Why you should all watch the final episode. Completely and totally spoiler free!
Record Foxy Coxy on BBC2. Sky Plus Waking The Dead . Just completely ignore whatever dross ITV has on with Heart in the title (there’s always something on ITV on Sunday nights with Heart in the title, isn’t there?). This Sunday at 9pm you need to watch Being Human . You need to be able to say, “Yep, I saw that when it was first broadcast.” You need to be part of the shared experience. And on a more practical level, you need to watch it “live” just to make sure you don’t accidentally hear any spoilers. Because the internet will be abuzz, we promise you, and you will be in danger of learning things you don’t want to.
Don’t worry. You won’t get any spoilers here. Yes, the preview discs has been handed round the office like some kind of TV crack – after last week’s cliffhanger nobody could resist the lure of watching it early when there’s a disc on offer. All I’ll say is the reaction has been a uniform, “That was awesome!”
I don’t think it’s too hyperbolic to describe year three of the show as one of the greatest single tele-fantasy series ever in the UK. It’s not just us saying that; the reaction on the SFX forum and in the comments sections after reviews has been pretty ecstatic (especially for the last Sunday’s penultimate episode. Okay, you can nitpick – with what show can’t you? – but overall, it has been one hell of a journey – shocking, funny, edgy, uncompromising and bloody good drama.
And the final episode is the best of the lot. Not only is it good genre TV, it’s simply amazing TV drama, period. It takes big themes and it deals with them in harrowing detail.
It is magnificent.
It may seem that I’m preaching to the converted. Hell, I should be. There’s no reason why anyone who reads SFX (either the magazine or the website) shouldn’t be watching this show, and, as I said, the reaction from you lot (even the most critical) would seem to indicate that if you aren’t lapping it up, you are at least tuning in week after week.
And yet, with cruel irony, while last week’s episode was generally lauded as the best yet, it also had the lowest overnight ratings of the series. They weren’t disastrous or anything. They were still about four times what BBC Three would expect in that time slot. They aren’t anywhere near the kind of figures that would get the BBC thinking about axing the series (not that a fourth series has been officially confirmed yet, but whether or not they do will depend on other factors – based on viewing figures alone, we’re sure they would want more).
It’s just annoying that as the series gets better and better, the overnights are diminishing slightly. I’m not sure whether the iPlayer and repeat figures are taking up the slack, and undoubtedly the show is facing strong competition on a Sunday night (over three million people watch Foxy Coxy on BBC2 – thank God Channel Four didn’t introduce the Gypsy factor to Sunday nights too).
So here is your mission this week. Not only should you make sure you watch the show, but encourage as many other people you know to as well. Even your gran, who loves that show with Heart in the title, needs to see it. Spread the word. You won’t regret it. We promise that. Record anything else you might want to watch at the same time. They can keep. Because the season finale of Being Human is the one you need to watch live. And then come on our forum to discuss it straight afterwards.
