Almost Human Pilot review

J.H. Wyman and J.J. Abrams have created a new TV series for Fox Television called “Almost human”. Wyman was the writer and show runner of the Sci-fi TV series Fringe. 

Set in year 2048 in Los Angeles, Detective John Kennex lost his squad in an ambush leaving him the sole survivor. Kennex was unable to save his friend after a Combat-ready android, MX-43, refused to help them get to safety. Kennex was on a coma for 17 months and was trying to retrieve his memory with the help of a recollectionist. He remembers bits of piece of the memory of the day of the ambush and the face of his ex-girlfriend Anna. He is unsure whether the memories that he retrieve are real or not. Anna mysteriously disappeared when Kennex was on a coma.

Captain Sandra Maldonado, Kennex’s superior has asked him to return for duty. Despite his best efforts to delay his return, Kennex was forced to return after an incident of a hijacking of an armored van was reported. The perpetrators are believed to be the same syndicate that ambush Kennex and his squad. 

Upon his return, Kennex was assigned a MX-43 as a partner that immediately questions everything about Kennex. Kennex got fed up and threw the android off a moving vehicle. He seeks the help of Rudy Lom (Mackenzie Crook) to get a new Android partner. He was assigned an older and outdated version android (DRN) that is capable of having emotions and calls himself Dorian (Michael Ealy). The DRN has something called “Synthetic Soul” as well. 
Moments after, the syndicate abducts a Los Angeles Detective Pete Vogel. Kennex tracks down an associate of syndicate and was able to find out the location where Vogel is being held. But it was a setup from the beginning. As soon as Kennex found the detective, a poisonous gas was released killing the Vogel instantly. 

Using the recollectionist again, Kennex learned that his ex-girlfriend Anna is part of the syndicate and was the reason why his squad was ambushed. He then got an Idea using Dorian to retrieve memories of Vogel‘s Mx-43. They learned that the syndicate plans to attack the Los Angeles Police Station to retrieve evidence filed by.
Syndicate’s plans were foiled and Kennex was able to able to capture the leader of the group that lead the attack. In the ending moments Kennex started to trust his new partner Dorian. 

The Pilot episode reminded me a lot of several sci-fi movies like total recall, terminator and I-robot. Although you couldn’t really call them terminators because the MX-43 are really easy to destroy and even capacitate. The syndicate seems to be ahead in terms of technology. They easily disabled the MX-43 during the police station siege. 

All in all it was a great pilot episode. It made me want to watch again after seeing it the first time. It is different from Continuum or Fringe. It seems like they are still using bullets so the technology in terms of firearms is not as advanced. No lasers yet but who knows? I just saw the Pilot. Urban plays that part well but in the pilot episode it seems that Ealy is better in showing emotions. 

This is something to look forward to in my opinion. I am just afraid that it might be cut short since most viewers don’t appreciate this type of genre. What are your thoughts?