Review of 'Humans' 3.1

Humans—the AMC series about androids, is as good, in its own very different way, as HBO's Westworld was back with the start of its third season this week.

Significantly, the theme was the same as that of Westworld: warfare between humans (guests) and synths (hosts), but fought out, at this point, on a very different tableau. Unlike Westworld, where almost all of the action is one theme park or another, in Humans the action is in the world itself—or, more specifically, the world in England, at this point.

Our starting cast of synths are almost all there, though in very different situations. None are in service to humans (with a small "h") in this third season. A new class of synths—with orange eyes, not sentient (presumably, 'cause you never know), and in loyal service to humans—are doing the jobs the earlier, green-eyed synths, our heroes, used to do. These synths, now fully sentient or woke in today's parlance, are in varying states of relationships with humans and themselves.

Some are trying to work it out with humans. Others have become ISIS-like terrorists. Max, always a great character, is leading one of the main groups of synths -- those trying to have a peaceful co-existence with our biological kind. But, unsurprisingly, we humans are not making this easy.

I love Max's reasoning ability. When faced with the choice of taking batteries away from the comatose Leo (see last season for how that happened), which might well kill him, and giving the batteries to a badly hurt synth (Flash, whom Max has some feeling for), who will die without him, Max decides to give the batteries to Flash, deciding the batteries should go to someone who will die without them, instead of someone who just may die. We could be cynical and say that, behind this decision are Max's feelings for Flash—but we know he also has profound feelings—of a different kind, but powerful—for Leo.

What would a human have done in Max's situation? Maybe the same thing, but not with such pinpoint logic.

The episode ends with a human commando team attacking Max's group. I'm suspecting, hoping, that both Leo and Max will survive.