So, a werewolf, a ghost, and a vampire walk onto a bar...Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke. But it's more or less the premise of one of my favorite summer shows. Chances are good you haven't heard of it. It gets almost no promotion on this side of the pond. I just happened to stumble upon it last summer as I was doing some serious channel surfing.

The show, Being Human, is in its second season on BBC America and while it sounds uber cheesey--a werewolf, a ghost and a vampire live together in an apartment in Bristol, England and try to cope with their lot in life and blend in with normal people--I've found it to be incredibly entertaining. There's less blood and sex than in True Blood, though there's certainly a dark undercurrent,  and it's not as slick and superficial as The Gates or Vampire Diaries. I guess you could say it's more realistic, if you can say that about a show in which the main characters are a werewolf, a ghost and a vampire. Plus there's the overriding theme of what does it really mean to be human. And for these characters the real questions to be answered are, just how human can they even be, how much of their humanity do they really want to hang on to and at what price?

Unlike in most American movies and television shows, not everyone has a profile chiseled out of stone (with the exception of the quite darkly attractive young Irish actor, Aidan Turner, who plays the vampire) and I haven't noticed a single pair of breast implants in sight. The Brits seem to have an affinity for more normal looking actors. Still, they're all intriguing and the acting is quite good. The emotions and the angst they experience over their unique set of circumstances feel real.

If you catch it on Saturday nights, the other thing you'll notice is the censorship we've imposed before broadcast here. We Americans tend to laugh about how uptight the English are, but they are certainly less prudish than us when it comes to television. The "F" word must be used freely on the "telly" over there, because it's clearly bleeped out for broadcast here. And ass cracks and nipples are smudged out, resulting in curious anatomical anomalies. The werewolf ends up nude quite often as he knows he's going to rip his clothes to shreds as he morphs, so he strips down, cups his hands over his "winky," as they evidently like to say in England, and waits for the metamorphosis to take place.

If you watch Being Human, just be prepared to suspend your disbelief even more than usual as the paranormal rules seem to be fluid and inexplicable. The vampire, who is trying hard not to kill people, though he's had a couple of slipups, seems to be surviving without drinking blood at all, not even animal blood. He eats food, drinks beer and even has to take a leak every once in a while.

The ghost, played by Lenora Crichlow, had her best scenes last season as she confronted her boyfriend, who murdered her. She has now  somehow developed the ability to make herself visible to people and has taken a job at a local pub. But she can disappear at will. Go figure. The only one who, so far, seems to stick to the supernatural rules as I know them, is the werewolf, who is played by the incredibly likeable Russell Tovey--the most unlikely werewolf ever. But, like clockwork, he morphs into a monster each time the full moon rolls around. And he, like the others, is doing his best to accept what he is and all that entails.

If you've dropped by occasionally to read my posts, I've made no secret of my fondness for all things supernatural, especially vampires. So, speaking from experience, I'd have to rank the existential angst experienced by the werewolf and the vampire characters in Being Human  right up there with Brad Pitt's gut wrenching self loathing in Interview With the Vampire. If you can, go back to season one and watch from the beginning. I highly recommend it.