Television series

Humans

Name: Humans
Genre: Drama, Science Fiction, Thriller
Released: 2015
Cast: Colin Morgan, Gemma Chan, Katherine Parkinson, Tom Goodman-Hill, Ivanno Jeremiah

Humans imagines a near-future where lifelike robots called Synths have become commonplace domestic servants. When a suburban family buys a refurbished unit, small oddities escalate into existential terror. It's a slow-burn thriller that uses science fiction to probe what it means to be alive, to own another being, and whether consciousness demands rights. Sharp, unsettling, and genuinely moving.

TVMaze rating

4.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like science fiction that studies ordinary family life and asks what we owe the things we build, and you enjoy a slow, character-driven unease more than big set pieces.

Skip it if you want the sci-fi to stay on the spectacle side, since this is more kitchen-table than action, and its talkier stretches can drag across a long run of episodes.

What it asks of you: Around an hour an episode over three seasons, it moves at a patient pace and rewards staying with its tense domestic scenes instead of skimming them for the next plot beat.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Westworld2016

A theme park populated by lifelike androids begins to malfunction in ways that question free will, consciousness, and the ethics of creation. Like Humans, it's a high-concept thriller that takes its philosophical questions seriously without sacrificing tension.

But It gets denser and more self-impressed as it goes on. Later seasons require significant patience and good faith from viewers.

Orphan Black2013

A woman discovers she's one of many clones, setting off a conspiracy thriller. It shares Humans' fascination with identity, bodily autonomy, and what makes us ourselves. Tatiana Maslany's performance across multiple clones is extraordinary.

But The plotting sometimes outruns credibility, and it asks you to buy increasingly wild twists. The later seasons strain under their own ambition.

The OA2016

A mysterious series about a blind woman returned with sight and impossible knowledge, and the strange group she gathers around her. It has Humans' willingness to be genuinely odd and its conviction that strange premises deserve serious emotional investment.

But It was cancelled on a cliffhanger. If you need narrative closure, this will frustrate you. It's also willfully oblique in ways that don't always pay off.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Humans

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Raised by Wolves2020

Both explore what it means for an artificial being to have relationships with humans—protection, loyalty, love—and whether those bonds are real or simulations of reality.

Two androids raise human children on a strange planet in a post-apocalyptic future. It's visually stunning and asks the same questions Humans does about consciousness, parenthood, and the bonds we form—but through a much stranger, more mythological lens.

But It's baroque and sometimes incomprehensible. The mythology expands faster than it explains itself, and some viewers will find it pretentious rather than profound.

Blade Runner 20492017

A detective story about replicants that uses stunning cinematography and philosophical patience to ask what consciousness is worth. It's Humans' questions about personhood and servitude translated into a visually rapturous science-fiction world.

But It moves deliberately. There's less plot than mood. If you want propulsive action, this will feel slow and glacial.

Devs2020

A limited series about a woman investigating her boyfriend's death within a mysterious tech company's quantum computing project. It's taut, intellectually rigorous science fiction that builds dread through ideas rather than jump scares.

But At eight episodes it outstays its welcome slightly. The final act becomes more abstract and less grounded than what comes before.

Her2013

A lonely man falls in love with an artificial intelligence. Where Humans asks what synths owe us, Her asks what we owe them—and whether love between human and machine can be real. It's melancholic and beautiful.

But It's less a thriller and more a meditation on loneliness and connection. If you're expecting drama and conflict, you'll find something quieter and sadder instead.

Sense82015

Eight strangers across the world suddenly share a psychic bond. Like Humans, it's interested in what connection means and whether beings fundamentally different can truly understand each other. It's ambitious and often moving.

But It's sprawling and sometimes loses focus across its ensemble cast. The first season is stronger than what follows, and it was cancelled before a proper ending.

Annihilation2018

A team enters a mysterious shimmer of mutated landscape where the rules of biology seem suspended. It's cerebral science fiction that prioritizes unsettling ideas and atmosphere over answers. Quietly horrifying.

But It's deliberately obscure. If you need clear explanations for what's happening, you'll leave frustrated. The ending confounds as much as it clarifies.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence2001

Where Humans asks what we owe to artificial beings, A.I. asks what artificial beings owe themselves—what happens when you're engineered for one purpose but develop wants and desires that contradict it.

Spielberg's troubled, haunting film about a robot child designed to love unconditionally, and the lengths he will go to earn real love. It's achingly sad and ethically complex in ways most science fiction avoids.

But It's emotionally exhausting and bleak. Spielberg's sentimentality occasionally fights against the film's grimmer implications. Some find it manipulative rather than moving.