Humans: Season 2, Episode 8

"You're not going to lose me, Niska. You've got me."

It's the end, then, and inevitably we will end with all synths everywhere being conscious. A truly historic event; the Singularity. And that leaves rich potential themes for next series. Never mind how society is ever going to cope; surely this means the end, violently or just as much otherwise, of humanity as a biological species?

But let us not get ahead of ourselves. We start with reconciliation between Max and Leo, while Laura and Joe are divided again between her social conscience and desire to do the right things for people or who happen to be synths, while he just wants to retreat and defend his family. There are a lot of Joes in the world, sadly.

Athena has to admit to Karen that it simply isn't now possible to give her a human body, thereby destroying all her hopes and dreams. And there's a heartbreaking scene as V explains to her "mother" that's she's far more than just Ginny and is leaving the network to explore, and that mother and "daughter" will never meet again.

Laura is in trouble as Hester sneakily lies her way into the house and they have a philosophical chat about the role of violence in resolving social injustice. It isn't long before a hostage situation develops and it's Leo and Mia to the rescue. Its interesting to see just how protective towards him Mia is. Meanwhile, Toby's relationship with Renie is finally going well and Sophie, whose story is left unresolved,is taken by Joe to a kids' party with a synth clown. Brr.

The real action, though, is between Hester and Laura,who strikes a nerve in telling Hester that she is what she is because of abuse, reacting just as a human would. This doesn't go down well with Hester, who proudly announces that she has killed four humans and their lives mean nothing to her. This is chilling. And the lack of regret means, of course, that she isn't going to survive the episode.

Hester and Leo have an emotional reunion, but she suddenly stabs him just after he has declared his love, which is nice. In the end it's Mia who kills Hester, along with herself as an heroic sacrifice. Only the arrival of Niska, just in time, saves them both, and it's right that it should be Niska who sort of redeems herself by killing Hester.

We end with Leo seemingly comatose and all synths worldwide becoming conscious, including Sam who seems to avert Karen's attempted suicide. It's a truly magnificent individual episode of television and elevates a series that had started out without as much promise as the last one into something truly special.

Humans: Season 2, Episode 6

"I had sex with him."

So, as both Athena and Pete know, Khoury is trying to create conscious synth children for bereaved parents as a cynical moneyspinner. And Athena will do as she's told because Khoury "owns" V, what with her being company property. Ouch.

Meanwhile Mattie finds Leo at his hideout and tries to talk some sense into him as Laura sets about trying to restore Anita into being Mia again, one of the few sequences that feel like padding and, once she manages to do this, poor betrayed Mia is heartbroken. In a moving scene, Odi confesses to a priest; his life no longer has purpose or meaning now he is free. All he wants is the life of service he remembers. This is troubling, but there will always be individuals like this.

Karen falls in love with the seraphim Pete brings her, and bonds herself to him, very clearly showing how she identifies as a human. Mattie receives little gratitude after saving Mattie's life; they are both sort of rivals for Leo and, anyway, we know that Hester hates humans. It's unknowingly cruel of her to tell Mattie she's had sex with him and then blindly ask her if she's ever been with anyone.

Poor Sophie, though; even Joe's egg fight fun can't get rid of her desire to act like a synth. It's an event-filled episode of a season that's finally hotting up, ending with Mia revealing to Leo and Hester that Mattie has the code to make all synths sentient...

Humans: Season 2, Episode 5

"I believe the man has ejaculated."

Max makes a friend: a newly conscious synth who has been looking after some rather unpleasant children. She is given hope, and a possible future. Contrast that with Mia, who has been sold by Ed to cover his mother's care home costs. It seems MIA meant very little to him after all, and that's horrible.

Odi, too, is conscious, but with no desires of his own; he just wants to serve and be useful. This time, though, it's his actual personality. That's interesting. And a direct contrast with Leo and Hester who have definite plans for the liberation of all synths.

Athena hears that her daughter is dead and, distraught as she is, she isn't going home for the funeral. That seems to prove beyond doubt that V is Ginny and, sure enough, we get this confirmed. Things stay emotional as Mia foils Ed's plan by pretending to the prospective purchasers that she is just Anita again. But she ends up as Just Anita again. Will she ever again be herself?

Toby's wannabe synth wannabe girlfriend is called Renie and, in another heartbreaking scene, offers him sex while in role as a synth- but he wants to get to know her as a person, not just to get inside her pants. This, of course, makes her feel that her chosen persona is being rejected and she sends him away. It's an episode full of emotional rejections and heartbreak. At least we get the contrast of Hester coming on to Leo, whom she likes and wants to protect. But Hester represents the violently revolutionary Left, and he the more middle class progressive- and she's swaying him.

Probably the biggest thing in plot terms, though, is that Mattie has worked out the full code for making ALL synths conscious. Oh, and Niska realised at the climax of her consciousness test that the odds have been stacked against her... and escapes, awesomely. Again. And then we end with the big reveal of what seraphim are... little synth children!

Now the season is really getting good. I hope this level of intensity gets maintained.

Humans: Season 2, Episode 4

"It's Qualia!"

We begin with an ideological schism as the moral Max leaves in disgust after Leo agrees to Hester's cynical plan to allow humans to kidnap a consciousness synth and follow them to their base. It works and, yes, it's Qualia. But Leo is going down a slippery slope, even condoning torture on Hester's part as long as he doesn't have to watch. The moral issues at play in this programme are fascinating.

There's an interesting post-coital scene between Mia and are; she seems about as blissful as she can get, but did she enjoy the sex? We simply don't know. More developments happen with Sophie,who has a syndrome where she starts behaving like a synth, which causes Laura and Joe to have their signature moment of angst about being Bad Parents. Fortunately this is all interrupted by a menacing synth trying to force Laura to drop Niska's case; it seems someone really doesn't like what she's doing.

Laura's secret weapon in proving Niska's consciousness is,of course, Astrid, who is lovely. It doesn't matter that Niska abandoned her, or even that she's a synth; Astrid still loves her. Astrid is wonderful, and I'm very apprehensive at how it's all inevitably going to end in tears.

The plot thickens further as a bit of hacking from Mattie shows Joe to have been fired by synths, with no human involvement; there's more than a whiff of conspiracy here. And Khoury wines and dines Athens into a full confession of what she's up to- full transfer of human consciousness into an artificial body. He decides to support rather than fire her, but her work requires the, well, vivisection of any conscious synths held by Qualia.

Odi now seems to be conscious- he misses George- while Mia suddenly collapses to give us our cliffhanger. We still aren't hitting the heights of last season but the last couple of episodes have been better.

Humans: Season 2, Episode 2

"Why do you hurt us?"

Two episodes in, and both the plot and the philosophical subtext become clearer. At one extreme we have Hester, the Malcolm X of the synths, who hates the oppressive humans and has no compunction about killing them. On the other we have Niska, synth, avid reader of philosophy and, as she's determined to be tried as a human would be for the murder she has committed, someone rather likely to have read The Outsider. This series seems to have moved on from literary sci-fi to French existentialism. I like it.

Niska is the most fascinating character- but she has competition. Mattie, for one, manages to work out what Niska has done with her disk, and that synths are slowly becoming sentient; just the odd one for now but... where will it end? Mattie is also quite brazenly restoring the late lamented Odi in plain sight, which shows an admirable amount of brazen cheek. I love her. Then we have the wise gentle Max, and the kind and loving Mia, who suffers heartbreak here from nothing but an act of kindness.And then we see Kate and Pete again, their relationship having grown rather lovely. Meanwhile, over in that country which seems to think that handing loads of power to Donald Trump is a good idea, Athena has decided to go to England and visit our old friend Hobb.

To an extent things are still setting up, and perhaps it's taking more time this series for things to really start to be sublime, but the philosophical heart is already there.

Humans: Season 2, Episode 1

"If I was here to kill you all, I wouldn't have rung the bell..."

It's always been interesting to speculate how the second season might go; the first season, after all, was based on a Swedish original. This season is uncharted territory and seems to be exploring very real themes. There's the very real threat to our jobs from robots, for a start- even Joe's management job isn't safe. And then there's the ever-present Singularity, which here has only just occurred and which, with Niska's uploading of the disk, is beginning to spread.

This in turn raises further questions about using synths as slaves- here we see a hellish Bolivian mine (poor Ten), and factory worker Hester, whose owners see her simply as property much as slave owners once did. These are rich themes.

We begin, though, in Berlin, as Niska starts an abortive relationship with poor Astrid while reading lots of philosophy- this being Germany, we naturally get a bit of Hegel. And the episode ends, of course, with Niska asking the Hawkins family to try her for murder like a human, an interesting twist. Oh, and Max is alive, a cause of much rejoicing, and still with Leo and Mia, who is as kind as ever.

Laura and Joe are still working through their relationship ship, and it's fascinating to see them with a synth relationship counsellor, played by an excellent Josie Lawrence. And the whole family is, of course, suffering with not being able to reveal what they know.

There's a new sub-plot in San Francisco, too; none other than Carrie-Ann Moss plays Athena, a professor who has secretly created an AI, eventually agreeing to help the very rich Khoury (Tommy from True Blood) to study the newly sentient synths.

As ever for a first episode this is all really set-up. But the world-building is brilliant as ever. I'm excited...

iZombie: Zombie Bro

"You're like that box of chocolates from Forrest Gump- you never know what you're gonna get."

This time we get an episode set in the bizarre world of American college fraternities; one can't help but think that all these keg parties would be somewhat unnecessary if only the Americans would lower their drinking age to something sensible (I mean, 21???!!!!) and put bars on campus. Still, it's their decision. Anyway, frat boys are a thing, and it's a very weird institution.

This week Liv dines on the brain of a murdered frat boy and gains the urge to play silly drinking games; Rose McIver is utterly magnificent here. It's a fun episode and a good whodunit, tinged with real tragedy in its resolution. 

Meanwhile Ravi goes out some utopium as "research", which leads Major to tag along and do the same, with inevitable consequences; the stuff is essentially ecstasy. But the death of Ravi's zombie dealer leads him (and Liv) to realise that there's a zombie serial killer about. If only they knew who it was..

Meanwhile, we meet Blaine's equally nasty father-a zombie, of course. And we end with the bombshell that Major is now a utopium addict. Another excellent instalment of a promising season, then.

True Blood: Beautifully Broken

"You drank from my guest!"

It seems the werewolves are all underlings of the mysterious and charismatic Russell Edgington, the King of Mississippi- do all fifty states have a vampire monarch, and are all of them as odd as the two we've seen? The King has an agenda, a fractious relationship with his boyfriend Russell and a troubling willingness to consort with werewolves, which is Simply Not Done among aristocratic vampires. On the other hand, I'd imagine that owning a bed once possessed by Elizabeth Bathory is de rigeur.

Sookie sets off a flashback to Augsburg during the collapse of the Third Reich in 1945 when she tells Eric of the werewolf connection, where he and Godric are looking for werewolves.

Tara is utterly distraught at the death of her one true love but Lafayette, a wise and good person beneath it all, is wonderful in looking after her. Poor Jessica wants Hoyt back but "it's too late". Sam learns that his "real" family are poor, feckless and not much to write home about. Not many people are happy, but at least Sookie's there to do an impression of Bill and cheer us all up. (Btw, a thought- both Bill and Angel from Angel- Liam- are called William. A little nod?)

The King wants Bill's secrets, and won't let him leave. That's unfortunate, as he had Lorena with him. Tara meets a vampire played by the familiar James Frain, and Sookie and Eric, like Bill before, are attacked by werewolves...

This is the episode where everything shifts into new areas. It isn't clear where things are going yet, but True Blood is as great as ever.

True Blood: Bad Blood

"Pam, I'm in no mood for lesbian weirdness!"

Again we continue straight on from the dramatic season finale, with Bill missing, Eggs just having been shot dead by Jason and Sam looking for his birth family. Not much is resolved, per se, but much is set up and, as it leaves you wanting more, this is a bloody good season opener.

Bill, it seems, has been kidnapped by a bunch of blokes who want to feed on his blood. Tara is distraught, and in no mood for Arlene's horribly racist comments- but I suppose a character like her, a working class white woman in the Deep South, would hold all sorts of horrible views. At least Eric is duty-bound as to help look for Bill; the police were distinctly unhelpful. Crime against vampires, it seems, is taken as seriously as black-on-black crime.

Sam, meanwhile, is up in Arkansas following up leads and, er, having awkwardly erotic dreams about Bill after ingesting his blood. Arlene is pregnant! And the Magister is getting suspicious about Eric and Queen Sophie-Anne dealing V. The Queen, in particular, is so cool that she gets her own directorial flourishes.

Sookie's on the case, but over in Mississippi Bill has werewolf trouble- are they the season's big bad? And what's with their tatto, the same one seen in Seadon 5 of Grimm? There's so much going on. I love it.