Almost Human - TV (No Spoilers Beyond What's Aired)

Pages

As with all TV show threads I create, if it's not part of the actual episode spoiler tag it, or better yet refrain from talking about it. This includes the previews for next weeks episode, interviews, articles, casting news, future episode titles or anything else that isn't actually part of the episode.

Once an episode has aired feel free to talk about it without spoiler tags, anyone venturing into the thread does so at their own risk if they haven't caught up.

Most importantly have fun!

We are only 3 episodes in, but it continues to impress. The CGI, is really excellent considering it's a TV show, well maybe some of the city scapes aren't that great but the rest of it is very well done. The technobable is used sparingly which is great considering how much future tech the show has. The two leads have great chemistry and the stories have been pretty good so far!

"I said majenta." "That was majenta." "I said majenta, that was lavender." LOL
Dorian singing Elton John was also pretty funny.

Can't wait for next week!

My wife and I are really digging this from the start. Sleepy Hollow took some warming up to, but this is an awesome show, really enjoyng it!

I really appreciate how smartly written the show is.

Didn't get to watch last night yet but loved the first two.

I thought this latest episode was the weakest, but still better than anything SHIELD has thrown up there yet.

Nevin73 wrote:

I thought this latest episode was the weakest, but still better than anything SHIELD has thrown up there yet.

You said it. My wife and I are both loving this show, but last night I was surprised to enjoy a Castle episode where he and Beckett have to watch a baby together more than a kind of ponderous Almost Human episode.

I understand Kennix doesn't want to die, but damn they climbed those stairs slowly! The Ghostbusters made better time getting up to Zuul's rooftop temple, and they had to carry unlicensed particle accelerators all that way!

I really appreciate how smartly written the show is.

Absolutely. One of the hallmarks of a well written show is when some side banter in the first quarter of the show ends up paying much greater dividends in the last quarter. The sexbot episode would have been very standard fair if not for this. ("you are going to a better place" "I will remember you")

I worried that this would be a bland ripoff of Robocop and the preview made the android lead seem a clone of Data. Thankfully, the show is neither of those things or even reminiscent of them.

And the tech is great from the bad guy gimmicks to the very subtle touches such as the miniature toy giraffe. What I like about the bad guy tech is it seems what a bad guy would need: something that serves a purpose, isn't overly complex (i.e.comic book mastermind gadget), doesn't leave much trace if any and is throw away. You can easily look at it and say, "Yeah if we had the ability to do that, a criminal would exploit it like this."

And I love the twist where the android lead is more human than the human lead. It is not wholly unique but it leads to enjoyable humor and poignant show punchlines and themes.

Boring conversation anyways....one of the best lines of the episode:)

So did anyone else notice that this last episode was basically the plot form the first Die Hard film? It was weird, because I had just been talking to my neighbor about it earlier in the day. I thought it was still a strong episode, and we enjoyed it.

I actually made the comment to my wife after they shot the first badguy "Now I have a gun".

Episode 2 was really damn good. Lots of great human/android ethical questions being thrown out there. I'm excited to watch episode 3!

Rainsmercy wrote:

Boring conversation anyways....one of the best lines of the episode:)

Yep, I pointed that line out to my wife.

Jayhawker wrote:

So did anyone else notice that this last episode was basically the plot form the first Die Hard film? It was weird, because I had just been talking to my neighbor about it earlier in the day. I thought it was still a strong episode, and we enjoyed it.

When he killed the first bad guy, I wanted him to pick up the more powerful gun, and that immediately put me in mind of Die Hard. But not until you just said this did I compare the similar "thieves posing as terrorists need the police to cut the power to pull off their heist, but one cop is inside the building" storyline. That's a lot of overlap.

I'm fine with that for a third episode, but hopefully this won't be a pattern. If they have to race from payphone to payphone at the whims of a criminal in an upcoming episode, I will be somewhat put out.

Spoiler:

I really won't, because that's an awesome plot!

Pretty sure all the payphones are gone in 2048. Hell they're almost gone now.

Loved Ep3. It was a pretty well one hostage episode but the chemistry between the characters really makes it enjoyable. It was pretty serious but i chuckled at all the little jokes they tossed in there. This show continues to impress and has quickly become my favorite show on network television in front of Sleepy Hallow then The Blacklist.

One of my favorite sci fi bits was the imitation mask. I am happy to see the CG budget and talent is high up there for a network show. SHIELD is pretty bad compared to this.

It was funny to me that in the same week both this show and The Blacklist did the "bad guys take over a building and then the whole episode happens inside" deal. Also, both clearly with Die Hard influences, just in different ways.

Thin_J wrote:

It was funny to me that in the same week both this show and The Blacklist did the "bad guys take over a building and then the whole episode happens inside" deal. Also, both clearly with Die Hard influences, just in different ways.

And last Friday, I watched White House Down for the first time; it also draws strongly from Die Hard.

Early on with this show, I was worried about the JJ Abrams/Bad Robot influence. Abrams and a lot of his proteges have a stated philosophy that their stories shouldn't be about anything. They're just pure fluff, pure entertainment, more reliant on crazy plot twists than meaningful themes. And while a lot of them are great storytellers, this insistence on avoiding meaning tends to make them kind of hollow, and has a tendency to create underdeveloped characters, or characters that are more reliant on the actors than anything.

Almost Human seems to be bucking that trend in the first couple of episodes, particularly the second one, where the fembot has to be deactivated.

kazooka wrote:

Early on with this show, I was worried about the JJ Abrams/Bad Robot influence. Abrams and a lot of his proteges have a stated philosophy that their stories shouldn't be about anything. They're just pure fluff, pure entertainment, more reliant on crazy plot twists than meaningful themes. And while a lot of them are great storytellers, this insistence on avoiding meaning tends to make them kind of hollow, and has a tendency to create underdeveloped characters, or characters that are more reliant on the actors than anything.

Almost Human seems to be bucking that trend in the first couple of episodes, particularly the second one, where the fembot has to be deactivated.

I was excited for Almost Human because so much of Abrams stuff is exactly the opposite of what you described. He's not Midas, and not everything is gold, but Fringe Person of Interest, Super 8, Alcatraz, and the Star Trek reboot all point to a guy that takes a lot more care with his stories than the person you are describing.

The 2nd Star Trek movie was a mess. A few poignant moments, but all the connecting bits all over the place.

And still not happy with LOST's final season. But that was on Lindelof and Cuse, not JJ.

kazooka wrote:

Almost Human seems to be bucking that trend in the first couple of episodes, particularly the second one, where the fembot has to be deactivated.

That was superb that they already went there. My prediction:

Spoiler:

The finale will have the imminent deactivation of Dorian with Detective Kennex refusing to accept it and ultimately he'll go to rescue him.

Jayhawker wrote:
kazooka wrote:

Early on with this show, I was worried about the JJ Abrams/Bad Robot influence. Abrams and a lot of his proteges have a stated philosophy that their stories shouldn't be about anything. They're just pure fluff, pure entertainment, more reliant on crazy plot twists than meaningful themes. And while a lot of them are great storytellers, this insistence on avoiding meaning tends to make them kind of hollow, and has a tendency to create underdeveloped characters, or characters that are more reliant on the actors than anything.

Almost Human seems to be bucking that trend in the first couple of episodes, particularly the second one, where the fembot has to be deactivated.

I was excited for Almost Human because so much of Abrams stuff is exactly the opposite of what you described. He's not Midas, and not everything is gold, but Fringe Person of Interest, Super 8, Alcatraz, and the Star Trek reboot all point to a guy that takes a lot more care with his stories than the person you are describing.

Getting into the Star Trek reboot here would be a bit like posting a Supernatural .gif that featured Jeff Goldblum's nipples.

Film Critic Hulk has a really great essay on Abrams:

http://badassdigest.com/2013/06/12/f...

The tldr of it is: very talented director, whose dependance on jaw-dropping plot twists performs a disservice to characterization and overall development.

I am generally positive about Abrams' movies (except Star Trek, but we can take that to the Star Trek thread), but with a lot of the TV Bad Robot stuff, I tend to get sucked in initially, then find myself growing bored of the whole thing. I can sit through a two hour popcorn movie. But I need that 12-18 hours of TV to do a little more for me.

Yeah that was in the ST thread, and a good read.

But I'm not sure how much JJ is even involved with this. JH Wyman is listed as exec producer in the show credits, and listed as creator on IMDB. He was an exec producer (with a lot of others) on Fringe for the last 4 seasons it looks like. I think this one is his baby.

Really enjoying this show. I was a bit worried in the first 10 minutes of the pilot, which played out a little too much like the movie adaptation of "I, Robot". But after that, I was hooked. Karl Urban can do no wrong. He is the Mel Gibson of our generation, without the religious extremism and short fuse.

Honestly the show had me the moment he casually booted his new android partner out the passenger door.

Thin_J wrote:

Honestly the show had me the moment he casually booted his new android partner out the passenger door.

Happy Monday!

Want to see the worst review ever for this show?

Separate Unequal, and 'Almost Human'

Where Almost Human differs from many of its predecessors and peers, though, is the way it seems to revel in unreflexive prejudice. The show’s creator and pilot author, J. H. Wyman, the talented writer and show runner for the much more unconventional and challenging Fringe, seems to think it’s okay for Kennex to throw racial epithets at Dorian, the only African American character, as long as the stereotyping slang “synthetic” relates to whether one was conceived in a human body or in a lab, rather than to the color of one’s skin.

Uh, the entire point of that scene was Dorian exposing Kennex of his insensitivity, forcing him to think of Dorian as a human with emotions instead of an object. It's like the reviewer had to try really, really hard to miss the entire point of the series. It's not like it is deep.

To really expose her lack of context, she concludes:

Fox has a long history of nurturing entertaining near-future sci-fi with a provocative tilt, but the launch of Almost Human suggests its drama is falling into the same nadir as much of its reality programming and news coverage. If the premise intrigues you, watch or rewatch Blade Runner instead, and offer Almost Human the all-too-human body swerve.

Seriously? Fox is where we go to see sci-fi nurtured?

I'm sorry. She used the word "nadir." She MUST know what she's talking about.

Love this show.

I hope at some point they can have some of the Fringe regulars as guest stars, even if it's non-recurring.

This was a very solid episode. It was good to see David Aceveda again (The Shield reference).

Some of Dorian's one-liners were legitimately hilarious!

I'm really starting to like this show. It's on Fox which makes me very nervous.

Pages