Media Series - TV
Repetition and difference


Media Language - Page 8
EDUQUAS

Analyse the review below. What is “old” in terms of genre and what is new?


Last year’s launch of Humans – a stylish series about the rise of Artificial Intelligence as demonstrated by eerily anthropomorphic robots called “synths” – was a big hit for the broadcaster, netting its highest ratings for a drama since The Camomile Lawn way back in 1992. Now, for its second series, Humans has widened its scope with an admirably ambitious opening episode that hopped between the UK, the US, Germany and Bolivia, telling a panoramic story of man versus machine. One of the rogue synths released a secret software upgrade that gave their fellow machines human consciousness. Around the world, synthetic slaves began waking up and threw off their chains of bondage.

For a show about robots, Humans had perceptive things to say about humanity – as its title suggests. Feelings were described as “contradictory data – an excess of sensory feedback that makes no sense and serves no useful function.” “Emotions have functions, you’ll see,” said sage synth Max (Ivanno Jeremiah). Unusually for a dystopian drama, the script was stealthily funny. “I haven’t decided on my name yet,” deadpanned one newly liberated synth. “I’m oddly attracted to the word ‘radiator’, although I understand this is not considered a name.”

As with the debut series, it was the women who shone brightest, especially Emily Berrington and Gemma Chan as fugitive synths Niska and Mia. The willowy pair blended blank-faced impassivity with flickers of burgeoning humanity. Mia relished feeling the wind in her hair. Niska smiled at a headline reading: “Synth tram driver abandons passengers to look at the birds”. Josie Lawrence made a scene-stealing cameo as a robotic marriage counsellor, adopting a soft Edinburgh accent to put clients at ease. Meanwhile, The Matrix’s Carrie-Anne Moss also joined the cast, replacing William Hurt as the token Hollywood star. As a synth-sympathising US scientist, Moss was all furrowed brow and hard-bitten cynicism.

This second run will inevitably be compared to big-budget US import Westworld, which launched earlier this month on Sky Atlantic. Both shows explore the themes of artificial intelligence and malfunctioning technology. However, Humans is a different beast. It’s primarily a domestic drama, a story about families – be it the human Hawkins clan, whose lives were irrevocably changed by Mia, or the bond between sentient synths. This is sci-fi with heart and soul’

Michael Hogan The Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2016/10/30/for-a-show-about-robots-humans-has-a-lot-of-heart---channel-4-se/
30th OCTOBER 2016

Why has the genre changed/developed?