Episode Guide
What Makes Us Attractive? The Best Age To Be Alive Let’s Talk About Sex Are You Biased? Pain VS Pleasure How To Be Happy Can You Trust Your Senses? Ask A Human As someone who obsessively pores over data, stats and trends, 100 Humans is a geek’s worst nightmare. Part comedy-part scientific research study, 100 Humans attempts to blend both these styles together as effectively as mixing yoghurt with chili powder, wrapped in butter and thrown in the oven for 20 minutes. For some, this bizarre combination of ideas will be a perfect medley of light-hearted fun but for many, 100 Humans fails to really satisfy the palate. On paper, 100 Humans is actually quite an interesting idea. 100 diverse human beings from different backgrounds (within the United States of course) are brought together for 40 different experiments to work out once and for all what makes humans so unique. Boasting this as a fool-proof method with the tag-line “Life’s Questions. Answered.” you’d be forgiven for thinking this experiment is a be-all and end-all for solving these different questions. Unfortunately this is far from the truth. “This show is all about deceit”, we’re told during episode 3 as 100 Humans openly admits that this is not to be taken seriously. If you go in expecting something more thought provoking and scientifically accurate, be prepared to be disappointed. This is not an accurate show by any stretch of the imagination and although it tries to emulate the same sort of wacky feel shows like Braniac nail so well, the show stumbles when it comes to its science – or lack thereof. However, it’s easy to think otherwise given the way the show presents its material with various diagrams, expository text and “experts” in these chosen fields to back up the ideas being presented. At the heart of this big experiment are the show’s three presenters – Alie, Zainab and Sammie. Together they try to inject some discriminatory or toilet humour into the fold but mostly their banter fails to hit the right notes across the show. Essentially each episode has an overarching agenda – from working out who the best sex is to learning what really makes people happy. Within these questions are several different experiments designed to pit 100 random humans against one another to solve the bigger ideas. Only, the show only serves to cause more debate within the way it conducts each of these. One experiment sees the group deduce that women are better at multi-tasking than men (which ironically has been proven scientifically not to be the case as it’s too difficult to judge) while another time the group try to deduce if dancing and high sperm count have a correlation. The experiments are wacky, out the box and at times enjoyable but the manner in which the entire show is presented gives the illusion that this is pedaling the truth which does become irritating the longer the show goes on – especially given the lackadaisical way some of these experiments are presented. Given the lack of a disclaimer at the start to inform people this is entertainment and not to be taken as definitive science, the tag-line and presentation of this does feel a bit misleading. Ironically the final experiment in the last episode hits the nail on the edge – proving all three presenters wrong during an applause experiment as they seem convinced that the applause will die down after an extended period of time. Which it doesn’t. As an actual idea, 100 Humans is not a bad one. There are some stand out segments and a few of the experiments are actually quite good fun but as a scientific study and more of a serious debate, 100 Humans fails spectacularly. It’s akin to expecting a Love Island contestant to step forward and deliver a rousing speech on behalf of the Prime Minister – it’s not going to end well. If you can go into this with an open mind you may find something in this to enjoy but 100 Humans is probably the most accurate title – 1 in 100 Humans may actually enjoy this, the rest most definitely will not.
