Just a warning: This is my opinion. It needn't affect yours if you liked it.
From the first episode, (I'll update this review by the time I've watched a few more) this show is a tonal mess. I can see why E4 had to go with describing this as a drama rather than a comedy - hiding that in the episode description - as not a single line of dialogue drew a smile on my face. Throughout the whole thing, throwaway 'gags' were spat out, including how the aliens' hair could be used as a drug, and how aliens took dishwasher tablets to get their high. Maybe this would have been funny if the same 'joke' hadn't been used forty or so times (hyperbole) in one 45 minute run-time. I'm sure the lead (Michael Socha) is a great actor, but in this, he just shifts his eyebrows around, expects us to get meaning from his sarcasm and uninspired dialogue/story arc and to me, just didn't sell his character as likable to the audience. Stuff just happened to him, and even if it was acted well at points, it never made me sympathise with his character. Everything on the screen just happened, there was hardly a cohesive plot (e.g. the car salesman scene that went on for far too long with 'comically' useless thugs not recognising the lead wearing only glasses for disguise) and scenes just followed one another with no real consequence.
I know Jim Howick's work from Babylon and Horrible Histories and in both, he is far more amusing than the twelve or so lines of 'witty' dialogue he's given in the first episode of this show. His whole sub-plot is based around him making confusing advances on the lead character, which are some of the most excruciating dull, boring and flat scenes of television I've sat through in a while. As a show that is seemingly trying to convey a message about bigotry (although that seems to be both overplayed and not at all there), to have this strange sub-plot that basically returns to "oh look, this gay guy is hitting on this straight guy, isn't that funny and also creepy and funny, ha ha, laugh at this, you know it's funny." (<-- read this in a sarcastic tone) as a punchline - as that is the punchline, no other joke, nothing funny, not a single laugh or smirk, it just seemed very depressing that something like this can get such amazing reviews from newspapers when the show I watched was a real cluttered splatter of non-humorous scenes followed by badly written dialogue.
I really wish they wouldn't call this "2016's Humans" because that show was marvelous, creepy, funny at times and consistent in tone whereas this show is a mess. As I said earlier, I'll update this if anything about the show changes, but as so far, I really am not impressed.
From the first episode, (I'll update this review by the time I've watched a few more) this show is a tonal mess. I can see why E4 had to go with describing this as a drama rather than a comedy - hiding that in the episode description - as not a single line of dialogue drew a smile on my face. Throughout the whole thing, throwaway 'gags' were spat out, including how the aliens' hair could be used as a drug, and how aliens took dishwasher tablets to get their high. Maybe this would have been funny if the same 'joke' hadn't been used forty or so times (hyperbole) in one 45 minute run-time. I'm sure the lead (Michael Socha) is a great actor, but in this, he just shifts his eyebrows around, expects us to get meaning from his sarcasm and uninspired dialogue/story arc and to me, just didn't sell his character as likable to the audience. Stuff just happened to him, and even if it was acted well at points, it never made me sympathise with his character. Everything on the screen just happened, there was hardly a cohesive plot (e.g. the car salesman scene that went on for far too long with 'comically' useless thugs not recognising the lead wearing only glasses for disguise) and scenes just followed one another with no real consequence.
I know Jim Howick's work from Babylon and Horrible Histories and in both, he is far more amusing than the twelve or so lines of 'witty' dialogue he's given in the first episode of this show. His whole sub-plot is based around him making confusing advances on the lead character, which are some of the most excruciating dull, boring and flat scenes of television I've sat through in a while. As a show that is seemingly trying to convey a message about bigotry (although that seems to be both overplayed and not at all there), to have this strange sub-plot that basically returns to "oh look, this gay guy is hitting on this straight guy, isn't that funny and also creepy and funny, ha ha, laugh at this, you know it's funny." (<-- read this in a sarcastic tone) as a punchline - as that is the punchline, no other joke, nothing funny, not a single laugh or smirk, it just seemed very depressing that something like this can get such amazing reviews from newspapers when the show I watched was a real cluttered splatter of non-humorous scenes followed by badly written dialogue.
I really wish they wouldn't call this "2016's Humans" because that show was marvelous, creepy, funny at times and consistent in tone whereas this show is a mess. As I said earlier, I'll update this if anything about the show changes, but as so far, I really am not impressed.