I suspect it's cultural, too. Not only are the aesthetic standards different, but there's that reserve that made the vampire, for example, more distant and colder than American Aidan. None of them seemed as "transparent" (seeing inside to see what makes 'em tick) as the Americans did fairly quickly.

The comparison isn't entirely one-sided. The British ghost, if I recall right, was drier and smarter than the American Sally, who's more adorable if pretty much an airhead. That one's kind of a draw for me.

(Caveat: It was months ago, just after the first season of American BH ended and I was having withdrawal pangs, that I saw a couple of the Brit episodes on cable on-demand. Not sure I clearly remember my impressions of the charater's characters.)

BTW, started downloading episodes this afternoon, and sampled the opening of the pilot. Gripped me right away. I think it's one of those rare series that gets better the second time because you have a deeper understanding of the characters.

Ya know, Frank, I just knew you'd have watched and liked Being Human. Seems like, while we disagree about pretty much everything else, we agree about sci-fi.