Genre Character of the Week: George Sands

One of my favourite things about any genre (western, romance, detective, etc.) is that once a fan gets to know how the stories tend to work, they can begin to appreciate when characters start to play against type. A great example of this is our genre character of the week; George Sands, from the BBC Television series, Being Human.

George (played by Russell Tovey) is a great example of someone trying desperately to make the most out of a bad situation – his situation being that once a month he goes through an extremely painful transformation and becomes a werewolf. Rather than simply going mad or bringing his curse upon his family (like Lawrence Talbot in The Wolf Man), George uproots entirely, moves to a large city, gets a job as an orderly and attempts to live as close to a human life as possible. His roommates are a ghost and a vampire however, so his life plan is complicated to say the least.

What I like best about George is simple; he doesn’t give up on his friends. Although sorely tested throughout the first season (I’m currently taping season two so SHHH – no spoilers!), George comes through again and again in trying to help his friends. Also as a werewolf, he is pretty freaking cool.