Series 1, Episode 1 (Humans)

"Episode 1" is the first episode of the first series of Humans, a show based on Real Humans and co-produced by Channel 4 and AMC. It originally aired in the UK on 14 June 2015 and in the U.S. on 28 June 2015. In this episode, Joe buys a "synth" (synthetic human) for his family, to his wife's horror. Meanwhile, George cannot bear to abandon his outdated synth Odi. The episode was watched live by 5.47 million people in the UK and 1.73 million people in the U.S. It received mostly positive reviews.

"Episode 1"
Humans episode
Episode no.Series 1
Episode 1
Directed bySam Donovan
Written by
  • Sam Vincent
  • Jonathan Brackley
Original air date14 June 2015
Running time46 minutes

Plot

Joe Hawkins decides to buy an android called a synth to help take care of household responsibilities—for his family as his wife, Laura's constant absences due to work. He purchases a synth and his young daughter Sophie immediately becomes close friends with it, choosing to call it "Anita". Joe's son Toby is attracted to Anita, while Mattie strongly dislikes it, fearing synthetic technology will soon render her education useless. Laura returns home and becomes angry at Joe for getting a synth without consulting her; she is afraid of them and becomes paranoid around Anita.

At night, Laura finds Anita watching Sophie sleeping; she finds this disconcerting and firmly tells Anita that that is her job. Anita then goes outside and admires the stars, until Laura tells her to go back inside. Later, Anita is seen carrying Sophie out of the house. A flashback shows the synth hiding out in a forest with Leo, Max and several other characters; everyone other than Leo and Max are captured and taken to London. One of their contacts in London, a synth, is taken in by Hobb for investigation.

Leo tracks down one of the synths, a female synth called Niska now forced to work as a prostitute in a brothel. Leo advises her that he is planning to rescue her and the other synths that were captured. This inspires Niska to plan an escape from the brothel.

Meanwhile, George's synth Odi malfunctions in a supermarket and injures a woman. DS Drummond comes to investigate and orders George to recycle Odi, as he is expirable, and glitchable. George is shown in his home talking to Odi, who recalls memories that George has been unable to since his stroke. He does not recycle him, even when a new synth called Vera arrives to take care of him. George dislikes Vera and resents her controlling nature.

Reception

Ratings

On 14 June 2015 in the UK, the episode garnered 5.465 million viewers on Channel 4 and 0.655 million viewers on its timeshift service. It was the highest-rated show on the channel that week. A total of 6.814 million viewers watched the show including recorded views.[1] In the U.S., the episode aired on 28 June 2015 and received 1.73 million live viewers.[2] Three days later, 2.5 million viewers in total had watched the episode.[3]

Reviews

Brandon Nowalk of The A.V. Club gave the episode a B, describing most of the adaptation changes from Real Humans as "inexplicable" and the final scene as "a plea to please keep watching".[4] Neil Midgley of Forbes said that the episode didn't "[reach] Blade Runner standards of greatness", but "offered a pretty good start". Midgley described it as "rather beautifully put together too", although he commented, "Humans wasn't perfect. Some of the dialogue needed declunking and, for me, the incidental music was a bit too obviously futuristic-spooky-woo-woo."[5]

Morgan Jeffery of Digital Spy said that the pilot was a "remarkable success", praising the "comprehensively brilliant" cast and "plausible" world created by the writers.[6] Matt Fowler of IGN rated the episode 7.6 out of 10, calling it "a good start" but noting that the show was "rushing into the A.I. territory at the expense of some of the excellent subtleties featured in the other stories".[7] Neela Debnath of Express complimented the "convincingly creepy" acting, described the episode as a "less bleak" version of Black Mirror and said the series was "likely to do very well."[8]

gollark: Switches, unless they're at stupidly high temperature?
gollark: They could kill the coronavirus by firing relativistic protons at it.
gollark: Star Trek isn't *remotely* realistic, so almost certainly not as they portray it. The closest vaguely plausible thing is probably the Alcubierre drive, which IIRC could maybe exist, isn't remotely practical, and comes with its own exciting problems.
gollark: They can't be conveniently converted to metres or... anything, really, and don't work with SI prefixes.
gollark: Miles are still an awful unit even if you're used to them.

References
  1. "Weekly Top 10s". Broadcasters' Audience Research Board. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  2. Fry, Andy (10 July 2015). "Can Humans survive in the US?". Drama Quarterly. Retrieved 4 August 2015.
  3. Petski, Deniser (3 July 2015). "'Humans' Series Premiere Ratings Grow To 2.5M In L+3". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
  4. Nowalk, Brandon (28 June 2015). "Humans: "Episode 1"". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 29 July 2015.
  5. Midgley, Neil (14 June 2015). "'Humans', Episode 1, Channel 4, Review: Gemma Chan Looks Hot, Acts Cold". Forbes. Retrieved 29 July 2015.
  6. Jeffery, Morgan (14 June 2015). "Humans: Ch4's latest is smart science fiction with real heart". Digital Spy. Retrieved 29 July 2015.
  7. Fowler, Max (27 June 2015). "Humans: "Episode 1" Review". IGN. Retrieved 29 July 2015.
  8. Debnath, Neela (14 June 2015). "Humans episode 1 review: A brilliantly creepy vision of the future". Express. Retrieved 29 July 2015.
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