borg

Our Sci-Fi Summer previews seem like they are just getting started.  We’re previewing eight new sci-fi series this week, saving our pick for what looks like the best for last.  Next up: Humans, a new series coming soon from AMC, is the next take on The Stepford Wives.  As with 2013-14’s brilliant but short-lived Fox TV series about a world with borgs fully integrated into society called Almost Human, this latest look at cybernetic organisms of the future focuses on the problems with these new servants living among humans.  Eight episodes of Humans are coming our way this summer on AMC.

AMC (and England’s Channel 4) are having some great fun marketing the series.  Below you’ll find several previews for the series (both U.S. and British versions) as well as spots from the company that creates the new technology within the series (much like we saw from RoboCop with Omnicorp here, and from Prometheus, the David 8 ad from Weyland Corp, discussed here).  Just see the Persona Synthetics website here.  Set in London, where every family wants the latest gadget for the home, a Synth, a highly-developed, artificially intelligent human look-alike.

What stands out immediately is the lack of special effects in comparison to a similar genre series idea like Almost Human.  Almost Human was not able to survive with an expertly told story, a movie star lead in Karl Urban, and dazzling futuristic effects.  The Synths are humans, seemingly unmodified except for contact lenses.  It’s understandable that brilliant technology makes them look so real, and adds to the creepiness in the look of the show, but there’s definitely an element missing here.  And the fact that each Synth is different, instead of several duplicates seems to point more to production budgets than a clever sci-fi story device.

Continue reading →