Almost Human Cancelled

My reaction to the cancellation of Almost Human.

Shipping Confessions: John Kennex/Dorian (Almost Human)

I am a big sci-fi geek. I just love the genre and all that it offers. So when Almost Human was announced I was excited because of the genre, Karl Urban, and J.H.Wyman. It was like a holy trinity of assured awesome.

The show centers around the human John Kennex (Karl Urban) and the robot Dorian solving crimes together. I built up my ship of John Kennex and Dorian rather quickly and it kept getting reconfirmed with every episode that aired.

John Kennex hates synthetics (aka robots) and isn't afraid to show that hatred to others. The Pilot episode had him pushing his MX out of the car while it was still in motion. Oh, in this world police officers always have to have a robot companion as the world has grown extremely dangerous.

Back to the point of this post: John doesn't like the fact that he has to work with robots for his job. He doesn't like anything synthetic and so also hates part of himself. I don't mean to talk about some emotional part of himself, I'm talking about his synthetic leg.

However, John is more accepting of Dorian than other robots because Dorian is more human than the others.

Dorian is a DRN which is a model that was discontinued due to them malfunctioning. John is only given Dorian due to no other MXs being available for his use.

Dorian is more human than John is at points. He is able to tell what would be going too far when talking to children and even helps out a DRN in one instance. That episode was awesome for double Dorian, but that's not the point of this post.

Constantly throughout the first season Dorian questions if he might go rogue sometime in the future. He wonders if he's merely living on borrowed time until he suddenly malfunctions. The episode where he meets his creator and an XRN really reinforce Dorian's doubt about himself.

At the start of the Season, John doesn't like Dorian. By the end John likes him so much that he makes sure to tell the board that Dorian is an excellent cop. Of course when John recounts the story to Dorian he makes sure to do it in a sarcastic manner. But if John didn't do that he wouldn't be the John Kennex we know and love.

John and Dorian are a great duo if only for how they play off of one another. While Dorian is a robot, he manages to battle wits with John many a time. He even manages to play tricks on John every now and again. Such as making John eat something he doesn't want to and setting up an online dating profile for him.

In one of the many scenes where the duo is in the car together, a hilarious bit of dialogue is said and then Dorian shows John his junk. The lines were set up such that it seems John wanted to see Dorian's junk, but then he just pretends to be disgusted.

I mean...John even complimented the size of Dorian's robothood. Almost like he was jealous that Dorian's was bigger than his.

John and Dorian hold each other together. John defends Dorian's honor at one point and ends up seriously damaging an MX. Near the beginning of the Season Dorian helps out John with information that will help keep his synthetic leg in good shape.

There are many instances where they goof off with each other and just as many instances where they help each other in some way, shape, or form.

I hope there is a Season 2 for Almost Human to see more of this pair together.

What will I talk about in the next Shipping Confessions? Prepare yourself for a femslash pairing! The pairing is from Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and is between a kick ass woman and a strong Asgardian warrior.

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Shipping Confessions Table of Contents

Almost Human (Season 1)

Show: Almost Human

Season: 1

Episodes: 13

Created By: J.H.Wyman

Released: 2013-2014

Rating: 5/5

Basic Plot: In a not-so-distant future, human cops and androids partner up to protect and serve.
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The Draw of Karl Urban
I was interested in this show for a number of reasons. One of those reasons being Karl Urban. I first learned of the actor in the movie DOOM (horrible adaptation, but fun movie) and found myself running into him in different movies. So when I saw he was starring in this show I knew I had to watch it. And, if you're wondering, Urban does a fantastic job as John Kennex.

The Futuristic World of Almost Human
This is a sci-fi show so it having a good world to get lost in is a must. Throughout the series we get things expanded on like The Wall, genetically modified people, and robots. We get how each is viewed and their relations to the world. Don't worry about the visuals as they are very well done. So not only do we get a neat world to live in, it looks good too!

Kennex and Dorian
One of the things that is driving this show towards success is the relationship between Dorian and Kennex. Throughout this Season Kennex has changed his viewpoints concerning Dorian and Dorian has continued to support Kennex. Both are able to joke around with each other (Dorian making Kennex a dating profile at one point) and they are equals. I can't wait until Season 2 (if that does happen) where we might get more of an insight into Dorian's past.

Final Thoughts
Almost Human is an above average show on tv. That may be me being biased since J.H. Wyman is heading this project. Wyman was a huge part behind the final season of Fringe and he shines in this show like he did in that one. I am not a big buddy cop person but that part is one of the driving points of the show. Episodes are aired out of order and I've heard it said that if you watch them in the intended order the show makes more sense (I haven't watched them in the intended order but I haven't had a problem with the show myself). So here's hoping there's a second season so we can see what hijinks Kennex and Dorian will find themselves in!

Sayings Sundays (March 2, 2014)

Almost Human is a great show. It stars Karl Urban as John Kennex and J.H. Wyman (who was a big part of Fringe especially during the final season) heads it.

Besides those two things: one of the highlights of the series is the relationship between Kennex and Dorian.

Whether you ship them together or not: the fact is that they work well off of each other and it's a lovely dynamic to behold. Kennex doesn't like robots and will take jabs at Dorian at any opportunity. Don't worry, though, as Dorian is more than ready to have a battle of wits with Kennex at a moment's notice.

That is why I chose this quote.

I have to thank my friend Crysy for bringing the band Within Temptation to my attention. One of their songs that I'm really into at the moment is Paradise (What About Us?) that has Tarja Turunen guest starring in the song.

It is just a very good song to hear.

I chose a picture of the Animorphs since they are a group that is supposed to save the world from the Yeerks (invading alien species of the series). You expect them to be heroes and for there to be a difference between them and the Yeerks.

In other words: you expect the heroes to be good and the villains to be evil.

But the series show them all tainting themselves since they are fighting a war. Even Jake, the leader who should be the shining star of pureness, crosses lines that he wouldn't have crossed in the beginning.

Sayings Sundays (February 23, 2014)

The NBC show Hannibal is my favorite thing that's airing at the moment. I love everything about the show.

The main character is Will Graham who has the ability to empathize with anyone and uses that ability to help the police catch killers. Will is haunted by this ability since he can truly feel like a killer. The scenes where you see how Will gets into the mind of the killer you see him imagining himself as the killer.

Every murder he investigates, he can see himself doing it since he can empathize with others so much. That makes those scenes even more creepy.

I chose this quote to showcase Will Graham's gift and curse.

One of the songs that I'm liking recently is Human by Christina Perri. I'm not a big music person and that's why I don't review songs.

I mean if I started to review music everything would add up to: It's got a good beat. I could dance to it.

When I heard this song, well after the third or fourth time while I was marathoning it, I thought it fit my ship of John Kennex and Dorian from Almost Human (yes, I am planning to discuss it in Shipping Confessions).

I am even imaging of doing a music video of this pairing and with this song.

Besides my ship: it's just a lovely song.

The way I did the quote for the picture was as a sort of storyboard for the video I may do in the future. The quote by John Kennex (guy on the left) is identifying John as a human while Dorian's quote identifies him as a robot.

Almost Human "Disrupt" Review

This is one of the few times I was able to watch the new episode LIVE. Still haven't seen the latest episode of Helix, though. But will catch up soon so don't worry about that!

The episode title seems to be in reference to a hacker group. Yep, this week we got to see a little of the hacking world in the Almost Human Universe. And with such a futuristic setting there would have to be hackers because they exist in this day and age. Plus, with great power comes smart people that will fuck shit up.

I have read a few people bringing up theories of how John Kennex is actually a robot. I must say I like them. Not only would it be great for these thinkers to be proven right, but I would love to see Kennex's reaction when he finds out he's one of the things he hates.

Besides Kennex's humanity being questioned, Dorian's history is being questioned. A human memory (one of a child) has been found. It all ends with the usual "We have to tell him!" (said this time by Kennex) and "It is too dangerous to tell him right now!" (said this time by Rudy Lom).

I know we have to keep up the mystery of Dorian for now, but can't people find better ways of hiding things? I saw this in the recent Season of Supernatural (angel possessing Sam's body plot) and am annoyed at seeing it here.

I'd like for some reason that would make more sense for hiding things from people. Like when Donna's memory was erased in Doctor Who and the reason no one could tell her was because she would die or something.

For Dorian...something bad MIGHT happen. Of course Rudy may be hiding something from Kennex. I really hope that will be the case so this cliche would make sense.

The answer for this week's episode was heartwarming. It showed what the pain of loss can do to a person. That sometimes you get driven into a corner and think that murder is the only way out.

All in all: a very good episode and I can't wait to find out more about both Kennex and Dorian!

This Part Was The Best Thing EVER!

Almost Human "You Are Here" Review

I take a look at yet another Almost Human episode!

Almost Human "Simon Says" Review

I am doing this episode review as a written review since, at the moment, filming a vlog would be a little difficult.

Hiatuses are always a little difficult to deal with. Especially when they're for a show you love or that the hiatuses just come out of nowhere. The Almost Human hiatus wasn't that bad as there wasn't a cliffhanger unlike Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hannibal.

Nevertheless, I couldn't wait until the next episode of Almost Human finally came on.

This episode, more than any other, made me cringe. It made me afraid of what would happen to the characters. Even when John Kennex had a collar put around his neck and I knew he'd survive, I was still afraid. I think that particular scene was tense because during the entire episode Dorian didn't have enough of a charge and so he was weaker, among other things.

This episode title comes from the game 'Simon Says' where a person tells others what to do. If you don't follow the instructions exactly, you lose. In this episode, though, you lose your life.

The episode reminded me highly of the movie Untraceable starring Diane Lane and released in 2008. In the episode, like in the movie, the killer shows the deaths online. In both you see how disgusting and terrifying people can be. How badly people want to see others die.

It turns out the killer in the episode is killing people who have wronged him in some way shape or form. He kills someone that worked at a bank because the man denied him a loan. He then goes after a woman who didn't return his affections. Finally he goes after John Kennex who embarrassed him to his online followers.

Karl Urban does a wonderful job as John Kennex. He gives his character wit when faced with death. Urban played Judge Dredd in the remake of the film (which I still have to see and don't know why I haven't seen it since it also stars Lena Headey) and so I was saying "I am the law!" during at least once during the episode.

Michael Ealy does a good job as the neurotic Dorian. It turns out that there is a problem with how much energy can be spared to charge robots. This seems to be more of a "we wants this, but can't really explain why it happened".

All in all this was another good episode and I can't wait for next episode.

Almost Human "The Bends" Review

I look at the underwhelming episode of Almost Human.

Almost Human "Pilot" and "Skin" Review

I look at this brand new tv show starring Karl Urban.