Human 1.1 - Test

Human : Test
Genre : Sci-Fi / Drama
Showrunner: Michelle MacLaren
Writer : Ann Morrow

Cast: Justin Theroux, Letitia Wright, Bryan Batt, Michelle Fairley and Adrian Rawlins

Plot: Adam Clark (Bryan Batt) and Julia Connor (Michelle Fairley) wake up and come out of their pods. They are standing in a colorless void, with nothing around them, except their pristine white pods, property of Foy Sciences. They walk around meaninglessly, until they feel something grabbing them by the throat, it’s too much, they give up. They stumble to the ground and close their eyes.

Charles Foy (Adrian Rawlins), owner and head scientist of Foy Sciences opens up Adam and Julia’s pods and welcomes them back to reality. He figures the test went poorly, according to the results. They describe what it felt like, as if someone was trying to suffocate them. The void was empty and pitch black, when it was supposed to be full of vivid colors and a luxuriant jungle. Charles says it’s another bug in the system, they need to figure something out, or else, he’ll start to think that this cannot be achieved. Adam says their enhanced virtual reality might not work, but their subjects were able to communicate and interact together in the past, they just followed the wrong path. Foy announces they have only a week to figure it all out, or else, they will cut their funding. Adam and Julia vow to work overtime again and Charles begs for their luck as he has to go in an investor meeting and he figures things won’t go smoothly. He has nothing significant to show them.

A couple of minutes later, a lady tells Charles they are ready to see him. He looks at his watch nervously and follows her to a conference room. He plugs his USB key in the computer and thanks them for their time. He’s here to talk about the HUMAN project and how their funding is essential in its success. A man asks what exactly the HUMAN project is and how does it differentiate itself with the other artificial intelligence projects. Charles answers that the HUMAN project was created by him a year ago to create robots that can interact together and perform tasks, just like a human would. Another man notes that similar projects exist all around the world, but what Charles add is that he hopes their two prototypes can act and behave like humans do, naturally, as if you aren’t talking to a machine. Charles believes he can achieve that, but he needs their help. He introduces them to the prototypes, James (Justin Theroux) and Eva (Letitia Wright). 

Adam and Julia are working on the prototypes and Adam stops dead in his tracks. He turns to Julia and he asks her if they are crazy to keep doing this. Julia says they are working for the future of all mankind, but that’s not what Adam was talking about. He says they clearly have chemistry and he could see it working between them. She cuts and she says, along with Adam that she doesn’t date co-workers. He asks her if things will be weird between them and she refuses to think so. 

Charles begins his presentation of his two androids to the board. He starts a video presentation of his ambitious projects which gets the potential investors wanting more. He tells them that he unfortunately can’t satisfy them with another live presentation as they encountered problems in the development phase and that’s why he’s seeking investments to be able to complete his life project. They ask him what kind of problems they encountered and he says the void in which they perform their tests and simulations collapsed and the subjects immediately. It brings him to the next phase of his presentation; the simulation void. 

Julia and Adam set aside their awkwardness towards each other and enter the void. They believe they did the right adjustments to extend their presence in the void for the presentation. Charles introduces the investors to the void and details Adam and Julia’s experiences and previous experimental work. A woman wheels a console in and he presses a button to show the void on a screen. Julia and Adam come out of their pods and are amazed to see that they can breathe. Everything seems to go right until Adam collapses due to the lack of oxygen, the same as last time. Charles struggles to turn the feed off and the investors are disgusted at the scene. Julia is able to take Adam back to his pod and press their emergency stoppage button to exit. Charles tries to salvage the situation by showing all the things he can add to the void to create various situations, ideal to transform his androids into lifelike humans. He adds a dog and a landscape to the void. With the ideal conditions, he would like the androids to live in the void while they learn, just like kids go to school. He can sense the tension in the room and some of them are uncomfortable. He ends his presentation by hoping they will still choose to invest in the HUMAN project, it will be worth it, even if it doesn’t seem like it at the moment. They ask him to wait for them outside for a moment until they make their decisions.

Julia and Adam are working on their machines, nervously awaiting the results of the investors meeting. They reworked the algorithm and they think they are fairly close to achieving their goal, after all, Julia was able to breathe for the entirety of their stint. Charles comes back and they honestly can’t tell if he’s in a good or a bad mood. He comes with mixed news. He got the grant he wanted, but they need to show results in the next month, or else they will cut the funding and they won’t be able to do anything. He hates deadline and they need results now.
Two weeks and a lot of coffee-fueled overtime later, Julia, Adam and Charles are ready to run another test. They plug the androids to the machines and turn it on. James and Eva wake up. Justin reaches over to Eva and presents himself to her. They do not seem to be grasping for air, they’ve done it!

There's not enough satisfying elements to this pilot to catch my attention. The plot feels a little bland nothing much really happens in the first episode. There's still a chance this show might salvage itself with upcoming episodes, but for its first outing, I expected more.

The creative decision to reduce the androids (probably the most interesting characters on the show) to a mere cameo appearance at the end, may have a good idea to build up the drama, but the first episode feels wasted. It's not that Fairley, Batt and Rawlins do a bad job, it's just that they feel like your regular scientists and make for bland protagonists for a pilot.

The series clearly has a lot of background information to get through, but it did a good job of keeping things moving. Despite the ample exposition, there is still an element of mystery to help propel the series forward. Hopefully we get to see more of the androids played by Theroux and Wright in the future episodes