• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
• Resolution: 1080i/60 (29.970Hz)
  
• Audio Codec: English Dolby Digital 2.0 (48kHz)
  
• Subtitles: English SDH
  
• Subtitles Color: White
  
• Region: ABC (Region-Free)
  
• Rating: NR
  
• Discs: 3 (3 x Blu-ray)
• Digital Copies: N/A
  
• Run Time: 480 Mins.
  
• Studio: BBC
  
• Blu-ray Release Date: January 15, 2013
• List Price: $59.98

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Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Series
[Rating:3/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:2.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:4/5]

Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures

(All TheaterByte screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)

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The Series

[Rating:3/5]

Being Human, the BBC’s supernatural sci-fi comedy/drama, not to be confused with SyFy’s North American remake, enters its fourth season reworked into something somewhat new. Shedding almost all of its original cast members except Lenora Crichlow as Annie, the ghost, the series soldiers on taking with it its theme about the young and hip group of supernatural beings – a vampire, a ghost, and a werewolf – trying to live together as normal humans. Now, however, two new characters takeover the vacancies left by Mitchell (Aidan Turner) and George (Russell Tovey), both of whom are dead, as well as Nina (Sinead Keenan). A new vampire, Hal (Damien Molony) moves in with Annie and Tom (Michael Socha), the young werewolf who first made his appearance in season three. Annie is left to care for young baby Eve, the child of George and Nina, now that they are both dead. A new threat emerges, however, in The Old Ones, the ancient and powerful vampires, of which Hal is one. They want to expose werewolves to the world as part of a plot for world dominance. They also want to kill little baby Eve, believing her to be “The War Child” from their ancient prophetic scrolls who will bring about the demise of the vampires. The season also sees its usual appearances of the wild and weird from the world of Being Human, like a 1970’s child-killing ghost on the loose, a geeky love interest for Tom, and some new, scary powers emerge for Annie. On the whole, however, the fourth season of this series just feels like, perhaps, it has outstayed its welcome. Whenever a series begins to add in new characters to simply step into the shoes of actors who have left, essentially playing the same roles, it just may be time to call it quits. Hal is no Mitchell and Tom is no George. We haven’t even gotten to the part about time traveling ghosts yet.

Video Quality

[Rating:4/5]

An original high definition production, Being Human comes to Blu-ray in a solid 1080i/60 AVC/MPEG-4 encodement from the BBC. It does tend to show up a bit of video noise in its plethora of dark scenes and detail isn’t always as crisp as can be, but on the whole it gets the job done.

Audio Quality

[Rating:2.5/5]

A mere lossy, Dolby Digital 2.0 track is provided for Being Human that really doesn’t do much with what could have been an atmospheric soundtrack. It does provide clean dialogue, but dynamics are rather squashed and the musical accompaniment sounds tight, and a bit tizzy.

Supplemental Materials

[Rating:4/5]

Being Human comes beefed up with lots of high definition interview segments with the cast and crew, plus series-prequel mini-episodes introducing the new characters.

The supplements:

• Trailer (1.78:1; SD)
  • Prequel: Hal (1.78:1; 1080i/60; 00:05:55)
  • Prequel: Tom (1.78:1; 1080i/60; 00:03:43)
  • Prequel: The Old Ones (1.78:1; 1080i/60; 00:05:18)
• Interviews:
  • Damien Molony (1.78:1; 1080i/60; 00:09:23)
  • Lenora Crichlow (1.78:1; 1080i/60; 00:09:29)
  • Michael Socha (1.78:1; 1080i/60; 00:07:04)
  • Philip Trethowan (1.78:1; 1080i/60; 00:10:07)
  • Russell Tovey (1.78:1; 1080i/60; 00:07:40)
  • Toby Whitehouse (1.78:1; 1080i/60; 00:09:42)
• Toby’s Guide (1.78:1; 1080i/60; 00:01:06)
• Goodbye Russell (1.78:1; 1080i/60; 00:02:58)
• The Fall of George (1.78:1; 1080i/60; 00:03:32)
• Adam Returns (1.78:1; 1080i/60; 00:07:42)
• Allison (1.78:1; 1080i/60; 00:06:44)
• The Museum (1.78:1; 1080i/60; 00:03:24)
• Deleted Scenes (1.78:1; 1080i/60; 00:07:19)

The Definitive Word

Overall:

[Rating:3.5/5]

A disappointing entry in what was once a top-notch series, while Being Human: Season Four has its moments of classic Being Human sci-fi dramedy, it basically feels like an attempt to rekindle a magic that once was with a whole new set of actors. It’s not the worst series on television by far, but it doesn’t live up to the expectations set by past series.

Additional Screen Captures

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BestBuy.com:

Purchase Being Human: Season Four on Blu-ray at CD Universe

Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com

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BestBuy.com:

Purchase Being Human: Season Four on Blu-ray at CD Universe

Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com

Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Series
[Rating:3/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:2.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:4/5]

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