Todorov's Narrative Humans ep 1

Todorov believed that most stories can be slotted into 5 stages, human’s is no exception to that. Most begin with an equilibrium, this means the establishment of a norm within the narative for the characters. In humans the norm is established when we meet the Halkins family, most texts would establish this as being happy but this TV show depicts the norm for the Halkins family to be one of disillusionment. The father is clearly having issues both as a dad and sexually, as established by his troubled children and the scene where he receives a panflet from a stereotypical seedy salesman regarding using the synth for sexual pleasure. This clearly establishes his wife’s equilibrium as a workaholic and Robo-Phobic. She is concerned anita is replacing her her. Anita’s equilibrium is one of servitude. The disruption of this all comes from Anita, the scene where Anita takes the child out at night is portrayed as being the moment the mother’s fears are validated, the narative previously dismissed them just as the dad did so it puts us in his shoes when we find out that his wife was correct all along. This also accounts for the recognition of disruption phase of narative when the mother discovers the wet cloths in her daughter’s room. Anita’s disruption comes in a flashback when we are shown a flashback establishing her actual past as an emotional synth on the run with a mysterious individual named elster and eventually is captured but lost in the system of synth slaves. This is interesting since the episodic structure of the narrative chooses not to resolve this in episode 1 or even acknowledge it. That is left vague as to weather or not she is even aware of this past. The halkins story seemingly skips over the narrative attempt to resolve, leaving it until future episodes. This is generally a feature of modern narrative television though. Although you could argue a new Narative norm is established by the end with the mother's fears confirmed and Anita knowingly or unknowingly being a part of something much bigger.