Almost Human S1, you lousy tease!

[rheasilvia]

Here's the thing about Almost Human: The entire season was a long, unsatisfying tease. Fascinating topics were briefly mentioned and then immediately dropped again.

It's like the show was constantly telling me: "Wow, isn't this a sparkly plot point, riveting question and/or tangled ethical issue that you'd really like us to explore? Hah, we thought so! Let's not go into it and then never bring it up again!"

Off the top of my head, here's an unordered list of things I would really have loved the show to explore, not just tease:

• Dorian's emotional competence vs. Kennex's emotional lack of competence


• What truly defines a person?


• Where exactly is the line between a machine and a person?


• What are the ethical problems with the view and treatment of androids in this society?


• What does Dorian as a character think and feel? How does he feel about Kennex / humans in general / his situation? What does he want / dream of / hope for?


• Chromes / genetically modified humans – how "real" are they? How do they fit into society? What problems and prejudices do they face?


• What parallels exist between artificially modified human life and artificial life in the form of androids?


• The MXes – what is their true range of emotional and intellectual capacity? Can they develop an individual personality if given time? What kind of bonds do cops and MXes form? *


• The Wall – what is it? How did it come to be? What is happening on its other side? What is wrong with this society that something like The Wall can exist?


• Dorian's odd memories – where do they come from? what are they? what do they mean?


• Rudy's shady past and the secrets he is clearly hiding in the present


• The terrorist who posed as Kennex's ex-girlfriend and her nefarious plans


• Even Kennex's history and issues (is he really as desperately lonely, vulnerable and clueless in terms of relationships as he seemed at the end of the season?)

* As a sidenote: To me there's no doubt that some of the cops are fucking their MXs. Humans will have sex with almost anything. Something that looks human, is fairly attractive, works with you, talks to you, and brings you coffee? HELLO, baby. So they don't have a penis or an anus, so what. They have mouths, fingers and strap-ons.

Ultimately, I found this both frustrating and inexplicable. Why make a scifi show clearly set up to explore the fluid boundaries between biological and artificial life – it's even called "Almost Human", for god's sake – and then just… not explore?

Maybe the show intended to go into more depth in later eps. If so, I must say that delaying gratification entirely for 13 whole eps is a lousy tactic.

Bottom line: I wanted more from this show than it would give me. But even so, I still love it for its potential, and think it can easily become an amazing show. If it isn't cancelled... and if it stops being such a damned tease.

What did you think? Tell me! :-)

Comments

[lilacsigil]

I watched three episodes and gave up in sheer frustration. I was hoping to hear other fans say "Yes, it got better! Go back!" but this doesn't seem to be the case. Every episode I watched brought up these fascinating ideas (mostly courtesy of Dorian, and I always felt that his actor was the one putting a lot of depth into the show) and then...a chase or a shootout.

[rheasilvia]

Unfortunately, it did not really get better. There were always plenty of interesting ideas, and sometimes even plots that began to develop those ideas, but it was always too little. And, yeah, then there were chases, fighting, and the usual paraphernalia of cop shows that I wasn't actually there to see in a high concept scifi show with androids. *headdesk*

It's the weirdest thing, really. I don't understand why anyone would make a show like this and then refuse to follow through.

I'm just so sad for the potential.

[extempore]

Mir geht es ähnlich. Ich schaue die Serie noch, weil einfach so viele Möglichkeiten drinnen stecken, und ich halt noch hoffe, dass zumindest die eine oder andere Sache aufgegriffen wird. Leider habe ich den Verdacht, dass die falsche Art von Drehbuchautoren für das Team gesucht wurden, eben solche, die Mainstream Schema F schreiben, statt solcher, die Charakterarbeit leisten. Derzeit reißen diesbezüglich für mich einzig die Schauspieler von Rudy, Dorian und dem Captain die Sache raus. Die schaffen es irgendwie, trotz leerer Textinhalte Charakter zu produzieren.

[rheasilvia]

Ja, die Autoren scheinen teilweise mehr Interesse daran zu haben, eine Action Cop-Serie zu schreiben als eine SciFi-Serie. Ich kann mir bei der Serie so manche Entscheidungen nicht erklären...

Aber vielleicht wird das bisher nicht ausgeschöpfte Potenzial ja tatsächlich noch genutzt, FALLS die Serie eine S2 erhält. Ich habe die Hoffnung noch nicht aufgegeben, denn die Ansätze sind ja vorhanden und wirklich aussichtsreich.

Drück die Daumen für eine S2! :-)