We told you back in November about NBC ordering a show entitled Beautiful People, set in the near future when people apparently co-exist with androids who look just like humans but are, you know, androids. We’re not quite sure which ones are supposed to be the beautiful people, or if they all are, but we know that the two newly-announced cast members fit the bill.

Patrick Heusinger (Black Swan) will play an android (in this show they are “Mechanicals”) who is employed by the matriarch of the show, Lydia – the Mechanicals are apparently employed, not owned – and whose daughter – yes that’s right, the Mechanical has a daughter, and no, I have no idea how that works – is killed in a car crash. He is deemed defective because he exhibits the “forbidden emotions” of grief and loss.

James Murray, who played Stephen in the first two (and arguably best) seasons of Primeval, plays a rich and successful attorney who has stated publicly that he believes that Mechanicals have civil rights, a belief that is scoffed at in Beautiful People society. He is the son of Lydia, the above-referenced matriarch, who is in fact the widow of the man whose firm makes the Mechanicals. Got that? We are, by the way, disappointedly presuming that Murray will not be allowed to use his natural lovely British accent.

Since there is obviously a lot of ‘splainin’ to do, it’ll be interesting to see if the network, writers, and showrunner(s) take the route of allowing us to extrapolate information from subtle references, or if they’re going to hit us over the head with exposition, or if it will fall somewhere in the middle. We’re open to whatever they want to bring, though we’re kinda hoping to not get hit in the head.

We’ll keep you posted.

[Source] Deadline