Human Is

What i see from professional reviewers and from the watchers, fans or otherwise, is a distinction between people who like hard-boiled science fiction and those who want their science fiction politically corrected until it looks like "San Junipero". I prefer raw, hard-boiled sci-fi. "Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep" is a a good example of Philip K. Dick's writing versus the produced-for-the-masses teleplay -- Blade Runner was an upbeat story with a happy ending compared to the book it was inspired by.....

What some are missing as they criticize the conclusion of this episode is that the military entity here is not much different that some sort of unyielding, single minded group. Since these people are dependent on a substance necessary to their existence, they feel they can go to another planet and rape the resources of those people. When they meet resistance, they people they are stealing from try to defend themselves and keep what is theirs. It is stated early on that they have no interest in any sort of agreement or negotiations. So the others are seen as evil. Well, in the process of escaping, Bryan Cranston's comes back a different man. Of course, he is seen as having been infiltrated by the enemy. While the conclusion was a bit predictable, I still thought it was pretty good.

Another good episode in what is proving to be my favourite new TV series of the year. Before he comes back from leading an almost disastrous mission of plunder to a neighbouring planet for a vital chemical element, Bryan Cranston's Silas Merick character, a senior army officer, is clearly bored with his senior government adviser wife Vera, played by Essie Davis. There's no sexual spark between them as he treats her as coldly in their private as well as public life, driving her to seek solace in an underground sex-cellar at night and virtual jogging in the daytime.

However when she attends to him after his near-death injuries from the mission she's surprised and initially disconcerted by his apparently softened demeanour and even renewed sexual attraction towards her. Is this really the same unfeeling, unrelenting man she previously knew or has he been somehow changed after his near-fatal encounter with the inhabitants of the planet Rexor who can possess shape-shifting capabilities. Matters come to a head when Merick goes on trial, accused of being a surreptitious Rexorian - is Merick human or not, it seems his wife's testimony will determine whether he lives or dies.

Cranston, one of the series' executive producers, and Davis are very good as the central couple and the central theme of what defines humanity is well argued and indeed resolved by the end. I could have done without the mildly pornographic depictions of sex in the underworld that Davis witnesses plus the fashions of the future as depicted here seem positively turgid, but the central story was otherwise effectively told in another entertaining and thought-provoking episode of this continuing anthology.

Bryan and Essie play their roles perfectly. Touches some universal themes: war and peace, love and hate. All in 47 minutes.

An interesting episode to ponder upon its concept. Well acted, well made, but somewhat lacking in directed flow. Would have been nearly sufficient to have the two leads and nobody else around them, figuratively. Brilliant acting by the two leads.