text: Humans review: Armageddon hits UK in the third series of sci-fi drama | TV & Radio | Showbiz & TV | Express.co.uk
  Humans review: Armageddon hits Britain in the third series of sci-fi drama
  Humans: The show was Channel 4's biggest-ever drama launch when it debuted three years
  PRETENDING to be a robot isn't easy. For the past three years it's been uncanny watching actresses Gemma Chan and Emily Berrington moving and behaving like automatons in the Channel 4 drama hit Humans. They play "synths," who are employed as servants and lowly workers in the series' fictional world of the near future.
  PUBLISHED: 13:11, Mon, May 14, 2018 UPDATED: 13:25, Mon, May 14, 2018
  Although their bright green "synth" eyes are added in post-production to avoid the actors having to wear contact lenses, all the synth-playing actors went to boot camp to learn to act robotically. Emily, who plays Niska, says she starts being synth-like each morning.
  "When I'm in the make-up chair I start to think about being economical with my movements and not fidgeting and not blinking," says Emily, 31. "That's one of the hardest things, limiting the blinking. We've also got our movement director, Dan O'Neill, on set every day telling us where we're getting it wrong!"
  The high-concept drama became Channel 4's biggest-ever drama launch when it debuted three years ago with movie star William Hurt in the cast [he was killed off in series one] and The Matrix's Carrie-Anne Moss in series two alongside a homegrown cast such as Merlin's Colin Morgan and The IT Crowd's Katherine Parkinson.
  Humans depicts a familiar world, but one in which synths live alongside humans as lowlier beings. As the drama unfolded, however, this perfect modern world began to crumble as it became apparent that some of the synths were able to feel emotions, raising questions about their rights as sentient beings.
  Sci-fi show Humans returning to Channel 4 for a third series
  When is Humans season 3 out? Release date, cast, trailer for series
  Humans: The show depicts a familiar world, but one in which synths live alongside humans
  It's caused all kind of problems within the human Hawkins family – lawyer mum Laura (Katherine Parkinson) discovered her husband, Joe (Tom Goodman- Hill), had slept with their synth housekeeper, Mia (Gemma Chan).
  Mia turned out to be one of the sentient synths, which eventually elicited sympathy from Laura but fear in Joe. Another self-aware synth, Niska (Emily), rebelled against being put to work as a prostitute and went on the run after murdering a human customer.
  The culmination of Humans' second series saw a seismic shattering of the world order when all the synths on earth were given consciousness after a terrible showdown at the Hawkins' house. It has set the action up nicely for this week's third series.
  It's been a year since that moment, but the liberation of the synths on "Day Zero" has been an unqualified disaster.
  It caused an Armageddon of sorts – 110,000 humans were killed in the aftermath of the synths becoming cognisant, whether by accident or intentionally is not yet clear.
  Now the sentient synths have been pushed into ghettos away from humans, are persecuted and living in fear. Synth Max (Ivanno Jeremiah) is their leader, who urges peaceful means to gain acceptance by humans. His brother Leo (Colin Morgan) lays in a coma, injured almost beyond repair in last season's finale.
  Mia has become the synths' spokesperson, but is becoming increasingly frustrated that the humans are still failing to embrace the synths.
  Gemma explains that Mia suffers guilt at the synths' predicament.
  Humans: 'Synths' are employed as servants and lowly workers in the series'
  Humans: All the synth-playing actors went to boot camp to learn to act robotically
  "She feels a responsibility for what's happened, because the release of the code [to make synths sentient] was to save her life," says Gemma, 35.
  "So she's ended up being the face of the synths, but doesn't feel they've achieved what they set out to achieve.
  "They have to change tack, but she doesn't know what that is. You'll see she goes off in quite a different arc and a division arises between her and Max and between her and Laura."
  So who are the villains – the humans who discriminate against the synths, or the synths who have killed some of them? We'll find out as the third series ponders those big questions in Humans' brave new world.