After watching the premiere of Syfy's Being Human, which I enjoyed on many levels, I fear that the series will not last long.
I think that most of the viewing public will reject the basic premise of the series. The main characters are a vampire and a werewolf who are struggling to lead a normal existence. Any true freak will understand how they feel. You don't have to be as much of a freak as a vampire; we all know the isolation of being only a bit different from other people. We wish we could be the same as other, "normal" people. We feel shame that we are not, and if we try to fit in, we often feel the futility of trying to deny those things about us that make us freaks.
To most television viewers-- who are not freaks-- vampires and werewolves are objects of a fantasy. They are supposed to kill people, suck blood, and generally behave in an extremely anti-social way. If they don't act this way, if they try too hard to deny what they are, the fantasy dies. Therefore, Twilight, in which characters have accepted what they are, flourishes, while a pretty fine series like Moonlighting perishes. The whole "I want to be human" whine is a turn-off to most of the viewing audience.
I hope that I am wrong about Being Human, but, really, I don't think it will have a long run.
