Episode Title: “Are You Receiving?”
Writer: Justin Doble
Director: Larry Teng
Previously on “Almost Human”:
I’m beginning to think that the only real special effect of “Almost Human” is the very amusing dynamic between John Kennex (Karl Urban) and his android cop partner, Dorian (Michael Ealy). None of the other characters have registered as strongly as these two. And frankly, this week’s episode felt like a retread of a story that’s been told many times before.
We’ve not only seen this story before, we’ve seen Karl Urban star in Dredd; which also involved two law enforcement officers facing a similar situation. But more than anything else, the script echoed the original Die Hard without the engaging villainy of Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruberg. I’m sure we would have all been impressed with the reveal that the hostage situation was just a front for a heist if it hadn’t already been ripped off by so many Die Hard knock-offs.
“Are You Receiving?” did nothing to make me care about the palladium robbery or the generic hostages. But it did a fantastic job of developing the partnership between John and Dorian. Although John’s use of the olive oil on his artificial leg felt like a scene that belonged in the second episode since it was first suggested by Dorian in the pilot episode.
In terms of his personality, I think that Dorian is kind of a good natured dick. Most of Dorian’s humor seems to be designed to annoy John without pushing him too far. It’s just the right amount of teasing without really getting John to show anger. John even gives some of it back when he refers to Dorian as his coffee warmer.
I loved the last scene of the episode, as Dorian rocked out to an Elton John song while needling John about his middle name. But the meat of “Are You Receiving?” dealt with Dorian’s brush with death. Early in the hostage crisis, Dorian is so badly damaged by a bullet to the head that he briefly loses the ability to walk. And John’s initial attempt to fix Dorian only seems to make things worse.
John’s solution was inspired: use an old piece of gum to hold Dorian’s circuits together and hope for the best. This episode challenged the idea of Dorian’s invincibility by demonstrating how vulnerable he can be. Dorian still goes into Supercop mode when he takes out most of the faux-terrorists, but he’s also damaged enough to be facing a fatal head shot before John saves him.
This episode raised an interesting question: what happens to Dorian if he’s too badly damaged to be repaired? Could his consciousness be saved or is Dorian unique among his line of androids? Dorian is self aware of his potential mortality and he’s visibly shaken by it. There’s something very compelling about an android who has a healthy fear of death without being cowardly about it.
I don’t want to harp too much about John and Dorian’s partnership, but all the best moments in this episode revolved around them in one way or another. I particularly liked Dorian’s use of John’s voice to calm a female hostage while teasing John at the same time. Now that’s multi-tasking!
Outside of the building, things were decidedly less interesting. A**hole Cop aka Richard Paul (Michael Irby) didn’t have much to do while Captain Sandra Maldonado (Lili Taylor) seemed to play a very minor role in this story. All she really did was buy a little more time for John and Dorian, but her scenes weren’t exactly riveting. Even Rudy Lom (Mackenzie Crook) was oddly subdued and it felt like he was forced into the episode for the single scene of him building a fake detonator while an android cop pressured him to finish. That scene wasn’t as funny as the creative team seemed to think it was.
But the biggest disappointment of the episode was how generic the villains were. At first I thought that “Almost Human” was revisiting the Syndicate from the pilot episode. Instead, the villains were simply blood-thirsty thieves. The face-changing device they used to conceal their identities was interesting, but it only served as a long setup for John’s eventual rescue of Dorian.
If not for the futuristic setting and the partnership between John and Dorian, “Are You Receiving?” would have been a very generic and very boring hour of television. “Almost Human” has all of the right pieces to be a great TV series. The cast is great and the unfolding world of this show has tremendous potential. But if the writers are just going to rehash old plots without offering up anything unique besides John and Dorian then “Almost Human” will never become the show that it could be.
