I like “Being Human” (the UK version). When they ended the last season, it was hardcore, brutal, and very, very, British. I remarked at the time, that US TV would never have had the balls to have the only way to save the world be to kill a baby. Similarly, US TV probably wouldn’t have intentionally ended the series in a way that left you wondering “Wait… did they win?”

The gist of Being Human was that a ghost, a vampire, and a werewolf wanted to … be humans. In the end, the question became what made them human anyway. Were they human despite their supernatural curses? Was their quest for their grail the actual truth, or was the end result of becoming humans in state the real answer? Cleverly, the show did not actual answer this. For what it’s worth, they had total cast overturn this season. Season three ended with killing the vampire, season four took out two werewolves and added in a new vampire and werewolf. Season five was a new ghost, so you had none of the originals. And yet… I found the show to still be engaging. The characters were vastly different and yet similar enough, so you got new stories.

Mind you nothing beats George shouting “Pedo has one E in it, you morons!”

The last season was a fight against the devil, whom Hal had trapped in human form some hundred years ago. Except Hal, being selfish and vain, had intentionally screwed up the ritual and thus instead of killing the devil, they trapped him in human form. Now the devil had gained power, so he decided to kill the person who knew the trick to defeating him forever, and return to pestering the world at large. This time, the devil screwed everything up, tried putting our heroes in pocket universes where they never became supers and gave them happy lives, but it appears the trio came to their senses and were able to complete the ritual, shoving the devil into a human body and then killing the human.

This should have killed them. Instead they were alive, and lacked their supernatural-ness. The ghost was alive, the vampire and werewolf were human. You get the idea. And then, then, at the absolute end of the episode, when you think “Was that it?” the camera did this thing where it tilted to the side. The whole season, every time you got the Devil’s POV, the camera did that thing. And now, here, at the end, it happened again. Did that mean that they were still fighting? Was it just a sign that the devil was never really defeated? If they won, did only they have their supernatuaralness removed, or were hundreds of undead alive again?

It was an ending. Not the ending. And really, if you decided they were human again, then did they win?

That said, the Beeb posted this video (SPOILERS) that gives a different ending…

I like this ending better. It’s more complete to me, even if it’s not an ending but clearly a sign that they will forever be fighting the eternal fight. And I like that. Evil doesn’t just ‘end’ after all. Which brings us to the question of humanity. Surely this trio would keep fighting, even if they were human, so does it matter what they’re cursed with? Does the wolf make Tom less human or more?

As Hal put it “The desire to be human is the end, not the beginning. To want it is to have it.”

Of course, he was Evil Hal at the time.