Humans 2.1: Westworld Meets Nashville

Humans was back with its second season this week, with an episode that was every bit as good as the first season, which is to say, good indeed!

Comparisons inevitably arise with Westworld, since both series are about androids or human-like robots who want to be human, but otherwise the two are very different.  In Humans the androids are out in the world, all over the world, and although there's some significant philosophic musing about the nature of human cognitive intelligence, there's much more focus in Humans on relationships, and what psychologists call emotional intelligence.

The set-up in the second season is a bold departure from the first.  Niska has released a code world-wide which jump-starts some of the androids into human sentience.   The "some" is, at this point, apparently very few, and the other sentient androids - our main characters - don't know why the code worked, and, for that matter, how the code worked.   (Possibly/presumably Niska does.)  This is a big leap from last year, in which the emergence of sentience was much more organic (in the figurative sense).

But as was the case last year, the best part of Humans are the specific androids and their personalities. Max, always ready to smile and see the best in people - and androids - is still among my favorites.   His optimism is a tonic.   Mia, wanting more than any other sentient android to be not only humanly sentient but fully human, and the aforementioned Niska, the most dangerous of the androids in all kinds of ways, and now exploring her sexuality, are back in good form as well.

Some newcomers are in the mix, too, such as Sam Palladio as the human Ed (Gunnar from Nashville!) - would be great to hear him sing "Borrow My Heart" to Mia - and Carrie-Anne Moss has the makings of an intriguing AI scientist.   Not much yet with the Hawkins family, who were the centerpiece of the first season, but they seem suitably simmering for significant interaction with the androids, and Niska's showing up unannounced at their door in the last scene should set that in motion.

And I'll be back here next week with another field report.

See also Humans: In Ascending Order ... Humans 1.7: "I Think You're Dead, George"


a different kind of humans

Nashville in New York City: Reality Even Better than Fiction

The story in Nashville on ABC-TV is a little worn, but the music's still fresh and fabulous, even though you can't get enough in what seem like shorter and shorter clips.  The perfect remedy is a live concert at the Theater at Madison Square Garden - always the Felt Forum in my 1960s mind -  with some of the best voices and performers on the show, off the screen and on the stage.

There's some kind of magical chemistry when you see in person a performer you've come to know as a character in a television series.  This became clear when the Monkees first began touring, or when "Bombshell" from Smash had a one-night stand on Broadway last year.

When The Triple Xs from Nashville brought down the house with a stellar rendition of "Borrow My Heart" last night, you not only had a great song (written by Lia and Phillip LaRue) and bright ringing harmonies from Sam Palladio, Clare Bowen, and Jonathan Jackson (left to right), but the intertwining back stories of Gunnar, Scarlet, and Avery, as they sing and Sam and Jonathan strum and smile at Clare as she spins around like an enchanting dervish on stage.

The repartee did a fine job of deliberately weaving the live performance into what we've been seeing on the screen.  Jonathan introduced The Triple Xs with an apology for the poor treatment Avery gave Scarlet in the first season.  Charles Esten quipped that he "scraped together" enough money to get out of jail, which is where he landed (ugh!) in the episode of Nashville just this past Wednesday night.   Chris Carmack opened the concert with a spirited performance of Will Lexington's only "hit record".

The talent of these people is multi-faceted.  Esten was reminiscent of Elvis in some of his moves.   Jonathan sounded a little like Dylan at times, and did a tour-de-force performance of "Love Rescue Me" (written by Dylan and Bono) which ended with Jonathan singing like Johnnie Rae (look it up).   Carmack not only sings and plays guitar, but picked up a saxophone, and is a hard blues man to boot. Esten brought out his daughter Taylor to sing "Believing" with him - a real daughter in place of his Nashville daughter Maddie - and the result was wonderful.  As was the finale second-encore number, "A Life That's Good," sung to perfection by everyone.

Viewers of Nashville know there's extraordinary songwriting talent on the show.   At the concert, we were treated to some of the songs written by the stars.  My favorites were by Chris Carmack and Sam Palladio, but all were excellent.

In effect, the two hours on stage were an uncorking of what we've seen just hints and samples of in the television series.   This suggests that whatever happens to the series, we'll be hearing and watching these five for years to come - but ABC, you'd be crazy not to renew Nashville, and the uniquely appealing merging of fiction and reality it now has become.

an earlier performance, but much like last night