Can't remember her name, but she had the twin brother synth and they always stuck together.

They wouldn't even have to be sad or old, look at the Amsterdam and Prague as stag do destinations. Doesn't take a genius to work out why, likely same would happen with synths.

.... the mother isn't psycho though is she. She's figured (rightly) that Anita is dodgy and doesn't behave as she should.
I'd be creeped out too.

The Dad (and the son) are just thinking with their dicks. Perhaps Anita has an attachment to help in that regard.

Don't really agree the mother is 'psycho', she's just feeling displaced (and useless) by Anita, and probably guilty and insecure for whatever she's done away from the home (cheating on her husband?) thus is feeling very uncomfortable about having a synth about the house.

The daughter is irritating though, the whole 'hacking' angle has potential to be cringe inducing (and TV sci-fi hacking is just the worst thing) so I hope they don't rely too heavily on that storyline

I reckon they're styled to suit what they do, the way the salesman winked at Joe kinda suggested he'd given him a hot one deliberately.

Whereas Dr. Millican's new synth fulfills a matronly nursing role.

Has anyone ever found anyone who has?????

I see some are having difficulty in following this..I am too but partly because I know the original quite well and the changes are confusing. I find that to me it really isn't telling it's 'story' very well at all but they do put some rather good lines into the mouth of the daughter..if only she had the charisma to go with them

its hard to say if synths are designed for each end user, certainly the NHS bought in bulk so quite possibly designed all one model. Where as a domestic help robot is something you would want more personal to you and your family, I can certainly believe that synths similar in design to Antia would have a few models to choose from.

Also if the syths were all the same, that would end up being creepy, and make them less acceptable by humans, so the firm making them would want to vary the designs, even if that is just by say having 10 designs a year.

Cars are similar, paint colour aside there are still only so many models a year, yet there is enough for any repeat cars to not be creepy.

Also £20,000 for a janitor robot, whilst cheap compared to labour costs after only a few years, it does make you question the cost of the other synths, £20,000 is still a fair whack for a family, most familys today cant say go out and spend £20,000 on a whim. Yet at no point has the mother complained about the cost of Anita, not once.

Getting confused by the Colin Morgan characters on the one hand its good to know that that John Hurt guy is the synths creators, but what is Colin Mograns character, one moment he seems human, but is calling the synths brother, is he the son of the creator? then he seems to be part synth himself.

part synth of course should not be that bigger deal, the idea that robotic organs or just general improvements to the human mind, may become a thing is speculated on today, and would certainly be a thing in the world this show presents.

firefly_irl you make a good point, we are not seeing the fall out of synths taking the jobs at the low end of the scale, on the one hand I suspect immigration has been solved, but on the other hand, the government would be despite to be seen to be doing anything about a nearly impossible unemployment crisis.

As far as sex synths go, the sex trade is not one to be overly regulated, even if the government banned synths from acting a certain way, the sex industry would make use of hacked synths.

Thats why I am assuming there must be some kind of hire purchase arrangement and Joe didn't just pay in full for Anita. Agree about the creepy factor, the companies making synths would likely also want you to feel some personal connection in order to buy a synth so having different looking ones would work in this regard.

Although it does seem not everyone has a synth, the female cop said "this coming from a guy with one". This suggesting she doesn't have one and the male cop was given one by an insurance company for the duration of his wifes recovery. I must say that subplot is the least engaging for me, it may pick up but its kinda forgettable for me at the moment.

In regard Colin Morgan I'm kinda getting the vibe he may have been saved Bionic Woman style or something, because he bleeds like a human, acts in every way like a human but now we see he has some synth elements.

that is an interesting point, if you take Anita out of the equation, it looks more like the synths are mostly owned by companys to do work for them, and are not things owned by people or familys. That would certainly answer the question of how they are affordable.

If however there is a large number of domestic synths in family homes, then they would need to be more affordable, or on hire purchased agreements. The fact however the kids dont seem to be boostful about having a synth, and the fact their are shops for them on the high street, suggest they are not viewed as high end super luxury items.

Maybe it pays not to think about it too much

Sophie did at the start say something that her friend had two of them when they went to the shop and that Anita was prettier, so they could be one of those "Middle Class Must Haves" that the Daily Mail would love to fawn over.

Not everyone has a iMac, iPhone, iPad but they are somewhat a middle class status symbol. Particularly if you have the whole set of Apple products. Same with say a jacuzzi, not everyone has one but at the same time if a random person I knew had one it wouldn't shock me like say them owning a Ferrari or Aston Martin would.

the Daily Mail will be too pissed about the unemployed and benefit figures, or how the NHS have paid too much for their synths, to be worried about the synths themselves.

I tend not to think about Apple groupies to be honest, but a smart phone is the norm these days, not that middle class. Still at least a synth is more practical than a jacuzzi, its possible some of the people owning them in their home, would have had a maid a few hours a week, or made heavy use of a child minder.

The line "they synths took their jobs, so they took the synths" suggests there are alot of people without personal synths, which is why ive wondered how many are owned by government or companys, rather than homes.

I'm definitely liking this one - it's worth paying attention to what's going on - the kid almost copping a feel and then being almost blackmailed by Anita was an interesting one - I can see that being used as leverage at some point. She may well have (if I understood correctly) had a complete memory wipe but she's still a step or two ahead of the normal domestic appliances. Enough to override the official programming at least.

A lease/HP type setup makes sense (we have cars advertised as 'you will not own this car' so not a stretch) and that might even apply to the cleaner at the school - you could still describe it as 20,000 quid's worth of school property even if it was a rental.
Nurse Blucher I would guess is a standard model.

Usually takes me 8 or 9 episodes to get the hang of all the names
As the robot was about to wire up the human to the light fitting I did wonder what was going on and thought it might be a robot unwisely attempting a robot repair on a human and didn't expect to see a handy connector! Did I see the eyes change? So is that a repaired human or a human-parts-enhanced robot?

That, and Anita's role is essentially to replace the mother and the tasks she does.

LOL liked that remark

there may well have been a clue in the movie that followed it I Robot, the Will Smith character turns out to have a robotic arm, so I say Colin Morgan character is part synth, due to an accident, and he was an experiment to test giving humans, synth parts.

I really enjoy it. Wouldn't mind have a synth at home to to housework and gardening.

It continues to intrigue me this one. Well that has blown one conception out of the window. I thought Leo was human, but it would appear he is at least part Synch. It interesting that he does bleed red like a human, yet he still needs to be charged up, wondering if he was an experiment of some kind?

Niska has quite aggressive undertones to her, the way she dispatched the customer was very efficiently done. She seems to have almost a superior thought process, in what she does and think.

The synch that William Hurt got from the NHS is the synch from hell. You really do want to knock her on the head and throw her on the tip. Once she finds out about the other he has there will be hell to pay.

I can understand where the mother of the family is concerned, and the concerns she has about Anita, as she is plainly not normal. I agree the older girl is an annoyance just has no personality other than being angry or bitter, she needs some other layers to her character.

All in all an interesting set up really looking forward for the next instalment.

I'm enjoying the parts of the show featuring Anita and William Hurt's scary robot (great work by Rebecca Front) as lot more than the more conventional thriller plotlines with the guy from Merlin and the prostitute robot. The thriller stuff isn't working well for me as we don't really know the characters involved, so don't care too much what happens with them. Whereas we know Anita a lot more and its much more interesting in seeing what is going on with her.

thats because its only episode 2 - geez!

if you put down the iphone or got of twitter or whatever else you are doing and actually paid attention to the programme you are half heartedly watching, you would know the answers to most of your questions

and seriously "who is the goody and who is the baddie"

my guess would be he is human but he had synth parts put into him, maybe as an experiment........... he is, in my opinion, definately human as his blood was red, the synths appear to "bleed" bright blue "blood"

This was not lost on me! And I hope this was simply a 'theme' choice by Ch4 rather than hinting at a spoiler of sorts. And apart from the seasickness-inducing twirling-camera acrobatic bits (look at me I have a new FX toy) I actually like the film so it's all good Fortunately we have already seen one example of three-laws adaptation ('proactive defence', i.e. the kill) and one of 'extended interpretation' with the hug.


And I would not dispute this - traditional methods of species identification always started with the question of "What colour ick do we get when we poke it with a spear?".

I do like it that we aren't 100% certain though.

Best parts of this for me too...the rest bores me now.

Paul Kaye, why?


This could have been a great 2 hour film....for now, it's not going anywhere fast.

I did enjoy the Hurt character alot more in episode 2, finding out he invented the Synths was always going to help I suppose, makes you wonder why he isnt better off.

We will find out im sure. Wouldnt be suprised if he wasnt done over by the other maker especially if he had the early signs of illness. I bet it will be something like that.

Im thinking (probably way off the mark) that the man who hunting down the corrupted synths is the other inventor and i even think hes the father of the guy who is running from him.

Recently Paul Kaye often pops up as a weird character in a drama. Never a star part though and always a brief appearance. He seems to be typecast lately as a scruffy long-haired weirdo. Shame as he is a good actor wasted on these bit parts. I suppose he thinks work is work.