Julien Neaves, Sci Fi Head Writer
For years I have heard about the FOX Sci Fi police procedural Almost Human (one season, 2013-2014) but I never got around to watching it. Then last week I saw the pilot episode airing on local television and I decided to give it a watch. And I absolutely loved it and decided to binge the remaining 12 episodes.
Created by J.H. Wyman (Fringe, The Mexican) and executive produced by J.J. Abrams, the series is set in 2048 and focuses on John Kennex (genre mainstay Karl Urban of Dredd, The Boys, Thor: The Dark World, The Lord of the Rings), a police officer who lost his leg and partner after an operation went south. Now fitted with an advanced synthetic leg, he rejoins the force and recruits a decommissioned Police Synthetic DRN-0167 better known as “Dorian” (Michael Ealy of Barbershop, 2 Fast 2 Furious and the Think Like a Man films) to be his new partner. Together they battle criminals using advanced technology.
I am pleased to announce that after watching the entire season I am including Almost Human as one of my top all-time Sci Fi TV series. I truly did not expect to enjoy this show as much as I did. I was expecting a solid performance for Urban as he never disappoints. On the surface, Kennex is your prototypical gruff, haunted loner cop with anger issues, but he is also charming, funny and mischievous. He is well balanced by the other half of this bromance, Ealy’s Dorian. I’m not familiar with much of the actor’s work, but I adored him in this role. Dorian is sweet, thoughtful, caring and delightfully witty and his search for meaning and identity is an engrossing one. Kennex and Dorian’s chats in the squad car made me guffaw multiple times and together they make for one of the best buddy cop duos ever put to screen.
The rest of the main cast is also very good. Minka Kelly (Friday Night Lights) is distractingly beautiful as Kennex’s fellow detective and love interest Valerie Stahl, Mackenzie Crook (British version of The Office, Pirates of the Caribbean films) is hilariously awkward as technician Rudy Lom, Michael Irby is appropriately abrasive and unlikeable as detective Richard Paul, and veteran actress Lili Taylor brings some depth to her role as police captain Sandra Maldonado. There are also some great turns from guest stars including David Dastmalchian, Gina Carano, Alessandro Juliani, and John Larroquette.
The series received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Special and Visual Effects, and it is easy to see why; the effects are pretty fantastic. From the practical and CGI effects of the synthetics to all the mind-bending technologies Almost Human is truly a feast for the eyes. And it also features some excellent action set pieces. We get the usual gunplay and fisticuffs, but we also have the Terminator, Blade Runner-esque action of human vs synthetic and synthetic vs synthetic. Watching Dorian throwdown with another “robot” was always awesome and action-packed. And each episode was intriguing, and I can’t say there was a dud among the bunch.
If there was one area Almost Human could have improved upon it would be the overarching narrative. The pilot set up the mystery of the shadowy Syndicate that killed Kennex’s partner and left him an amputee, but it is barely developed going forward. And there are also some other plot threads that are introduced somewhat late, and I assume were setting up things for later seasons that never came (FOX, the king of cancellation, pulled the plug on the show just like it did with Firefly and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles). I think if the main arc was threaded throughout more episodes, and we had a big bad (or even the shadow of one) the series could have hooked more viewers for a second season. And the finale episode, while very good, did not build on the lore and leave us with a really sexy cliffhanger.
That said, I loved the series, I unreservedly recommend it and I am sad that we will not be getting any more barring a belated revival. Almost Human Season 2 and Dredd 2? Is that too much to ask?
Editor Jules’ Score: 8.5 out of 10
Have you seen Almost Human? What did you think of it? And you can check out more Sci Fi TV content below:
Julien “Editor Jules” Neaves is a TARDIS-flying, Force-using Trekkie whose bedroom stories were by Freddy Krueger, learned to be a superhero from Marvel, but dreams of being Batman. I love promoting Caribbean film (Cariwood), creating board games and I am an award-winning author. I say things like “13 flavours of awesome sauce”. Read more.