--- title: "Humans" year: 2015 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/humans" fi1m_score: 74 critics_score: 69 critics_reviews: 8 published: "2026-09-17T16:32:09.056282+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T16:32:22.054120+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Humans (2015) Created by Jonathan Brackley, Sam Vincent · 46m · MPA TV-14 · Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Drama, Mystery **Fi1m score: 74** · Critics 69 from 8 reviews *In a sentence:* The artificial people would like a word about their working conditions > *Humans* is thoughtful, unsettling science fiction about the people expected to serve us. Its familiar thriller plot needs patience, but the performances make the questions about work and personhood worth following. ## Synopsis In a near-present society, artificial workers known as synths are part of everyday life. Laura Hawkins (Katherine Parkinson), Joe Hawkins (Tom Goodman-Hill) and Anita (Gemma Chan) are among those caught up in the consequences of living alongside them. People rely on synthetic labour while treating the workers as an inferior class. Elsewhere, rogue synths face a society that has a use for them but little sympathy for the possibility that they have feelings. Questions about intelligence and selfhood become practical problems as humans and synths negotiate who gets to decide how these artificial lives are lived. ## Review *Humans* is good science fiction with a familiar thriller attached, and the science fiction gives us more to think about. Created by Sam Vincent and Jonathan Brackley, it asks what happens when artificial people become useful enough for ordinary people to depend on them. There is nothing especially new about machines being considered less deserving of sympathy than their makers. The worthwhile part is the uncomfortable attention paid to those who would rather carry on being served. The synths are needed for their labour and despised by the people who rely on them. We were unsettled by how readily their usefulness becomes an excuse to dismiss their feelings. The drama makes that everyday contempt recognisable without requiring us to know anything about the engineering. Its strongest passages concern the permission people give themselves to mistreat a worker once they have decided that the worker does not count as a person. Gemma Chan, as Anita, makes synthetic feelings worth attending to even when the surrounding plot feels overfamiliar. Katherine Parkinson, as Laura Hawkins, and Tom Goodman-Hill, as Joe Hawkins, have to make the human anxieties worth the same attention. They largely manage it, though the writing does not always give them enough to distinguish ordinary frustration from mere dullness. Some of the human characters need more than recognisable worries to hold our interest. The visual approach is sensible, if sometimes too safe. The cinematography team includes Urszula Pontikos and Ruairí O’Brien, and the controlled images keep the setting close enough to everyday life for the discomfort to register. Production designers Hayden Matthews, Nicole Northridge and Dick Lunn likewise help make synthetic labour seem an ordinary convenience. That restraint suits the subject, although there are stretches when the pictures merely deliver information and leave the actors to provide the uncertainty. The editing team, including Ian Davies and Daniel Greenway, keeps the thriller moving well enough to prevent the discussions from slowing it too much. Not every return to a competing storyline feels necessary, however, and the programme sometimes moves on before it has developed an interesting thought. The music, credited to Cristóbal Tapia de Veer and Sarah Warne, helps maintain the unease without becoming the main reason for it. The performances remain more affecting, and the score is right to support them. The weakness is the renegade-synth plot, which can make the programme feel more routine than it should. Familiar mysteries are asked to supply urgency when the treatment of the workers has already given us sufficient reason to care. Against the genre’s long habit of asking whether manufactured beings deserve sympathy, *Humans* earns its place through the everyday indignities surrounding that question. It becomes less distinctive whenever the thriller takes over, and viewers acquainted with artificial-intelligence stories will recognise some of the route. This is worth following if the social questions are what draw us to science fiction in the first place. The unevenness matters, but there is enough curiosity and feeling to make the familiar material worth another visit. Allow some patience for the mysteries, particularly when the programme has already given us something more interesting to worry about. *Fi1m score 74, published 17 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics respond warmly to Humans, finding an unsettling, accessible thriller in its account of androids entering everyday life. Praise centres on the way its science-fiction premise brings fears about technology, labour and inequality into recognisable domestic situations. The stronger notices find that the suspense leaves space for thoughtful, sometimes touching questions about being human, with the synths’ position as an essential but despised underclass giving familiar material a disturbing plausibility. The disagreement is over how much the series does with ideas that science fiction has explored before. Most reviews acknowledge that familiarity without finding it fatal, but Variety’s firmly negative assessment sees derivative robot stories and insufficient excitement. Den of Geek finds the opening intriguing but the human characters bland, while Collider admires the exploration of empathy yet faults the narrow story focus and safe imagery. The spread is mostly positive, rather than uniformly enthusiastic. ### Reviews we read (8) - **Empire**, William Thomas (80/100, inferred): Channel 4’s examination of the implications of AI, set in the near future, is an eerie treat. The fate of several rogue ‘Synths’ works both as thriller and thoughtful, even touching exploration of what ‘being’ means. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/tv/reviews/humans-review/) - **The Guardian** (80/100, inferred): The series is a clever, high-energy thriller that functions as accessible sci-fi with real-world relevance, blending suspense with thoughtful exploration of technology and humanity. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/jun/15/humans-review-sci-fi-high-energy-thriller) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Tim Goodman (75/100, inferred): Humans finds a way to bring intrigue to a very familiar conflict by raising real-life worries and emotional connections that surface when synths are part of everyday life. The promise of the early episodes makes it a keeper. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/humans-tv-review-804666/) - **The Independent** (75/100, inferred): The series creates an uncomfortably plausible near-present world that taps into fears of technology and middle-class anxieties about labour and inequality, making it a drama for our times despite familiar tropes. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/humans-channel-4-tv-review-robots-rogue-technology-and-middleclass-angst-10318882.html) - **The Times** (70/100, inferred): The drama is properly unsettling in its depiction of synths as a despised yet essential underclass, though its premise draws from familiar sci-fi territory like Blade Runner. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/tv-review-humans-tfi-friday-77zmwhcwshk) - **Variety**, Brian Lowry (40/100, inferred): The series mashes together renegade-robot themes in a manner that feels both derivative and a trifle boring. It plays less like a blaring alarm about the modern revolution than a series of taps on the snooze button. [Read](https://variety.com/2015/tv/reviews/humans-review-amc-sci-fi-series-1201525274/) - **Den of Geek**, Alec Bojalad (3.5/5): The critic finds it a solid if unspectacular start to the series, with an intriguing and mysterious introduction that asks interesting questions. Human characters are described as bland and the overall premise lacks uniqueness compared to other sci-fi. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/humans-series-premiere-review/) - **Collider**, Chris Cabin (★★★): The series is a competent and aesthetically pleasing exploration of humanism and self-worth in a world reliant on androids, but it holds back by focusing on specific storylines rather than broader unease and features safe, automated imagery. It singles out the flashbacks to self-conscious synths for examining humanity's lack of empathy toward creations. [Read](https://collider.com/humans-season-1-review-amc-science-fiction-drama-probes-fascinating-familiar-future/) ## Details - **Created by:** Jonathan Brackley, Sam Vincent - **Creator:** Jonathan Brackley, Sam Vincent - **Director:** Lewis Arnold, Carl Tibbetts, China Moo-Young, Daniel Nettheim, Mark Brozel, Francesca Gregorini, Samuel Donovan, Al Mackay, Jill Robertson, Richard Senior, Ben A. Williams - **Writer:** Sam Vincent, Jonathan Brackley, Lars Lundström, Joe Barton, Emily Ballou, Daisy Coulam, Charlie Covell, Iain Weatherby, Jonathan Harbottle, Debbie O'Malley, Melissa Iqbal, Namsi Khan - **Cinematography:** Kieran McGuigan, Ruairí O'Brien, Urszula Pontikos, Sergio Delgado, Andrew McDonnell, David Rom, Simon Archer, Stuart Bentley, Stephan Pehrsson - **Editor:** Johnny Rayner, Daniel Greenway, Danielle Palmer, Ben Yeates, Simon Brasse, Dominic Strevens, Selina Macarthur, Kim Gaster, Laura Morrod, Ian Davies - **Music:** Sarah Warne, Cristóbal Tapia de Veer - **Production design:** Hayden Matthews, Nicole Northridge, Dick Lunn - **Costume design:** Ian Fulcher, Annie Hardinge - **Producer:** Paul Gilbert, Vicki Delow - **Cast:** Katherine Parkinson as Laura Hawkins; Gemma Chan as Anita / Mia; Colin Morgan as Leo Elster; Tom Goodman-Hill as Joe Hawkins; Lucy Carless as Mattie Hawkins; Emily Berrington as Niska; Ruth Bradley as DI Karen Voss; Theo Stevenson as Toby Hawkins - **Runtime:** 46m - **Certificate (MPA):** TV-14 - **Release (the US):** 14 June 2015 - **Genres:** Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Drama, Mystery - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sm23e0a5_w ## Where to watch in the US - Peacock: streaming, hd - Amazon Prime Video: streaming - The Roku Channel: free, hd - Peacock: free, hd - Amazon Prime Video: free - Tubi: free, hd - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Amazon Prime Video: buy, sd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, CA, CH, CL, CO, DE, DK, ES, FR, GB, IE, IT, MX, NO, NZ, PA, PL, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - BAFTA Television Awards 2016: Best Drama Series (nominated) ## If you liked this - *After Yang* (2021): Another household discovers how much feeling it has invested in a machine - *Robot & Frank* (2012): For a warmer, slyer look at the business of accepting synthetic help - *Time of Eve* (2010): A quieter encounter with androids, built around conversation rather than pursuit - *I'm Your Man* (2021): Artificial companionship prompts some dry, uncomfortable questions about what a partner owes - *Alphaville* (1965): An older, stranger treatment of machine authority and stubborn human feeling --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/humans