Episode Title: “Pilot”
Writer: J.H. Wyman
Director: Brad Anderson
Have you ever wondered why there are so many procedural dramas on broadcast TV? Cop shows, lawyer shows, medical shows… these are all safe programming choices that tend to appeal to a broad audience. As CBS continues to prove, there’s still a huge appetite for procedural dramas that haven’t changed much in the last 25 years.
If there had to be one more cop show on TV, it should be the one set in the future that has an android cop partnered with a jaded human detective. The premise for “Almost Human” has been used many times before, but this pilot was a lot of fun to watch. I’ve seen the scene where John Kennex (Karl Urban) disposes of his first android partner at least four times and it still makes me laugh.
The ads for “Almost Human” have played up J.J. Abrams’ involvement in this show, but the name you should pay attention to is J.H. Wyman. On “Fringe,” Wyman was one of the showrunners who was responsible was some incredibly compelling sci-fi stories that had a lot of heart. “Almost Human” has a long way to go to live up that standard, but this is a very promising beginning.
There are full spoilers ahead for the pilot episode of “Almost Human,” so if you missed last night’s premiere then you should probably skip this review or else the MX-43 will NARC you out.
The basic premise for the series is that roughly thirty years from now, technology is out of control in Los Angeles. Most of the tech is in criminal hands and human police officers are partnered with androids for their own protection in this brave new world that seems very Fringe Runner.
“Almost Human” is primarily a two lead show and both stars are more than up to the task of carrying this series. Urban’s John Kennex is understandably wary about dealing with the MX-43 cop androids after one of them abandoned him and his human partner during a massive firefight with the Syndicate that left John in a coma for two years. John’s injures have also left him less than human in his own eyes as he continually rejects his new artificial leg.
John’s feelings towards machines aren’t helped by his first android partner, a by-the-book robot who was so damn annoying that his early destruction was a crowd pleasing moment. Dorian (Michael Ealy) is different story altogether. As a DRN model android, Dorian is considered to be defective for having near human emotions and a less logical perspective. It’s not Ealy’s human-like persona that makes Dorian appealing. Instead it’s the slightly inhuman aspect of Ealy’s performance that really sells the idea that he’s a machine who can pass for a human being.
The other androids on this show have a creepy, “uncanny valley” vibe that helps feed John’s mistrust of machines. Even Dorian seems to look down on his advanced replacements for their less than human attributes. For Dorian, there is no conflict about whether he’s a machine or not. He just takes it personally when John compares him to the other androids or when he uses the term “Synthetic” as a pejorative.
There is an upside to having an android cop around, as Dorian demonstrates when he’s able to simply ignore his exposure to a biohazard weapon and when he isn’t shut down like the other androids. Dorian’s walking crime lab moment was also a very creative element. He simply injected himself with a substance to be analyzed and the data was instantly transmitted back to Rudy Lom (Mackenzie Crook). That’s pretty cool.
While the tension between John and Dorian fades over the course of the episode, there’s at least one instance where John pushes Dorian too far and a few other times where Dorian fights back his anger. Again, he’s a very human android and these flashes of genuine emotion only make him more interesting. But if Dorian wasn’t an android, those moments wouldn’t feel quite as special.
As an adversary in the pilot episode, the Syndicate wasn’t compelling. That was primarily because none of the Syndicate members we saw in this episode had a particularly memorable personality. What they did have was a fearsome bioweapon that definitely felt like something out of the “Fringe” playbook. Using programmable DNA, the Syndicate orchestrated the murder of a Los Angeles police detective in a particularly gruesome way.
For John, the battle with the Syndicate is about more than his personal vengeance against them During his trips to the Recollectionist (Hiro Kanagawa), John slowly realizes that his ex-girlfriend, Anna (Mekia Cox) was secretly a member of the Syndicate and she was the one who nearly killed John in the raid that claimed his leg and two years of his life.
Among the supporting cast of characters, Richard Paul (Michael Irby) was set up to be the prerequisite a**hole of this show. Consequently, he wasn’t that interesting. Valerie Stahl (Minka Kelly) has more potential as one of John’s fellow human detectives who seems quite good at her job. Captain Sandra Maldonado (Lili Taylor) also has an unexpectedly warm relationship with John and she reveals that she was the one who arranged for John and Dorian to be partnered together.
After the events of this episode, you’d think that DRN model android would become popular again. Dorian was instrumental in saving the police when all of the other android cops were disabled and his abilities really came in handy. Dorian even saved John’s life during a bad trip to the Recollectionist; which was the reason that John warmed up to Dorian.
The overall story in “Almost Human” still feels a little underdeveloped, but it may not matter when the chemistry is so strong between the two leads. Rather than close out the episode on a big moment, it ends with John telling Dorian that he can call him by his first name. It’s a small gesture that makes Dorian smile. And that was all the episode needed.
“Almost Human” delivered one of the strongest pilots of the fall. If the rest of the season can maintain this quality then it’s going to be a great ride.
