Humans thoughts (about the s1 finale etc)
Aug. 13th, 2015 05:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessI had a peek at what Humans fic there is on AO3, and it appears fandom is a step ahead of me: Leotilda is a thing.
Humans 1.8
The main protagonists were acting sensibly in the circumstances – Laura the lawyer trying to find out what they were dealing with, acting compliant and then trying to come up with some means of saving Mia (and the others). Mattie insisted she’s all growed up now. Joe agreed to shut up and go along with the plan, because he did have some responsibility for putting all this in train, which is the best thing he could have done.
But Karen had more responsibility and an excellent vantage point of the results of what she’d done.
Watching Max be all broken was tough, but I’m glad Mia got the realisation that they needed Karen for the synth woo-woo to work. Great visuals of the five of them on their trolleys.
I’d got that Hobb was planning to enslave the upgraded synths from the visual of Fred being played by a black man without needing the script to point it out, thanks.
Pete turned out to be of some use, although I think they need to delve into his motivations beyond curiosity. However, I was amused by his using the literal truth to bamboozle the other officer. It was also good to see Mattie and her hacker skills – a girl! younger than him! smarter than him! – make him redundant. He’d have a chip on his shoulder about something in a synthless world.
The content of the Leo-Karen conversation was great. (I’d like to see her interact with Max and Fred in the next series.) The image of this bright white room after the blue-grays of the lab played with the possibility of it being all in their brains nicely.
Yay! Laura and Team Hawkins or the family Hawkins. Their blackmail was executed perfectly.
The march was a nice Chekhov’s gun for the two families to hide in.
I liked that Leo could tell Hobb that he didn’t have all the code for consciousness (don’t know how) and Karen’s goodbye.
We’ve moved on a long way, because Toby was the one who noticed that Fred was off, and I appreciated that. He’s become a much nicer human being in the last three episodes or so.
Loved that Laura knew full well that it was because of Tom that she was so invested in protecting the Elsters. Joe is a step behind or more in emotional intelligence, because Laura’s mother really did a number on her.
The depiction of the synths coming together to make the programme work was a bit drippy, although I get that options were limited about how to do it. The bad memories they all had were effectively powerful. Mother figures have agency on this show! Although, was Mia’s ‘sister’ really enough to get Karen to do a volte face?
Karen had a point about the implications of giving synths consciousness overnight (like turning all the potentials into slayers?), although things are hardly stable as they are, so one he’d saved his family (yay! SWEET MAX. And dropping Fred just about balanced things out, given that this is sci-fi and no-one really dies) I was glad Leo and the others decided to think before doing it.
Niska wasn’t given much to do in this ep, so I was glad she was the one to act decisively over the programme and give it to Laura. I have no idea why she nicked the flash drive from Mattie (I bet Mattie hopes it was Leo, because they gave them and their shippers very little in this episode, beyond him trusting her hacking skills.) Try not to kill people, Niska!
I still think that Karen can do better than Pete, especially since, in the gesture of taking his glasses off because she’s once said it made her look younger (and there’s the symbolism of him seeing her as who she really is, a synth in plain sight, not!Beatrice to that) I realised that actor looks like Ricky Gervaise.
Sophie playing Mia was nice. And like the Hawkins family, we all needed a laugh.
Fine, show, return (probably with a new heavyweight American actor in a significant role). See previous notes. It has improved since the slow beginning and the nadir of nastiness towards women dressed up as commentary on nastiness towards women.
A short featurette on The Making of Humans is available on All4 or whatever they’re calling it, where all the writers, directors and producers were men, and one of them claimed that Humans was original (which it’s literally not, because it’s an adaptation of a Scandi drama and maybe we haven’t seen a TV show about Robots! Now! In Britain!, but the theme has been mined in other media). I also learned that Colin Morgan is from Northern Ireland, but he does a 98% convincing RP English accent.
I would love to see fanvids of the show, mainly focused on the synths, as they're the most interesting visual component, and in terms of the ideas they raise too.
Humans 1.8
The main protagonists were acting sensibly in the circumstances – Laura the lawyer trying to find out what they were dealing with, acting compliant and then trying to come up with some means of saving Mia (and the others). Mattie insisted she’s all growed up now. Joe agreed to shut up and go along with the plan, because he did have some responsibility for putting all this in train, which is the best thing he could have done.
But Karen had more responsibility and an excellent vantage point of the results of what she’d done.
Watching Max be all broken was tough, but I’m glad Mia got the realisation that they needed Karen for the synth woo-woo to work. Great visuals of the five of them on their trolleys.
I’d got that Hobb was planning to enslave the upgraded synths from the visual of Fred being played by a black man without needing the script to point it out, thanks.
Pete turned out to be of some use, although I think they need to delve into his motivations beyond curiosity. However, I was amused by his using the literal truth to bamboozle the other officer. It was also good to see Mattie and her hacker skills – a girl! younger than him! smarter than him! – make him redundant. He’d have a chip on his shoulder about something in a synthless world.
The content of the Leo-Karen conversation was great. (I’d like to see her interact with Max and Fred in the next series.) The image of this bright white room after the blue-grays of the lab played with the possibility of it being all in their brains nicely.
Yay! Laura and Team Hawkins or the family Hawkins. Their blackmail was executed perfectly.
The march was a nice Chekhov’s gun for the two families to hide in.
I liked that Leo could tell Hobb that he didn’t have all the code for consciousness (don’t know how) and Karen’s goodbye.
We’ve moved on a long way, because Toby was the one who noticed that Fred was off, and I appreciated that. He’s become a much nicer human being in the last three episodes or so.
Loved that Laura knew full well that it was because of Tom that she was so invested in protecting the Elsters. Joe is a step behind or more in emotional intelligence, because Laura’s mother really did a number on her.
The depiction of the synths coming together to make the programme work was a bit drippy, although I get that options were limited about how to do it. The bad memories they all had were effectively powerful. Mother figures have agency on this show! Although, was Mia’s ‘sister’ really enough to get Karen to do a volte face?
Karen had a point about the implications of giving synths consciousness overnight (like turning all the potentials into slayers?), although things are hardly stable as they are, so one he’d saved his family (yay! SWEET MAX. And dropping Fred just about balanced things out, given that this is sci-fi and no-one really dies) I was glad Leo and the others decided to think before doing it.
Niska wasn’t given much to do in this ep, so I was glad she was the one to act decisively over the programme and give it to Laura. I have no idea why she nicked the flash drive from Mattie (I bet Mattie hopes it was Leo, because they gave them and their shippers very little in this episode, beyond him trusting her hacking skills.) Try not to kill people, Niska!
I still think that Karen can do better than Pete, especially since, in the gesture of taking his glasses off because she’s once said it made her look younger (and there’s the symbolism of him seeing her as who she really is, a synth in plain sight, not!Beatrice to that) I realised that actor looks like Ricky Gervaise.
Sophie playing Mia was nice. And like the Hawkins family, we all needed a laugh.
Fine, show, return (probably with a new heavyweight American actor in a significant role). See previous notes. It has improved since the slow beginning and the nadir of nastiness towards women dressed up as commentary on nastiness towards women.
A short featurette on The Making of Humans is available on All4 or whatever they’re calling it, where all the writers, directors and producers were men, and one of them claimed that Humans was original (which it’s literally not, because it’s an adaptation of a Scandi drama and maybe we haven’t seen a TV show about Robots! Now! In Britain!, but the theme has been mined in other media). I also learned that Colin Morgan is from Northern Ireland, but he does a 98% convincing RP English accent.
I would love to see fanvids of the show, mainly focused on the synths, as they're the most interesting visual component, and in terms of the ideas they raise too.
