Being human syfy s.4 is a big disappointment.

[Xanderfox]

Originally Posted by Anahki

Yeah... with a camera and some friends, you can film a werewolf saga for almost 0$... lots of TFs off camera or behind some convenient furniture. For the werewolves, you will get a "close enough" with a pack of terriers.
The only weak point for my plan is that you won't have some "real" werewolf stuff for cheating you and create some expectancies before spitting us the real bullshit.
I swear this is based on a true story .

Well when it comes to Fantasy Series like Being Human the more seasons of the series you get the cheaper the effects tend to become. When you start you have to have lots of impressive effects to garner interest in the show, but further down the line the show is expected to have an established audience. That's when the budget becomes a larger issue and the special effects are the first area to suffer. Once a show becomes successful greater presser is applied for it to make money, one way is to reduce cost. A sudden leap in technology can sometimes delay this, if effects suddenly become cheaper then they will be used more often.
Of course sometimes the show's effects reflect just how much of a budget that particular season has gotten. The British Sci-Fi series Red Dwarf is a perfect example, during Series(Seasons) when the show had a larger budget the effects where more impressive and plentiful , when the budget was lean the quality and frequency of special effects lessened.

[vincent_richter]

Originally Posted by Xanderfox

Of course sometimes the show's effects reflect just how much of a budget that particular season has gotten. The British Sci-Fi series Red Dwarf is a perfect example, during Series(Seasons) when the show had a larger budget the effects where more impressive and plentiful , when the budget was lean the quality and frequency of special effects lessened.

Good example.
Series 9 (the "movie" / Back to Earth) was a particularly glaring departure from the norm.
They omitted a laugh-track / studio audience altogether.
I'm sure the director prefers to call it a stylistic choice.
I prefer to see it as BBC fat-cats killing the laughter for a cheap buck.

[thrandrall]

Originally Posted by Xanderfox

Well when it comes to Fantasy Series like Being Human the more seasons of the series you get the cheaper the effects tend to become. When you start you have to have lots of impressive effects to garner interest in the show, but further down the line the show is expected to have an established audience. That's when the budget becomes a larger issue and the special effects are the first area to suffer. Once a show becomes successful greater presser is applied for it to make money, one way is to reduce cost. A sudden leap in technology can sometimes delay this, if effects suddenly become cheaper then they will be used more often.
Of course sometimes the show's effects reflect just how much of a budget that particular season has gotten. The British Sci-Fi series Red Dwarf is a perfect example, during Series(Seasons) when the show had a larger budget the effects where more impressive and plentiful , when the budget was lean the quality and frequency of special effects lessened.

I would argue that's not necessarily the case - if you look at an example like Farscape (canceled by SyFy when it had a contract for a 5th season...par for the course like so many other shows there - I think we had a previous thread). You had TFs, Aging, merging, etc. plus all the usual space goodness - AND MUPPETS!....stayed pretty consistent across all four seasons with a budget bump for the 2 ep concluding miniseries.

[Xanderfox]

Originally Posted by thrandrall

I would argue that's not necessarily the case - if you look at an example like Farscape (canceled by SyFy when it had a contract for a 5th season...par for the course like so many other shows there - I think we had a previous thread). You had TFs, Aging, merging, etc. plus all the usual space goodness - AND MUPPETS!....stayed pretty consistent across all four seasons with a budget bump for the 2 ep concluding miniseries.

I don't know why your disagreeing with me, or how Farscape proves I'm wrong.
I never said the effect was universal, or that EVERY Fantasy/Sci-Fi series ever has suffered the same effects of "Budget Decay". How ever they TEND TO fall into that trap, so it does not surprise me that Being Human is doing what MOST Sci-fi/fantasy series tend to do, cutting back on effects as the series progresses.