Geekscape Review: Almost Human
The images are nothing new to us; the world is clearly pulled from the great sci-fi futures of our past; in the opening scenes we see Asimov, Orwell, Philip K Dick, Arthur Clark, William Gibson. We see Blade Runner, Demolition Man, Robocop, Alien and Cameron’s dark tech-noir worlds.
Almost Human does not reinvent the near-future dystopia, with its slums of neon and Chinese ideograms, black markets for tech and drugs not invented yet; nor does it offer a new version of luxury, all glinting silver and glass. It is not a brave new world, perhaps, but it’s certainly a fast-paced, well-developed, well-acted and for the most part well-written world, and if you join J.H. Wyman and J.J. Abrams in their new project—part sci-fi adventure, part buddy-cop comedy, part humanist philosophy essay–you will not be disappointed.
The pilot and episode two aired in a one-two punch this week, on Sunday and Monday, in an effort by Fox to capitalize on both the after-football audience and the pre-Sleepy Hollow viewers. The move seems to have worked, with the Almost Human pilot pulling in 9.1 million viewers and a 3.1 rating (not the strongest debut this Fall, both Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and Sleepy Hollow premiered to larger numbers, but still a solid debut); the numbers slipped a little on Monday (episode two: Skins) to a 6.8 million viewership, which was still a 10% bump from the numbers Bones pulled in in the same time slot.
All in all, viewers would do well to tune back in to the show; the pilot, while entertaining, was not as strong as the second episode and things only look to get better from here.
Almost Human follows John Kennex (Karl Urban, Star Trek, Judge Dredd), an LAPD Detective in the year 2048. All detectives are now required to have an android as a partner, but Kennex don’t need no stinking robots, especially since he blames them for the death of his human partner two years prior in a bust gone wrong.
Of course our snarky Kennex has secrets—including visits to a black market doctor to access memories lost to him from his injuries during the ambush—and the other Detectives aren’t entirely thrilled he’s back, except for his Captain (the lovely Lili Taylor, Mystic Pizza, Six Feet Under, The Conjuring) and Detective Stahl, the computer guru (Minka Kelly, Friday Night Lights, Parenthood).
After throwing his first android partner out of the car (while moving at high speeds), Kennex gets assigned a DRN (or Dorian) model, one that had been discontinued due to its emotional programming making it unstable. Dorian (Michael Ealy, Sleeper Cell, For Colored Girls, Common Law) has the ability for empathy and deductive reasoning, something the new models do not, and through the course of the first episode (with a fairly basic get-the-bad-guy-foil-the-dastardly=plan plot) the two—both outcasts—form a bond.
The attraction of this show is not (or at least not yet) the story. The plots are basic procedural whodunits, well written and paced but nothing surprisingly evocative…yet. However, the interaction between Urban and Ealy is engaging and enjoyable—the two already of a steady repartee with genuine chemistry. J.J. Abrams and Wyman have solid experience in making a procedural more than just about the crimes being solved, and Almost Human looks like it could mature into the Fringe successor we’re all waiting for.
What do you think, dear reader? Will you be tuning in next week for more?
Check back next week for our recap! And follow our twitter for live tweeting during the episode!
Geekscape Score: 4/5
Almost Human airs on Fox on Mondays at 8 p.m.
Episodes can be viewed here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykwxg534yAw
