Real Humans asks the philosophical question, "Would you still hook up with a totally hot woman (or man, your choice) if it turned out to be a robot?" The answer given is a realistic, "Hell yeah!"
Real Humans is a slightly better show than the subsequent Humans (UK) show. Real Humans is titillating, as it should be, because of course humans will be sexually attracted to realistically humanoid robots. These humanoid robots are called "hubots". It's interesting to explore the ethical dilemmas here, and Real Humans does a better job of it. Hubot Heaven, the red light robot brothel, is gloriously decadent, tempting, and seedy in Real Humans, but sadly claustrophobic in Humans (UK).
However, Humans (UK) is better written in some areas. Humans (UK) did a better job fleshing out the character of "the old guy" (George in Humans or Lennert in Real Humans). In Humans (UK), this character was more relevant to the plot, and his use of Odi as a crutch for his failing memory was touching. Still, the viewer cannot help but to love Odi in Real Humans, because he suffers through so much hardship while remaining hopelessly naive. So, in Humans (UK) we understand why the old guy loves Odi, but in Real Humans we love Odi.
The character development of the hubots in Real Humans is impressive. The actor who plays Rick did a wonderful job of going through multiple character transformations due to software changes to the hubot.
By using a science fiction setting, Real Humans gives us a perspective on ourselves, much like Star Trek. For example, some of the characters in Real Humans find themselves attracted only to robots, and their society even has a label for this sexual orientation. And some human characters identify as robots(!) This reflects the confusing liberalization of sexual orientations and identities now, like with pansexuality and transsexuality.
My specialty is artificial intelligence, and I think Real Humans is fairly realistic, for what it is. Of course, the viewer must have some suspension of disbelief for the sheer difficulty of pulling off a true AI that can pass as human in the flesh, even after sex. The show deals with the threat of "the singularity", i.e., the point at which our technology may be the end of humanity. Real Humans is food for thought.
I can't argue with the people who claim this is more of a wiki page visualization than it is a documentary, but Woodstock 99 is a wiki page worthy of this treatment.
The found footage and framing device of attendee journal entries adds a interesting narration element to this story and provides a unique insight to how the festival was perceived at the time.
The major flaw of this film is choosing to focus on the societal and political factors that led to the angry "white dude bro" crowd and eventual rioting. I am not denying that those forces outside of the festival were a factor, but I believe it was opportunistic and bias driven to make those the main target of the documentary. I believe it is fairly apparent that the prominent white dude bro crowd was attracted by the nu metal heavy lineup and the aggressive angry vibe of the festival was more caused by the poor planning and high water/food prices than it was having first generation feminist parents.
The incredible footage combined with my potent nostalgia for late 90s culture was enough to overcome some of the forced political commentary and enjoy the contextualization of this infamous event.
