Notes
These notes were made by Michael when viewing the first episode. They are not edited, and are intended to give a general perspective of the themes of the show
- Opening shot clear intertextual reference to Blade Runner
- The following establing shot of the warehouse is similar to many sci fi texts, most recently and notably the iconography employed in Westworld
- Faintly transgressive shots of rows of nude, apparently dead bodies, themes of commodification
- Opening theme tune presents montage of stock footage and a Kraftwerk-esque soundtrack. Very similar to Westworld. Or rather, clearly inspired Westworld...
- Slow zoom establishing shot of London/home counties suburbia. Connotations of middle class identity
- Use of frequent CU shots of technology, establishes a theme of utilising consumer electronics, yet also grounding the diegesis in conceivable reality
- A range of characters of different ages for audiences to identify with
- Establishment of nuclear family in first scene is easily identifiable, yet forms a clear diametric opposition with the nature of the scenario
- "what if she's not pretty?" - The daughter's own naive and childish expectations position the audience and force them to construct their own expectations
- Anita's unveiling is anchored through a heavenly 'boot up' noise emphasising her status as pure, chaste, and sexualised
- Selection of a female android to complete housework reinforces primary ideological themes of the series
- Anita is ethnically East Asian, and owned by a white household. Her attractiveness is compared to the mother's and there are hints of colonialism
- "That means she's ours! Yay!" emphasises themes ownership
- "I am now bonded to you..."
- Easily identifiable settings such as the carpark, the box mall
- The male gaze, as the son nervously licks his lips. Each family member instantly negotiates their relationship to Anita.
- Real world locations identifiable such as King's Cross st Pancras. Again grounding the narrative and positioning the middle class British target audience
- Many instantly recognisable actors to fans of UK TV. Gemma Chan, Jen from the IT Crowd
- Speculative ethics: androids are abused and tortured for fun and without legal repercussions
- Introduction of the synth is analogous to cheating, promoting a similarly full on argument
- establishment of men's and women's rules, while also being a subversion, the mother a lawyer, the father a house husband. The father, however is faintly inept, and resorts to gendered labour in order to solve his stereotypical laziness
- Anita functions as a threat for the mother, as a sexual object (initially) for the son, a replacement friend for the youngest girl, a figure of fun for the oldest girl, as a surrogate wife/mother for the father
- "My name is Anita Hawkins" - through the resulting shot of Katherine Parkinson's reaction, it is reinforced that Anita is both a passive slave AND and active threat: both a dishwasher AND a homewrecker!
- Temporal shift indicated through on screen graphic. "Five weeks earlier" not only temporally grounds audience, but functions as a hermeneutic code too
- Representation of Asian women: Anita is played by an East Asian woman in both the original and British version. Fulfils stereotype of subservience, domesticity and exotic sexuality
- The joy at Anita's arrival is negotiated depending on the individual family member. The joy at unpacking a new consumer electronic product, the comfort provided by a domestic servant. This joy is consistently reinforced to the audience, somewhat like an advertisement.
- "She's not a slave" "that's exactly what she is" - deliberately positions audiences on either side of the debate, and to select an ideological perspective
- Microchips joke prompts Anita's endless laughter. Polysemic reading: humorous, or abject?
- CU handheld shots emphasise threat during interrogation scene
- Elderly American man, George, allows for potential American audience
- The safety of objects: George's affection for his synth (Odi) is touching. The broken robot narrative is compelling and touching. Odi is the best character.
- "You qualify for an upgrade" - It's considered that George having the young, attractive Odi is somewhat amoral. The older, frumpy Vera is far more suitable.
- There is a definite lack of other science fiction paradigms beyond the presence of the synths. The house is clean, airy, yet definitely identifiable for middle class British audiences
- "Don't check in on Sophie, that's my job" - clear reference to emotional labour. Anita is both inherently untrustworthy through her status as object/"thing", and a threat through her status as surrogate mother
- "I didn't buy the synth to replace you..."
- Synths serve different functions in different aspects of society. The black synth Fred whose arm is branded with a number is particularly disturbing, with clear allegorical intentions to black slavery and/or the holocaust
- Setting - the bland familiarity of the supermarket is not only easily identifiable for the British audience but also the ideological criticism of commodification and late period capitalism
- Odi's freak out in the supermarket provokes polysemic readings. Is it funny, or harrowing?
- Matilda allows older teenage girls to identify with the show. She demonstrates symptoms of psychopathy, but is it psychopathic to torture a synth? Clearly this is a fundamental aspect of the show
- 27.39 petaflop processing speed - Anita's processing speed is perhaps one of the only explicitly 'sci-fi' element of the show...
- Anita holding the blanket like a baby while staring at the photo of the mother and baby emphasises her status as metonymically female, and given likable personality traits through her status as female
- Likewise Odi, the corrupted and fragged friend is rendered more likable and human through his faults and errors. George's relationship with Odi is perhaps initially posited as sexual, though it is quickly emphasised as a archetypal father/son relationship
- Post-production sound editing manipulates the synths voices to sound distant and digital
- "You're just a stupid machine, aren't you? "Yes Laura"
- An underground rebelion with strong allusions to anti authoritarian anti capitalist resistance movements
- The brothel scene emphasised the themes of sex work and objectification from the first episode. The perspex boxes are not unlike the supermarket and the initial mall scene. Is consumerism a form of prostitution?
- "I was meant to feel" - Niska's adherence to being human. Suggestion that 'to be human is to suffer'
- Key themes: what is life? What is humanity? The singularity, 'fantastical racism', societal fears of immigration and automation...
- Themes of postmodernism and hyperreality. It is broadly impossible to distinguish between human and object. Odi is mae more human through his flaws, his very status as an object emphasising his existence and the affection given to him
- Postmodern resistance of conventional analysis. No singular preferred reading, with audiences invited to identify with the character archetype with their ideological perception of synths
- Postmodernism - Krishnan Guru Murthy as himself affirms the show's status as an alternate timeline
- A range of hermeneutic codes introduced to the audience. Anita's stargazing, Anita confronting Mathilda, Anita lifting the youngest girl out of the house...
- Asimov blocks - intertextual reference to Asimov's laws of robotics, though also provides audience a generic metanarrative to understand what is going on, while also functioning as a straightforward proairetic code, suggesting the action and situations that are approaching
- "what is love?" direct address to audience. A little blunt maybe
- Transgressive shots of synth being raped woven in to montage including george's pure relationship with Odi. Additionally this demonstrates to the audience the key themes that the show will deal with over the following seven episodes
Themes
- Sexualisation
- Unpaid labour
- The negotiation of exoticism
- Sexual exploitation
- Modern slavery
- Commodity Fetishism
- Commodification
- Full automation
- The rights of workers
- Late period capitalism vs Marxism
- Postcolonialism
- Transgression
- Capitalism and the nuclear family
- Prostitution and the rights of sex workers
- Postmodernism
- Hyperreality
- Polysemy
- Racism
- The singularity
- Diegesis and the relationship with the fictive
Adverts
These adverts were viewed when viewing the first episode of Humans on All4 at approximately 9am on Tuesday 16th October . Thanks Luke for compiling this!
- Fly emirates
- Oral-B
- M&MS
- Lexus RX car
- Domestos
- HSBC
- M&MS
- Olay
- Grow your world siemens
- Microsoft
- Pot rice
- Domestos
- Friday night dinner
- Lexus rx
- Siemens
- Lottery
- Asda
- Ikea
- Green and blacks choc
- L'or
- Birdseye
- Lacoste
- Lloyds bank
- Lexus rx
- Kinder egg
- Tesco finest
- Birds eye
- Kleenex
- Fuzetea
- Niquitin
- Lexus rx