It's easily argued that buying the rights to show the original would have been far more astute.........though I suppose now we get to play spot the inane casting decisions and gee how did they so easily forget to tell the story.............

I haven't seen the original so I am looking at this as a fresh new programme. I enjoyed this first episode and look forward to seeing it next week.

I didn't notice that. I'm going to try and rewatch this later with my wife as she missed it so I'll look out for that. I suspect there will be a few things I'll spot on second viewing.

That's one of the parts I felt was far too rushed compared to the original. You basically had a couple of minutes of this bloke in his house and his wife working away and then he goes and impulse buys a hubot. It was done much better in the original and had more background story to it.

I guess CH4 had to cut some corners though, as theirs is only 8 episodes of about 45mins, whereas the Swedish one is 10 episodes lasting about an hour each.

Really enjoyed it, Jack Whitehall is a lucky lad.

Come on, husbands going out and spending a fortune on a fancy bit of kit without consulting their wives has been going on since Fred bought some of that new-fangled fire for the cave without checking with Wilma.

BTW - I do hope we're not in for 8 weeks of "It was so much better in the original".

Yes I got the 'Utopia' vibe too.

I think it's because of the music. Anyone know if the same people who worked on the incidental music in Utopia worked on this too?

'Escape'....they've done that already, it seems.

Not sure you can call this a pilot episode, the whole series was commissioned.

Was she doing it, to protect her from her Mum...

- really.

Me too....
She can wash my colours anytime.

Oh please there is nothing more annoying than every other post being how much better the original was

So we get Swedish good, Brit bad, 'nough said.

Thank you Shrike for the timely reminder.

BIB: Sadly, we almost certainly will be because some people simply can't help explaining how much more sophisticated than the rest of us sad plebs are.

I quite enjoyed this and I think as a bit of chewing gum for the eyes it was perfect Sunday night viewing. The casting is good and so far while there have been a couple of inconsistencies there has been nothing that suspension of disbelief can't handle.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

PS where did Kat Parkinson get those baps!!! I don't recall those from the IT crowd!

Probably. It could have perhaps remained to be ambiguous for at least a couple of episodes. Already we are made to feel that the 'sexbot' is being abused and that they are slaves. Which is all maybe a bit too soon.

It also reminds me of the French zombie drama which was remade by Channel 4 for a British audience a couple of years ago, with the music by Mogwai.

Didn't notice that, but I did notice that at one point when she was chatting to her husband on the bed, Laura suddenly did something very Androidy. He said something that surprised her and she slowly tilted her head and then sort of swivelled it round to look at him. Probably nothing…..

The parts with William Hurt and the young robot remind me very much of the low budget sci-fi 'film Robot and Frank' starring Frank Langella as an aging jewel thief who makes friends with his robot manservant which his son has bought him to look after him.

I noticed Neil Maskell (Arby), who was the other actor you spotted?

It's rare for a show about human-like robots to say anything new.


Well, the old bloke was hacking his, and the daughter was talking about over-clocking Anita/Mia, so clearly some hacking is going on.


Because they are dangerous, as seen in the supermarket. The owner has to make sure they don't break stuff or hurt anyone. Presumably if there was a car crash while Anita/Mia was driving, the operator would be liable. That said, it looks like the licences don't mean much; the husband didn't even read the literature he was given before letting her drive.


I thought they conveyed the situation quite deftly. He was clearly frazzled and needed help.

The little girl Sophie (Pixie Davies) was in an episode of Utopia too.

Presumably C4 had a choice......to either show the original or remake / re-imagine it. They chose the latter but so far don't appear to have made 'the story' make sense and I can't see why the character and story changes when they appear to have been made IMHO for the worse. I would urge anyone to watch the original and then answer why it wouldn't have been preferable to just show it.

BIB, channel 4 didn't remake the French drama 'The Returned' (though it was remade for the US but that was AMC and is on Netflix ) they showed the original French version.

Not necessarily.

Maybe the original actually is better?

I expect C4 thought they'd get better ratings by setting the programme in the culture their viewers are familiar with. The premis, presumably, is "what would our society be like if we had android servants?". For many of us that will have less impact if the story is set in a culture that is mainly foreign to us.

Straight up? If you really were appalled then perhaps you should stick to CBeebies!

For goodness sake, can we NOT keep hearing about comparisons with the 'original' Swedish version .. please!! Most of us won't have seen it, most of us won't have heard of it and, most importantly, most of us came to this excellent Ch4 version fresh and unencumbered by previous influences.

You sure about that? This was the first episode of 8 .. nothing will turn out to be what it seems, trust me!

Series record, anyone?

Neil Maskell, who played Arby the assassin in Utopia, is only afforded the one small part in this, unfortunately (he was Pete Drummond the law enforcement agent in the supermarket, whose wife was enjoying some serious synth therapy back at home, for those that missed him). Unmistakable voice, I too was reminded of the 'where's Jessica Hyde?' quote.