Humans
CHANNEL 4, 9.00PM
It may have half the budget of HBO’S Westworld but Humans has always been (forgive me) the more human show. This is particularly obvious with this third series, which like its US counterpart, follows the fallout from its synths gaining collective consciousness. Where Westworld chooses to couch that fallout in flashy scenes and tricksy games, Humans tells a more interesting story of distrust, betrayal and the price of slavery.
The story picks up a year after what is now being termed Year Zero, with memorials held for the thousands who died. Meanwhile, politicians are calling for the destruction of “green-eye” synths, and synthetics companies have already created a new army of compliant “orange-eyes”. As for our various protagonists, Laura (Katherine Parkinson) discovers that representing synths has severe drawbacks, while Anita (Gemma Chan) and Max (Ivanno Jeremiah) are struggling to convince their fellow synths that friendship holds the key.
It all makes for tense opening, although, as always, the series is at its best in its smallest moments – a talk about synth safety to class of primary schoolchildren is especially well observed.