HUMANS 2.0

Article first published as Blu-ray Review: 'Humans 2.0' on Blogcritics.

The American-British, AMC-Channel 4 co-production, Humans, based on the award-winning Swedish series, is back for a second season. The show takes place in a world where ‘synths,’ essentially advanced androids, are prevalent and used for a variety of business and household needs. In season one, the Hawkins family, an average, middle-class clan in England, stumbles into a quartet of more developed synths. These synths have their own consciousness. In season two, more synths begin ‘waking up,’ and the only thing that’s certain is that the effects will be far-reaching.

Catching Up With the Characters

The Hawkins family has relocated as Humans 2.0 begins, starting over in a new city. Father Joe (Tom Goodman-Hill) is soon made redundant at work by an artificial life form. Son Toby (Theo Stevenson) is interested in a girl (Letitia Wright, Black Panther) who is pretending to be a synth. Toby’s younger sister, Sophie (Pixie Davies), seeks to emulate this newcomer. Other sister Mattie (Lucy Carless) begins working on a code that will give all synths consciousness, using the discarded Odi (Will Tudor) to test it on. Mom Laura Hawkins (Katherine Parkinson) is approached by synth murderess Niska (Emily Berrington). Niska wants to turn herself in, but only if she will be tried as a human.

Our lead synths are also facing complications. Mia (Gemma Chan) has gone back to living as her non-conscious alter-ego, Anita, and falls in love with a human (Sam Palladio). Karen (Ruth Bradley) continues her relationship with the accepting Pete (Neil Maskell), though worries her secret will come out to others. Max (Ivanno Jeremiah) and Leo (Colin Morgan) concern themselves with finding ‘awake’ synths and saving them. Milo Khoury (Marshall Allman, True Blood) and his evil corporation is their competition, trying to snatch up the woken synths.

The Issues

The issues with what defines sentience and how mankind will deal with artificial intelligence of their own creation are explored in these eight episodes, as indicated in outlining the activities of our leads above. Humans is beloved for its complex take on such matters, and 2.0 continues that trend. Whether Niska has rights in the judicial system is at the forefront early on. Her case will set a precedent for other synths, one the humans are reluctant to allow. But it’s not like the genie can be put back in the bottle; Mattie isn’t the only one trying to let it out. So while people may want to put off changing the way they think about androids, they don’t really have much choice in the timeline.

A good chunk of Humans 2.0 takes place within Milo’s company. Specifically, the focus is on Dr. Athena Morrow (Carrie-Anne Moss, Jessica Jones, The Matrix), who lost her daughter and seeks to create an A.I. version of her. Can the human soul be transferred to a machine, as Athena and other characters might like to have happen? Or, as Karen would like, can a machine’s mind be put into a human? Both are on the table in this series as possibilities, and it certainly makes one think. Especially when children, who are not currently allowed to be built as synths in this world, enter into the mix.

Primarily, it’s these plots, these notions that are raised but not necessarily answered, that are the reason to watch Humans 2.0. This is solid sci-fi, well-produced and well-acted, that explores both technology and the human condition. Whether you’re a fan of the genre or not, this series will give you something to think about.

Extras

Humans 2.0 is not strong on bonus features. There are six short featurettes, all on the second disc, most, five minutes or fewer. A couple of these are promotional, and would be more valuable to watch before viewing episodes, slightly awkward since the material is placed on the second disc and not at the start of the first. There’s a worthwhile 10-minute feature that gets into some of the meat of the season and 30 minutes of B-roll, behind the scenes footage, played without commentary. Something only fans and film nerds might appreciate.

Conclusion

Even without a lot of extras, I highly recommend Humans 2.0 because of the content, characters, and quality of the production. It is enjoyable and a fascinating, relevant series.
Humans 2.0 is available now from Acorn.

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.