Channel 4's Humans

If you live in the UK then you've probably heard about 'Humans' by now. It's an 8-part story about domestic androids in contemporary England, and has been the most watched drama on Channel 4 of all-time. Which is very, very promising.

Firstly, though I would like to say that I don't think humans is actually very good. Anyone that's watched it has to admit that it is way too slow-paced. Obviously a slow pace can be useful, as it gives the viewer a chance to get attached to the characters, but in humans it just feels like each episode has been pumped with filler. There are too many characters as well, with about 5 different active groups of characters at any one time. This means that in a given episode a group of characters will often get a max of roughly 15 minutes of screen time (except from the main family, which all seem to have their own individual story lines to make things seem even longer.) . My biggest problem is just the lack of likable characters. It seems like the writers tried to portray every character as flawed, which should be fine, but each characters flaw is so big that it often makes them irritating to watch. Take the character of Toby, the teenage son. He does a lot of good stuff, especially (SPOILER) taking a blow for his dad in order to protect his whole family after they find out that someone has done some saucy things with their 'synth'. However, his character is ruined by numerous scenes of him perving on his android in a really creepy way.

Even with all these flaws 'Humans' is still alright. It's very unsettling and the story does seem to be getting somewhere (While writing this 5 out of 8 episodes have aired.). The main reason 'Humans' is good is because of the message it sends out to the general public though: Science-fiction doesn't have to be cheesy space monsters and galactic senates, it can be as serious and  thoughtful as the rest of TV dramas. As a sci-fi fan I've known this for years (Although I love cheesy space monsters more than unsettling 'human'-esque dramas.). The viewing figures give me hope that channel 4 will try out more sci-fi broadcasting. Maybe ITV will even pick up on it, and make something. Hopefully it would be better than 'Primeval' though.