Features
InHuman Condition
By: Caitlin Walsh
I have a confession to make. Before tuning in to Inhuman Condition, I had never watched a web series before. Ever. Period. I’ve heard of plenty of good ones, even a few greats, and I always meant to get around to them. But Inhuman Condition was popping up more and more on my timeline and when I finally, finally got around to it – well, it’s not exactly a mystery as to why.
Inhuman Condition is an intriguing analysis of humanity thanks to non-human characters. It’s socially conscious, awake and aware and it’s got a cast of characters that are dynamically different, yet linked by one small detail – they’re not human. And the lives they lead because of that are tougher for it.
Almost every episode features a therapy session between main character Dr. Michelle Kessler, played by Torri Higginson, and one of her three main patients: Linc (Thomas Olajide), Clara and Tamar. All three are “inhuman”: Linc a Lycan (werewolf), Clara (Clara Pasieka), whose fatal disease will lead her down a zombie path and Tamar (Cara Gee) whose anxiety and emotion threatens to unleash an almost Phoenix-like power. In contrast, Dr. Kessler is a human, bisexual therapist who loves her job and is the tie between them all.
All around, the characters are played brilliantly – whether due to excellent writing by creator RJ Lackie or due to the actors’ talents, I can’t be sure. I’d be willing to guess it’s a perfect marriage of both. While it was a learning curve for me to get used to shorter, sweeter episodes than usual television episodes, I quickly realized just how much can be packed in in under ten minutes. These characters’ storylines and their dialogue say it all – even from the confines of mostly just one office – so much develops. It’s exquisite.
When the series begins, both Tamar and Linc are at the beginning of their relationships with Dr. Kessler. Tamar has just been let out of “the facility” to take a (supervised) shot at reality, but is struggling to manage her overwhelming anxieties. She knows her power. Though her powers are never quite described in detail, it can be gathered that she’s the equivalent to The X’Men’s Jean Grey and she’s scared of that.
At first, I may have been unsure of Cara Gee’s Tamar, but it didn’t take long for me to realize the beauty of her. It wasn’t a shaky portrayal – Tamar is that unsure of herself and she’s got the biggest heart that’s bursting with a lust for life while wanting to be loved, but she doesn’t trust herself. She doesn’t trust that if she forms relationships with people, she won’t be unknowingly controlling their emotions to want that. She can’t trust herself.
At the beginning, no one was more scared of Tamar than Tamar herself. Throughout the season she learns. She is the patient who puts her all into therapy. She has blind faith in Dr. Kessler to help her through this, to get her to a good place, and she tries so hard to manage her emotions. She tries deep breathing and she rationalizes through everything. She’s got a girlish charm that’s hard to resist so you find yourself rooting for her instantly. My heart ached for her as she started falling for her caretaker, Graham. All she wants is love and all she knows is Graham (Robin Dunne).
It’s, of course, the topic of Graham that starts making her relationship with Dr. Kessler a rocky one. When Dr. Kessler warns Tamar against building a romantic relationship just yet, especially one as forbidden as one with her caretaker, Tamar is upset. But it isn’t until a relationship actually develops between the two (around the time that Dr. Kessler is attacked and out of commission for six weeks) that Tamar starts letting out some of the anger that has long been pent up, I suspect. By the most recent episode, it’s clear that Tamar is no longer as appreciative of Dr. Kessler as she once was and a little less doe eyed than before. But who can blame her? We know Graham is recording all of the relationship and we’re quite sure it’s all part of some social experiment with her. So, can we blame her trust issues?
When we first meet Clara, she seems to have an established rapport with Dr. Kessler already and while friendly, there is tension. Clara’s looking to have something signed, a decision made in her head already, and Dr. Kessler is refusing to sign the paperwork. As it turns out, it’s a tackling of physician assisted suicide, not a light issue by any means. Cover it in supernatural conditions, and it’s still the same hot issue – one that Lackie and the whole team tackle well from both angles, in my opinion. Dr. Kessler can’t seem to give up, convincing Clara that she needs to find the energy to keep fighting, to keep trying for a cure. Clara, on the other hand, has accepted her fate and knows there’s no avoiding pain, no avoiding her fate – no cures, no treatments. Who is right? And whose decision is it? It’s a season long battle, one that Clara stands firm on no matter what. She even calls out Dr. Kessler for what her reluctance really is – not a professional opinion, but a personal one. She can’t let go and she’s manipulating Clara into living. Dr. Kessler cares and maybe too much.
Yet, it can’t stop the inevitability of her and Linc falling in love. They only know each other online for months, by their activist voices, but once they meet it’s all heart eyes from there. Suddenly, Clara’s decision becomes heavier and harder to make. It then becomes not a decision that only affects her anymore (even when it was just her and her distant father, it was still just her). Despite all of this, she’s still sure. It hurts a hell of a lot more, but she’s sure. One of the most powerful episodes of the series is when she sits down with Kessler and Linc to deliver the news. As poorly as it goes, as hard as Linc takes it and as hurt as he is she reminds him, “This isn’t about you.” Because at the end of the day, it’s her life, her body and her disease. It’s her decision to make and it’s one she has to make for herself, not for anyone else. She can’t risk herself just to make him happy.
And then there’s Linc. While I think the entire cast has its strengths and play off each other so well, there’s something about Olajide’s Linc that steals every scene he’s in. He’s tortured, layered and deep, but not clichéd. His anger and aggression, his involvement in extreme Lycan activism and his struggles as an outsider because of his Lycan status and the prejudices against his kin, tackle the race (species) issue in a unique sense and yet, the message is the same. He’s tired and he’s angry. More than that, though, he’s hurt and broken. He’s lost everyone he cared about. Linc is also bisexual and when his boyfriend died, so did his hope. His heart closed off, his walls fortified. He covers himself in faux non-care, never planning more than a week in advance for carelessness of his own life. He’s brilliant and passionate, but angry and maybe misdirected.
He comes into therapy crying bullshit. He wants no part and he lets Kessler know (often) just how little he thinks of her and her profession. But slowly, very slowly, they come to respect each other. Kessler, in fact, may be learning more from him than vice versa – she’s listening, really listening. And once they both agree not to bullshit each other and once he reads an old college paper of hers…There’s a tentative, dare I say it, relationship. He starts trusting her.
And Clara breaking down his walls outside of therapy, reminds him what it’s like to be loved. She reminds him what it means to plan a future, which helps, too. His ice is melting and you can see the tension rolling off of Linc in waves. He even tries to leave his militant activist group, Lycan Superior, which puts his life (and Kessler’s by relation) in jeopardy. But all his progress comes crashing down when Clara breaks her news to him. He goes off the rails. In Episodes 24 and 25, we begin seeing a downward spiral and a chilling side of Linc that I’m afraid he may get too far into. He’s back to reckless and beyond that – he’s full blown homicidal, now.
Beyond her office, Dr. Kessler herself is dealing with her own myriad of life obstacles. Her marriage to the (until recently) illusive Rachel fell apart and she’s rekindled a relationship with ex-flame Will (Shaun Benson), the father of their daughter, Mira. Mira (Niamh Wilson) is another contender for favorite character, though she’s briefly featured in only a handful of episodes. She’s spunky and brutally honest. Will and Rachel are less lovable, especially Will. An ex detective, he cares little for Kessler’s patients, especially Linc who he has it unfairly out for. Worse than that, all he does is judge Kessler for how much she cares and the faith she has in Linc to get better.
Rachel (Angela Asher), on the other hand, comes off as the cold aloof ex-wife until Episode 22 when we get a glimpse of how much she realizes her mistake in letting Kessler go and how much she regrets it. She still cares. She still loves her. She just messed up when it got hard and her chances of fixing that seem good, if that impassioned kiss was any indicator.
With a web series, time is a factor in getting what is needed to be conveyed featured in a small amount of time. Therefore, with InHuman Condition, a lot is weaved within each episode. Every word counts, every line matters and every scene needs to deliver. As you can tell, so far, it’s all working. And I am completely, totally, irrevocably invested.
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