George. Often purported (both by fans and by his friends in-universe) to be a very sweet and compassionate guy … but it's frightening how often he exhibits a tendency towards abusive alpha-male behaviour, including explosions of rage, jealousy, belittling his romantic partners and threatening violence. Can we really blame it all on the wolf? We never get to see what he was like before the curse, so it's hard to say, but Nina (for one) doesn't exhibit any such changes in behaviour once she becomes a werewolf.
Awesome Music: Dirge by Death In Vegas near the end of 3.5
Also "Girlfriend In A Coma" by The Smiths in 1x3 and "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlife" and "Too Sick To Pray" by Alabama 3 in 1x4.
Johnny Cash's cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" at the end of the first series' Episode 1 is not only a fantastic song choice, it encapsulates the mood and tone of the episode, the characters and the series to come.
Detroit Social Club's cover of "God's Gonna Cut You Down" from 3.7. It's perfect for the episode.
Any time music is used in this series it is awesome. Whoever does the sound editing is a genius.
Ass Pull: At the end of Season 2, Annie coming back briefly from the other side to save everyone from Kemp.
Additionally, Herrick being resurrected (fully-formed, despite Cara saying that there were only "bones" left) by Cara and Daisy drenching the ground with blood because "blood heals." One can accept blood healing ill or weak vampires, but raising them from the dead? And why the hell didn't Daisy feel like doing this for her beloved Ivan?
Annie gets Lia to give up her revenge mission against Mitchell by essentially guilting her out of it, at which point the vengeful ghost rather easily drops it.
In Series 4, we learn that Werewolf blood is not only toxic, but highly corrosive to Vampires. At what point was this ever a concern before hand and how many Vampires threatened to drain George dry despite knowing he was a Werewolf? Made further strange as if this really is such a huge weakness, why didn't someone like McNair weaponise it?
In Series 4, George somehow managing to trick his body into partially transforming without a full-moon, something never before hinted at being possible in the series. Slightly justified as it did require a lot of effort on his part and he dies shortly afterwards of major organ failure suffered from halting the change mid-transformation.
The series finale. All the protagonists literally become human (maybe) despite the title of the series being a more metaphorical idea.
Broken Base: The series finale is swiftly causing one. A third of the fandom believes that the ending really was that they became human and are now living happy lives. Another third believes that that they're in some sort of heaven or purgatory. The last part believes that Hatch trapped them in an alternate reality in which they only think that they're living happy lives.
The Series 5 DVD has confirmed that Hatch's defeat was just an illusion, although they do find out and vow to go back and kill him for real.
Seasons 4 and 5 are this for many viewers. Some contend that there's simply no show without Mitchell and George, who die off in the season 3 finale and season 4 opener, respectively, and it's the final nail in the coffin when Annie moves on at the end of season 4. Others argue that the show suffered a massive quality drop in season 3 and 4, and thus it either isn't worth sticking out until season 5, or season 5 is an improvement over the preceding two season. Another camp supports the show as a whole and advises viewing season 5 as its own spin-off and should be judged on its own merits, with season 4 serving as an introduction to it.
Annie and Mitchell's romance in season 3 is either an excellent move for the show or an awkward mess that shouldn't have happened.
William Herrick, John Mitchell's sire, is a truly nasty piece of work. Initially hiding under a Friendly Neighborhood Vampire facade, Mitchell learns the truth when he sees that Herrick has kept a larder for the vampires consisting of homeless people and teenage runaways where they are fed on relentlessly with no time to recover. When Mitchell protests, Herrick puts him firmly in the "minus" column and decides to kill him and everyone he loves. Later, Herrick casually slaughters a police station after he is resurrected and regains his memory. Before this, he stabs his pregnant nurse in the back, having considered sparing her but opting not to as he doesn't wish anyone to think he's gone soft. Even before he became a vampire, Herrick was a piece of work and was turned by his sire Hettie while trying to sell her to a brothel. Hettie looks ten.
"The Graveyard Shift" & "A Spectre Calls": Alfie Kirby is the ghost of a Serial Killer whose favored method of killing was to seduce women by pretending to be great with kids and then murder the families once they trusted him. He turns the housemates against each other through manipulation and shatters Annie the ghost her into pieces, before performing a celebratory Happy Dance and immediately trying to kill a baby.
"The Old Ones" prequel, "Making History", & "The War Child": Mr. Snow is the de facto leader of The Old Ones, the ruling class of vampires. Snow is so ancient he claims to have looked upon "Pharaohs and the son of the carpenter". First introduced when he forces a ship's crew to feed him a luckless young man with the chilling message "someone or everyone", Snow planned to launch a full war to enslave humanity and in the timeline where he isn't stopped, personally drained the British Prime Minister on live TV. Snow would preside over a regime where humans were enslaved and drained, all with nothing more than cheery good humor.
Fan Nickname: Alongside the Canadian remake getting the nickname "Being Human US," this show picked up the nickname "Being Human UK," to differentiate both from the US version and the 1994 film starring Robin Williams.
Harsher in Hindsight: McNair tells Nina that he's surprised vampires haven't attacked either her or George, something that frequently happens to him and Tom, and guesses that it's because they're under the protection of a famous vampire, Mitchell. She ends up getting murdered by vampires not long after Mitchell's death.
Ho Yay: Between George and Mitchell, and later Hal and Tom.
Cutler seems rather fixated on Hal, and desperate for his approval.
When Herrick returns from the dead, Nina ensures that Mitchell doesn't kill him, as if his amnesia somehow made him a different person, while Mitchell argues that it was only a matter of time before Herrick went back to being the danger he always was. Unsurprisingly, Herrick does revert back to his original self (albeit inadvertently from Mitchell's actions at the massacre) and starts killing innocents again, and attacks Nina, which makes George blame Mitchell,as if it's his fault.
It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: A common complaint of season 5 was that the dynamics of the three main characters were about the same: a female plucky ghost who has romantic tension with the brooding vampire who might fall back on darker ways, rounded out by a Nice Guy werewolf who has Ho Yay with the vampire. Though supporters of the season argue that there's enough of a difference to make it interesting.
To put his massacre in perspective the train alone would put him in the top ten of Real Life mass murderers of all time and there were plenty of other people in the institute that he murdered.
Tully trying to attack Annie.
Kemp murdering his own subordinate with his bare hands, using his death to force Annie to go through the door.
Cutler killing Alex and releasing a werewolf in a busy club.
Narm: Herrick rising out of the ground in the season 2 finale looks downright goofy.
One-Scene Wonder: Action-movie obsessed vampire Kane from series 4, who constantly tries to spout cool one-liners. Including calling his fists "Shock" and "Awe".
More of a one episode wonder, but the hospital chaplain from the last episode of series one, due to the guy rivaling Mitchell as king of the Deadpan Snarkers.
Chaplain: If you're non-believers, that's fine. We can just sit together for a few minutes of quiet contemplation.
George: Contemplation about what?
Chaplain: The fiery oblivion that awaits all atheists?
The chaplain returned in the penultimate episode of season two, where he delivered a "The Reason You Suck"Speech that accidentally revealed the identity of Doctor Jaggat.
Ron the Death Eater: Poor Nina got this treatment from a portion of the fans during series 3.
Special Effect Failure: The werewolf transformation sequences were always terrifyingly well done, however the first series was let down by the rather pathetic looking post-transformation werewolf. Luckily the design was changed for the second series and became a lot more impressive.
Season 4 Episode 8 really drives the Horror Hunger vampires in this universe have to deal with when the normally Neat Freak Hal finds himself compelled to lap up congealed maggot ridden blood from the floor.
Strangled by the Red String: Mitchell and Lucy in S2 positively reeks of this. He declares she's the love of his life despite not even knowing her last name... And this isn't even the first time he's done it, as he did the same thing with another girl decades before.
Detractors of Mitchell and Annie's relationship see the relationship as this, citing that, despite the occasional lukewarm tension in the first two season, their relationship comes off far more as brother/sister than romantic, and their romantic chemistry seeming forced.
The Scrappy: Nina veers into this territory in Series 3.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Due to both Sinead Keenan and Russell Tovey leaving the series, Nina and George's death in Series 4 ended up being rather rushed, amounting to Nina suffering an offscreen Bus Crash between series and George performing a Heroic Sacrifice in the first episode. The latter is particularly unfortunate, as due to Eve later changing history so her infant self died at the end of Series 4, this ultimately rendered George's death a Senseless Sacrifice.
Alex worrying about becoming insane if she doesn't go through her door before too long. It would have been such a twist for the ghost to be the one who loses control and worries about the monster inside of them, yet they decided to make Hal the one to fall back on his darker ways.
Wangst: Used for very comical effect over Mitchell and George's disproportionate reaction to the scheduling and missing of the latest episode of The Real Hustle. Perhaps a Take That Us by BBC Three?
What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?: Despite all the supernatural goings-on the show is actually a symbolic look at people trying to reacclimate into normal society after events that turned their worlds upside down. Mitchell is a recovering drug addict with severe mood swings, George is HIV positive with rage issues, and Annie is a former shut-in trying to reconnect with the real world after leaving an abusive relationship. The metaphors become especially prevalent during season 2, when Mitchell begins a blood addicts support group, George accidentally infects his girlfriend, and Annie, so long invisible to normal people, becomes giddy at the prospect of working at the pub down the street. Given Mitchell's ultimate decision to have George kill him to prevent further relapses, this makes his metaphor a little awkward as it's portrayed as the right thing to do.
