Tuesday, 12 March 2019 Humans

Channel 4

- Imbetweeners
- Serves the public
- Funded by advertising
- All 4 - On demand
- Ages - 1982
- Publisher-broadcaster
- E4, More4, Film4, 4Seven, 4Music

Kudos
- Humans
- Troy: Fall of a City
- The Boy with a Top Knot
- Man in an Orange Shirt
- Broadchurch

- Kudos is part of Endemol Shine Group.

Humans
- Based on Swedish series ‘Real Humans’. 20 episodes across 2 seasons
- 6.814 Million Viewers
- Released in both UK and US
- C4’s highest rated drama since 1992
- First series released in June 2015 in both UK and US Eight Episodes
- Three series to date

The Marketing Campaign

- Immersive advertising campaign to promote Series 1
- TV and print adverts for brand new synths
- Persona Synthetics — website, social media accounts, eBay accounts — “selling’ synths

Series 1, Episode 1
- Series is set in a parallel world some years in the future. Focuses on the Hawkins family and the purchase
of their brand new synth.
Monday, 18 March 2019 Humans
Laura

- Tension with Laura and Mattie

- Distant from family
- She breathes
- Breaks conventions of woman staying at home
- Laura has conflict with the other females in house hold
- Laura wears natural (duller) colours, browns etc.
- Laura is shown to be in a busy city (non-diegetic sound)

Joe

- Wears the trousers because Laura isn’t there

- Concerned parent
- Domestic - looking after children (first shots)
- Casual clothing, “Dad” clothes, conventional.
- Often the first in a room and first out, purchased Anita.
- Protective of his family
- Looks stressed/tense. He cares more about his family than himself.

Mattie
- Stereotypical moody teen.
- Poor relationship with Laura — scene with Mattie’s grades. Her facial expression shows she’s expecting
Laura to let her down.
- Smart but doesn’t try.
- Gun — she doesn’t like synths. Anita — at gun point ‘I own you’
- Violent/aggressive. Dangerous — a threat to Anita - manipulative
- Not many close ups of Mattie — keep your distance!

Synths
Niska - Half human, half synth. Different. Sympathy from audience she can feel but she is treated like a
synth.
Niska - Prostitute. Revealing costume, objectified. Restrictive — reflective on her situation
Anita —cleaner/domestic servant. Costume is ‘uniform’ like
Monday, 18 March 2019 Humans
Odi - costume reminds us of a grandson. Treated like family. George sees him as a son. His connection with
wife.

George

- Pills at the beginning. Can’t cope?

- ‘No visitors’ written on door.
- Keeps the blinds closed, shuts himself away. Door on chain.
- Lies about Odi being out etc
Tuesday, 19 March 2019 Humans
Recap of Ep 1:
The Hawkins Family
- Mum is hiding something
- Sophie needs attention
- Joe is emotionally and physically drained
- Anita is purchased by joe with the ‘help’ from Sophie
- Mattie is annoyed at world
George and Odi
- George has lost a lot of memories about Mary but Odi remembers them all being a synth
- The authorities want to replace Odi
Representation of Gender
- They make fun of Toby, typical “sexually frustrated” teenager, fancying Anita
- Mattie, moody and grumpy, typical hormonal teen
- Laura goes to work (shocker) - Gender roles
Judith Butler — Gender Performativity
- Gender is a construct
- The way in which you act/behave creates your gender
- You can ‘perform’ any gender you choose based on the behaviour you exhibit
- You can even ‘perform’ your own gender by exaggerating certain behaviour.
Niska
- Strong and willing to fight. Doesn’t like being controlled by Leo.
- Frustrated by her own situation.
Odi
- Weak, Non S type. Emotional support “Would you like some toast and Jam?”
Anita
- Cleans house, doesn’t question why
- Domesticated woman
Representation of Race
- Fred - greenhouse work, connotations of slavery, owned by a white man
- Synths there to make white people happy
- Leo + Max - Max needs Leo
Tuesday, 19 March 2019 Humans
- Anita - S type of domestic role as an Asian women
- Synths - not treated equally. Doing jobs humans don’t want.
- Ideas of segregation. Parallels to America in the 30s.
- Is the treatment of the synths ethical because they can’t feel?
Representation of Age
- George shown as being weak
- Sophie exited to go shopping
- Mattie, moody hormonal, teen
- Toby stereo typical teenaged boy
- Synths all look a similar age - quite young. Vera is exception. Age —> Job
- George, elderly man, intelligent and forgetful binary opposite.
- Sophie - S type of ‘little girl’
- Toby - middle child. Sent to room after argument with Mattie.