For AMC, which has been focusing lately on trying to replicate the success in prestige programming that Breaking Bad and Mad Men gave the network, Humans is an odd choice since it's a very cerebral affair.
The sci-fi heavy show is about an alternate version of the present where robots are starting to cross the threshold into phasing out human usefulness. It has a bit of a slow burn to it as most dramas in this day and age do, things start clicking at a pretty exciting pace by the third episode.
The show wisely centers around the trials and tribulations of one family with a couple of side plots. The robots = scary versus the robots = progress debate is personified by various different parts of the family. Laura (Katherine Parkinson) is the family's Luddite which isn't something you see very often. She has a palpable fear of ceding control as a parent and home owner with a robot in the house, and their robot, Anita, is not making things easy for her. There's enough ambiguity over who and what Anita (Gemma Chan) is that there's a satisfying sense of mystery here. There's also daughter Mattie (Lucy Carless) who is a hacker who might not have a job in the future if the robots keep taking over.
There are also a couple side plots including one with William Hurt as some robot inventor with a strong attachment to one of the mindless robots and a fear of his intruding nurse. More exciting is the side plot with the three rogue robots who seem to have been programmed with more sentience and are both in danger and a possible danger to others (another major source of tension).
For a show with such lofty ambitions, the visuals (outside of the design of the robots) is a little bit of a disappointment although that could have to do with the lower budget of the foreign production.
The sci-fi heavy show is about an alternate version of the present where robots are starting to cross the threshold into phasing out human usefulness. It has a bit of a slow burn to it as most dramas in this day and age do, things start clicking at a pretty exciting pace by the third episode.
The show wisely centers around the trials and tribulations of one family with a couple of side plots. The robots = scary versus the robots = progress debate is personified by various different parts of the family. Laura (Katherine Parkinson) is the family's Luddite which isn't something you see very often. She has a palpable fear of ceding control as a parent and home owner with a robot in the house, and their robot, Anita, is not making things easy for her. There's enough ambiguity over who and what Anita (Gemma Chan) is that there's a satisfying sense of mystery here. There's also daughter Mattie (Lucy Carless) who is a hacker who might not have a job in the future if the robots keep taking over.
There are also a couple side plots including one with William Hurt as some robot inventor with a strong attachment to one of the mindless robots and a fear of his intruding nurse. More exciting is the side plot with the three rogue robots who seem to have been programmed with more sentience and are both in danger and a possible danger to others (another major source of tension).
For a show with such lofty ambitions, the visuals (outside of the design of the robots) is a little bit of a disappointment although that could have to do with the lower budget of the foreign production.