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Almost Human premiere
I liked the first episode of Almost Human a lot better than I expected based on the promo.
The promo makes Karl Urban's character look like an unlikable, bigoted jerk with anger management issues. Which is, er, not entirely untrue in some respects, but he's way more appealing on the actual show itself. I was also gratified to find that the "robot killed his partner and now he's partnered with a robot; ~draaama!~" angle was only a small aspect of the episode, and he's basically won over by Dorian within less than a day of working with him. "Bigoted jerk grows a heart thanks to polite, helpful member of oppressed group" is a story that I'm completely OVER, thank you, and I am hopeful that the show is going to be much more nuanced and more about Karl Urban's character's recovery from trauma (why can't I remember his name?) and he and Dorian getting to know each other, rather than Karl Urban's character having to learn all over again every week that Robots Have Feelings.
Also, Dorian is ADORABLE.
I definitely liked it enough to watch again.
On the other hand, issues that I had:
Just because Karl Urban's character is less of a jerk than I was expecting doesn't mean I had no problems with him at all; I was particularly unhappy with the intimidation/torture of the suspect in the interrogation room. The scene in which he pushes the MX out of the car REALLY put me off in the promo, and the actual scene, with context, was less unpleasant (the promo makes it look like he's just serially killing off robot partners until his bosses go "screw this" and partner him with Dorian), but on the other hand ... it's still kind of a creepy scene given how humanlike the robots are, not to mention that this dude just destroyed a few million dollars of taxpayer money. Isn't there at least ... paperwork for that, or something?
Actually, I'm sort of WTF in general about the overall worldbuilding with regard to robots, especially ones like Dorian with the full range of human emotions. In a lot of ways this show reminds me of those fanfic AUs in which everything is just the same except Character X is a robot. Which I enjoy just fine in fanfic, but in actual canon I'm a trifle more skeptical. Why do they need robot cops? How does the presence of robots as sophisticated as Dorian work, socially? What do they do with Dorian when he's not working -- turn him off? Park him in a closet? (God, I hope not, but the alternative is that they furnish him with a place to live, or pay him so he can get his own, and since he doesn't seem to have civil rights given that he was shut off for four years -- how does that even work?) I'm not saying that I needed to have the answers to all of these questions in the first episode, but I'm hoping that the writers have thought about them a little and that future episodes will take advantage of the unusual setting a bit more, rather than just being a standard police procedural with a robot stuck in here or there.
(Also, if they're going to build robot cops, I think they should have arm cannons. Not that I WANT a bunch of robot cops with arm cannons out on the street, mind you, but it would be nice if the writers took advantage of the robot's robot-ness a little bit more.)
This is also one heck of a cliche near-future so far, straight from the Blade Runner playbook. Black leather everywhere! Gratuitous glowing floaty screen displays! The rugged-looking little tablets the police carry around, on the other hand, I found very convincing, as were the advertising displays in the tunnel. I wish there was more of that sort of thing and less signposting that we're In The Future because everything is either shiny and black, or made of neon.
But we do only have one 42-minute episode to work from. So far, I find the cast appealing and I'm intrigued enough to give it a chance to grow.
The promo makes Karl Urban's character look like an unlikable, bigoted jerk with anger management issues. Which is, er, not entirely untrue in some respects, but he's way more appealing on the actual show itself. I was also gratified to find that the "robot killed his partner and now he's partnered with a robot; ~draaama!~" angle was only a small aspect of the episode, and he's basically won over by Dorian within less than a day of working with him. "Bigoted jerk grows a heart thanks to polite, helpful member of oppressed group" is a story that I'm completely OVER, thank you, and I am hopeful that the show is going to be much more nuanced and more about Karl Urban's character's recovery from trauma (why can't I remember his name?) and he and Dorian getting to know each other, rather than Karl Urban's character having to learn all over again every week that Robots Have Feelings.
Also, Dorian is ADORABLE.
I definitely liked it enough to watch again.
On the other hand, issues that I had:
Just because Karl Urban's character is less of a jerk than I was expecting doesn't mean I had no problems with him at all; I was particularly unhappy with the intimidation/torture of the suspect in the interrogation room. The scene in which he pushes the MX out of the car REALLY put me off in the promo, and the actual scene, with context, was less unpleasant (the promo makes it look like he's just serially killing off robot partners until his bosses go "screw this" and partner him with Dorian), but on the other hand ... it's still kind of a creepy scene given how humanlike the robots are, not to mention that this dude just destroyed a few million dollars of taxpayer money. Isn't there at least ... paperwork for that, or something?
Actually, I'm sort of WTF in general about the overall worldbuilding with regard to robots, especially ones like Dorian with the full range of human emotions. In a lot of ways this show reminds me of those fanfic AUs in which everything is just the same except Character X is a robot. Which I enjoy just fine in fanfic, but in actual canon I'm a trifle more skeptical. Why do they need robot cops? How does the presence of robots as sophisticated as Dorian work, socially? What do they do with Dorian when he's not working -- turn him off? Park him in a closet? (God, I hope not, but the alternative is that they furnish him with a place to live, or pay him so he can get his own, and since he doesn't seem to have civil rights given that he was shut off for four years -- how does that even work?) I'm not saying that I needed to have the answers to all of these questions in the first episode, but I'm hoping that the writers have thought about them a little and that future episodes will take advantage of the unusual setting a bit more, rather than just being a standard police procedural with a robot stuck in here or there.
(Also, if they're going to build robot cops, I think they should have arm cannons. Not that I WANT a bunch of robot cops with arm cannons out on the street, mind you, but it would be nice if the writers took advantage of the robot's robot-ness a little bit more.)
This is also one heck of a cliche near-future so far, straight from the Blade Runner playbook. Black leather everywhere! Gratuitous glowing floaty screen displays! The rugged-looking little tablets the police carry around, on the other hand, I found very convincing, as were the advertising displays in the tunnel. I wish there was more of that sort of thing and less signposting that we're In The Future because everything is either shiny and black, or made of neon.
But we do only have one 42-minute episode to work from. So far, I find the cast appealing and I'm intrigued enough to give it a chance to grow.
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