''Almost Human'' is an American science fiction/crime drama that aired from November 17, 2013, through March 3, 2014, on

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

. The series was created by

J. H. Wyman Joel Howard "J. H." Wyman (born January 5, 1967) is a film and TV producer, screenwriter, director and musician. He is best known for his work on the Fox science fiction shows ''Fringe'' and '' Almost Human'', and wrote and produced the films ...

for Frequency Films,

Bad Robot Productions Bad Robot is an American film and television production company founded on May 27, 1999 and led by J. J. Abrams and Katie McGrath as Co-CEO. Under its Bad Robot Productions division, the company is responsible for the television series ''Alias'' ...

and

Warner Bros. Television Warner Bros. Television Studios (operating under the name Warner Bros. Television; formerly known as Warner Bros. Television Division) is an American television production and distribution studio of the Warner Bros. Television Group division of ...

. Wyman,

Bryan Burk Bryan Burk (born December 30, 1968) is an American film and television producer. He is mostly known for producing movies in collaboration with J. J. Abrams, including the Star Trek (film series)#Reboot films, ''Star Trek'' reboot series, the ...

and

J. J. Abrams Jeffrey Jacob Abrams (born June 27, 1966) is an American filmmaker and composer. He is best known for his works in the genres of action, drama, and science fiction. Abrams wrote and produced such films as '' Regarding Henry'' (1991), '' F ...

are executive producers. After one season, Fox cancelled the series on April 29, 2014.

Premise

In 2048, the uncontrollable evolution of science and technology has caused crime rates to rise an astounding 400%. To combat this, the overwhelmed police force has implemented a new policy: every human police officer is paired with a lifelike combat-model android. John Kennex (

Karl Urban Karl-Heinz Urban (born 7 June 1972) is a New Zealand actor. His career began with appearances in New Zealand films and TV series such as '' Xena: Warrior Princess''. His first Hollywood role was in the 2002 horror film ''Ghost Ship''. Since t ...

), a troubled detective, has a reason to hate these new robot partners. Almost two years previously, Kennex and his squad were raiding the hideout of a violent gang known as InSyndicate, but ended up being ambushed and outgunned. Kennex tried to save his badly injured partner, but the accompanying logic-based android officer abandoned them both because the wounded man's chances of survival were low and it wouldn't have been "logical" to save him. An explosion then took off Kennex's leg and killed his partner. After waking up from a 17-month coma, Kennex has to deal with a cybernetic prosthetic leg and huge gaps in his memory, which he tries to recover through visits to a black market memory-recovery doctor called a Recollectionist, in the city slums. Besides trying to remember as much as he can about the raid and The Syndicate, he is also coming to terms with being abandoned by his ex-girlfriend Anna. Kennex is then recalled to the force by Captain Sandra Maldonado (

Lili Taylor Lili Anne Taylor (born February 20, 1967) is an American actress. She came to prominence with supporting parts in the films '' Mystic Pizza'' (1988) and '' Say Anything...'' (1989), before establishing herself as one of the key figures of 1990s ...

), and partnered with a standard-issue MX-43 android, which he soon throws from a moving vehicle, when it threatens to report his unusual behavior. He is assigned a replacement android, an older DRN model originally decommissioned for police work and about to be transferred to the Space Station. Created to be as close to human as possible, the DRN androids have trouble dealing with some of their own emotional responses, which was the reason they were replaced by the logic-based MX units. Kennex's unit, known as Dorian (

Michael Ealy Michael Brown (born August 3, 1973), professionally known as Michael Ealy, is an American actor. He is known for his roles in '' Barbershop'' (2002), '' 2 Fast 2 Furious'' (2003), ''Takers'' (2010), ''Think Like a Man'' (2012), ''About Last Ni ...

), immediately proves himself unique, with a clear dislike of being referred to as a "synthetic", and a dry, friendly, sarcasm-oriented wit. Key to the story arc is the growth and development of Kennex and Dorian's relationship.

Cast and characters

as John Kennex, a detective who lost a leg after a Synthetic left him behind because he and his partner had a low chance of survival. He awakes from a coma 17 months later, to find his leg has been replaced with a synthetic prosthetic and returns to duty. *

as DRN-0167, called "Dorian", a retired DRN model Police Synthetic. Dorian shows himself to be unique and resents the term "Synthetic". *

Minka Kelly Minka Kelly (born June 24, 1980) is an American actress and model. Her first starring role was in the NBC drama series '' Friday Night Lights'' (2006–2009) and she has also appeared on the shows '' Parenthood'' (2010–2011), ''Charlie's Ang ...

as Valerie Stahl, another detective serving under Captain Maldonado and the love interest for Kennex. She is a Chrome, a human genetically engineered for beauty, excellence and success. Other Chromes consider her choice of profession to be a waste of potential. *

Mackenzie Crook Paul James "Mackenzie" Crook (born 29 September 1971) is an English actor, comedian, director and writer. He played Gareth Keenan in ''The Office'', Ragetti in the ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' films, Orell in the HBO series ''Game of Thrones'', ...

as Rudy Lom, a technician. *

Michael Irby Michael Clinton Irby (born November 16, 1972) is an American actor known for portraying Sergeant First Class Charles Grey in the CBS series ''The Unit'' (2006–2009), and more recently, for his work as Obispo 'Bishop' Losa in ''Mayans M.C.'' ( ...

as Richard Paul, a detective. *

as Captain Sandra Maldonado. * Joe Smith as MX.

Episodes

Development and production

The series first appeared as part of

's development slate in September 2012. In January 2013, Fox

green-lit To green-light is to give permission to proceed with a project. The term is a reference to the green traffic signal, indicating "go ahead". Film industry In the context of the film and television industries, to green-light something is to ...

production of a pilot episode. On May 8, 2013, the series was added to the network's 2013–14 schedule. On September 9, 2013, it was announced that executive producer and co-showrunner

Naren Shankar Narendra "Naren" Kanakaiah Shankar (born April 1, 1964) is an Indian American writer, producer and director of several television series. He is co-showrunner of the Amazon Prime series ''The Expanse''. He was also co-showrunner on the long-runni ...

, who joined the series after the production of the pilot, would depart the series due to creative differences, while creator

would continue as sole

showrunner A showrunner (or colloquially a helmer) is the top-level executive producer of a television series production who has creative and management authority through combining the responsibilities of employer and, in comedy or dramas, typically also th ...

. The series was originally scheduled to premiere on Monday, November 4, 2013. Fox announced a two-week delay and that the series would instead premiere with a special preview on Sunday, November 17 before moving to its regular time slot starting on Monday, November 18. The order of the episodes that aired on Fox differs from the order intended by J. H. Wyman, the series' showrunner. However, due to the (largely) self-contained nature of these episodes, this does not create significant discontinuity in the events of the series however the relationship between Detective Kennex and Dorian with increased closeness and trust over the arc of the original sequence of shows is uneven in the televised sequence of shows. The following list of episodes is in the order televised with each show's original order in parenthesis. * 01 Pilot (#01) * 02 "Skin"- (#05) * 03 "Are You Receiving" – (#06) * 04 "The Bends" – (#07) * 05 "Blood Brothers" – (#08) * 06 "Arrhythmia" – (#03) * 07 "Simon Says" – (#10) * 08 "You Are Here" – (#02) * 09 "Unbound" – (#09) * 10 "Perception" – (#04) * 11 "Disrupt" – (#11) * 12 "Beholder" – (#12) * 13 "Straw Man" – (#13) Despite renewal consideration (and a loyal following) on April 29, Fox cancelled the series after only one season due to low ratings, high production costs and FOX's already full scheduling for fall, with Ealy acknowledging that the show required " CSI numbers" in order to continue.

Reception

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

gave the pilot episode a weighted average rating of 61% based on reviews from 29 critics. Kevin McFarland reviewing for ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' gave the pilot episode a C+ grade, criticizing the information-heavy introduction and title card, but noting "flashes of excitement" and expressing interest in how the plot gets teased out and how the detective partnership develops. The grades do improve, garnering a B− for episodes two, three, and four, a B for episode five, and an A− for episode six. The series received an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

nomination for Outstanding Special and Visual Effects.

U.S. ratings

Broadcast

The series was shown in the United Kingdom on

Watch A watch is a portable timepiece intended to be carried or worn by a person. It is designed to keep a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is designed to be worn around the wrist, attached by ...

on May 6, 2014. The series premiered in Australia on the

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television netw ...

on April 12, 2015. In Thailand aired on

PPTV PPTV () is a Chinese video streaming website. Its predecessor, PPLive, was peer-to-peer streaming video freeware created at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, Hubei Province. The group of companies that runs the websi ...

from May 16, 2015, to August 15, 2015.

References

External links

* * {{IMDb title, 2654580, Almost Human 2010s American science fiction television series 2010s American crime drama television series 2010s American police procedural television series 2013 American television series debuts 2014 American television series endings American action television series English-language television shows Fictional portrayals of the Los Angeles Police Department Fox Broadcasting Company original programming Androids in television Television series by Bad Robot Productions Television series by Warner Bros. Television Studios Television shows set in Los Angeles Television series set in the 2040s Television shows filmed in Vancouver Sex robots