Revenge of the Synth
Tech one home today...
HUMANS 15
Show Extras 2015 OUT NOW DVD
Life-like robots with the ability to think for themselves? As a sci-fi concept, it’s old hat. But this show, based on the award-winning Swedish drama Real Humans, is hard-wired to dig deep into the emotional and existential consequences in fresh, compelling ways.
It’s set in a parallel present where the latest must-buy accessory is a synth – a human-impersonating android that does household chores, replaces entire workforces and, yes, just to add extra shades of moral confusion, is used for more adult purposes, too. Having raised the tech bar so high, humanity unwittingly finds itself at the Singularity: the tipping point where machines supersede mankind.
Focus is given to the Hawkins family, whose beautiful synth Anita (played with eerie conviction by Gemma Chan) causes tension for a marriage already under pressure as she starts to replace the secretive Laura (Katherine Parkinson) as wife and mother, is investigated by uncontrollable adolescent daughter Mattie (Lucy Carless) and provides a serious crush for teenage son Toby (Theo Stevenson).
But with a band of rebel synths – who have true AI personalities and emotions – on a mission of their own, and with shocking revelations to come as the plot develops over the course of the series, Humans explores more than just one android’s place in the world. It provides engrossing drama, brutal twists and a meaty ponder of the ethical line-blurring between nature and artifice. As such, the show itself is something of a present-day, suburban replicant of Blade Runner. Extras – a Making Of and two featurettes – add up to an insubstantial
Matt Looker 13 minutes.
Extras › Making Of › Featurette