Robots Might Improve Your Mood

The other day I noticed that the Russian series Better Than Us would soon be dropping off Netflix, and feeling in the mood for some near-future SF about a world of personal robots, I gave it a try; as a 2018 production, I figured it might not be too infected with the militarism of 2020s Russia. Like the Channel 4 series Humans, it was apparently inspired by the Swedish Real Humans (which I haven’t seen, but will have to track down). The Russian version is even darker in tone than the British one—which remains my favourite—so a few episodes in I started watching the new BBC sitcom Ann Droid alongside it to lighten the mood. Ann Droid made a good comic counterpart to a Russian thriller. Its star Diane Morgan was excellent in it, as always, as was co-lead Sue Johnston, but it was more an opportunity to watch some great British comic actors at work (and Aussie/Brit Sarah Kendall, who co-wrote it with Morgan) than to learn what personal bots will actually be like. Given how things are…