Come season three of Toby Whitehouses cult supernatural drama, it was all starting to look a little shaky. The shows breakout star Aiden Turner imminent departure to Middle Earth and elf-romance hung over the place like a bad smell we all knew his John Mitchell was going, so it was just a matter of when, where and how. Though Damien Molonys Hal capably filled next seasons vampire void, there was still worries about the shows future. Itd been renewed, but was there any point in watching it without its brightest star? After all, Mitchells conflict with Herrick was the most substantial log on Being Humans dramatic fire shorn of Turner and the forever underrated Jason Watkins, what would we do? Well, Toby Whitehouse had an idea, and that idea involved a chap named Edgar Wyndham. And for the twenty-odd minutes in which we got to see him, he was awesome. Audaciously parking himself in the midst of the series emotional finale and proceeding to kick all sorts of arse, he was the great villain the show needed going forward all-powerful, mythos-expanding, and representative of a bigger threat. Yet when season four began, he was gone. He was demoted to a cursory line about how George went apesh*t and tore him apart, and that was the end of Edgar Wyndham, the man from Head Office/Del Monte. It was an incredible shame, and precisely what the then-fragile Being Human didnt need. If youre going to reshuffle a show, it pays to keep at least some cards in play, and while Wyndham was eventually and effectively replaced by Mark Gatiss Mr. Snow/Rotten Mycroft (oh come on, you know it to be true), it could be argued that it was too little, too late. Shearing away what seemed to be an excellent villain during the shows newly unsure, feet-finding period was inevitably going to turn off some fair-weather fans. It was a crucial nadir between the Wolf-Shaped Bullet and the Old Ones taking over, and a nadir that mightve been avoided if only theyd kept Wyndham on-scene, at least as a stopgap villain until Mr. Snow turned up. It might be going a bit far to say the seeds of the shows cancellation were beginning to be sown with this cop-out, but it sure as hell couldnt have helped.
Durham University graduate and qualified sports journalist. Very good at sitting down and watching things. Can multi-task this with playing computer games. Football Manager addict who has taken Shrewsbury Town to the summit of the Premier League.
You can follow me at @Ed_OwenUK, if you like ramblings about Newcastle United and A Place in the Sun. If you don't, I don't know what I can do for you.
