LIAR, Liar

Article first published as TV Review: LIAR on Seat42F.

Sundance has a new drama premiering tonight called LIAR. It’s actually a co-British program that is being aired here on Sundance at the same time it’s still running across the pond, albeit viewers in the UK are a few weeks ahead of us in the story. In LIAR, schoolteacher Laura Nielson accuses surgeon Andrew Earlham of rape after a first date. The audience is left to wonder which one of them is telling the truth as Andrew insists the intercourse was consensual, and Laura apparently finds forged evidence. So it’s a psychological thriller mystery.

The lead performers, Joanne Froggatt (Downton Abbey) as Laura and Ioan Gruffudd (Forever) as Andrew, are excellent. We’ve seen Froggatt play a rape victim before and Gruffudd do creepy and mysterious, so they do feel very familiar in the parts. But there’s also new ground here, with the slow pacing and the surprise reveals, each sticking very firmly to their own version of events. For much of the first hour, I wavered back and forth over who was telling the truth.

I do think society influences our impressions and how each person would approach this. My instinct is to trust the woman making the accusation, and others will, too, although some will fall on the other side, especially when Laura’s mental stability is called into question. Part of the value of LIAR is making us think about our preconceived notions and evaluate them, as well as call attention to some of the complex issues and difficulty building a case in situations like this. For that, it is invaluable.

In terms of storytelling, I’m not sure about this show yet. By the end of hour one, I felt like I had a plenty good idea of what happened, and was no longer on the fence. Reading a review of hour three, which aired this week in Britain, it seems viewers that far along are all falling on one side. Though, I expect there are still some twists to come that may shift things back the other way, or further explain what’s been revealed. This is the kind of thing you’d really have to watch all six parts of before deciding if the tale was well done or not, the conclusion mattering as much as the journey.

There are some very positive signs, besides the excellent acting. For one, the series is by Harry and Jack Williams, the brains behind The Missing, another excellent, twisty thriller. For another, the production is high quality, looking fantastic and grounded, paced pretty good, no obvious plot holes, fine scoring, terrific directing, all pluses. Some of the characters have major possibility, like Andrew’s son, who is Laura’s student, and Laura’s ex-boyfriend who is not what he initially seems. The supporting cast, including Zoe Tapper (Mr. Selfridge), Warren Brown (Luther), Shelley Conn (Terra Nova), Richie Campbell (Eve), Jamie Flatters (So Awkward), and Danny Webb (Humans), seem solid, too.

On the negative side is how every character seems to have their secrets, not just the leads. This can be all right, and may still be here. But other shows have fallen into the trap of making every single other person the leads cross paths with too shady or untrustworthy. I hope LIAR doesn’t fall into that trap. I don’t think it will, despite a couple things that seem a bit forced in the premiere, but that’s something to be careful with.

Having only seen a single installment, I am willing to tentatively recommend it. My feeling is that it will be worth your time, although, as I’ve cautioned, I can’t guarantee it at this stage. However, if you like a good British mystery-thriller, this will probably be right up your alley, and the pilot is already better than most others in the genre I’ve seen.

LIAR airs tonight at 10 ET on Sundance.

Being HUMANS

Article first published as Blu-ray Review: 'Humans' on Blogcritics.

Just released on Blu-ray and DVD from Acorn Media is Humans (Uncut UK Edition). A British show that ran on AMC in the U.S. last year, the show plays with themes of sentience and robotics, telling the story of several individuals in a near-future world where humans co-exist with androids. The series also plays out larger arcs exploring this society as it changes and adapts. It’s a fascinating show, well made and well acted; it is definitely worth checking out.

At the heart of Humans is the Hawkins family. Father Joe (Tom Goodman-Hill, Mr. Selfridge) is feeling overworked and neglected at home, so he buys a “synth” (as the artificial beings are called) whom his family names Anita (Gemma Chan, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit) to help out. His wife, Laura (Katherine Parkinson, The IT Crowd), is perturbed, but overruled by their three children, who quickly form bonds with Anita.

What they don’t realize is that Anita is actually a self-aware synth named Mia who was captured and re-purposed. A man named Leo (Colin Morgan, Merlin) is looking for her, along with a few other self-awares. As the eight-episode season unfolds, we learn quite a bit about Leo, Mia, and their family, as they go back quite a few years together, and their history matters very much to the world at large.

Some of the supporting characters also have interesting story arcs, most prominently a retired programmer named George (William Hurt, Damages), who has formed an emotional bond to his synth, Odi (Will Tudor, Game of Thrones), a mysterious man named Hobb (Danny Webb, Valkyrie) who is hunting Leo’s group, and DS Pete Drummond (Neil Maskell, Utopia), who resents the synth taking care of his disabled wife.

There are some early connections between various players, but as the season goes on, their paths become more and more intertwined. The story becomes a complex, sweeping narrative while remaining a small-scale character story: a hard feat to accomplish.

Humans raises some important and highly relevant questions about own contemporary society, which stands at the cusp of the artificial intelligence era. These are things we’ll soon be debating among ourselves. Just as there is an anti-robot movement on Humans, I expect that in our own future, small-minded people now losing the battles over race and sexual orientation, will take up that cause.

Will we reach The Singularity? Will our machines soon be able to reproduce themselves and not need us any longer? Those are things this series touches briefly on, and will surely be tackled further when Humans returns for a second season later this year. Given the quality with which this batch was tackled, I look to the show to do it properly and am eager to see their take, so I’d recommend checking this release out before the next one airs.

I wouldn’t think there’s too much different between HD and SD in terms of audio and visual quality. Despite portraying advanced technology, there is little CGI in Humans, with the synths looking just like us and relying on their human performers to (perfectly) set them apart as different. There are some action sequences and deep blacks that’ll look better on Blu-ray, but it’s not the type of show that a huge difference will be visible. Still, I’d go Blu-ray if I were you, especially since Amazon’s price is the same for both editions.

There are just a handful of special features. A featured 30-minute batch of shooting footage isn’t all that interesting, given it’s just mainly people standing around, not talking to the camera or anything. The are interviews with the cast are a little more worth watching, but still don’t really tell us a lot about the show. The release also contains a photo gallery, a puzzling addition very common on UK releases, but not seeming all that valuable to us in the U.S.

What I did find fascinating is that the same extras appeared on both blu-ray discs I received, which was kind of cool, able to access them no matter which I had in. But despite the novelty, I’d rather have more varied and deeper features than to see them repeated.

As such, I wouldn’t recommend Humans for the extras, but it is an excellent show that I enjoyed very much, and that makes you think, in a good way. Check out Humans, available now.

HUMANS Far From Obsolete

Article first published as HUMANS Review on Seat42F.

Pixie Davies as Sophie Hawkins and Gemma Chan as Anita - Humans _ Season 1, Episode 1 - Photo Credit: Des Willie/Kudos/AMC/C4

Get ready for HUMANS, premiering soon on AMC. It is the story of a group of people who live in a world very much like ours, except that there has been heavy investment in android technology and Synths (synthetic humans) are now readily available to buy. They can be your friend, do your chores, serve as sex workers, and a variety of other things. But are they really as inhuman as they are purported to be, and are we close to The Singularity, in which mankind will no longer be needed?

I’d say AMC has done it again with HUMANS, but this series is not really made by AMC. Based on a Swedish drama whose title translates as Real Humans, HUMANS was created by Channel 4 (a UK company) and Xbox. When Xbox closed their production studios, then AMC got involved, so I don’t know how much of a hand the American network had in making this program.

Whoever made it, though, it’s fantastic, and will fit in just fine with AMC’s unique, high-quality brand. Set in London, the series unfurls a vast, complex tapestry of humans and Synths. There’s the Hawkins family, who bring home Anita (Gemma Chan, Secret Diary of a Call Girl) to help with the housework, but she might instead be what ends the marriage of Joe (Tom Goodman-Hill, Mr. Selfridge) and Laura (Katherine Parkinson, The IT Crowd). There’s George Millican (William Hurt, Damages), who thinks of his Synth, Odi (Will Tudor, Game of Thrones), as a son, one who can supply memories of his deceased wife. There’s Leo (Colin Morgan, Merlin), who tries to protect a group of self-aware Synths, and Professor Hobb (Danny Webb, Locke), who tries to protect us against The Singularity.

That is not close to a complete list of the cast. A large number of players come in and out of HUMANS, presenting a variety of stories. It gives us an overview of the world the story takes place in, but because of some absolutely brilliant acting and writing, the personal tales still get told in those short scenes, and the cast is easy to keep track of. There is some seriously moving work going on here, providing many entries through which viewers can be sucked in.

There are also a wide variety of social issues being explored. I’ve mentioned The Singularity, which is a theory put forth in the 1950s, and is a real concern in a world such as that which HUMANS takes place in. Laura worries about what it will do to her kids to have a Synth they can treat as a slave, making them cold towards others or not knowing how to take care of themselves. Mattie Hawkins (Lucy Carless) wonders if there’s any point in trying in life when most jobs, even that of, say, a brain surgeon, will soon be filled by Synths. Leo and George make us consider if we should have more respect for the things we create, and where the line is between man and machine.

The weird thing about HUMANS for me is that it’s supposed to be in the present day, with the androids being the lone major difference between this world and ours. Yes, many Americans are frightened of such technology and so may resist adoption of it, but a place like Japan is not, and they are nowhere close to this type of Synth. I’d love for such a product to be available in my lifetime, personally, but it doesn’t look close. It might have been better to place it further in the future, with other advances. As it is, the promise of what HUMANS has to offer teases, showing us something many of us want in such a way that it feels like we should be able to have it, but we can’t.

I guess that’s also a testament to just how real HUMANS feels, too. Because of the rich characters and the complex questions the series poses, it feels completely authentic to me. The special effects are great and the structure is well thought out. I can’t wait to view the other seven episodes of its first season, and hope this is a program that runs for many, many years, as there are a whole lot of possibilities to explore here and the writers seem wise enough to know what those are.

HUMANS premieres Sunday, June 28^th at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.