Being Human Back For Second Season

They are the unlikiest of room mates.
Think of Being Human, BBC's monster success (in more ways than one) as a weird version of Three's Company.
Only here the twentysomethings living together are a vampire, werewolf and ghost.
Season Two revs up on Space Thursday Oct. 28 at 10 p.m.
And. yes, the concept sounds ridiculous. But imaginative film making and superior acting turns this one into a creepy, funny, sometimes romantic hit.
Lenora Crichlow is sensationally sexy as the ghost Annie who in the new season desires respectability and decides to apply as a barmaid, a job she's always craved.
Of course none of the customers can touch her or poof she disappears but what the heck.
It took a viewers' petition to get Space to carry it where ratings have zoomed. And fans thwarted a BBC-TV attempt to destroy it.
Look, I know there's a glut of supernatural TV shows around right now from the obviously titled Supernatural to the sexy Vampire Diaries.
But where does Being Human fit in?
Well, it's often an interior study of what it means to be different --the feeling of alienation and loneliness is always there.
Each of the mates has terrible problems. Werewolf George (Russell Tovey) goes out an eats an elk every full moon.
Vampire Adam (Aidan Turner) knows if he continues dating he'll want to do more than buss the unlucky girl.
Creator Toby Whithouse (Torchwood, Doctor Who) has done a masterful job of creating characters we can believe in and plopping them down in ordinary situations. Adam and George toil at a local hospital where they wipe up muck and contemplate life and at home they have to attend to all the ordinary household chores.
BBC ran a well regarded pilot in February, 2008, only to initially decide not to proceed with a series. But fan uproar caused the Corp to reconsider and proceed.
I hope I'm not giving away too much plot by leaking that this year trouble comes from a religious group determined to root out the undesirables.
The second series was made in Cardiff, Wales, and the seamy underbelly of the city ressembles sets from Torchwood --another BBC scifier which is also coming back but in partnership with American TV.
What I like is how the writers transcend the silliness of the plot to offers scenes truly stunning for the sheer humanity of the trapped characters. Special effects are down played but are there when needed. The story takes big risks and mostly succeds. We all feel like misfits from time to time but for the protagonists of Being Human they'll be true misfits forever.
THE SECOND SEASON OF BEING HUMAN PREMIERES ON SPACE THURSD. OCT. 28 AT 10 P.M.
MY RATING: ****.