Humans Series 2 Television Review
Major Spoilers are included in this television review. Please read with caution.
Hello readers.
I got another television review for you. The UK show Humans Series 2! If you haven’t read my Series 1 Review, you can check out the link here. Otherwise, we can dive into what happened in Series 2 of this insane show.
The premise is conscious Synths, artificial robots who act human, trying to get human rights as more of their kind gets activated. At the beginning of Series 2, Niska runs her copy of the conscious code to the global web and one at a time, Synths begin to gain consciousness. This “one at a time” was designed by David Elster to allow the world time to adjust rather than let all the Synths become conscious simultaneously.
Niska leaves Berlin and her human lover Astrid shortly afterwards. She spends the first part of the Series 2 trying to get a human trial for the murder she committed in Series 1. Synths are normally destroyed for killing a human, but Niska has a conscious and wants a fair trial. This is where Laura Hawkins gets involved with her desire to give Synths equal rights.
Max, Leo, and Mia (Gemma Chan) are hiding out somewhere. Mia is working undercover at a cafe with a human owner named Ed. She does this to earn the group money but slowly gets closer to Ed to the point that she gets romantic feelings. After he discovers her true nature, the two of them sleep together, but he ultimately betrays her to pay back his debts.
Up to this point, Ed was a nice guy who treated Mia like a human being. Well, until he decided that she was worth selling for his own personal gain. Mia saves herself by restoring herself to factory settings, the Anita persona. The buyers refuse to buy an ordinary Synth, and then Ed abandons her alone. Anita goes back to the Hawkins family, her previous users, and Mattie brings Mia back.
However, Mia turns cold with humans after her experience with Ed and must accept that not all humans are kind like the Hawkins.
Max and Leo leave Mia behind with Ed to find more conscious Synths. They find Hester, who is struggling with her newfound consciousness. She struggles with right and wrong, what to do with her free will, and like a human, values her survival above all else. Hester was one of the antagonists in Series 2.
Series 2 builds on the themes that get addressed in Series 1 like “What it means to be human” and “What is considered consciousness”. For example, Niska ultimately learns that her human captors are not treating her fairly and that they never intended to give her the trial. She escapes her containment and hides away with Astrid to live out their lives. Then we get the other perspective with Odi, Dr. Millican’s old Synth, and how he deals with having consciousness. Odi loses his simple purpose and does not understand how he fits in with the humans. In the end, he “kills” himself by resetting to his factory settings.
Surprisingly, the show brings another layer of questions by introducing “Synthies”, humans who choose to live their lives as Synths. This is where the acting and writing began to shine again. By paying attention to the movements, speech, and behavior of characters, the audience can figure out easily who is Synth, human, conscious Synth, and now Synthie.
Toby, the teenage boy of the Hawkins Family, befriends a girl named Renie. She lives her life as a Synth but through specific prying by Toby, she starts to question her lifestyle. Sophie, the youngest child, also starts to behave like a Synth to her family’s charging. Her acting and behavior deserve Emmy Awards for how well she delivers her Synth-like dialogue and movements. After learning why Sophie chooses to act in this manner, Renie realizes her mistake and resumes being a normal human girl.
Things get even more complex when the show reveals Synth children called Seraphim. Karen and Pete investigate the situation and end up taking one of the children home with them. Karen names him “Sam” and plans to leave Pete with him. She is still dealing with her dark feelings of being a conscious Synth and seeks out Dr. Morrow, the scientist who is experimenting with conscious transference.
Overall, Series 2 builds on Series 1’s structure, which propels the storytelling to greater heights with bigger world-changing stakes involved. The character interactions were clean, entertaining, and filled with so much tension. There is more complex world-building with new conscious Synths, new human characters, and with the massive cliffhanger at the end of Series 2, there’s a brand new world coming.