Almost Human (TV Series)

Anyone watching this show? Finally watched the Pilot on Hulu last weekend, which I recommend everyone do before Hulu rotates it out to make room for newer episodes. There are 6-8 on hulu now, so the pilot will probably be on the chopping block soon.

Haven't watched any more eps yet, but I can't believe I missed this great pilot. Best geek genre pilot I've seen in YEARS!

Fox has a reputation for mishandling and getting their best sci-fi shows cancelled, but JJ Abrams is attached to this, so hopefully they'll be motivated to get their butts in gear and handle it properly. Check it out!

Been wanting to check it out but I have a lot of show I'm watching now and I want to check out Intelligence so maybe if it gets picked up for a 2nd season I'll watch it on Netflix

I watched a few episodes of Almost Human, but I'm not enthralled by this show. As with Sleepy Hollow, they could have been very intense and engaging, but wound up laying about heavily with the PC club. I don't watch TV to get bludgeoned by the proponents of political correctness.

At the moment, the dramas that have me hooked are Grimm and Supernatural - both of which unabashedly slay monsters and humans alike without moaning about oppression or misunderstandings - and Agents of SHIELD, which is just awesome. Plus, the plot of the week is the highlight of the show, relegating the metaplot to the back burner to be developed a little bit at a time. I'm anxiously awaiting the return of Lost Girl. Also, it took Haven four seasons to find its feet, now it may develop into something truly memorable.

I really like this show, which surprised me since the commercials for it didn't wow me or anything, I figured I'd throw it on as some background noise while working on some job applications, no jobs applied for, but 3 episodes were watched all in a row.

mindspike wrote: Plus, the plot of the week is the highlight of the show, relegating the metaplot to the back burner to be developed a little bit at a time. I'm anxiously awaiting the return of Lost Girl. Also, it took Haven four seasons to find its feet, now it may develop into something truly memorable.

To be fair, the first stretch of episodes are being aired out of order because Fox is evil.

I thought the Pilot was great! I love the bromance between the two leads and it could go in some interesting directions. I already missed the second episode though.  

mindspike wrote: I don't watch TV to get bludgeoned by the proponents of political correctness.

Interesting observation. I saw that thematic layer, but my mind quickly translated it from "commentary on racism/minorities" to "atheistic commentary on the nature of humanity". Not sure which the creators are intending. But this show has a pretty high relevance factor for me. But not necessarily in a way that will keep me glued to the screen. I'm waiting for Dorian to display some kind of character flaw. ANY character flaw. At this point I think the show should be titled "better or at least as good as human". There is also a lot of talk designed to create sympathy for Dorian and other synthetics, elevating them to human worth while also demoting humans to the status of merely machines.

Dorian: I didn't want to die. But I know it's not the same for me.

John: Hey, dead is dead.


True, if humans are only wet squishy machines reacting to stimulation. But if humans have a non-physical, undying component vital to their being, then dead is one thing for a human and something very different for a machine.

In multiple instances, Almost Human shows that it is running with the atheistic/naturalistic assumption that humans have no non-physical aspect. If they don't keep beating me over the head with this I'll probably stay with the show, because in other respects its doing fantastic for a first season. I imagine the show could be amazing once they "find themselves" as most shows do in their second or third seasons. But it's getting hard to suspend disbelief in the meantime.

I'm not sure. I don't think the title refers to Dorian, but to Kennex. He is the one who is heavily scarred, and refuses to engage in human niceties. In many ways, Dorian is more human than Kennex.

It may be that the naturalistic/atheistic view of humanity is not necessarily what the writers are going for, but its a way fo showing the damage that Kennex has suffered, and that maybe Dorian is helping him find his way back.

If you really want to go all PC here, given the racial mix of the show, it could be argued that Dorian functions here as the "magic negro." But now that I've actually tyrped that, I hope its not the case.

cleireac wrote:I'm not sure. I don't think the title refers to Dorian, but to Kennex. He is the one who is heavily scarred, and refuses to engage in human niceties. In many ways, Dorian is more human than Kennex.

It may be that the naturalistic/atheistic view of humanity is not necessarily what the writers are going for, but its a way fo showing the damage that Kennex has suffered, and that maybe Dorian is helping him find his way back.

If you really want to go all PC here, given the racial mix of the show, it could be argued that Dorian functions here as the "magic negro." But now that I've actually tyrped that, I hope its not the case.

I never thought that about the title referring to Kennex instead of Dorian. I think it might refer to both of them instead of just one.

Also, shush it with the magic thing, if we say that phrase 2 more times Spike Lee will show up and call us all racist.

I'd considered that application of the title, but not for those reasons. If the show is really daring, I suspect John will turn out to be a new prototype of synthetic able to be imprinted with the memories of the deceased, and that the real John actually DIED in the explosion in the pilot. But we'll see...

I've been watching it on Hulu. The PC message doesn't bother me. Hollywood gunna do what Hollywood gunna do. I've been really fascinated with the idea of what makes us human. What separates us from machines and animals. Almost Human scratches that itch.

I just decided last night that I'm probably done with this show. Realized that I needed to watch another episode soon or risk it being rotated out of Hulu. Then I realized I'd much rather play some Neverwinter Nights or rent a movie with that precious free time.

Ultimately I think what does it for me is that Dorian has no character flaws. He may not be invincible, he may not know everything (although he's pretty close there, too) but his character has been presented as flawless so far(at least the 3 episodes I've watched). Set aside that he's a machine for a moment, I'm just not interested in flawless characters being such central protagonists.

jorowi wrote: I've been really fascinated with the idea of what makes us human. What separates us from machines and animals. Almost Human scratches that itch.

It might for me too if I felt like the writers thought there WAS a significant difference. In this regard, the show is a strangely inconsistent mix of anthropological assumptions.

They seem to be coming from a naturalistic worldview, but also promote the existence of "free will", which true naturalism denies. Maybe by "free will" the writers simply mean "the appearance of free will". In which case, they see little or ultimately no difference between people and machines.

If not, they believe true free will exists, but that it can be understood enough to program it into a machine. I just can't buy into the idea that one day we'll be able to develop a programming language for actual free will. We don't even know exactly how it operates in ourselves (and many even claim that there is no such thing) so I don't know how we would program it into anything. The ridiculous "spontaneous development of free will" seen in films like The Matrix, Tron Legacy, and The Terminator almost makes more sense. At least then I can assume that some unknown supernatural agent implanted free will into the machines (as we're meant to believe is the case in Battlestar Galactica), which makes better logical sense.

Of course that's a big rabbit trail and not the reason I'm probably dropping the show. I'd love for Dorian to be so compassionate at some point that it clouds his judgment about what is truly the best moral choice to make. I'd love for his "human traits" to eventually become so strong that he displays human flaws as well. Until then, it seems that Dorian's job is to be right and John's job is to be wrong, which makes for pretty boring stories for me, despite the great performances and production values.

Paeter wrote:If the show is really daring, I suspect John will turn out to be a new prototype of synthetic able to be imprinted with the memories of the deceased, and that the real John actually DIED in the explosion in the pilot. But we'll see...

Dude!   That would be an awesome twist!! 

I've really been enjoying the show. I love all the cases they have to figure out and the villains have all be very good!

Spoiler:

I have just been enjoying this show all the way around!