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| Gemma Chan |
There's a certain no man's land that looms over AMC right now. With the departure of Mad Men in recent memory, the once prestigious channel is having trouble determining what their new market is. Do they go the route of The Walking Dead and go into genre programming, or do they produce more like Halt and Catch Fire: really good shows that unfortunately take awhile to find their dramatic core? It is a tough call and while next week's Fear the Walking Dead suggests AMC is turning into a genre channel, there is one beacon of hope: Humans. The first season of the series just wrapped up its run and produced what is probably the channel's best merging between the two sides of their coin. It's wonderful genre fare, but it is also a lot more complicated as a drama. It is, in an ideal world, what AMC is slowly transforming into.
The series doesn't feel like anything new considering the recent success of artificial intelligence programming found in Ex-Machina, Chappie, Jurassic World, and Terminator: Genisys to name just a few. However, this isn't a show specifically about how machines are rising against the humans. While that is a significant subplot that develops, it is more of a complicated story about humans and machinery interact. What attracts us to find solace in wires and circuits? For most, it is mostly present in the absence of companionship while others is more of a physical limitation. Others, it is jealousy of the former.
Among the central figures is the Hawkins family, who adopt Anita (Gemma Chan) as their primary synthetic. What starts off simple enough becomes a complicated mess of situations that includes affairs and the presence of a former memory. Over the course of the season's eight episodes, it unveils slowly what those memories mean. For fans of sci-fi, it is able to take the genre and turn it into an interesting conflict where the robot rebellion isn't done by violence, but in small disobedient moments that cause more of a threat to the emotional attachment one will have for them. They are able to communicate among us and even have a comprehensible interactivity. It is probably what's scariest about it all.
Most of all, the show enjoys living in the clinical. The show spends its first few episodes focusing more on action and introducing characters in a matter that is more engaging than informative. It is after this that the show may become a little bit more murky for some, especially as it engages in hacking memories and raising the inevitable rebellion as a potential threat. There's conspiracies and police involvement that adds to the weight of the show's peril. By the end, the conclusion has a sense of purpose, and all without giving into violent stereotypes. If this show has one achievement, it is managing to turn an otherwise rich genre of action into more of a drama that is more about the connections than the disobedience.
With AMC sliding into its own hole of conflict, I do really hope that this is the direction that the station goes in. While it doesn't hold a candle to Mad Men or Breaking Bad on first outing, it does have all of the ingenuity and promise that those shows did in their Freshman years. With an already confident cast and a lot of ingenious plot points, it feels like something that captures the essence of sci-fi without getting wrapped up in isolating specifics. It is also a decent family drama that covers a lot of ground and, more than the terrific Ex-Machina, gives us an understanding about why artificial intelligence is so intriguing in the first place. Humans creates sympathy out of nothing and injects it into every episode with beautiful, intricate details. It has ambition that The Walking Dead lacks. It isn't about the major thrilling moment, but the nuance in between.
Humans ends its first run as AMC's first sci-fi show. With the promise of another season, I can only hope that the show continues to expand on its basis and find a deeper purpose for its characters. While occasionally a little raw and sketchy, the show remained very entertaining and gave Sunday evenings a nice dose of fun. I do hope that with this show's success, whatever genre shows the channel has, it will remember what made its station so invaluable in the first place. It was the heart and attention to details that inevitably made its early run of shows so great. Humans is a continuation and in some ways advancement of that motif. Now that we're into the next stage of AMC, I am very curious to see how they precede and if this show will catch on the way that Breaking Bad did over its run.
Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5
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