There have been a slew of new shows that have just been coming and going this past couple of years. Some of them have been major hits, and some of them have been major flops. So what show is next to be thrown in the television gauntlet? Well, it seems that Fox has nominated their tribute to the T.V. Hunger Games! (No, it’s not a Hunger Games T.V. series, I’m just excited for the movie) Almost Human is the name of their new show, and it stars our favorite grumpy space doctor Karl Urban. The series is the follow up of J.H. Wyman, whose previous efforts was working with J.J. Abrams on writing Fringe. The Wrap wrap-ports that Fox released it an 8-minute first look at the series premier, that can be watched here via Hulu:
I loved the hell outta Fringe, because of the fact that it feels like science fiction. It’s on the opposite spectrum of Doctor Who, where instead of all these silly whimsical adventures involving science that makes little sense, explaining concepts using things such as a ‘timey wimey detector,’ Fringe takes place within the realm of actual theoretical science. I’m not saying it’s better than Doctor Who, it’s just that whole ‘apples vs oranges’ debate.
After watching this preview, I think that it is Almost good, but not quite based on what I saw. What we see is stuff that we’ve seen before. It kind of has that I, Robot element, with a detective not being too fond of robots, but being forced to work with one, who seems to be programmed to have some sort of emotion. We have also seen the whole “oh, this detective has PTSD” cliche one too many times. On a side note, it seems that they are still keeping it heavy in the “science” part of science fiction, based on their explanation of the DNA MacGuffin. So that is really good to hear. Also, the production value looks great! It very much feels like it could exist in the same (or parallel, depending on how you look at it) universe as Fringe.
There are two things that I hope for this show. The first one being Karl Urban. I enjoy his performances, and I think he is a great character actor. I hope this show well let him shine, and we can see a more of what Mr. Urban has to offer. Based on this preview, it seems like a more grounded performance, so this may be the most *takes off glasses* humanized role yet!
The other thing I hope, is that maybe this will go in to a very complicated and dynamic relationship between Urban and his robot partner. Perhaps they will go in to some kind of existential dilemma of a robot, and Urban’s character is trying to let the robot understand the meaning of humanity on a level that a robot cannot compute. Similar to what they did in Robot and Frank, only this time instead of a thief, they have to take down a futuristic syndicate that uses weapons of science. So even though what I have seen doesn’t seem to be too impressive, I am excited at the potential it has to offer!
So what do you think OOUies? Are you excited to check this show out? Whatever it is, comment below, let One of Us know!
Via The Wrap
