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Humans (2015)
Best show since Orphan Black!
This is the best series currently showing that you aren't watching right now. Very powerful stuff here. Sure, so okay, it's not "original", but damn, the execution is great! I don't care anymore if a series or a film is "original" so long as it's entertaining and makes me ponder the larger issues and the deeper implications of things.
There was one scene where one of the scientists was examining one of the androids and the scientist exclaimed,"You are the Mona Lisa, penicillin, the atom bomb..." It took me a few seconds to catch on to what he meant (shame on me, getting slow as a sloth in me old age), but then it struck me - the creation of an AI android with consciousness is an earth-shattering achievement. Once that genie leaves the bottle, there's no way of putting it back. Self-aware androids would forever change the course of human history - for better or for worse, but it WILL change.
I can't recommend this show enough! If you're into rip-roaring action and slam-bang explosions and nothing else, then maybe this isn't for you. But if you like well-executed stories that make you think about the larger issues and the coming future of humanity, then you will LOVE this show!
The connection to Orphan Black? None really except that they are both excellent shows and they are both "fearfully and wonderfully made".
Transporter: The Series (2012)
Fast Cars and Bad Girls, what's not to like?
If you are not looking for a deep storyline and just want honest-to-goodness and shamelessly shallow action, you'll like this series. It does not apologize for being "standard", "cliché", or any other derogatory epithet thrown at it. It's just a straight-up, old-fashioned "good guy kicks ass and gets the girl" kind of show. And that's perfectly OK with me. At the end of a day working hard and studying hard or even on a lazy day-off, I don't necessarily want deep plots and Shakespearean epics, I just want brain-dead, no-holds-barred entertainment of the action and suspense genre. And the transporter delivers (pun very much intended)! Heck, just the hot babes and bad girls are well worth the price of admission! :-)
Orphan Black (2013)
some of the most amazing television around!
This show is far and away the most riveting and powerful television I've watched in a long, long time. Nothing in recent years comes even close, not American Horror Story, Arrow, Hannibal, Dracula, or Breaking Bad or ... I watched the whole first season marathon-style in less than twenty-four hours even what with having to carry on the usual work and family time stuff. It's just that good.
For a mature viewer such as myself, this show spoke to me on so many levels with so many subtle nuances that I had to constantly pause the show to catch my breath. Tatiana Maslaney and Jordan Garvaris are unbelievable actors - their acting was just mind-boggling. Even the small nit-picky gaffes in some of the police procedure "facts" were easy to ignore because the story was just so compelling.
My mind is still reeling from it. Tatiana Maslaney, we love you!! You, too, Jordan Gavaris, even though we're not supposed to, but dude, you killed it right along with your 'sister', Tatiana!
Viewers, just do yourselves a favor, watch this series, and prepare to have your mind officially blown away. 'Nuff said.
Dracula (2013)
Murder Most Foul...
While some may complain that the show doesn't faithfully follow the original, like another reviewer said, we could just re-watch one of the older classics if we wanted the original. Or better yet, just read the book itself. Having got that out of the way, the rest of you individuals that like new and original takes on old tales, this is one is very good.
Its atmosphere is steam-punk and Victorian with a good-sized dollop of the modern stuff thrown in. I won't go into any of the story lines from the first four episodes as you can see them for yourselves, but I'll say that by the fourth episode, I was thoroughly pulled in almost against my will. The pivotal scene (and you'll know what it is when you see it!) made me think of that phrase from Shakespeare's Hamlet, "murder most foul". That scene was a landmark for me. I'm not sure why, because I'm in my early 50's and I've seen just about everything out there when it comes to movies, but for some reason that scene just stuck out in my brain. To those of you that are reading this, I think you will know which scene I'm talking about when you see it.
But all around, this limited series is very, very good and Jonathan Rhys Meyers really outdoes himself. The rest of the cast is just great. The villains are as villainous as can be and whole storyline is really developing in a very interesting direction. I'm just sad that it's a limited series instead of maybe being a possible new series like other TV shows. I'm not sure why some of the other critics are hammering this series instead of just enjoying it on its own merits. You viewers out there will just have to see it for yourselves, but I can guarantee that it won't be a waste of your time!