The story of the ghost, the vampire, and the werewolf (and the other werewolf) is coming to an end as Syfy has announced that Being Human will wrap up following the conclusion of the show's current season; a move that follows the end of the UK-born original version of the concept, which ended in March after 5 series' and a lot of cast turnover.
Why is the show coming to an end after 52 episodes? While the ratings have been mostly steady from last season up through last week's episode, they are down from season two, but according to series star Sam Witwer, the exit was both planned (as is evidenced by the above video that the cast made to say goodbye to the fans) and one made from an artistic standpoint.
Here's Witwer via his Twitter account.
"Wanted to tell a great story from beginning to end. We didn't want to bleed the concept dry. Believe it or not - artistic decision. [...] This entire season was, from inception, designed to be the last one. All stories are tied up. This was how we wanted to go."
While Witwer provided far more information than the Syfy press release did about the reasons behind the somewhat surprising exit, there a small line that may indicate how showrunner Anna Fricke and her cast and crew plan to bring things to an end.
"They’ve saved the best for last with the final six episodes that revisit the story’s beginning, leading to a not-to-be-missed send-off for Aidan, Sally, Josh and Nora."
If you didn't watch the most recent episode, then you may have missed the trailer that aired afterwards which revealed the battleplan for next week's episode that gets into It's a Wonderful Life territory.
A blast from the past was a given for next week, and we wondered if it might last for awhile in our review of last night's episode, but if the show is going to "revisit the story's beginning" all the way to the end, that might make it hard to fully resolve a few of the show's lingering plot threads - even if in hindsight, it makes some sense that the show is nearing the finish line.
Realistically (which isn't a word often used when talking about a supernatural show), how could the show pivot out from where Josh and Nora are after everything that has happened? Hasn't it felt like Sally's story was nearing its end for weeks now? If there's a character with life still in its veins, it's ironically Aidan the vampire's, especially thanks to the still unresolved Kenny situation and all of his baggage with Suzanna - but how many times can viewers watch Aidan fall and rise again, dedicated to living a humanesque life before it becomes tired? Though fans of Being Human may be crestfallen, perhaps this is a good death for the show.
What do you think? Was there more life in Being Human, or are they ending at the right time?
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Being Human airs on Syfy every Monday @9PM. The series finale will air on April 7th
Source: TV By the Numbers, Twitter