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.