Posts Tagged ‘cop drama’

So…I’m on an airplane and thinking it’s my chance to watch something new. Yay! I turn on my personal tele, flip through the film and television options. I see a TV series called ALMOST HUMAN. It looks scifi enough and I see JJ Abrams’ name attached to it. I decide to try an episode. I imagine I am watching something new, but apparently, I’m not.

ALMOST HUMAN aired in the late 2012 and early 2013s (in the media world. 7 years is a lifetime). JJ Abrams, Bryan Burk and JH Wyman produced this series.

The premise of ALMOST HUMAN is not so original. It’s basically a cop drama. The unique aspect to this story is his AI partner. Dorian is a humanoid AI, often referred to as a “synthetic” in the series. John Kennex, the main character, is a cop who frequently bends/breaks the rules. Typical cop drama trope. He also carries a lot of emotional baggage. Also typical. Some of that baggage is introduced in the first episode. What is unique about this cop drama is that his partner Dorian is an AI programmed to be empathetic and does not hesitate to tell Kennex when he sees him making poor choices. Those moments are both poignant and funny. Watching their unlikely friendship develop makes for an interesting story. In a way, both are helping the other to become better humans.

ALMOST HUMAN was cancelled at the end of the first season. Thirteen episodes is all that is available to the viewing audience. However the four episodes I watched were entertaining and would interest most scifi fans, especially if your second love after scifi is cop shows. In case that doesn’t sound gripping enough, here are three more reasons you might want to check it out…

1. The series puts forward a robocop-type world. In this well-drawn urban landscape of Earth’s future, human cops team up with Artificial Intelligence cops. That’s a nice twist on the typical cop drama.
2. The series explores a lot of possible future tech for law enforcement like instantaneous DNA identification. Some of how the cops do their work and the ways the criminals try to outsmart or subvert the new tech is fascinating.
3. There is a satisfying “solving of the crime” in each episode, like many typical cop dramas.

While I do recommend this series, it will cost you money. Amazon Prime and YouTube dangle the fruit of the one season in front of us…for $20. Each episode is $1.99, so if you’re doubtful, rent one or two episodes and see if you like it…or fly Delta sometime in the next few months. I liked episodes 2 and 3 more than the first, so try to watch more than the pilot.

Almost Human Trailer