Humans: Episode 4
July 10, 2015 12:44 AM - Season 1, Episode 4 - Subscribe
Laura insists the family take Anita for testing
I absolutely cringed and hated/loved the sex scene with the husband - it was so well done, his awareness that what he was doing was rape, the way she was coerced, the way they filmed her passive stillness as he fucked her on the couch, the stillness afterwards and his obliteration of her memory, another violation - and he was supposed to be nice and yet the moment had had some power over her, he didn't see her as equal or - she was so vulnerable.
The last scene with the woman leaning back, I thought she was going to soundlessly scream like the sex worker synth, a nice callback.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 6:06 AM on July 10, 2015 [3 favorites]
The last scene with the woman leaning back, I thought she was going to soundlessly scream like the sex worker synth, a nice callback.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 6:06 AM on July 10, 2015 [3 favorites]
I did not at all get the sense that the husband thought he was crossing any sort of line with regards to Anita, just with his wife.
It was curious that we have some dialog between him and Anita indicating that unlocking this adult mode is supposed to give her some faking of passion/interest, yet the sex ends up being mostly clothed prodding with an entirely motionless and unresponsive woman. Is this a necessity of the medium that we gloss over this? The fact that Anita doesn't end up having any enthusiasm for the act is certainly keeping with her nature and would make sense for advancing everyone seeing her behaving contrary to her programming. Having her be reluctant and distant rather than the promised simulated passion could be something to make hubby think maybe his wife's right after all about something being off... but it would be something he could never reveal to her. But since we jump from the unlock & kissing to the completion there's nothing to tell us this is the case.
Perhaps it's just keeping with the show being pretty good about less is more and show don't tell.
posted by phearlez at 2:18 PM on July 23, 2015
It was curious that we have some dialog between him and Anita indicating that unlocking this adult mode is supposed to give her some faking of passion/interest, yet the sex ends up being mostly clothed prodding with an entirely motionless and unresponsive woman. Is this a necessity of the medium that we gloss over this? The fact that Anita doesn't end up having any enthusiasm for the act is certainly keeping with her nature and would make sense for advancing everyone seeing her behaving contrary to her programming. Having her be reluctant and distant rather than the promised simulated passion could be something to make hubby think maybe his wife's right after all about something being off... but it would be something he could never reveal to her. But since we jump from the unlock & kissing to the completion there's nothing to tell us this is the case.
Perhaps it's just keeping with the show being pretty good about less is more and show don't tell.
posted by phearlez at 2:18 PM on July 23, 2015
The last scene with the woman leaning back, I thought she was going to soundlessly scream like the sex worker synth, a nice callback.
Oh good god, my partner just gorged himself on the entire first season of The Strain and seeing something foul and foreign emerging from someone's mouth put me on Defcon DoNotWant... but then realizing it was a bag full of all the wine she'd just "drunk," well sheeee-it. Nice twist.
posted by psoas at 10:20 AM on July 28, 2015
Oh good god, my partner just gorged himself on the entire first season of The Strain and seeing something foul and foreign emerging from someone's mouth put me on Defcon DoNotWant... but then realizing it was a bag full of all the wine she'd just "drunk," well sheeee-it. Nice twist.
posted by psoas at 10:20 AM on July 28, 2015
But since we jump from the unlock & kissing to the completion there's nothing to tell us this is the case.
Really? I just watched it last night and the ending of that scene screamed loud and clear to me that he realized what he was doing was a problem on multiple levels. And it really clearly showed that Anita was being totally passive and unresponsive, that there's something wrong with her programming.
It's worth considering, though, that only we know that Anita is sentient on some level. For the characters, at least initially, she's a talking toaster. (Cue ST:TNG episode). For them, for him particularly, having sex with Anita is no different than e.g. having an erotic conversation with Siri. It's our omniscience as an audience that renders his actions as deeply wrong. (And there's an interesting comparison with Niska, no?)
The thing with Karen was a weird mix of surprise/not-surprise for me. I couldn't figure out, leading up to it, whether they were consciously having her use some of the physical mannerisms of the synths or whether that was just how the actress happened to be portraying a human character. What I really did like though was how they pushed the will-they-won't-they right to the edge, and went with 'won't' without making a whole Thing about it. Agreed that Pete's fragile masculinity is just kinda uggggggggggh.
I really do like how everything suddenly clicks into focus in this episode, linking the characters together.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 9:40 AM on August 2, 2015
Really? I just watched it last night and the ending of that scene screamed loud and clear to me that he realized what he was doing was a problem on multiple levels. And it really clearly showed that Anita was being totally passive and unresponsive, that there's something wrong with her programming.
It's worth considering, though, that only we know that Anita is sentient on some level. For the characters, at least initially, she's a talking toaster. (Cue ST:TNG episode). For them, for him particularly, having sex with Anita is no different than e.g. having an erotic conversation with Siri. It's our omniscience as an audience that renders his actions as deeply wrong. (And there's an interesting comparison with Niska, no?)
The thing with Karen was a weird mix of surprise/not-surprise for me. I couldn't figure out, leading up to it, whether they were consciously having her use some of the physical mannerisms of the synths or whether that was just how the actress happened to be portraying a human character. What I really did like though was how they pushed the will-they-won't-they right to the edge, and went with 'won't' without making a whole Thing about it. Agreed that Pete's fragile masculinity is just kinda uggggggggggh.
I really do like how everything suddenly clicks into focus in this episode, linking the characters together.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 9:40 AM on August 2, 2015
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Finally in this episode the various threads come together. There's a real sense now of urgency that wasn't there before. It's been a very slow-paced show to date.
posted by tracicle at 12:46 AM on July 10, 2015 [2 favorites]