HUMANS Season One Review

Humans is a British-American science fiction television series written by the British scribes Sam Vincent and Jonathan Brackley, based on the Swedish science fiction drama Real Humans, the series explores the emotional impact of the blurring of the lines between humans and machines. It is produced jointly by AMC, Channel 4 and Kudos.

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Humans stars Colin Morgan (Merlin) and Gemma Chan (Bedlam, Secret Diary of a Call Girl) and William Hurt in a sci-fi'ish parallel or near future society where everyone has or wants a 'Synth' - a highly-developed robotic servant that is nearly identical looking to humans except for their tell-tale bright green eyes.

The season starts out showing us six people, who eventually, we learn, are synths. But these six are different than your run of the norm synths. Most synths have a single purpose and that is to be a tool, a utility, much like our software on our computers. But these six have emotions.


Leo (Morgan) more or less leads the synths but we learn more and more about him and the others as the season develops, and his story is fascinating. Even more so than the rest of the synths.

Then there is the synth, Anita. She's bought and put into service with a family, but every now and then something odd happens with her. During Anita's tenure with her human family, dad bought her to be of help around the house since mom is busy.  Mom is suspicious and jealous of her while the three kids love her.

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This show is a fresh bit of daylight in the usual landscape of drama shows. This show is slow build, delivering small nuggets of curiosity, then peppered with small nuggets of resolution. It is not the kind of show that teases a mystery then reveals it almost immediately. It gives you tidbits to digest along your journey. It keeps you wondering. It keeps you engaged as each episode answers just one more question you had.

But it has slight undertones, with very little over-the-top, super-exciting moments. It is more of a reflective, intelligent experience than an adrenaline stimuli. I loved seeing Colin Morgan in something other than being a young Merlin.

Still, if you lean towards the sci-fi about robots, the role of humanity in our future, etc., this is a good show for that.

At the time of this writing, all episodes are on  http://www.amc.com/shows/humans

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