7/26/15

Colin Morgan and Humans

If you have not watched AMC's Humans yet you are missing an excellent tale of humanity versus technology.  Humans has three key stories in an alternative London where robots (1) replaced the mother in a stressed family, (2) became Pinocchio to a robot scientist, and (3) escaped to become something greater than the sum of the parts - conscious. As the series progresses, we are seeing the three story-lines come together.

Actor Colin Morgan, who plays Leo, is the leader of the last group and he seems to be losing the battle as the series continues.  His character also has a mysterious past, being the presumed dead son of the robot creator.  He discussed his character in a recent interview with Access Hollywood, noting Leo is a loner:
 
A big part of why he is the way he is and his psychological makeup is because I guess he has an intense loneliness because he is quite literally the only thing like that in the world. So he is very isolated in that respect. Because of the way he is and because of those wires inside him, it's more important and it's vitally important for him to hold on to his synthetic family that he has, and because I think his hope of belonging and his chance of feeling a sense of belonging within the human world feels a bit impossible. And so I think his drive and his determination comes… as a direct result of the type of technology that's inside him.
 
Spoiler alert - don't read on if you don't want to know too much yet.  But the quote above cites "wires" and "technology that's inside him," indicating Humans is about more than robots.  It might even have some cyborgs.  And concerning that bit about robot consciousness, the series shows us that other robots have already successfully integrated into the human world without the humans knowing it.  Yes, another layer on an already complex story.  That's what I like about the show.  The broken characters are often the humans and not the robots, and the role of humanity versus technology is not so apparent as the story continues.
 
Its a great story at a time when we fear losing ourselves to this new world of ours.  And like USA Network's Mr. Robot, there are many ways to tell the tale.  Tune in and catch up.  

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