Becoming Human

Stop me if you've heard this one before...

Becoming Human is a BBC Supernatural Soap Opera created by Toby Whithouse. The protagonists are a Friendly Neighborhood Vampire, a wolfgirl, and a timid ghost who is uncertain about the circumstances of his death. Wait, that sounds suspiciously like the premise of another show...

Good, because it should. Becoming Human is -- to describe it in a sentence -- the High School AU of Being Human (UK). It's handled by the same creative team, and began airing online on 30 January 2011, immediately following the Being Human (UK) episode that introduced us to our new vampire.

So far, Becoming Human is playing out like an online interactive game, with various clues to be found in different posts made on the blog.

Can be found here.

Page Needs More Love.

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Tropes used in Becoming Human include:

• Abhorrent Admirer: Gender Flipped for Matt's perving on the girls in the locker room. Possibly taken further when it's revealed he has had a crush on Christa for three years.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Matt to Christa.
• Almighty Janitor: The Stinger reveals the caretaker is perfectly aware of the supernatural goings-on in the school.
• Alpha Bitch: Brandy Mulligan/Crompton.
• The Atoner: Adam.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Adam sees this between himself and Christa. Could be joking, but going by his personality, he's probably perfectly serious.
• British Education System: The setting is a school.
• The Bully: Danny Curtis to Matt when he was living.
• Compulsory School Age: Played with. Adam looks 16, so by British law can be out of school. However, he chooses to go back and, for once, take it seriously and gain some qualifications.
• Deadpan Snarker: Both Adam and Christa have varying levels.
• Dirty Old Man: Adam. Christa lampshades this in the ARG that half the things he says to the girls, if he looked his chronological age, would get him arrested.
• Disco Dan: Adam, in some of the references he makes. Well, he is 46. He would have been turned around 1981.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: It turns out the killer is Mr. Roe, the mild-mannered, helpful teacher who was the only character to never be a suspect. A second more minor example is the janitor, who spent a lot of time in the background before being believed to be an accomplice, but eventually turned out to be a Red Herring... or was he?
• Emo: Christa is not one, according to Adam.
• Elaborate University High: The high school does seem very polished...
• Everyone Is a Suspect: Pretty much every character could plausibly be the murderer, bar Adam, who hadn't joined the school yet. As such, pretty much every character is investigated at some point.
• Expy: Adam does seem to come across a bit like Mitchell in series 1. Not that this is a bad thing.
• Fair Play Whodunnit
• Fake-Out Make-Out: Adam and Christa are forced to resort to this.
• Fake Video Camera View: Some of the uploads on the site are videos taken by the characters from a mobile phone.
• Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Again, Adam. He's actually doing fairly well, all things considered.
  • Which leads to Fridge Horror when you consider that no vampire in the the Being Human (UK) universe has ever successfully managed to abstain from blood.
    • The worst part about blood withdrawal is the vampire begins to remember and feel guilt for the people they killed. Adam has never killed anyone.
• Ghostly Goals: Matt wants revenge for his murder.
• Goth: Christa. Her inner monologue implies it's a fairly recent change.
• Haunted Headquarters
• High School AU: Could essentially be described as this for Being Human.
• Legal Jailbait: Adam is said to be stuck in a 16 year old body, but is chronologically 46, and the actor is 20.
  • Not that it matters, since 16 is the age of consent in the UK.
• Lighter and Softer: Arguable. It certainly isn't as dark as Being Human (UK) can get.
• Love Triangle: Matt fancies Christa. Adam possibly fancies her too.
• Masquerade
• Monster Mash
• New Transfer Student: Adam is essentially this.
• Once More, with Clarity: The final episode features a brief montage of the clues that allow the characters to finally figure out who the murderer is -- all of which were seemingly inconsequential at the time.
• Ordinary High School Student: Adam and Christa are trying to be this.
• Our Ghosts Are Different
• Our Vampires Are Different
• Our Werewolves Are Different
• Paranormal Investigation: Does it count if it is the paranormal doing the investigating themselves?
• Shout-Out: To X-Men in the first webisode.
• Supernatural Soap Opera
• Trademark Favourite Food: Matt loves eggs. He even calls himself an "egg man" at one point.
• True Companions: By the end.
• Vampire and Werewolf and Ghost Detective Series
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?
• Who Dunnit to Me?: What Matt is trying to find out.
• You Can See Me?: Matt is surprised to find out he can be seen by Adam and Christa.