Humans double-bill
Jun. 15th, 2018 07:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessHumans 3.4
The show's gone a little more Life on Mars visually with Agnes’s backstory – a dolly being a clown’s assistant, good call – and the guy who blindsided Niska.
Agnes and Max had a battle of lies. He imprisoned her again, which I thought was tactically astute, if not strategic. She’d be in a worse mood…later. But the commission’s visit was Very Tense as it was, until Max played a few blinders.
Not!Gunnar did not quite get the reunion he expected from Mia, probably. I should be all aghast at the stronger person using physical violence against an ex, but I am not. He kind of apologised for what he did and Mia gave an inch, and not because she realised that letting the ‘flesh and blood’ visitor out of her flat with a visible bruise was a bad idea.
We had a touch of the awkwardness about Leotilda on the downlow, although that’s nothing compared to general Hawkins family post-divorce awkwardness. I wondered if this Vijay was a set up to draw whoever instigated Day Zero out, but Mattie’s guilt is on an epic scale.
Maybe the green eyes just need to work on grasping lies. Sweet Anatole to the rescue. Max made the excellent point that Agnes would be sacrificing 500 lives if she’d succeeded in her attack, without their consent, in her big angry martyr plan. Agnes showed how little she’d grasped the fact that poking at bears has consequences. Obviously, what Max did was cruel, anger-driven and not the best way to deal with her. And that’ll have consequences, I daresay.
Another bear being poked was Niska, who dealt with the bomber effectively, but...consequences.
My heart did not bleed for random Vijay who Mattie talked about as if he was a best mate – he did claim he’d done something that lead to thousands of death when he hadn’t. But I liked that Leotilda went back to hacking, and that they both admitted they didn’t like the other being imprisoned. Also, if either of them had come forward, it’d have put the rest of the Hawkins and Elsters in danger.
Obviously, Mia wasn’t going to go with Ed, though we were left to hope for an ending for her (because she’d be recognised on Skye too, surely). Lots she needs to work through, and started to.
Ditto Niska needing to work through stuff, as Astrid pointed out.
Loved Karen ending up as a relationship adviser to Joe, who was reaching out from loneliness, and how it almost ended up as a date, just as, indeed, Laura was spending the night with another man, the first after the divorce. And Neil got to be complicated and all, but her vulnerability and how he treated her afterwards were painful, but not quite as shattering as what happened to Karen. Was she able to override a master command as Niska was – only out of love? Anyway, she was able and willing to sacrifice herself for Sam – poor Sam! – and Joe was able to grieve for her. I hope he takes Sam to the rest of his family instead of trying to bumble about bringing him up – if Karen was outed, people would connect her to Sam in Humanville.
(Less seriously, that means the woman with Leo’s mother’s face kissed Mattie’s father, who forced Mia-in-Anita to have sex with him, and she was basically Leo’s adoptive mother, and Leo and Mattie are having consensual sex. COMPLICATED.
Episode 3.5
I found this episode hugely affecting; it may be because I’d just been talking to a family member beforehand, but I think a lot of it was down to Sam at the Hawkinses.
Joe and Laura were not quite in the same place, which made for all sort of awkward, baggage-laden friction as they tried to parent a child synth. Sophie helped a lot – the actress playing her is growing to look a lot like the actress playing Mattie. Sophie + any synth is always golden, but here, as Sam adjusted to life without Karen and everyone else adjusted to Sam, especially Leo, still trying to work out who he is and seeing the similarities between them, it was moving. Leo is so vulnerable right now, and the way they’re playing Leotilda is lovely.
But I called Mattie’s new fellow student being an undercover cop from the first second and proceeded to make Lush jokes for the rest of the episode. I was then confused that it turned out she was working for a newspaper. In any case, my, that was quick, Mattie’d only uploaded the code the day before.
The other niggle I have is with Anatole. (Nobody is Sweet Anything.) Is he still a zealot or something else? It just felt that the reveal that he was willing to help Agnes and ordering Stanley to kill the Hawkins household came from nowhere, so I’d like more explanation on where he’s coming from. I get being disappointed with Max – it felt like he was overly excited about the Dryden commission news, though it turned out that he was just opening the gates and letting whoever wanted to go out for a walk to London, say, go. But the wrongness of what he did to Agnes stands.
Stanley being a sleeper assassin is a reveal I can get behind, though – makinghim a threat to characters we care about, especially as all the Hawkinses have been brought together through Sam for the first time this year. I’m wondering if he’s a green eyes masquerading as an orange eyes or got reprogrammed. Either way, it shows how rubbish the security arrangements were. I mean, I was still worrying for most of the episode about him seeing Sam and knowing most of what was going on at the Hawkinses and reporting to the establishment. They played that anxiety over privacy settings for laughs when Joe tried to pump him for information about Neil.
BTW, Neil, yes, you should apologise and explain yourself, and expect nothing from Laura.
Joe bumping into Leo and not saying anything was a fun moment.
Toby is pretending he's thinking about New Zealand, because it offers more employment chances, but we know it’s because he hasn’t got a plot line as such.
Meanwhile Mia finding Iris and her synth-in-hiding and, through them, her supporters/fans, and getting regalvinised was a bit more like it for her. I’ll be interested to see how her conversation goes with Lord Dryden. They’re working through the consequences of Day Zero nicely. I mean, the Hawkinses and Leo were all ‘child synth’ and not thinking through the implications of that/the last series's overreach in terms of plot. But the emotional through lines where what gripped, and although a few synths strode ahead purposefully, it's all complicated and fragile.
The show's gone a little more Life on Mars visually with Agnes’s backstory – a dolly being a clown’s assistant, good call – and the guy who blindsided Niska.
Agnes and Max had a battle of lies. He imprisoned her again, which I thought was tactically astute, if not strategic. She’d be in a worse mood…later. But the commission’s visit was Very Tense as it was, until Max played a few blinders.
Not!Gunnar did not quite get the reunion he expected from Mia, probably. I should be all aghast at the stronger person using physical violence against an ex, but I am not. He kind of apologised for what he did and Mia gave an inch, and not because she realised that letting the ‘flesh and blood’ visitor out of her flat with a visible bruise was a bad idea.
We had a touch of the awkwardness about Leotilda on the downlow, although that’s nothing compared to general Hawkins family post-divorce awkwardness. I wondered if this Vijay was a set up to draw whoever instigated Day Zero out, but Mattie’s guilt is on an epic scale.
Maybe the green eyes just need to work on grasping lies. Sweet Anatole to the rescue. Max made the excellent point that Agnes would be sacrificing 500 lives if she’d succeeded in her attack, without their consent, in her big angry martyr plan. Agnes showed how little she’d grasped the fact that poking at bears has consequences. Obviously, what Max did was cruel, anger-driven and not the best way to deal with her. And that’ll have consequences, I daresay.
Another bear being poked was Niska, who dealt with the bomber effectively, but...consequences.
My heart did not bleed for random Vijay who Mattie talked about as if he was a best mate – he did claim he’d done something that lead to thousands of death when he hadn’t. But I liked that Leotilda went back to hacking, and that they both admitted they didn’t like the other being imprisoned. Also, if either of them had come forward, it’d have put the rest of the Hawkins and Elsters in danger.
Obviously, Mia wasn’t going to go with Ed, though we were left to hope for an ending for her (because she’d be recognised on Skye too, surely). Lots she needs to work through, and started to.
Ditto Niska needing to work through stuff, as Astrid pointed out.
Loved Karen ending up as a relationship adviser to Joe, who was reaching out from loneliness, and how it almost ended up as a date, just as, indeed, Laura was spending the night with another man, the first after the divorce. And Neil got to be complicated and all, but her vulnerability and how he treated her afterwards were painful, but not quite as shattering as what happened to Karen. Was she able to override a master command as Niska was – only out of love? Anyway, she was able and willing to sacrifice herself for Sam – poor Sam! – and Joe was able to grieve for her. I hope he takes Sam to the rest of his family instead of trying to bumble about bringing him up – if Karen was outed, people would connect her to Sam in Humanville.
(Less seriously, that means the woman with Leo’s mother’s face kissed Mattie’s father, who forced Mia-in-Anita to have sex with him, and she was basically Leo’s adoptive mother, and Leo and Mattie are having consensual sex. COMPLICATED.
Episode 3.5
I found this episode hugely affecting; it may be because I’d just been talking to a family member beforehand, but I think a lot of it was down to Sam at the Hawkinses.
Joe and Laura were not quite in the same place, which made for all sort of awkward, baggage-laden friction as they tried to parent a child synth. Sophie helped a lot – the actress playing her is growing to look a lot like the actress playing Mattie. Sophie + any synth is always golden, but here, as Sam adjusted to life without Karen and everyone else adjusted to Sam, especially Leo, still trying to work out who he is and seeing the similarities between them, it was moving. Leo is so vulnerable right now, and the way they’re playing Leotilda is lovely.
But I called Mattie’s new fellow student being an undercover cop from the first second and proceeded to make Lush jokes for the rest of the episode. I was then confused that it turned out she was working for a newspaper. In any case, my, that was quick, Mattie’d only uploaded the code the day before.
The other niggle I have is with Anatole. (Nobody is Sweet Anything.) Is he still a zealot or something else? It just felt that the reveal that he was willing to help Agnes and ordering Stanley to kill the Hawkins household came from nowhere, so I’d like more explanation on where he’s coming from. I get being disappointed with Max – it felt like he was overly excited about the Dryden commission news, though it turned out that he was just opening the gates and letting whoever wanted to go out for a walk to London, say, go. But the wrongness of what he did to Agnes stands.
Stanley being a sleeper assassin is a reveal I can get behind, though – makinghim a threat to characters we care about, especially as all the Hawkinses have been brought together through Sam for the first time this year. I’m wondering if he’s a green eyes masquerading as an orange eyes or got reprogrammed. Either way, it shows how rubbish the security arrangements were. I mean, I was still worrying for most of the episode about him seeing Sam and knowing most of what was going on at the Hawkinses and reporting to the establishment. They played that anxiety over privacy settings for laughs when Joe tried to pump him for information about Neil.
BTW, Neil, yes, you should apologise and explain yourself, and expect nothing from Laura.
Joe bumping into Leo and not saying anything was a fun moment.
Toby is pretending he's thinking about New Zealand, because it offers more employment chances, but we know it’s because he hasn’t got a plot line as such.
Meanwhile Mia finding Iris and her synth-in-hiding and, through them, her supporters/fans, and getting regalvinised was a bit more like it for her. I’ll be interested to see how her conversation goes with Lord Dryden. They’re working through the consequences of Day Zero nicely. I mean, the Hawkinses and Leo were all ‘child synth’ and not thinking through the implications of that/the last series's overreach in terms of plot. But the emotional through lines where what gripped, and although a few synths strode ahead purposefully, it's all complicated and fragile.
