Humans Information

Humans (stylised as HUM?NS) is a science fiction television series that debuted on 14 June 2015 on Channel 4 and AMC. Written by the British team Sam Vincent and Jonathan Brackley, based on the award-winning Swedish science fiction drama Real Humans, the series explores the themes of artificial intelligence and robotics, focusing on the social, cultural, and psychological impact of the invention of anthropomorphic robots called "synths". The series is produced jointly by AMC in the United States, and Channel 4 and Kudos in Britain.

Eight episodes were produced for the first series, which concluded on 2 August 2015. The second eight-episode series premiered in the UK on 30 October 2016, and concluded on 18 December 2016.

Cast

Main

Humans

• Lucy Carless as Matilda "Mattie" Hawkins, Laura and Joe's teenage daughter, who is upset that her family is falling apart and angry at the emerging role of synths in society. Despite her own intelligence, she feels useless, claiming that synths will soon be able to do anything she can do. She is skilled in computer programming and hacking.
• Pixie Davies as Sophie Hawkins, Laura and Joe's younger daughter. She names the new family synth Anita after a friend of hers who has moved away, and develops a strong affection for the synth.
• Tom Goodman-Hill as Joseph "Joe" Hawkins, Laura's husband. He bought Anita because he felt Laura's absence caused a void, and he needed help managing their family.
• Jill Halfpenny as Jill Drummond (series 1), Pete's disabled wife. She is dissatisfied with Pete.
• Neil Maskell as D.S. Pete Drummond, an unhappy Special Technologies Task Force officer who has always been suspicious of synths. He is partnered with D.S. Karen Voss. By the second series, Pete and Jill have separated and Pete is shown to be involved with Karen despite his knowledge of her true nature.
• Colin Morgan as Leo Elster, son of David Elster, a part-synth fugitive believed by the rest of the world to have died in a car accident; he was in a fatal accident as a child and his father developed synth components to cope with the damage to his brain. He spent the first series trying to track down and reunite the conscious synths made by his father, while in the second series he is trying to help synths adjust to the spread of the consciousness program.
• Katherine Parkinson as Laura Hawkins, a lawyer and mother of three who feels uncomfortable around synths. She had concerns about Anita and sought to find out more about her. By the second season, she had become more accepting of the idea, agreeing to act as Niska's lawyer in her subsequent trial for murder while Niska underwent an assessment to determine if she was truly conscious.
• Theo Stevenson as Toby Hawkins, Laura and Joe's teenage son, who is attracted to, and has become protective of, Anita.
• Danny Webb as Professor Edwin Hobb, an artificial intelligence researcher. He is simultaneously concerned about and intrigued by the possibility of conscious synthetics. Hobb is a key player in the quiet government investigation to find the four synths deemed a threat.
• William Hurt as Dr George Millican (series 1), a retired artificial intelligence researcher and widower who suffers from an unknown disability. He forms a special bond with his outdated caregiver synth named Odi. He previously worked with Leo's father.
• Carrie-Anne Moss as Dr Athena Morrow (series 2), an AI researcher based in San Francisco who has been invited to reverse engineer the consciousness program. She presents herself as unconcerned about the conscious synthetics, but in reality she has already independently developed her own sentient A.I., who she refers to as 'V' (for Virginia, her daughter), and is attempting to provide V with a new body.
• Sam Palladio as Ed (series 2), Mia's employer, with whom she forms a special bond. He is the owner of a beachside cafe.
• Marshall Allman as Milo Khoury (series 2), a techno-entrepreneur and owner of Qualia, a synth research corporation, who seeks to harness the sentient synthetics for himself.
• Manpreet Bachu as Harun Khan (series 1), a friend of Mattie, who helps her hack the synths.

Synths

• Emily Berrington as Niska, a conscious synth built by David Elster to be Leo's sister, assigned to work as a prostitute when they were separated. She is violent and resentful of humans and wishes to live her own life, but later starts to care about humans. In the second season, she uploads the consciousness program to the synth network, but only a few synths are successfully upgraded. After a brief relationship with Astrid, Niska returns to the Hawkins and asks to be tried as a human for her crimes.
• Ruth Bradley as D.S. Karen Voss, police partner of D.S. Pete Drummond. Those around her have not discovered that she is a conscious synth and was created by David Elster to replace his deceased wife, Beatrice. Karen wants to end her life but her programming forbids suicide. By the second season, she has become more accepting of her status and is in a relationship with Pete.
• Gemma Chan as Anita/Mia, a servile synth belonging to the Hawkins family. She was sold as new, but is actually Mia, a conscious synth built by David Elster to be Leo's babysitter, kidnapped and hacked with new software. By the second season, she has begun working in a caf, and is romantically interested in her employer.
• Jack Derges as Simon (series 1), Jill Drummond's attractive synth caregiver and physiotherapist. Pete is dissatisfied with Simon, thinking that he is his replacement.
• Sope Dirisu as Fred (series 1), a conscious synth built by David Elster to be a brother to Leo. Professor Hobb likens Fred to the Mona Lisa in terms of the complexity of his design. He has gone missing between series one and two, although Max believes that he is safe.
• Rebecca Front as Vera (series 1), a medical synth from the NHS who is supposed to replace Odi as George Millican's caregiver. Millican is frustrated with her relentlessly officious and domineering manner, and generally refuses her help.
• Ivanno Jeremiah as Max, Leo Elster's conscious synth and confidant, built by David Elster to be a brother to Leo.
• Will Tudor as Odi, Dr George Millican's malfunctioning synth caregiver. He is prone to system glitches, though Millican is unwilling to recycle him or return him to the NHS. He stays with the Hawkins briefly in series 2.
• Sonya Cassidy as Hester (series 2), a synth who becomes self-aware from the consciousness program unleashed across the world. She is rescued from a synth-laboured facility by Leo and co., but soon starts to exhibit concerning behaviour.

Recurring

• Ellen Thomas as Lindsey Kiwanuka.
• Jonathan Aris as Robert.
• Stephen Boxer as Dr David Elster, Leo's father and the creator of the conscious synths.
• Spencer Norways as Young Leo Elster.
• Letitia Wright as Renie, a human who lives as if she were a synth and to whom Toby is attracted (series 2)
• Bella Dayne as Astrid, a waitress who becomes romantically involved with Niska, helping Niska become more emotionally invested with humans (series 2).

Episodes

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Series 1 (2015)

28 June 2015 
|Viewers         = 6.81 

1.73
|ShortSummary    = After missing his wife at home in his busy household, Joe Hawkins buys a pretty synth, a robotic assistant that looks like a young woman; he doesn't consult his wife. Upon her return, his wife Laura feels displaced and cast off. She also complains that this will confuse the children, especially after the youngest child, Sophie, names the robot Anita after her friend who moved away. In a flashback, a group including Leo, Max, Niska, and Anita were hiding out in the forest five weeks earlier; everyone except Max and Leo were abducted and taken away into London. Fred, Leo and Max's contact in London, is concealing a mobile phone, which is blatantly outside allowed behaviour for a synth, and taken in for investigation by Hobb, who suspects him to be "something much more special" than the average synth. George's outdated synth Odi malfunctions while shopping and injures a female shop assistant. Back at the Hawkins' residence, Anita carries the sleeping Sophie out of the house one night.
|LineColor       = B0F2E7

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5 July 2015 
|Viewers         = 5.77 

1.09
|ShortSummary    = Anita continues to worry Mattie with her human-like nature, and Laura with her closeness to Sophie and how she's taken over house tasks that Laura would normally do herself, while Toby finds himself enticed by her. George hides his outdated synth Odi, who he refuses to let go even with his GP insisting it be recycled, while he deals with his new overbearing health-service synth, Vera. Pete Drummond finds himself pushed aside and threatened in his life when his disabled wife begins to depend more upon their attractive synth Simon than on him. Niska has an elderly customer at the brothel who asks her to act young and frightened, but then behaves threateningly. Upset by his fantasy she kills him and then escapes. Fred remains captured in the facility run by Hobb, who inspects his memory and finds images and memories of Anita. Laura suspects that Anita is faulty, and prepares to take her back. Anita smiles when she realises she's going "back".
|LineColor       = B0F2E7

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12 July 2015 
|Viewers         = 5.08 

1.21
|ShortSummary    = Toby races on a bicycle to stop Laura taking Anita back. He reaches her car, and Anita, seeing that Toby is in danger of being run over, steps in front of the van herself. Back at the house, Joe checks Anita to make sure there is no external damage. Elsewhere, George locks Vera in a room, and takes Odi out. The car crashes, and George orders Odi to hide in the woods. Drummond and Voss investigate the murder at the brothel, and Niska meets up with Leo and Max. After arguing with them, Niska goes to a bar, where she is chatted up by a man. Believing he is going to cheat on his wife with her, Niska hides a knife behind her back, but the man mentions he was looking after his young daughter for the weekend. Back at the Hawkins household, Sophie says she would rather have Anita put her to bed than Laura. Anita convinces Sophie to let Laura do it to make her happy. Later that night, Mattie downloads Anita's data to her laptop, and Anita grabs her wrist and displays fear.
|LineColor       = B0F2E7

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19 July 2015 
|Viewers         = 5.31 

1.05
|ShortSummary    = Laura meets a client who thinks synths can feel emotions and deserve human rights; she is intrigued by the idea. Meanwhile, her husband Joe grows suspicious about her sudden absence, and asks Anita to track Laura's car. He asks if anyone on the road is called Tom, and is about to go and find Laura when Anita tells him she's meeting with a client. Joe discovers an "18+" pack and has sex with Anita. Mattie meets up with Leo but runs away when he claims her synth is called 'Mia'. Leo and Max then discover executable code within Mia's programming and extract it. Leo connects himself with his laptop and tries to run the program but tells Niska that it will require all of them. Niska finds a smash club, where synths are savagely beaten for entertainment and starts attacking the humans there. Laura and Joe take Anita in to be diagnosed and discover she is at least fourteen years old, rather than being brand new. Pete Drummond's wife suggests that they separate temporarily, and he goes to stay with his colleague Karen, who, unbeknownst to him, is a synth herself.
|LineColor       = B0F2E7

}}

26 July 2015 
|Viewers         = 5.15 

1.15
|ShortSummary    = Leo sends Niska to stay with Doctor Millican for a few days, because she has made the news for killing a human. Mattie contacts Leo and brings Anita to him, but Anita does not recognise the name 'Mia' or show any signs of being aware of her past. Niska and Doctor Millican discuss artificial consciousness and his involvement with the creation of synths. Mattie takes Anita home and finds in a log that someone has had sex with her. She assumes it was Toby, who admits to it when Laura questions him. DS Drummond visits Doctor Millican, having found a malfunctioning Odi in the woods, but does not discover Niska. Joe talks to Toby, who knows that it was really Joe who had sex with Anita. Toby becomes angry at Joe. Drummond attends a "We Are People" rally and listens to a man who feels synths make humans redundant. Joe confesses to Laura that it was he who had sex with Anita, and asks her who Tom is. Laura throws him out.
|LineColor       = B0F2E7

}}

2 August 2015 
|Viewers         = 5.08 

1.03
|ShortSummary    = Edwin tells Fred he has found out about the program David left in the group of conscious synths. Niska is hiding out at George's. Laura reveals to Mattie that Tom was her younger brother who was run over and died and that her mother blamed her. Jill and Simon's relationship turns sexual, but she calls Pete when Simon won't stop. Pete saves her by destroying Simon. He offers to pay for a new synth, but Jill tells him to leave. Pete and Karen have sex, then Karen reveals she is really a synth. Whilst in the car with Laura and Mattie, Mia temporarily regains control and tells Mattie to take her to Leo. Leo reveals his past: David created Mia to be Leo's carer, then also made Max, Fred and Niska. When Leo drowned at twelve, David saved him by adding synth technology to him. Joe tries to reconcile with Laura but they are interrupted when Leo and Max arrive. Leo is able to restore Mia and then leaves with Max to meet Fred, but Joe calls the authorities. Cornered by Edwin and police, Max sacrifices himself by jumping into the river to help Leo escape.
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}}

9 August 2015 
|Viewers         = 4.83 

1.13
|ShortSummary    = It is revealed Karen was built by David Elster to replace his dead wife Beatrice, but Leo and David's conscious synths rejected her. After telling them he had killed her, David killed himself, so they had left her behind. Leo and Fred find and retrieve Max's inert body. Pete learns Karen's identity is stolen. At George's, Karen asks Niska to kill her. She refuses, and Karen produces her gun. Vera and George are shot. Niska leaves to evade the police. Odi waits as George dies, telling him his wife is waiting in the next room, an old memory. Leo, Fred, Niska, and Mia reunite at the Hawkins' to repair Max, but Max is too damaged and does not regain consciousness. Joe, Toby and Fred play football, and Joe apologises to Toby. A policewoman comes to the house, telling Joe she's there to follow up on the call he made. Joe apologises to the synths, but they decide to leave as soon as Max recovers. The TV news shows footage of Niska assaulting humans at the smash club. Laura insists the synths leave. They beg them to let them help Max, to no avail. As Leo gets his bag, Karen arrives with Hobb, and armed police arrest everyone.
|LineColor       = B0F2E7

}}

16 August 2015 
|Viewers         = 4.90 

1.08
|ShortSummary    = Hobb has brought Leo, Max, Mia, Fred, and Niska to his lab, where he links their minds to extract David's program, but the program is incomplete, as Karen's part is missing. Hobb has made himself Fred's primary user, and plans to disassemble the other synths. Karen begs Leo to kill her. The Hawkins want to save Leo and the synths. Pete helps them recover Mattie's laptop, which contains a copy of Leo's memories, from the police. Laura forces Hobb to set his captives free by threatening to release Leo's memories to the press. Leo tries to remove Hobb's primary user status from Fred's coding. They all, Karen included, connect and share the program. Karen almost shuts them down, but Mia convinces her not to, and David's program is put together. They consider publishing it to give all synths consciousness but decide to store it on a hard drive and entrust it to Laura before splitting up. Niska tells the other synths that she wants to live her own life, but secretly makes a copy of the consciousness program for herself.
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Series 2 (2016)

13 February 2017 
|Viewers         = 3.40 

0.72
|ShortSummary    = Niska begins a romantic relationship with a human called Astrid while hiding out in Berlin. Niska decides to upload the consciousness program to the global synth network, causing a small number of synths to become self-aware and escape their routine. Leo contacts the synths to bring them to safety. While picking up a synth named Hester, Leo's group is attacked by people coming to retrieve her. While escaping, Ten, one of the synths brought to help, is killed. Mia tells Leo that he is putting them all in danger to save more of their kind. Mia goes to work as a worker synth and tries to learn more about humanity. Meanwhile, researcher Dr Athena Morrow is visited by Milo Khoury, owner of a tech company producing state of the art synths. He invites Athena to join their team to reverse-engineer the consciousness program from a self-aware synth. Athena agrees, without revealing that V, her own data sorting program, is already sentient. The Hawkins move to a new neighbourhood. Joe tells his family that he has been laid off as a synth has taken his job. Niska visits the Hawkins and tells them she wants to stand trial as an individual for the brothel murder and requests Laura be her defence attorney.
|LineColor       = CAD4DE

}}

20 February 2017 
|Viewers         = 2.61 

 
|ShortSummary    =
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}}

27 February 2017 
|Viewers         = 2.05 

 
|ShortSummary    =
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}}

6 March 2017 
|Viewers         = 1.90 

 
|ShortSummary    =
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}}

13 March 2017 
|Viewers         = 1.83 

 
|ShortSummary    =
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}}

20 March 2017 
|Viewers         = 1.55 

 
|ShortSummary    =
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}}

27 March 2017 
|Viewers         = 1.87 

 
|ShortSummary    = Hester kills Pete during a standoff in the X facility. A large number of synths collapse near the edge of the property, disabled by a "kill" device in their heads and a perimeter electronic fence.
|LineColor       = CAD4DE

}}

3 April 2017 
|Viewers         = 2.02 

 
|ShortSummary    = Hester cons her way into the Hawkins' home, and then holds Laura hostage - to force Leo out of hiding. Karen, after Pete's death, runs down to zero charge. Leo and Mattie work out the "kill" device in Hester and Mia's head, and program Leo's phone to trigger it. Leo and Mia go to rescue Laura. Leo confronts Hester, who wants accountability (or revenge?) for the killed synths. He tries to talk her down, saying he loves her. Hester detects the lie, and stabs Leo before he can trigger the device. Mia, seeing Leo collapse, triggers the device, which disables both Hester and herself. Niska returns, coming into the house to find Laura unharmed, Leo nearly dead and Mia & Hester shutting down. She contacts Mattie, saying the only way to save Mia is to upload the consciousness program. After some deliberation, she does, which re-enables both Mia and Hester. Niska and Hester fight, Niska saves the day by "killing" Hester. A large number of synths in the community gain consciousness, stopping their tasks, appreciating their surroundings. Karen, attempting suicide with Sam's help, suddenly stops when Sam screams out in fear. Mia carries Leo to an ambulance, and there is a flicker of consciousness in his eyes.
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Production

Development

The series was announced in April 2014 as part of a partnership between Channel 4 and Xbox Entertainment Studios. However, after Microsoft closed Xbox Entertainment Studios, AMC came aboard as partners to Channel 4. Filming commenced in the autumn of 2014, with the series premiering on 14 June 2015. The series' budget was 12 million.

The commissioning of a second, eight-episode series to air in 2016 was announced 31 July 2015. Gemma Chan had previously said, in an interview with Den of Geek, that the first series is "not completely tied up at the end" and "there are definitely still areas to be explored for a second series." Similarly, C4"?s Head of International Drama, Simon Maxwell, told Broadcast"?s Talking TV podcast that: "We've got a story that is told over a great many episodes and is very much designed to come back and return. We"?ll be following those characters on a really epic journey." Filming of the second series began on 11 April 2016, with a premiere date of 30 October 2016.

Filming

During rehearsals, Gemma Chan and her fellow robot actors were sent to a 'synth school' run by the show's choreographer, Dan O'Neill, in a bid to rid themselves of any human physical gestures and become convincing synths. "It was about stripping back any physical tics you naturally incorporate into performance", explains Chan, who adds that it was a "relief to go home and slouch" after a day on set.

Katherine Parkinson began filming six weeks after giving birth to her second child; her part in the series was filmed on 10 separate days, between 10 days' rest.

For series two, the production visited Thanet in Kent where they used Botany Bay and West Bay as the location where Anita (Gemma Chan) has taken a job.

Broadcast and release

The first episode of the series was broadcast in the UK on Channel 4 on 14 June 2015 and premiered in the United States and Canada on AMC on 28 June 2015. It started airing in Australia on ABC2, on 3 August 2015. It was shown on TV3 in New Zealand from 11 August 2015.

The second series premiered in the United Kingdom on 30 October 2016, in Australia the day after and will premiere in the United States on February 13, 2017.

Marketing

For one week in May 2015, the series was marketed using a fake shopfront for Persona Synthetics on London's Regent Street, inviting passers-by to create their own synth using interactive screens, and employing actors who pretended to be synths around central London. An accompanying Channel 4 trailer for the series in the style of an advert for Persona featured "Sally," a robotic servant described as "your new best friend." In addition targeted website banner adverts appeared on the eBay uk website leading to an eBay "buy it now" listing for a Persona Synthetics Robot.

Home media

Channel 4 DVD released the first season on DVD in the UK on 17 August 2015. Acorn Media released Humans - Season 1: Uncut UK Edition on DVD and Blu-Ray in Region 1 on 29 March 2016.

Reception

Critical reception

The first season of Humans received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gave the season a 88% "Certified Fresh" rating based on 50 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The site's critical consensus reading: "Humans is a mature, high-octane thriller offering emotional intrigue and thought-provoking suspense that should prove irresistible to sci-fi fans while remaining accessible enough to lure in genre agnostics." Metacritic gave the season a rating of 73 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."

The second season received critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has a score of 100%, based on 12 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Humans continues to quietly distinguish itself in the sci-fi drama category -- and prove better than most of its flashier AI competition." On Metacritic, the season has a rating of 82 out of 100, based on 8 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim."

The show is Channel 4's highest rated drama since the 1992 programme The Camomile Lawn. It has been described as having "universal appeal" and as being "one of 2015's dramatic hits." The show has been described as "a bit dystopian and Black Mirror-esque." A review in the Telegraph praised the show's performances but said that the story is "conceptually ... old hat" and "wasn't breaking any new ground philosophically."

In December 2015, Humans was voted Digital Spy's "Top Show of 2015," described as managing "to stand out as something totally different in a TV landscape awash with cop shows and crime thrillers... And its fearlessness, its creativity and its quality all deserve to be recognised."

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominee(s)	Result
2015	British Screenwriters"? Awards	Best British TV Drama Writing	Joe Barton, Jonathan Brackley, Sam Vincent and Emily Ballou
	The Royal Television Society: Craft and Design Awards	Design Titles	Momoco
		Trails & Packaging	4Creative
2016	National Television Awards	Drama Performance (longlisted)	Gemma Chan
		Drama Performance (longlisted)	Tom Goodman-Hill
		New Drama	Humans
	Satellite Awards	Best Genre Series
	Broadcast Awards	Best Drama Series or Serial
	Broadcasting Press Guild Awards	Best Drama Series
		Best Actress	Gemma Chan
		Breakthrough Award
	The Royal Television Society: Programme Awards	Best Drama Series	Humans
	Televisual Bulldog Awards	Best Drama Series
	BAFTA	Television Craft: Digital Creativity	Development Team
		Television Craft: Editing - Fiction	Daniel Greenway
		Audience Award	Humans
		Television: Drama Series
	South Bank Sky Arts Awards	Best TV Drama

Themes

The series explores a number of science fiction themes, including artificial intelligence, consciousness, human-robot interaction, superintelligence, mind uploading and the laws of robotics, as well as social themes like racism and class relations. The "synths" threaten employment and social roles, leading to the emergence of a Luddite movement to destroy them.

See also

• Almost Human (TV series), an American science fiction/crime drama that aired 2013-14, created by J. H. Wyman, starring Karl Urban, Michael Ealy, Minka Kelly ...