Synopsis: Stevie asks Sally to kill him; and Aidan takes Kat out on a date, during which he’s overwhelmed by memories of his wife and son.
My recap: Ultimately, this show is a tragedy with so many acts that it makes you wonder what trials and tribulations will this trio have to go through before they reach their inevitable end.
Yes, we saw both Aidan and Josh break through their respective walls in order to move to the next step that will enable them to happily function as supernatural creatures. For Aiden, it is remembering his marriage and the birth of his son in order to understand the gift of what Kat is willing and openly giving him… her love. For Josh it is trying to connect to his inner wolf and understanding that his plight can be used for good, i.e. killing Stevie (upon Stevie’s request) in order to stop himself from going on a killing spree to feed his need for flesh. Unfortunately, Josh learned that there was deal struck between the vampires that allowed Nora and Josh to be safe from the vampires, yet all other weres were fair game. Liam even…
But, it is Sally that makes us shake our head in pity. Here is a character that strived to be a viable member of this little family. Yet, time and time again she comes up against these obstacles that put those that she loves in danger. This time it is Nick and Stevie, but she knows that her current issues stem from Donna, who is working her black magic for some unknown reason. When their doors popped up, it led them to Donna. This Donna, also has holds the key to her soul. Will she, Josh and Nora have a shot at saving it?
Next time: Sally continues to deteriorate as Josh and Nora search for Donna the witch.
Last Bite is back with news on the new shows that will be popping up on your TV in the 2013-2014 TV season (i.e. Dracula, Gothica, The Originals, The Selection, The Witches of East End and more…) and the latest news on upcoming movies (Star Wars, Blood Sisters and Divergent).
For SBLC, Maria reviews Warm Bodies the book and Kelly gives us a major hint on who Sookie may pick at the end of the Sookie Stackhouse series.
Plus, you’ll hear the latest news and spoilers on your favorite shows!
You can download the podcast here, via iTunes or via the Zune Marketplace.
Network Blurb: The new season of Being Human picks up 15 months after the events of last season’s riveting finale which ended with Aidan buried alive as punishment from vampire leader Mother, Sally lost in a state of limbo, and Josh’s plot to kill Ray, his werewolf “maker,” endangering Nora instead.
My review: You can clearly see the potential for this season in this episode, but barring Aidan’s plight and the introduction of a witch named Donna… the first episode paled in comparison to last year’s season-ender.
Aidan’s story arc seems to be the one to watch this season. We see a creature that has spent 15 months in a coffin, starving but refusing to die. What saved him was this alternate universe he created in his mind that allowed him to interact with the two people he loves the most, Josh and Sally. He is pulled out of his grave by a guy trying to make a quick buck by selling vampire blood. We come to find out, from this guy, that Aidan is practically the last of his kind. All the other vampires (including the dreaded Mother) have died or have fallen ill due to the dreaded flu, yes you heard me right. I guess the avian flu kills vampires. Who knew? Any who, one of the Amish vampires, who is infected, comes and busts Aidan out so he can save both himself and his brothers. Unfortunately, there is something different about Aidan’s blood (remember when he took a bite of Josh? Could that have changed his genetic makeup?) because this one brother took a bite of him and nothing happened and we saw poor Aidan crash into a pole and in a ditch.
Josh and Nora spend their time looking for a psychic to get Sally back. We also learn that Josh killed Ray in order to protect Nora in doing so he got his humanity back. This leaves Nora as the Werewolf and she is handling this very well, where Josh has become an utter basket case that makes me want to change the channel every time he is on. On the upside, they come across this witch named Donna. She is the real deal and with the assistance of Rays’s heart they successfully resurrect Sally. The thing is, she is not a zombie and she is not human. The caveat is that she must not cross paths with anything from her past.
Sally’s storyline was kind of lackluster because as expected she is trying to make her way back to Josh and Aidan. Yet, she and her two friends keep hitting a brick wall. Until Donna comes into the picture, once the door opens for Sally, Sally forces her friends to walk through the door. Yes, that means these two guys are waking up (as zombie looking creatures) in their coffins, this will end terribly.
The coolest part of the episode involved Donna. At the very end of the episode she finds Ray, but what is she going to do with him?
Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the season gets better and better with each new episode.
If you are a fan of Syfy’s Being Human, like I am, than you are on pins and needles about the upcoming premiere on January 14th. I was lucky enough to get on a press call for Being Human’s Anna Fricke and Sam Witwer and I’ve written up my notes for your perusal.
There are quite a bit of spoilers, so please tread lightly…
First up, the following is the official blurb from Syfy regarding the upcoming season of Being Human:
The new season of Being Human picks up 15 months after the events of last season’s riveting finale which ended with Aidan buried alive as punishment from vampire leader Mother, Sally lost in a state of limbo, and Josh’s plot to kill Ray, his werewolf “maker,” endangering Nora instead. Season 3 features new and returning guest stars including Mark Pellegrino, Amy Aquino, Xander Berkeley, Bobby Campo and Kyle Schmid.
Everything on the show becomes upended and everyone almost becomes human. Will fans be upset with it?
SW: No, it was fantastic. You want to show to evolve. This is definitely the season of the characters that will allow you to know the characters.
AF: With great pain, comes great humor. But being human does not work out for these characters, if it does work out than the show ends.
Will Aiden go after Mother and be a better friend after Suren’s death?
SW: Yes. Aiden and Suren’s relationship was destructive and he comes out of it being mindful of what he has done to his roommates.
AF: Gong after Mother was something that Aiden initially wanted to do once he went into the ground, but things have changed now that he is out of the grave.
Is there a possibility of Aiden and Sally becoming more than just friends?
SW: Sally and Aiden have been roommates for a while and because of something that happens they interact in an unexpected way. And it is the first time they ever considered it as a possibility and we will see a lot of strange and funny scenes between Aiden and Sally in the third season.
AF: The writers are very careful about the relationships between the characters because you want to be protective of these relationships that the characters have.
We learn that there is a plague killing off vampires, will Aiden have a dilemma with saving the vampires?
SW: This is a huge conflict, because even if you hate a certain group, you do not necessarily want them to be wiped off the face of the earth. Hence his feelings of loyalty are challenged and we see him make decisions that are questionable.
Will Bishop be back like the character came back in the British version?
AF: Mark Pellegrino as Bishop will live on in flashbacks.
SW: I have pressured AF on bringing Mark Pellegrino back, but Anna has exercised restraint because she wants something logical to come of his re-appearance.
Regarding Aiden in the first episode:
SW: Aiden comes out of the grave quickly and is not in the 1st episode that much and he is not like he was last season and he definitely has changed.
AF: The nature of everyone’s humanity is peeled back like an onion and as a result it is a very complicated season.
SW: The things that happen to the characters are very thematically consistent and by the end of the season it is like a freight train as the season builds its momentum.
Nora is officially a regular on the show and her storyline has its own course and it adds to the show.
SW: This is the 1st time he has had a chance to develop a character over the course of 3 years. So, making these discoveries for these characters is very subtle and very challenging because you are working within these established characters. So, when we do flashbacks you see how different Aiden is from the Aiden that you’ve come to know. He’s thankful for it not being so easy, because it has enabled him to grow as an actor.
Regarding the titles of the episodes:
AF: It is a group effort to come up with the titles for the episodes.
Which is more fun, fun and crazy Aiden or the morose one?
SW: Prefers the fun crazy Aiden over the down-trodden and depressed Aiden, but that is because he started out being interested in comedy, but his career has not panned out that way.
Is there an intentional overlap between the U.S. and British versions of Being Human?
SW/AF: No. Everyone tries not to watch it, but at times a character may mirror another.
Amy Aquino will be on the show and will be playing a witch; can you divulge anything more about that?
AF: Amy Aquino is on the show as a witch and she is a lovely person so we lucked out. Her character goes deeper and she is a complicated woman with an interesting past and she is tongue in cheek and no nonsense. Very powerful and brings out a lot of power in sally.
SW: Amy understood from the get go what to do with her character. Amy humanized the character.
How would you describe this season?
SW: This season is a game changer.
AF: This season is a character season and all these characters come to a crossroads and these actors have reached their A-games.
SW: I’d like everyone to think of this season as satisfying.
SW: We have tried to make this show better every year.
AF: We are trying to cover all of our bases.
What was it like to start this season 15 months after the end of last season?
AF: Picking up the show 15 months later after last season was very freeing because there was more room to play with what happened to these characters.
What will happen with the witch digging up Sally?
SW: The witch digs up sally’s body up and there will be consequences for these actions.
How can you describe Aiden once he is out of the grave?
SW: Aiden is no longer the smooth character that you met in season 1 and he is not as socially adept as he has been in past.
SW: Is not convinced that Aiden will have a happy ending, but he does a couple of things that border on being heroic this season. We see why he did what he did last season and the fallout for it. His blood addiction, at times this season, forces him to act like a traumatized war vet trying to get back into society.
AF: Last year was a war for Aiden, so this season he is a PTSD and his view on society is different.
SW: The flashbacks that we do this season are ambitious and work with the storyline. They allow us to explore Aiden’s issues. Let’s look back at the murder of the two girls, Aiden is doing it without thinking and stands there confused and that is because of the training he has done to becoming a vampire killing machine and that does not allow him to turn it off.
Do the showrunner and writers have a 5 year plan for the show?
AF: We do not have 5 year plan, as we are going through the season we have a side board of the other storylines that we would like to show and they are the threads for season 4. We take season by season and live in an optimistic world and take it as it comes.
Do the actors have the ability to submit any input on storylines?
SW: The writers are very generous with taking input form the actors, but the understanding is that we convey their stories on screen but we suggest little things that the writers miss. AF: If it does not make sense or resonate with the actor and therefore we have to change the storyline after discussing with them how it can be something that the actors can connect with.
SW: You have 4 actors that know the show, characters and tone of the show and we are a well of information that the writers can use and this way it is a collaborative ship (environment) that AF steers. AF: Just remember, people die easily on supernatural shows.
SW: That was a threat.
Where is Aiden mentally in the beginning of the season?
SW: The death of Suren, being put in a prison and the lack of connection to his friends, lack of food makes Aiden desperate this season.
Where will these characters meet up in the third season?
AF: The hospital is still very in play and it is a symbolic place of work. It was for penance and as a blood supply.
Regarding Aiden’s addiction:
SW: Aiden has gone the Trainspotting style of dry-out and as a result he does not need that much blood to get by, but if he drinks too much he gets drunk faster.
What about Josh being human and his dynamic with the rest of the group?
SW: Josh is no longer a werewolf and because of that there is tension between him and Aiden.
AF: Josh is more aware of the change and now there is an interesting dynamic because he is trying to maintain his relationship with everyone.
SW: Josh comes in to his own this season. He becomes a man.
AF: There is definitely an emotional journey with Josh.
Would there be a one-off or web series on Aiden’s past?
SW: Regarding the flashbacks, there are 4 episodes that cover one flashback. If you line up all of Aiden’s flashbacks it all makes sense and you see an interesting progression. He would love to do a web series with Mark Pellegrino that centers on Aiden and Bishop would be amazing.
Would Sam like to write for Being Human?
SW: Has written and has something in development, but he does not think he can write for the show because the voice and tone of the show has been set by the writers of the show. He is very hesitant about doing so, but is interested in learning.
What is your favorite thing or episode of this season?
AF: This is a great season because of the roommate cross-overs.
SW: A scene between Aiden and Sally because she sexually harassed him throughout the episode.
In attendance: Sam Huntington, Meaghan Rath, and Sam Witwer and showrunner Anna Fricke.
After the usual hijinks of the cast; Josh Skipping, Sam diving onto the stage and then both of them play fighting + a bit of spoilery footage the panel began.
The Slogan for Season 3 is “Blood is thicker.” Thicker than what, it’s not clear, but Fricke will be shepherding the next 13 episodes of the adaptation of the UK series, and during the panel she added that this season will in part revolve around characters needing to be careful what they wish for.
Huntington then talked about his character Josh’s romantic woes on the show–things don’t go so well for his werewolf character in season two. But his relationship with the character Nora might have some growth and development in season three (in what sounds like a pretty close parallel to the similar storyline in its UK counterpart).
Josh tries to “fix” things around him after turning the love of his life into a werewolf, and it sounds like the challenge of the next season will be the character attempting to overcome his type A nature.
Talking about her character Sally’s dark turn this season, Rath says she appreciated the chance to go there with her normally happy-go-lucky ghost character, who ended up with a little bit of blood on her hands before the year was out. Rath says her character is constantly placed in these ethical situations where she’s on the edge of good and evil.
Witwer’s character Aiden ended last season trapped in a coffin. Season three will of course see him get free, obviously, but Witwer says the character has lost a bit of his charm and isn’t firing on all cylinders after his imprisonment (which Fricke confirmed lasted about 15 months).
For Witwer, the challenge with his character is keeping the character human and relatable. “The thing that attracted me to the role to begin with is that Aiden was a man trying to conquer drug addiction and it continues to be that,” according to the actor. He joked that in the next season we’d see his character rocking a keytar in sequences set during the 80′s.
Xander Berkley (24, Terminator 2) will be joining the cast as the father of the twin purebred werewolves.
Mark Pellegrino will be returning as Bishop in some form or another in season three.
Syfy has renewed the drama series for a third season of 13 episodes.
The show is Syfy’s biggest hit with women and its most recent episode was watched by about 1.5 million viewers.
“With the success of season two, ‘Being Human’ has become a premier destination for Syfy viewers,” Mark Stern, president of original content at Syfy, said in a statement. “Jeremy Carver and Anna Fricke have taken this series to new heights this year and we’re excited to see where the third season will go.”
So, we showed the video of Sam Witser (Syfy’s Being Human) speak of how he was to be involved with the second season of The Walking Dead… but that all changed when Frank Darabont was kicked to the curb. Well, here is Frank’s letter about the storyline that Sam Witwer spoke of:
Sure, I’ll confirm that storyline. Why not? Big caveat here though:
CraveOnline is much mistaken in saying this was for a “web series.” This was never meant as a web gimmick, this was intended for use in the actual TV series. I wanted to kick off the 2nd season with the flashback episode Sam describes, which would have followed a squad of Army Rangers getting trapped in the city and trying to survive as Atlanta falls.
The idea was to do this with a very focused “you are there” documentary feel. Not going all shaky-cam, but still making it a bit rawer and grainier than the rest of the show. We’d start with a squad of maybe seven or eight soldiers being dropped into the city by chopper. They have map coordinates they need to get to; they’ve been told to report to a certain place to provide reinforcement. It’s not a special mission, it’s basically a housekeeping measure putting more boots on the ground to reinforce key intersections and installations throughout the city. And we follow this group from the moment the copter sets them down. All they have to do is travel maybe a dozen blocks, a simple journey, but what starts as a no-brainer scenario goes from “the city is being secured” to “holy shit, we’ve lost control, the world is ending.” Our squad gets blocked at every turn and are soon just trying to survive. I wanted to do a really tense, character-driven ensemble story as communications break down, supply lines are lost, escape routes are cut off, morale falls apart, leadership unravels, mutinies heat up, etc. (Yes, this approach owes a spiritual debt to a number of great films, including Walter Hill’s Southern Comfort.)
Along the way, I thought we could briefly dovetail this story with a few established characters from the show. Not to overdo that, mind you, because it could get silly and too coincidental if you load too much into that idea. But I thought it would be great to veer off on a quick narrative detour that brushes our soldiers briefly up against some people we know. Picture our squad arriving at a manned barricade where some civilians are being held back from leaving the city on shoot-to-kill orders to stop the spread of contagion, it’s a panicked high-intensity scene, and in this crowd of desperate people we find Andrea and Amy. The barricade gunners panic, the civilians start to get mowed down by machine gun fire, and in this melee the girls get pulled to safety by some old guy they don’t even know. It’s Dale. He’s nobody to them, just some guy who saw the opportunity to do the right thing and reacted in the moment. This would have been perhaps a minute or two of the episode, just a cool detour like the various outposts the soldiers encounter in Saving Private Ryan, but we would have witnessed the moment that Dale meets Andrea and Amy, seen where that relationship began. I also felt it would be a great way to get Emma Bell back into the series for a moment, because she was so wonderful and we were all so sorry that her character died and she had to leave the show. (Of course if this “brush with established characters” idea didn’t work in the script stage, I’d have tossed it out. You try a lot of ideas like that as you go, see how they play. But I thought this one stood a pretty good chance of being engineered to work well.)
So the story follows these soldiers through hell as the city falls apart and the squad implodes, with Sam’s soldier being the main character and the moral center of the group. He becomes the last survivor of the squad, and he finally gets to the map coordinates they’ve been trying to get to from the start: it’s the barricade at the Atlanta courthouse intersection from the pilot where Rick later finds the tank. The soldier is still alive when he gets there, but he’s been bitten. He’s accomplished his “simple” mission, but he’s gone through seven kinds of hell to do it (including being forced to frag his squad leader), and now he’s dying. And he crawls off into the tank just to get off the street and under cover. As his fever builds and the poor guy starts to hallucinate, he pulls his last grenade and considers ending his life. He sets the grenade down on that shelf for a moment to reflect on all the shit and misery that brought him to this sad end-point of his life, and to dredge up the courage to pull the pin…but before he can act, the fever burns him out and he dies.
The kicker comes in the last moments of this episode:
After the soldier dies this squalid, lonely death…and after a quiet lapse of time…we do a shot-for-shot reprise from the first episode of the first season: Rick comes scrambling into the tank to escape the horde…blows that zombie soldier’s brains out…now Rick’s trapped…fade out…the end.
The notion was to take the “throwaway” tank zombie Rick encountered in the pilot, and tell that soldier’s story. Make him the star of his own movie, follow his journey, but don’t reveal who he is until the end. The idea being that every zombie has a story, every undead extra was once a human being with a life of his/her own…was, in a sense, the star of his own life’s movie. And we’ve followed this one particular guy and seen how his life ended; we witness his struggles, see his good intentions and his failures, and we experience his godawful death in this tank. That’s why I cast Sam as that tank zombie in the first place instead of just casting some extra. I had this story in mind while filming the pilot, and I knew I’d need a superb actor to play that soldier when the time came.
And then starting with Episode 202, we’d be back with Rick’s group and back in step with the flow of the established story from last season.
I always had in mind to throw in a “wild-card” episode every season, maybe as a season opener or closer. Just a separate story more in the feel of an anthology series, one that appears completely off the track of the regular series but actually does wind up tying in somehow by the fade-out. They did that sort of thing on LOST on occasion, and I really respected it. It always seemed like a bold choice that trusted the audience and rewarded their loyalty with a totally unexpected surprise episode every so often.
That’s it from me. I hope things are well on your end.
As the year progresses we will update this section with new books that we think you will like.
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From:fractured-simplicity.net: (Site of the Month for June 2010) With the rapid approach of True Blood season three set to air on HBO in just over a week, I think this is time is apropos one to highlight a lovely fansite with a large focus on the series, as the books it is based on, the Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris. sookiestackhouse.com is a one of many great sites out there that supplies you with all the information you need about the show and the books. It keeps you up to date with all the news, spoilers, trailers, reviews and more. If you’re thirsty for True Blood be sure to stop by and check out all the offerings. Maria & staff are quick to post all the latest goings-on of the Sookieverse. But there’s more too. The site is also home to the Last Bite podcast, a show that talks about not only the world of Sookie but also of other great paranormal fiction out there. So check out sookiestackhouse.com!
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Praise from Author Carolyn Crane:
Okay, how much fun did I have with Tamara and Maria on the Last Bite Podcast? A ton. They asked fantastic questions and we talked about all kinds of things, from the urban fantasy genre to the RT convention to why Mind Games is in first person present tense and more. You can listen to it here! These women have been putting out all kinds of fun shows lately! Recently they've interviewed MaryJanice Davidson, Jeaniene Frost and even Charlaine Harris. They also cover topics of all kinds related to True Blood and other vampire ans supernatural TV series, and more.
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Praise from Author Jeaniene Frost:
And thanks so much to Maria and Tamara from Last Bite. I did a podcast with them over the weekend which is now available to listen. Tamara and Maria asked some great questions – and did some great editing, because wow, can I ramble, but thankfully they managed to make me sound almost coherent .
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“Whether reading for fun, education, action, or business, books can help with anything. Even in an age where talking pictures dominate, it is still not difficult to find book lovers. To further your reading even more, check out these 100 awesome blogs for every kind of book lover. They will tell you what to buy, sell, read, trade, and much more.”
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We were listed at #62. The Last Bite: Fans of the Sookie Stackhouse books and “True Blood” will enjoy this podcast. Hosts Maria, Pamela and Tamara discuss the latest news, reviews, opinions, and analysis.Online Accredited PhD Universities
I'm a Sookie Stackhouse fan (novel and TV series) and Last Bite Podcast is candy to my ears. If you LOVE the novels and TV show this is for you, seriously listen you will love it." If you got it, Flaunt it.
So, we showed the video of Sam Witser (Syfy’s Being Human) speak of how he was to be involved with the second season of The Walking Dead… but that all changed when Frank Darabont was kicked to the curb. Well, here is Frank’s letter about the storyline that Sam Witwer spoke of:
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