Leo Elster has had a real rough time of it.
*
*Just like all moms, am I right?!!??!?!?
Jk love you, ma.
I want to go with them, he tells Karen Voss whilst in Hobbs captivity.
Then has the audacity to follow that up with Just trying to appeal to your humanity.
When that doesnt work he takes a different route: the route of community.
He tries to assure Karen that she belongs to a family, even though she never truly has.
Leo tells Karen that she has bits of all the sentient synths in her.
She has Freds strength, Niskas darkness, Maxs curiosity and Mias caring.
Leos a pretty fascinating guy.
I believe that Karen has a little bit of the best of them in her because Leos so adamant.
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Episode 8 is an unusually condensed and small-scale affair for a season finale.
Mia and Max have fairly clear and strong traits.
Mia has spent an entire season having her personality suppressed by the servile robot personality, Anita.
Max also lives up to Leos designation of curiosity.
This season has been filled with images of his fascinated gaze, robotically muted as it may be.
Hes intrigued by Matties computer ability and captivated by the day-to-day lives of normal human beings.
Fred and Niska, however?
You just have to take Leos word for it.
Sure, Niska has darkness.
But she has a lot of other things as well.
Shes a confused, often maddening character.
And for Fred strength may as well be a synonym for nothingness.
Its not all his fault.
After all, Fred has been unconscious most of the season.
Generally speaking, if a TV show has to tell you something its probably not showing you.
A lot of your enjoyment for this first season ofHumansthen can be derived by how much you believe Leo.
Also inHumansfavor is the development of its…you know: human characters.
Early on in the shows run, the synths seemed far more interesting than the people.
The Hawkins of Episode 8 have displayed real growth.
Not only are they interesting but they are something far much rarer for a sci-fi show: competent.
Hobb has the whole family under what essentially amounts to house arrest and has even confiscated their electronics.
But Hobb apparently has a much higher opinion of humanity and acquiesces to the Hawkins blackmail threat.
Every one of the Hawkins is on their A game.
Even poor, pitiful horny teenager Toby.
He also acts as a beacon for Hobb to track down the others again.
This is shockingly, caustically evil for a show that dealt largely in shades of gray for so long.
It also makes little sense, character-wise.
Now he wants to give them a fate worse than death?
In the name of capitalism?
The concept of what the synths are hoping to accomplish is enormous.
Unfortunately, there are few ways to represent computer code being combined together visually in an interesting way.
At first she wants to sabotage the attempt before Mia convinces her to go along with it.
Its not entirely clear why or when Karen finds her humanity.
To appear more human, she responds.
Laura has plenty of those scars as well and her admitting them to Joe is her most human hour.
Joe asks why she is so determined to help the synths.
Shes done enough, he says, why take it any further?
Because of Tom, she replies.
Shes human after all, and so is he.
Humansseason one was sometimes great, sometimes frustrating but always interesting and carefully crafted.
Rating:
3.5 out of 5
