Humans textual analysis - deconstructing 'the breakfast scene'

Deconstruction: to use media language to break a media product down to it's basic meanings

Question one - to what extent is Humans typical of it's genre?

Knee jerk: the breakfast scene is highly atypical of the sci-fi genre, and has more in common with drama and even comedy! This helps Humans to target a wider audience

Question two - to what extent does Humans use representations to make comments on society?

The breakfast scene - deep textual analysis

• Ensemble cast of radically different characters allows the show to appeal to a wide range of different audiences, thus maximising profit
• American British Co-production, which explains why the show is set in and around 'London', as this is an expectation of a British TV show
• Paul Gilroy is useful here. Hierarchies of culture. Anita is represented as a slave as opposed to a worker or a maid. Her costume is completely different to the Hawkins family, a bland, blue and totally practical affair. She is ethically east Asian while the Hawkins family are white, a clear allegory of slavery. Anita is represented an an other, completely different from the Hawkins family. 
• The Hawkins family are a stereotypical, hegemonic white middle class family
• Matty - Stereotypical teenage girl: moody, sweary, aggressive, grumpy. 'Tomboy'.
• Toby - Stereotypical teenage boy: sexually motivated, awkward
• Joe - Stereotypical dad. Terrible jokes
• Laura - Stressed out,. highly strung, stereotypical mother
• Setting of a dining room is a highly stereotypical middle class setting
• Use of natural colours connotes everyday life, and a sophisticated home life
• The luxurious and wide spread of food indicates the Hawkins family are financially well off
• MES of artwork on walls connotes both wealth and sophistication 
• Nuclear family, with a mother, father and three children, a hegemonically 'perfect' family. This is a stark binary opposition to the character of Anita, who absolutely cannot have children 
• However, Anita desires nothing more than having a mother daughter relationship, especially with Sophie, and yet is forced to play the role of a 'mother' without any of the positive elements
• Anita must take on telescopically 'maternal' tasks, such as cleaning, cooking, serving food. Anita is 'hyperreal', and is beyond perfection, so much so that she annoys and aggravates the mother 
• Anita offers the Hawkins family a hyperreal version of life, a perfect world which would not normally be practicable or possible on a day to day basis. But ultimately, this is mundane...
• Star appeal of Gemma Chan and Katherine Parkinson reinforces the widespread appeal of the show to complete;y different audiences