CABLE RATINGS: Record Night For History, SyFy’s ‘Being Human’ Builds, Lawrence O’Donnell Has Solid Debut On MSNBC

COMMENTS (10)

• Glad Syfy’s British import is doing well.

  But didn’t “Haven” debut with bigger viewership last summer for them? Is that why they keep parsing the language as “winter” series? There’s more broadcast competition in the winter, but a lot more eyes, too.

  Press release speak like that always bugs me.

  Comment by ScifiGuru — Tuesday January 25, 2011 @ 5:15pm PST  Reply to this post

• I like BEING HUMAN and it’s far better than other shows on Sci-fi.

  But, the story of the tortured vampire is very repetitive. The show could do with some cool action and more originality for the Vampire back story.

  I don’t really care for the ghost-chick story line since her character is not sexy. They need to bring up the hotness meter on her clothes. Well, I guess they can’t because she’s a ghost. lol

  When the star-vampire confronted the evil-vampire he turned than I was expecting some real in depth dramatic-dialogue fireworks. Since, he’s older than I expected him be to able to break her down with words. Instead the lead-vampire character walks off like a frustrated idiot.

  This show will not last long if they don’t up the anti on the obvious flaws.

  Comment by Common Sense 6 — Tuesday January 25, 2011 @ 6:29pm PST  Reply to this post

  • When you think about it….why is she wearing ANY clothes?

    Was she born with them on?

    Comment by dunny — Tuesday January 25, 2011 @ 7:46pm PST  Reply to this post

    • You can’t be that stupid…

      Comment by redmenace — Tuesday January 25, 2011 @ 9:45pm PST  Reply to this post

• Being Human is, as usual, not anywhere near as good as the British version.

  Comment by working actor #274 — Tuesday January 25, 2011 @ 10:38pm PST  Reply to this post

  • As a Brit with strong US connections I can see why some British series fail when Americanised…and yet I can see why some British Series must be Americanised!

    Much of the humour from series one of Being Human centred around the female ghost hooking up with a male ghost from the eighties…the whole flavour was weaved around British eighties music, New Romantics etc. and would have been largely incomprehensible to the American audience. Also a lot of the storylines from season 1 relied heavily on Brit culture and the Brit way of life.

    Compare it with Red Dwarf….a Brit series for which the americanised version failed as soon as it started….again largely due to the very British sense of humour which was totally lacking in the American version.

    Comment by FOOM — Wednesday January 26, 2011 @ 7:27am PST  Reply to this post

    • Not sure about that – I don’t know very much about British 80s music (outside of punk) or what the New Romantics are, but I really enjoyed S1 of the British Being Human. I think the remakes are done for two reasons: 1)many of us need to use the closed captioning to actually understand what Brits are saying half the time, and most non-deaf people don’t even know how this works on their TV) and 2) British series don’t have enough episodes to be profitable here. I love the original BH but it’s in its third year, yet only on Episode 15 so far! The remake is slated to have 13 episodes a season, the bare minimum for making a show viable here. I personally like the narrative tightness of the short seasons, but it’s not worth the investment in the US market.

      The last time a UK series that I loved was remade here was Life on Mars. I saw the premiere, it was basically a shot for shot remake, without Simm and Glenister in the cast, and I was so disappointed it never occurred to me to watch it again. This one has some intriguing new characters and promises to go a different way with some of the vamps, so I’m giving it two more weeks to diverge from the original before I stop watching.

      Comment by Elwood — Thursday January 27, 2011 @ 12:18pm PST  Reply to this post

• I have to confess that I find Pawn Stars a guilty pleasure. Its a great mix of history, bartering and personalities, that keeps me watching. It nice to watch a reality show that doesn’t involve people on rehab, are drunk or who have mental problems. It just 4 guys buying and selling interesting stuff. The History channel has really seemed to blossom in the last couple of years.

  Being Human was off to a good start with that first episode and I wasn’t sure I was going to like it after watching the BBC version. They did well with the casting of the US version. The main characters are likeable. This may be the best show on ScyFy this season.

  Comment by M.Scott Verne — Wednesday January 26, 2011 @ 3:56am PST  Reply to this post

• Pawn Stars and American Pickers; great shows…Could be the next American Chopper or better.

  Comment by YES — Wednesday January 26, 2011 @ 10:28am PST  Reply to this post

• More second rate execution from SyFy. The push crap and cancel any little bit of quality before it can build. I do believe they think their demographic is teen nerds and older morons. I hope they are wrong. SyFy Original is already code for Steaming Pile.

  Comment by SurferDoc — Wednesday January 26, 2011 @ 10:42am PST  Reply to this post