In The Flesh

In The Flesh is a three part series that has been showing on BBC Three in place of Being Human, at 10pm on a Sunday evening. The last episode showed on 31st March and I've been wanting to blog about since the credits rolled but I wanted to ruminate on it. And now, here I am. Fully ruminated!
In case you haven't seen or heard of the show, here's the trailer and a brief plot.

Image from http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00szzcm/profiles/kieren

The main character of the show is Kieren Walker (Luke Newberry), a young man who has recently become a sufferer of Partially Dead Syndrome (PDS). Or zombie to me and you. We first see Kieren in a facility for PDS sufferers, in which they are being given a treatment that stops them from 'zombifying'. This treatment is what will allow the PDS sufferers to return to civilisation. And their families. And what they did while they were zombies.

And this is what Kieren must do. He must go back to the village he grew up in and deal with who he is now and what led him to be who he is now.
Within 5 minutes of the show starting I was hooked. And this is very unusual for me. There are very few shows that I felt this strongly about this quickly. Maybe Veronica Mars. Hard to think of others. But In The Flesh had me.

First of all, the premise of the show was very intriguing. I like zombie stories, including The Walking Dead, but it's not my favourite genre. Especially when the protagonist is the zombie! How do you make them likeable? Relatable? But from the off, this show managed to do just that. Kieren is an incredibly likeable character and you genuinely feel for him. He is the hero of the piece.
Secondly, there is a fantastic, British humour alongside the darkest of stories. I saw a quote from Joss Whedon just today that said:

"Make it dark, make it grim, make it tough, but then, for the love of God, tell a joke."

Taken from:http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/219196-make-it-dark-make-it-grim-make-it-tough-but

Finally, In The Flesh did something that few shows can do and that is take you somewhere you never saw coming. From suicide and dealing with its aftermath, to dealing with sexuality, loss, anger, acceptance, family and religion. The writing was superb and throughout the show, but especially in the last episode, the cast were immense and the main reason, other than the writing, that you allowed yourself to support the zombie! They were also the main reason that I spent the last 20 minutes crying like a little baby!

Last year, BBC Three had another fantastic show on their hands - The Fades - which they let go in favour of Being Human. I was gutted. I SO hope that BBC Three don't do the same with this and that now Being Human is no more, In The Flesh becomes the flagship supernatural show on this channel.