first episodes together to hurry the story along slightly. This has however lead to the unfortunate degrading in character development over the course of that first episode. Characters just very often talking about themselves to other characters in a way of educating the audience about what they are like, having at one stage two of the leads literally tell one another “I don’t cook […] I don’t clean” “I’m OCD”, it just comes across as incredibly lazy story telling.

 Other quick points that I would like to gripe about:

BHUK has an awesome eagle sound when the vampire’s eyes turn black, it makes it very menacing, BHUS has the sound of their fangs coming out, which makes it sound very stereotypical.

BHUK has a better and more ingenious use of music, so far lacking in BHUS

BHUS sets seem far to clean and screen friendly, the BHUK house seems much more claustrophobic, and real.

BHUS had no mention of the men with the rope and the sticks, which was one of the eeriest bits in the pilot of BHUK.

  All in all I would not say that BHUS lives up to its UK counterpart, bit are good, but on the whole it comes across as quite poorly written and poorly acted in some parts. There are good things about it, and I can almost certainly guarantee that in the US it will do very well. But to anyone out there who might like to watch it I would have to say, watch the UK version first! Then turn off your brain and watch the US version, it’s a fine piece of entertainment but nowhere near as clever, interesting, sinister or awesome as its UK cousin.

…oh I also really hated the stupid “Twilight” reference…pointless.

  AppaAteMomo