'Almost' only counts with horseshoes and hand grenades

[taste_is_sweet]

Might as well get this out of the way now: I love fictional androids. It's the whole not-human-but-striving-to-be-and/or-understand-humans thing, especially when they're used to point out all the very, very many ways that we humans don't make any sense. And I love the cynical but lonely humans who get paired with the androids and then, despite themselves, fall in love become their friend.

I may have written fanfiction on that very premise. I admit nothing.

As you can imagine, with my love of human-like robots, I was looking forward to Almost Human the way my son is looking forward to Christmas. The show's set in the near-future, where cops are issued robots like handguns. Karl Urban plays John Kennex (not to be confused with John Sheppard or any of the thousands of other fictional characters called 'John'), who is an embittered, physically and emotionally scarred, cynical and guilt-ridden detective.

Naturally, Kennex's go-to problem solving method is violence, including killing incapacitated bad guys (because due process is for pussies, amirite?) and getting rid of things that bug him by throwing them out. Of his car. On the freeway. (Because safety and private property are also for pussies.)

Start at .22 for the full impact. Heh.

He is reluctantly paired with Dorian, a sweet, thoughtful, kind and beautiful heroic android, who sees the special snowflake inside Kennex and immediately saves his life. Or maybe he's programmed that way; the show is a little unclear on that point. Anyway, they form a forced but then genuine partnership based on sarcastic jibes and mutual antagonism. And together they solve crime.

Michael Ealy is totally lovable. Look at that lovable smile.

What's not to love, right? It promised to be a mash-up of Blade Runner, RoboCop and Due South, except where the Mountie's a robot and the Cop would be played by a New Zealander instead of a Canadian.

And then it finally aired, and four episodes later the show just makes me sad.

I've been trying to put my finger on exactly why a show that's ostensibly exactly what I could ever want has disappointed me so much. I think it's because, for something set up to be more about human/android relations than crime solving, it's turned out to be pretty much Law and Order: Everyone Has a Robot. I have no idea what rights Dorian may or may not have; I have no idea how he may feel about those rights; I don't even know what he does in his off-hours or where he does it. Does he go into standby mode? Does he borrow Kennex's desk and play spider solitaire? Does he have a designated wall-socket? Does he dream of electric sheep? All I know for sure after four episodes is that he doesn't want to die (not exactly a shock) and that he's way more useful than an iPhone.

What really gets my synthetic goat, though, is how the production of the show itself conforms so much to the status quo that you can paint the lack of inclusion by number. Of six regular cast members, only two are women, and the only female androids have been sex-bots.

Even worse, So far in the series the only people of color have been extras or have played bit parts. And yes, that includes Michael Ealy.

Why? Because he plays an android. His role in the show is as an other, not as a human. Dorian isn't a person of color because he isn't a person at all. I might feel differently if Dorian was more than an ingenious cipher, but until we find out how he feels about, well, anything, he isn't. And unfortunately, the show seems to be in no hurry to change that, either.

So instead of watching the beautiful men bantering, looking at each other longingly and saving each others' lives, I keep waiting for the show I wanted to actually begin. The body may be shiny and very nice to look at, but I'm still searching for a heart of gold.

Comments

[sgamadison.livejournal.com]

I see your points very clearly (and I have noticed how the Young HOT Cop now wears her hair down all the time--really? Seriously? I have long hair, and I can tell you, you pull it back out of your face if you have an active job). I hear what you're saying on the POC taking bit parts. I myself was disappointed in last night's ep because Dorian showed a level of ruthlessness he has not shown before--though I can justify it in my head because a 'friend' was at risk.

The tech guy (sorry, I'm bad at names until I've watched a show for like half a season) *never* should have been sent in undercover, but I can let that pass. I thought the overall ep was weak, true.

But given what else is out there at the moment, I'm clutching Almost Human to my chest and petting it. SHIELD has been a disappointment to me in that it appears to be about young pretty people who do things without consequences. I can't watch all the creepy scary shows like Walking Dead or Sleepy Hollow. I'd kill for a Star Trek or Stargate (which I've always consider Star Trek-lite, even though I loved it dearly) right now.

The episodes have engaged me more than anything else on television at the moment. The writing is uneven. Kennex's problem with android's waxes and wanes. But they are touching on some good sci-fi themes--such as life after death. I'm willing to give it more time.

Fannish about it? I'm not fannish about much these days. Part of me doesn't really *want* to be sucked into a fandom again the way I was with SGA. The other bits of me miss it like heck, but I can't make myself fall for a fandom. And given the penchant of shows of killing off most of the characters eventually, these days, I'm playing chicken and waiting until shows are fairly well established before I decide to watch or not. It's got to grab me in order to make me watch it live. AH does that at the moment. ;-) I think it has a lot of potential, and I think it is just getting started.

[taliahale.livejournal.com]

Yes to almost everything you've said, particularly about the young cop's hair, disappointment in SHIELD, giving the show a bit of time to mature, and 'I'd kill for a Star Trek or Stargate (which I've always consider Star Trek-lite, even though I loved it dearly) right now.' SO MUCH THIS. Can someone get on a reboot of Trek or another incarnation of Stargate (that is as un-Universe-like as possible)?

[sgamadison.livejournal.com]

Can someone get on a reboot of Trek or another incarnation of Stargate (that is as un-Universe-like as possible)?

If this is the right link, Joe Flanigan talks at about the end of SGA and everything he did behind the scenes to try and lease the franchise from MGM and bring it back. Unfortunately, it seems the bankruptcy restructuring of MGM put paid to that. Apparently JFlan never said anything before now because he didn't want to get anyone's hopes up if it fell through. I can't help but think if people *had* known and the excitement was there, the new guys at MGM might have gone with it.




Babylon 5, baby. It's time for a reboot. ;-)

[taste-is-sweet.livejournal.com]

I would give SO MUCH for a new Stargate that was like SG-1 or (even better) SGA but had nothing to do with SGU whatsoever. SyFy sold all the props years ago though, including the gates themselves, so I doubt it'll happen anytime soon. ::sigh::

[taliahale.livejournal.com]

Yeah, not seeing a lot of hope for bringing back Stargate anytime soon. Although on the props front, if fans were enthusiastic enough to buy them (and I recall those gate pieces going for insanely large amounts of cash) they'd probably be willing to sell/give them back if the show were to go into production.

Le sigh. Here's hoping AH and MAoS kick it up and fulfill there potential. (And that in the bowels of a studio with enough cash a writer's fingers are twitching with the sudden urge to write ALL THE GOOD SCIFI.)

[taste-is-sweet.livejournal.com]

ALL THE GOOD SCIFI. Oh, yes. That'd be awesome. :D

[taste-is-sweet.livejournal.com]

I hear you about AH's potential, as well as about wanting so badly for another show like SGA to come along (and yet not wanting to get sucked in again). I've actually been enjoying MAoS, though I readily agree that it's not as engaging or even as fun as I was hoping. That show also has an appalling lack of POC, but they have an equal number of men and women and at the moment I'm willing to cut them even more slack for that.

It's crazy how good SGA was, wasn't it? Especially for a show that seemed to excel in having the cast members being exactly as competent and foresighted as any given plot necessitated ("I will never forgive them for "The Long Goodbye" or "Michael"! Or for forgetting in "The Shrine" that McKay hated his parents!" she wails disconsolately.) But it was fun, and the cast worked beautifully with each other, and the continuity was (mostly) great and the sci-fi was way more than just a background element. I've never loved any show that much as an adult, and I doubt I ever will again. Alas.

Anyway, AH could have come close, at least. I dearly hope it still might. :)