Back in July, Microsoft looked at the world of streaming TV and decided that it wasn’t really as cool as people say it is. “House Of Cards’ second season was only OK,” the personified Microsoft said in this scenario we created. “And the idea of paying for Hulu Plus and still having to watch commercials is pretty wack, so maybe we’re not as down with this whole Internet TV thing as we thought we would be.” Yeah, Microsoft says things like “wack.” So anyway, Microsoft killed Xbox Entertainment Studios, the division it created in order to develop original video content for its game consoles, and that left a number of shows—including a very promising “supernatural bro comedy” that could’ve been this generation’s greatest contribution to American culture—with no place to go.
One such show was Humans, a robot drama co-developed by Xbox Entertainment Studios and British broadcaster Channel 4. The series was going to be an English-language adaptation of the Swedish sci-fi hit Äkta Människor (Real Humans). Now that Microsoft is out of the picture, though, AMC has stepped in, brushed some dirt off of the show, and announced that it’s going to give Humans another chance at being on TV. This comes from The Hollywood Reporter, which says the show takes place in “a parallel present” where all of the cool people own robotic servants that look just like real humans —or “äkta människor”, for our Swedish friends. One family—in an attempt to improve its social status—buys a used robot to help around the house, but it soon realizes that “sharing life with a machine has far-reaching and chilling consequences.” That doesn’t sound too ominous, so we assume everything will work out fine for them.
The deal isn’t set yet, with THR only saying that AMC is “near” making one, so Humans is still pretty far off. It’s too bad AMC doesn’t have some kind of robotic assistant to help it with stuff like this. It’s not like there’d be any chilling consequences.