Humans (TV series)

Humans
Title card for the second series
Genre	Science fiction
Created by	Sam Vincent Jonathan Brackley
Based on	Real Humans
Starring	Manpreet Bachu Emily Berrington Ruth Bradley Lucy Carless Gemma Chan Pixie Davies Jack Derges Sope Dirisu Rebecca Front Tom Goodman-Hill Jill Halfpenny Ivanno Jeremiah Neil Maskell Colin Morgan Katherine Parkinson Theo Stevenson Will Tudor Danny Webb William Hurt Marshall Allman Sonya Cassidy Carrie-Anne Moss
Theme music composer	Cristobal Tapia de Veer
Composers	Cristobal Tapia de Veer Sarah Warne
Country of origin	United Kingdom United States
Original language	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	16 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Jonathan Brackley Jane Featherstone Lars Lundström Sam Vincent Derek Wax Henrik Widman
Producer	Chris Fry
Production locations	London, England, UK
Cinematography	Stuart Bentley David Rom
Running time	46 minutes
Production companies	Channel 4 AMC Studios Kudos
Original release
Network	Channel 4 AMC
Release	14 June 2015 (2015-06-14) – present (present)

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. A third series was commissioned in March 2017 and is set to premiere in 2018.

Cast

Humans panel at MCM London Comic Con with Tudor, Dirisu, Berrington, Goodman-Hill and Chan.

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 memory loss and physical disabilities secondary to a stroke. 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 café, 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

Series	Episodes		Originally aired
			First aired	Last aired
1	8		14 June 2015 (2015-06-14)	2 August 2015 (2015-08-02)
2	8		30 October 2016 (2016-10-30)	18 December 2016 (2016-12-18)

Series 1 (2015)

No. overall	Episode	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Viewers (millions)
1	Episode 1	Sam Donovan	Sam Vincent & Jonathan Brackley	14 June 2015 (2015-06-14) (UK) 28 June 2015 (U.S.)	6.81 (UK) 1.73 (U.S.)
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.
2	Episode 2	Sam Donovan	Sam Vincent & Jonathan Brackley	21 June 2015 (2015-06-21) (UK) 5 July 2015 (U.S.)	5.77 (UK) 1.09 (U.S.)
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".
3	Episode 3	Daniel Nettheim	Sam Vincent & Jonathan Brackley	28 June 2015 (2015-06-28) (UK) 12 July 2015 (U.S.)	5.08 (UK) 1.21 (U.S.)
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.
4	Episode 4	Daniel Nettheim	Joe Barton	5 July 2015 (2015-07-05) (UK) 19 July 2015 (U.S.)	5.31 (UK) 1.05 (U.S.)
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.
5	Episode 5	Lewis Arnold	Emily Ballou	12 July 2015 (2015-07-12) (UK) 26 July 2015 (U.S.)	5.15 (UK) 1.15 (U.S.)
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.
6	Episode 6	Lewis Arnold	Sam Vincent & Jonathan Brackley	19 July 2015 (2015-07-19) (UK) 2 August 2015 (U.S.)	5.08 (UK) 1.03 (U.S.)
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.
7	Episode 7	China Moo-Young	Sam Vincent & Jonathan Brackley	26 July 2015 (2015-07-26) (UK) 9 August 2015 (U.S.)	4.83 (UK) 1.13 (U.S.)
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.
8	Episode 8	China Moo-Young	Sam Vincent & Jonathan Brackley	2 August 2015 (2015-08-02) (UK) 16 August 2015 (U.S.)	4.90 (UK) 1.08 (U.S.)
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.

Series 2 (2016)

No. overall	Episode	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Viewers (millions)
9	Episode 1	Lewis Arnold	Jonathan Brackley & Sam Vincent	30 October 2016 (2016-10-30) (UK) 13 February 2017 (U.S.)	3.40 (UK) 0.72 (U.S.)
In Berlin, Niska enters a relationship with a woman named Astrid while she considers whether or not to upload the consciousness code to the global synth network. When she does, synths awaken sporadically and randomly, including industrial synths Ten in Bolivia and Hester in the UK; Ten is killed when he joins Leo and Max in rescuing Hester from an organisation that is capturing the conscious synths. In America, Milo Khoury, the billionaire head of Qualia, recruits Dr Athena Morrow to study the newly conscious synths, not knowing that she has already developed her own sentient AI named V. Leo, Max and Hester capture one of their assailants and return to their hideout in the country, where Mia has taken a job in a café under the name Anita. The Hawkins have moved house, but Joe is informed that he has been made redundant as a result of a synth taking over his position. Later, Niska arrives their house and informs Laura that she wishes to stand trial as an individual for the murder she committed at the brothel, with her as the defence attorney.
10	Episode 2	Lewis Arnold	Jonathan Brackley & Sam Vincent	6 November 2016 (2016-11-06) (UK) 20 February 2017 (U.S.)	2.61 (UK) 0.57 (U.S.)
Hester tortures the captive for information, to Max and Leo's horror, and discovers that the conscious synths are being held in a facility called the Silo. Mia's boss Ed begins to become suspicious of her behaviour and discovers her true nature when she is burned. Distraught, she argues with Leo over whether they are capable of leading the way for the new synths when they have barely lived themselves. Laura considers whether or not to represent Niska, ultimately agreeing to after Niska turns herself over to the authorities. Mattie retrieves Odi from the scrapheap. Without Milo's knowledge, Athena unsuccessfully attempts to transfer V into the body of one of the conscious synths. Karen and Pete learn of a class of synths being sold on the black market known as seraphim. Max secretly releases the prisoner, but Hester pursues him and drowns him in a puddle.
11	Episode 3	Carl Tibbetts	Charlie Covell & Iain Weatherby	13 November 2016 (2016-11-13) (UK) 27 February 2017 (U.S.)	2.05 (UK) 0.42 (U.S.)
Following the disappearance of their captive, Leo and the synths are forced to abandon their hideout, although Mia decides to stay to pursue her romantic feelings for Ed. Niska's consciousness tests begin and Laura struggles to elicit an emotional response from her. Mattie finds Laura's copy of the consciousness code and awakens Odi. While Joe becomes concerned about Sophie's increasingly deadpan behaviour, Toby befriends a 'synthie' named Renie who is devoted to acting like a synth. Karen returns to work, but her bag splits at the pub, forcing Pete to deactivate and drain her. Athena visits her comatose daughter in hospital, whose mind has been digitised in the form of V, and later blackmails Hobb into giving her information on the original conscious synths.
12	Episode 4	Carl Tibbetts	Joe Barton	20 November 2016 (2016-11-20) (UK) 6 March 2017 (U.S.)	1.90 (UK) 0.46 (U.S.)
Pete, believing them to be conscious synths and not wanting Karen to have to hide anymore, puts himself at risk to investigate seraphim, but learns that his suspicion is wrong. Mia and Ed grow closer, but after he is confronted by his friend he deactivates her. Joe learns that his redundancy was caused by correspondence between synths. Milo meets Athena for lunch and reveals that he knows about V, but she convinces him to allow her to continue her work. Max abandons Leo after he agrees to Hester's plan to allow a conscious synth to be captured in order to discover the location of the Silo; Leo and Hester subsequently discover that Qualia have been hunting the synths. Laura brings in Astrid to help with Niska's consciousness assessments and reveals to her Niska's identity as a synth. Later, a synth threatens Laura to drop the case, and is deactivated by Odi.
13	Episode 5	Francesca Gregorini	Jonathan Brackley & Sam Vincent	27 November 2016 (2016-11-27) (UK) 13 March 2017 (U.S.)	1.83 (UK) 0.44 (U.S.)
Ed attempts to sell Mia to Qualia to pay his mother's medical bills, but she restores the Anita personality in order to escape. Karen leaves Pete, feeling pressured by him to embrace the synth identity she doesn't want. A synth named Flash awakens and is found by Max, and they find a new safe haven in an abandoned train. Athena learns that her daughter has died and tells V about her true nature. Niska rejects the government's judgement and escapes captivity after learning about the synth that threatened Laura. Mattie completes the consciousness code, potentially allowing all synths to be awakened, while Toby learns of Renie's troubled home life. Hester kills the woman who shot Ten in order to find a way to infiltrate the Silo, and later sleeps with Leo, who she does not tell of her actions. Pete continues to investigate seraphim and discovers that they are child synths.
14	Episode 6	Francesca Gregorini	Joe Barton	4 December 2016 (2016-12-04) (UK) 13 March 2017 (U.S.)	1.55 (UK) 0.44 (U.S.)
Milo confronts Athena, who has discovered that he is developing child synths, and warns her that V is his property now that she is on his servers. Karen decides to stay with Pete when he shows her the seraph, who she names Sam, but he later discovers her plans to take a new identity, further straining their relationship. Mattie reunites with Leo and becomes worried about Hester's influence over him, while Hester widens the rift between Leo and Max. Odi struggles to find his own purpose in life. Niska seeks refuge with Astrid. Mia returns to the Hawkins and is again returned to normal. After learning of Mattie's code from Odi, she rejoins Leo and Hester, revealing Mattie's discovery and her intention to help them break into the Silo.
15	Episode 7	Mark Brozel	Jonathan Brackley & Sam Vincent	11 December 2016 (2016-12-11) (UK) 20 March 2017 (U.S.)	1.87 (UK) 0.36 (U.S.)
Mia and Hester infiltrate the Silo by pretending to be newly awakened synths, and are injected with chips by the Qualia doctors. Karen asks Athena to upload her mind to her servers so that it can later be put in a human body. Renie talks to Sophie at Toby's behest, but after Sophie expresses her admiration of the way Renie supresses her emotions she abandons her synthie persona. Unable to find meaning in his new life, Odi restores himself to his factory settings. Concerned about Leo's plan, Mattie asks Max for help, while Laura goes to Niska, accidentally alerting the authorities to her location and forcing Niska and Astrid to go on the run. The synths are freed from the Silo and lead to safety by Leo, but most are wiped out when a defensive field activates the chips in their head, destroying their minds. Vengeful over the treatment of the other synths as well as herself, Hester decides to kill Athena, and takes Dr Aveling, one of the Qualia workers, hostage. Pete arrives and tries to talk her down, but Hester kills both Aveling and Pete before escaping. Max arrives and he, Leo, Mia and Mattie leave with the surviving synths, to Hester's anger.
16	Episode 8	Mark Brozel	Jonathan Brackley & Sam Vincent	18 December 2016 (2016-12-18) (UK) 20 March 2017 (U.S.)	2.02 (UK) 0.31 (U.S.)
Joe suggests that he and Laura separate in order to give the kids time away from synths. Athena gives up on her dream of giving V a body, having been convinced by the events of the previous episode that conscious synths deserve the same rights as humans, and has V leave without telling her where she's going before leaving Qualia herself. A devastated Karen tries to run down her power but is reactivated by Sam, who she asks for help ending her life. Hester turns up at the Hawkins house claiming to have been sent there by Leo, but takes Laura hostage when Mattie warns her of her true nature. Astrid persuades Niska to stay and help her family. Leo and Mia rush to Laura's aid with the intention of activating Hester's chip, effectively killing her. However, Leo tries to reason with Hester, who appears to be talked down until he tells her that he loves her; knowing that he is lying, she stabs him in the neck, destroying the synthetic part of his brain and leaving him brain dead. Seeing this, Mia activates both her and Hester's chips, destroying both their minds. Niska arrives and persuades Mattie to push her completed consciousness code to the global synth network on the chance it may save Mia. Mia and Hester are restored, although Niska caves in Hester's head after she attacks her. Every synth around the world is given consciousness, including Sam, preventing Karen's suicide attempt. As Mia carries Leo to an ambulance, Laura and Niska look on at the chaos around them.

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.

A third series was commissioned in March 2017 and is set to premiere in 2018.

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

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

• List of fictional robots and androids

External links

• Humans at IMDb
• Official Website on Channel4.com
• US Site on AMC.com