Vampire Crush: Being Human's Aidan Turner

Since we now get BBC America in HD, I have been paying slightly more attention to the channel.. and while I feel it is much too late to join the party on such BBC series and gay geek Internet faves such as Dr. Who and Torchwood... a couple of months ago I clicked to see what this Being Human show was all about... and it was definitely a "... and who do we have here?" moment when this face appeared on the screen:

I soon learned Being Human was yet another entry in the seemingly ever-growing vampire and werewolf genre, with this particular show upping the supernatural ante with the addition of a ghost! 

If you have been around here long enough you know that vampires are one of my guilty pleasures.  Long before Stephenie Meyer came around with Edward and Jacob (and Bella), I was well into the Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire books... and while those faded away long ago, I ultimately relented and jumped on the Twilight bandwagon (though, to date, I have only read the first 3 books of the series and just seen the first movie)... and that lead to watching the decidedly more adult vampire series True Blood on HBO and reading the first two books of Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series on which the series is loosely based.

While I find entertainment value in the Twilight series, I never found them to be particularly well-written book regardless of the target audience (though to Meyer's credit, I think she's improved with each book).  Though I have understood how the the series really gained momentum thanks to the first movie and the appeal of Edward as portrayed by Robert Pattinson... and needless to say, after getting buffed up for the second movie forward, there is no discussion of where/what the appeal is regarding part-time werewolf Jacob/Taylor Lautner. 

And while I loved the first season of True Blood, the 2nd and just wrapped 3rd season has seen my enthusiasm flagging. I enjoy the characters, the cast, the tone... but I think it has just been unfocused and all-over-the-place since the first season.  I think it is over-ambitious and often too transparent in shock value thanks to their home on "anything goes" HBO.  Even the addition of a werewolf, and one just as hot and thankfully not near jailbait age, didn't really help matters out either.

So before stumbling onto Being Human, I was definitely experiencing a case of vampire fatigue... with a little werewolf wariness as well.  But I was so mesmerized by this guy.. have I named him yet?  I see not!

Meet: Vampire Mitchell, played by Aidan Turner that it made me hang on enough to see what else this show was all about. 

(Sidenote: I was initially confused by Mr. Turner. I was familiar with Aiden Turner (note the "e" in Aiden), a British actor from All My Children who was also on Dancing With the Stars (paired with Edyta Sliwinska)... and while I never thought they were the same person, a quick check of if imDB confirmed they were two different actors, with vampire Aidan (with an "a") of Irish origin)

Anyhow, while it was Turner that made me stop on BBC America (time and time again), when I allowed myself to looking beyond him, it seemed like the show was pretty darn good.  The only problem was that I was lurking on snippets of it in Season 2. Which was pretty good news, as British TV seasons are pretty short, thus it was  "catch-up-able."  I asked some friends how/if BBC America repeats stuff and while it doesn't seem as if they do it that often, I was lucky enough to see they were repeating the entire 8 episode Season 2 season ahead of the season finale this coming Saturday (Sep 18th).  So the only thing was to track down Season 1 (only 6 episodes), which I did via Amazon download for $2.99 a HD episode (so a bit more economical than tracking down and buying the DVD for $25-ish).

Here is the entire cast... George the werewolf (Russell Tovey) to the left and Annie the ghost (Lenora Crichlow) to the right... again, all who make the show worth watching beyond Turner as Mitchell the vampire.

While I don't like to pin myself as having a "type," at least one of the stronger ones seems to be a healthy mount of hair (but not too much) and an accent!   As before this latest one on Turner, I'll admit to having a bit of a thing for Henry Ian Cusick's Desmond on Lost... even at times Battlestar Galactica's Baltar (James Callis)... and of course, it's not limited to UK accents as my obsession with Rafa Nadal is well documented... though I think his hair is too short now!

Comments

[Jeff]

Yay! We recently started watching "Being Human" from the beginning and are a few episodes in so far. And Russell Tovey is adorkable (and a gay)! :)

[Scot]

Aidan Turner AND Prince Harry! Excellent! The Anglophile in me is very happy.
Does BBC America play Doc Martin or the Inspector Lewis episodes? They're both such great shows. WARNING: Doc Martin is very addictive!
Except for Prince Harry, everything else is available on Netflix. (You can even stream Doc Martin online.)