Ö÷²¥´óÐã

Cop out maybe but I think the answer is both. Lauren didn't choose what happened to her and I think, although she enjoyed the initial sense of power and strengh, she soon realised that she definitely wasn't running the show and it wasn't just a game. I think maybe that's what draws her to Mitchell (apart from Herrick sending her); Mitchell was the last person she connected with before she became a vampire and also Mitchell is somehow able to resist the control of Herrick and the addiction. BUT I am not convinced she doesn't mean major trouble for Mitchell and I don't think she would want to live like Mitchell does. And, while addicts are the best people to help each other recover because only they can understand, there is always a danger that Mitchell could succumb to temptation once and then find it harder to go back. I am certainly not convinced that Lauren would go against Herrick's bunch when it comes down to having to 'choose which side' she's on.

I like it that the actress wants people to sympathise with her character.; all the best villains, if she is one, have at least one element about them which you can't help liking or sympathising with.

Victim or Villain... I don't know. And actually, that's what I'm starting to enjoy about her character; being consistently left on the back foot. I don't trust her, and I can't hate her, so I suppose I'm going to have to just carry on tensing up every time she comes within 10 yards of the main characters. She IS trouble, that can't be denied... but whether that's because she's manipulative, or manipulated, who knows?

Um, apart from the BH team, obviously.

I guess the whole victim or villan argument comes down to how big a part you think instict comes into it. As explained in episode 1 killing is part of the vampire's instict and no matter how hard they try that instict will always be there. However mitchell shows that they can resist this urge but only with the use of a lot of willpower and ocasionally you see him with 'the thirst'. Also it is probably easier for mitchell to go on the wagon as he has been a vampire since WWI which would have given more time to reflect on his actions.

Overall I guess that Lauren does want to be a good person now the origonal sense of power has gone down but her situation is like (as she put it) Hotel Californa

I just want to say I think it's great that, in this show, vampires aren't immediately 'born' villains and evil. They're addicted to blood and the killing that necessarily involves, of course - and some, like Herrick, seem to just decide to go with the flow and make it easier on themselves - but it doesn't seem to be an innate thing immediately on becoming a vampire as you often see in stories. They have to kill to feed the 'need' for fresh blood, but that doesn't necessarily mean they *want* to.

This is what I love about this show - the "monsters" are essentially human.

It's one of those simple yet brilliant ideas that makes you wonder why no one ever thought of doing it before.

And the brilliant black humour and use of music is just the icing on the cake. It makes sure the show doesn't get labelled "horror" or "gothicky" and makes it more mainstream.

Right! Enough shameless displays of enthusiasm. For now anyway.

I think the manipulative element of Lauren is brilliant - she annoys me so, so much, but I DO sympathise with her situation. Becoming a vampire was something pushed on her, not her choice, and the way her character manipulates and emotionally blackmails Mitchell is just typical addict, I think.

The whole portrayal of the vampires as dealing with an addiction rather than them being bloodthirsty 'creatures' brings a more human and identifiable aspect to the programme. Which is good, really, given the title ...

Not sure she'll ever'go straight'. If she ever did, personally I feel it would take a while, as it did with Mitchell.

Victim or Villain? Well, no-one in this world is 100% one or the other, and I think in a successful drama you can't have all these characters that are clear-cut 'Evil' or 'Good', otherwise it would become two-dimensional. Personally I wouldn't even say Herrick and Seth are complete and pure evil either. So, Lauren is neither ... and both ... she's human. Sort of. :S

Lord, I've written loads, sorry!

Totally agree with Georns

After reading what purpley-g and Georns wrote I think its a good point raised about whether the vampires are evil at all. In episode 1 Herrick says that people would probably want to vampires if it meant that they could live forever and he seems to see it as a way of helping people (like the sick children in the hospital). I guess you could say that the vampires think that what they are going is for the greater good and would bennifit a lot of people, but the nature of how it is achieved means that everything becomes a bit twisted.

At worst I think you can call the vampires morally grey.

I'm not sure I agree with you, Geom and mcgel321. It will be a long time before I start to sympathise with BH vampires as a species in general.

In most shows, vampires are actually killing for survival, they need the blood to live - a vampire killing a human is no different than a lion killing an antelope, it's just unpleasant to think about.
In BH the vampires don't need to kill for survival, they do it for sport.* They integrate themselves into human society, then either ignore all our rules and morals or twist them for their own gain. They've essentially learned to mimic us in order to stay undetected and pick us off more easily. How is that not evil? Surely that's ten times more black-hearted than any traditional vampire we've seen before?

In contrast you have Mitchell and Lauren, who actually question their actions and have the resolve to try and fight against them. They have the willpower to (try to) change - a very human trait. The rest of the vampires show no willpower, and no thought about what they're doing. In my eyes, THAT is what makes them distinctly evil and inhuman. They might live in parallel to us, but that doesn't mean I can find parallels in their behaviour, they're monsters.

Its a bit like when Tully said to George that once his conscience went, that would be the end of him, he'd just be a monster. The vampires lost their consciences long ago. I don't know how you can call them "morally grey" when they're going around comparing blood types to cheap wines.


*Alright, they also do it because of addiction. But seeing as addiction doesn't generally pain you unless you've bothered to try giving it up, I don't see how this applies to a vampire until they've started to fight against it.

It could be an age-thing?
Herrick and Seth are older vamps than Mitchell and Lauren.
Lauren is certainly acting childish at times eg making a kill in middle of the day (when Herrick had to corner off the house and escort her away from the house) she is the 'newbie' of the vamps we have seen on the show so far.
Does that mean Mitchell has no hope, he'll eventually lose what's left of his humanity the older he gets? :-o
We know that an individual's nature plays a part in their behaviour - only some members of society take lives (commit murders) - so it could also be the case with vamp society, further eps could confirm this if we meet more vamp characters.
We also learned after seeing Tully the fact is some people are jerks in their nature, this doesn't change when they become vamps or werewolves or ghosts, they're still jerks.
Lauren must have always been slightly unhinged in nature; manic personality; making her a vamp only enhanced the instability. She probably chose bad boyfriends, the pilot mentioned Mitchell was thought of as 'dangerous' by people in the hospital (Lauren was 'warned' by her friend about Mitchell), Lauren liked that about him because she invited him to go home with her that night.
Can she be helped to resist killing urge? I don't know, Mitchell said he had such a tough time controlling himself it was really difficult to help someone else too.

"Does that mean Mitchell has no hope, he'll eventually lose what's left of his humanity the older he gets? :-o"

Oh, loopymowse. I'm going to go away and cry, now.

I think she was a victim at first because she did not ask to become what she is but she's now a villain for using Mitchell's sense of guilt and decency and expects him to make life easy for her. If she really wanted to quit she would take Mitchell's advice.

I think what has happened to her makes a victim, the way she reacts to it makes her a villain if that makes sense.
I don't really hate Lauren or love her for that matter, as long as she doesn't get with Mitchell I'm okay with her lol :P

Hmm what a complex one - firstly BH vampires in general - as someone above said they dont have to kill to survive as do typical vampires - mitchell eats toast and drinks beer etc...however, at one point George says -"you're attacking our friends and turning them into monsters" and mitchell replies "well how do you think ive survived all these years?!" which implies that he does have to kill to survive.

Secondly end of episode 4 Bernie says "Mum im hungry" and the look of horror on her face suggests hes got to get blood? i guess so cos surely she wouldnt look so shocked if she could just take him for a burger lol. or perhaps this is just her own ignorance?

They really are a tough one to work out i honestly dont believe any human is purely light or dark but vampires? they confuse me lol but mitchell - i do believe he is one of he good guys - when he is with george and annie is so lovely and sweet and funny and everyone has a choice in life dont they - between whats right and whats easy and its never easy to make the right choice - just because hes chosen the right life doent mean he cant make the odd mistake - ie. Lauren to be fair he was ahem vulnerable and didnt exactly have his guard up.

However, after saying all that the end of episode 4 has really made me doubt - the whole thing.

As for Lauren - i think she is just not as far along the path as mitchell - hes had a lot longer to think things through. Its like human people I suppose - you either let bad experiences make you stronger or you get bitter ad take it out on the world.

God what a load of waffle lol sorry but it really is a tricky one fascinated to see how it turns out.....

brownstudies-the point I was trying to make was that BH vampires may see it as their duty to turn other people into vampires as it makes them immortal and stronger. Also Herrick suggests that vampires are fairer on each other as they do not fight each other nor do they declare war and as a result the world would be more peaceful. I guess this will become clearer in episode 5.

I agree that Lauren is both victim and villain. However, I do sympathize with her. Like other people have said she didn't choose what happened to her and mitchell has left her to deal with the consequences.

As with all good characters, she seems to be neither villain or victim but a nice shade of moral grey.

Certainly in some aspects she is a victim, Mitchell should have been there with her and it does seem like she is being used by the other vampires. Yet she reacts badly to Mitchell's help which leaves me to wonder how much is the craving and how much is her as the problem. She seems to swing from troublesome character to sweet person needing help, I suspect the truth is somewhere between the two.

I like Lauren more and more as the series goes on, and think she's a victim more than a villain. She didn't ask to become a vampire, and I think she honestly wanted Mitchell's help (although this may have been all part of Herrick's grand plans, whatever they are). Plus she gets to snog him - you go girl! lol

Now she seems to have embraced being a vampire, I don't think we can call her a villian because she is what she is. Herrick's puppet maybe, like Seth, but not a villian in the true sense of the word.

I mean, look at the way Mitchell changed when he decided to go back, he's become selfish and lost his humanity and his empathy with people (the way he brushed off Bernie's thanks at the station).

I like her, and it'll be interesting to see how her character develops further. Although I wish she would stop wearing all black!

I dont think Mitchell has become selfish I think he is just upset - like George said in episode 1 - it must take him so much energy every second not to be like them - to fight who he really is and he goes to all that effort and tries so hard and it gets thrown back in his face by the very people he was doing it all for. To be honest I think Id have done the same - I think hes just in a "why should i even bother?!" state now and i think its totally justified. As for Bernie i think it was just guilt - in the same way as George abbandonned Nina - Mitchell did it to Bernie - I think he felt responsible so wanted to help him but at the same time felt guilty for getting him involved......perhaps lol well thats what I think anyway.

agreed I think he just wanted Bernie to leave because it hurt to be around him and he couldn't face up to the responsibility of what he'd just done.
Mitchell brushed off the thanks because he didn't feel he deserved a thank you for getting Bernie involved.

It's so typical that I was really starting to like Lauren/the actress in episode 5....damn it

After seeing episode 5 im gonna take back that whole 'morally grey' thing I said. The way Herrick kept those people locked up so that they could feed of them, its so cruel & heartless (though they propably dont see it that way)

I didn't mean Mitchell is becoming selfish in himself as such, just that he's taken on the characteristics of a vampire again, who are not concerned with people's feelings - I mean they kill and feed from people!! I just saw that moment as Mitchell's transition from almost human, back to vampire. Had he been compassionate towards Bernie, he might not have then gone back to Herrick!

By the way, Lauren is no longer victim nor villian in my book, but hero for stabbing Seth!!

Lauren was an awsum character, her role at the end took serious guts good on you girl!
Anabel consider your job well done, superb acting.

I think its a shame she's been killed of as she was a good character and I liked the way that she was up & down all the time and acted as a constant reminder to mitchell over the effects of his actions. I think the series is going to miss somthing without her

I think pretty much everyone has canged heir opinions on both lauren ad vampires in general after episoe 5 havent they lol i certinly have Lauren - you're right definately hero she did the right thing in getting seth and did what she thought was the right thing in dying but i dont think she should have done - she didnt like herself but at the same time she might have been more usefull risking her life at the ands of Herrick and helping the others to fight him instead of telling Mitchell to do it lol slight cop out on her part but then nobody is perfect and like she said it was Mitchell who bought her ito that world perhaps it was only right that he should end her suffering.

Hmm . . . I didn' really like Lauren, I saw her as a bit manipulative. Mitchell is such a "good" guy, always wanting to do the best he can for his friends and I think Lauren was sort of tapping into this to try and manipulate him - she played the victim to make him feel sorry for her. I won't miss her at all . . .

As much as i love mitchell i dont agree that hes "such a good guy" hes a lot older and wiser than lauren but hes done some pretty bad things too and killed a lot of people - the stories herrick tells prove this and things he says aswell. nobody is good or bad and to be honest i dont think mitchell would have done what she did at her age... (but like i said i love mitchell think hes a great chracter and yes quite a good guy but hes by no means innocent! and lets not forget he did kill lauren - and then abandon her...)

Hi all, I have been dying for series 2 of Being Human & last night I watched episode 1 & it was brilliant.I loved every moment of it.It just gets better & better.I have just one request, please, anyone, could you please tell me what that song is & who it is by, its almost toward the end of the new episode. Its around the bit when Nina is in the lift at work just after she has told George about herself being just like him. The only words I remember are 'Its a simple town',if that helps. It really moved me especially with what was going on on that time with George & Nina. I would be very, very greatful if anyone could let me know. Thank you so much & good luck with the rest of the series.