Being Human: Type 4

A kinda disgusting episode in parts this week with the debut of a fourth type of "monster" - a Welsh zombie - in the show. And also riddled with cliches. It was fairly obvious that Sasha, the Type 4, would perish at the end of the episode, that Mitchell and Annie would share a kiss, that Graham would be staked and Nina's view of the mother-daughter relationship - after many years of abuse from her mother and a stern resolution not to be a mother herself - would be reversed after just a few heart-wrenching death-bed words from a zombie she met the day before.

Still, Being Human manages to keep things interesting even though the guy gets the girl in the end, another girl finds peace upon death, and the couple resolve their differences regarding parenthood.

I'm not sure why Annie goes out at night to haunt the drunken pubs and rowdy clubs of Barry. Seemed like just an excuse to get her to stumble across drunken WAG Sasha, who was indeed the Type 4 (zombie) whose bloody hand we saw in the depths of the hospital at the end of last week's episode. She follows Annie (who forgets to "do a Rentaghost" and teleport straight to the house) and ends up, first screaming and shouting and then crying on their front door step. Mitchell points out that she might attract the attention of the police, which of course he wants to avoid at the moment, so Annie brings her inside.

After a horrific toenail-pulling scene, the group realise she's a zombie and Annie and Mitchell go to investigate the morgue at the hospital whilst George finally gets to go to the bathroom after "just getting up to go for a pee". From a carelessly discarded pregnancy test, he discovers Nina has a bun in the oven - it seems the pill doesn't work on werewolves. Nina has already decided to terminate the pregnancy due to her own experience of motherhood from a child's point of view. George is a little put out (and is pushed out of the bedroom) that he did not factor in the decision making process.

Annie and Mitchell, meanwhile, discover that there were four zombies in all and that the hospital had conducted gruesome tests on the other three. Which, in yet another horrific scene, seemed to involve removing their organs whilst they screamed in agony. I have to say that this seemed a little inconsistent - Sasha didn't seem to feel any pain from multiple injuries (including being stabbed in the gut with a trophy later on) and yet those being operated on obviously did.

So, instead of handing Sasha the zombie back to the hospital, the gang (well, Annie) decided to help her meet up with her rugby-playing boyfriend - with ended with that trophy impaled in Sasha's stomach - and after that failed, gave the rotting zombie a make over and took her out clubbing. During this girlie night out in Barry it only highlighted the fact that some blokes will snog anything in a short dress given enough booze or for a bet. Unfortunately, there is only so long a rotting body can remain standing, and so - with her life force seeping out of her - Annie and Nina dragged Sasha back to Honolulu Heights and to her eventual "live life to its fullest" speech and a familiar death's door scene.

And it seems Mitchell's Box Tunnel exploits have spread throughout the vampire society resulting in a visit from his biggest "fang", Graham. Threatening to reveal to Annie and the others what Mitchell got up to at the end of the last series, Mitchell at first goes along with the larger version of himself until Graham pushes things too far with regards to Annie. After Mitchell tells his stalker to push off, Graham decides to emulate his idol and boards a train, intent of slaughtering all the passengers. Mitchell realises this in time and, somehow, gets on the same train where he confronts Graham. Appalled to hear that only his violent actions have inspired yet another vampire, Mitchell knows he's left with no choice and crazy Graham gets staked.

In the end, everything gets conveniently wrapped up, with Annie and Mitchell sharing their feelings and Nina and George back together and agreeing to have a baby. Aww.

Still no sign of Herrick though - although Graham did mention to Mitchell that Cara was out and about raising trouble. I wonder when he's going to turn up?

Of course, once Being Human finished, Becoming Human started over on the red button. Sadly, only 5 minutes this week, and mostly just Matt confronting his bully. I still love Adam's little 80s references though which, of course, no one else around him understands. Mind you does this mean that, since turning into a vampire, he never watched TV again? Hopefully, we'll see more from underused Christa (the werewolf) in future mini-installments.

Overall, although flawed and little too self-contained, it did a decent job of introducing the BH's bone-crackingly funny version of zombies whilst forwarding both the Nina/George and Annie/Mitchell relationships. Perhaps not quite as good as the other two episodes of this series but still better than most stuff on TV at the moment. And nowhere near as bad as Den of Geek made it out to be.