It’s been over a decade since the BBC decided to pull the plug on its weird, messy, and surprisingly profound supernatural dramedy. When people talk about being human season 5, they usually mention how different it felt from the Mitchell and George era. It was. By the time we reached 2013, the original cast was gone. Aidan Turner had headed off to Middle-earth, Russell Tovey was doing his thing, and Lenora Crichlow had moved on. Most shows would have collapsed under that weight. Honestly, most shows do collapse.
But Toby Whithouse didn't let that happen. Instead, he leaned into the chaos.
Season 5 is a strange beast. It’s shorter—only six episodes—and it feels claustrophobic in a way the earlier years didn't. We were stuck in Barry with Hal, Leo, and Tom, facing down the literal Devil. It sounds ridiculous when you say it out loud. A vampire, a ghost, and a werewolf working in a hotel cafe while Satan plots the apocalypse in a retirement home? It shouldn't work. Yet, for many of us who stuck around, it’s some of the best television the BBC ever produced.
The Impossible Task of Replacing Mitchell and George
Let's be real: Hal Yorke was a hard sell at first. Mitchell was the brooding heart of the show for three years. Replacing him with a stiff, OCD-afflicted ancient vampire played by Damien Molony felt like a gamble. But by being human season 5, Hal became the MVP. His struggle wasn't just about bloodlust; it was about the crushing weight of his own history. Molony played him with this frantic, vibrating energy that made you feel like he was one bad day away from murdering an entire city block.
Then you had Tom McNair. Michael Socha brought a vulnerability to the werewolf trope that we rarely see. Tom wasn't a "cool" monster. He was a kid who grew up in a trailer, taught to hunt by a man who wasn't his father, trying to navigate a world that viewed him as a beast. The chemistry between Hal and Tom is the backbone of the final season. It’s a "buddy cop" dynamic if one cop was a posh mass murderer and the other was a naive brawler with a heart of gold.
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They were roommates who genuinely annoyed each other. That’s the secret sauce of the show. It wasn't about the CGI or the lore. It was about who does the dishes when everyone is a monster.
Captain Hatch and the Most Understated Villain in TV History
Phil Davis as Captain Hatch is terrifying. Period.
In being human season 5, the stakes shifted from vampire underground conspiracies to something much more primal. Hatch is the Devil, but he’s not a red guy with horns. He’s a bitter, elderly man in a wheelchair who smells like "piss and biscuits." He wins by being a bully. He feeds on grief and petty arguments. There’s a specific scene where he just sits in a room and goads people into hating each other, and it’s more chilling than any jump scare.
The show understood something important about evil: it’s often very small. It’s the voice in your head telling you that your friends hate you or that you’re a failure. Hatch weaponized the housemates' insecurities against them. He didn't need a giant laser beam or an army of demons. He just needed them to stop trusting each other.
Why the Hotel Setting Actually Worked
Moving the action to the Barry Grand Hotel was a stroke of genius, even if it was likely driven by budget constraints. It gave the season a "haunted house" vibe. Kate Bracken’s Alex, the ghost of the trio, provided the much-needed snark to balance out the brooding. She was the one who kept them grounded. Unlike Annie, who often felt like the "mother" of the group, Alex felt like the smartest person in the room who was constantly annoyed she had to be there.
The Ending: Did They Actually Win?
The finale, "The Last Enemy," is polarizing. If you’re looking for a neat bow, you won’t find it here. The confrontation with Hatch is messy. It’s a dreamscape battle that questions the very nature of humanity.
One of the biggest talking points regarding being human season 5 is the "Is it all a dream?" theory. After the big climactic showdown, the trio wakes up in a world where they are seemingly human. No fangs, no moon, no transparency. But then, the camera lingers. There’s a shadow. A hint that the struggle isn't over.
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Whithouse has spoken about this in interviews over the years. The point wasn't necessarily whether they became human in a literal sense. The point was the choice. They chose to be human in their actions, even when being a monster was easier. It’s a bit of a gut-punch. You spend five seasons wanting them to find peace, only to realize that for people like them, peace is a temporary state of mind, not a permanent destination.
The Legacy of the Final Run
Looking back, Season 5 feels like a precursor to the "prestige" horror we see now. It was dark—darker than the US version ever dared to be. It killed off characters we loved without a second thought. It dealt with suicide, aging, and the cycle of abuse.
- Hal's Relapse: The scenes where Hal goes back to "the old ways" are genuinely hard to watch. It’s an addiction metaphor that hits home.
- The Men in Grey: This subplot added a layer of bureaucratic horror that made the world feel lived-in and dangerous beyond just the supernatural stuff.
- Tom's Innocence: Watching Tom lose his optimism as the season progressed was the real tragedy of the show.
How to Revisit the Series Today
If you're planning a rewatch, or if you're one of those people who stopped after Mitchell died in Season 3, you're missing out. You have to approach being human season 5 as a standalone piece of gothic fiction.
Don't compare it to the early years. The vibe is different. The lighting is harsher. The stakes are more intimate. But the writing is arguably sharper. Whithouse knew he was finishing the story, and there’s a sense of desperation in the scripts that really works.
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Actionable Steps for Fans and New Viewers:
- Watch the "Becoming" Prequels: If you can find them online, the BBC released short character origin videos for Hal and Alex that add massive context to their motivations in Season 5.
- Pay Attention to the Background: The production design in the hotel is full of Easter eggs and subtle hints about Hatch’s influence.
- Listen to the Score: Richard Wells' music in the final season is haunting. It shifts from the whimsical tones of the early years to something much more dissonant and industrial.
- Check out the US Version for Contrast: If you haven't seen the Syfy remake, it's worth a look just to see how differently they handled the "monster roommates" trope, though the UK version remains the gold standard for grit.
The show reminds us that being "human" isn't a biological fact. It's a set of decisions. Hal, Tom, and Alex were more human than the villains they fought because they cared about the consequences of their existence. Even when the world was ending, they were worried about being decent people. That’s a legacy worth remembering, even if the show ended over a decade ago.
The struggle to stay "good" when everything around you is pushing you toward the "bad" is the most relatable thing about this show. We don't have to be vampires to understand what Hal was going through. We just have to be people who sometimes make mistakes and desperately want to fix them. That's the heart of the show, and that's why Season 5 still resonates today.