Almost Human 1.01 Pilot **** SPOILERS ****

Episode Summary from en.wikipedia.org:

After losing his team and his leg in a devastating accident and spending seventeen months in coma, Detective John Kennex is using a black-market Recollectionist doctor to try to remember exactly what happened before the bomb went off. After being pressured by his captain, he returns to active service and, against his will, is assigned a mandatory MX android as a partner to investigate a biotechnology robbery, which his captain suspects have been perpetrated by the Insyndicate, the same criminals who ambushed him. But John dislikes the MX, and throws him out from his moving car, destroying him. He is then assigned an old DRN unit called Dorian, whose software was based on a Synthetic Soul program, which gave them emotions. John dislikes him on principle. Meanwhile, Detective Vogel (Toby Levins) is captured by the Insyndicate. With Dorian’s help, John gets an address from a captured robber. When John and the police raid the address, in turns out to be a setup: Vogel is killed in front of John, while the robber is freed by his accomplices. Dorian discovers that one of Vogel’s case files, number 6663, is missing from the database, but he and John get into an argument when Dorian tries to make him understand he’s not like the MX. Rudy discovers that the criminals used the stolen biotechnology to create a weapon that targets cops specifically by attacking the mandatory inoculations they have in their bodies. Dorian saves John’s life when he is attacked by the Recollecionists, but John manages to remember that his ex-girlfriend, Anna (Mekia Cox), was one of the criminals at the ambush. They discover the criminals are planning to steal evidence related to case 6663. John warns the captain, but the criminals are already there and manage to disable the MX. The police are able to stop the attack on their headquarters and capture the leader, but due to the sabotage, they don’t know what they wanted to steal until they finish revising all evidence. The camera focus in an android’s head meanwhile John tells Dorian to call him by his given name.

Please use this thread to discuss the series’ first overall and first season first episode Pilot. Rule: Please keep spoilers limited to those revealed during the series up to this episode only.

The show has possibilities. Karl Urban is probably the singular thing that kept me interested in the pilot. But overall I’m not too terribly impressed. Between the two scifi cop related shows on TV now I would definitely choose Continuum over Almost Human. But I’ll continue to watch Almost Human as well for now and see where it goes. Sort of an iRobot/Robocop type feel to it.

A couple of things from the pilot - what’s up with those bar tattoos at the back of the Insyndicate member’s heads? 35 years into the future and folks are still driving around 2013’s era based cars? Why is there need for a Recollectionist 35 years in the future?

~SO

Is this a Robocop do-over? I’m confused …

Just watched the first episode.

Quick impression was…meh. It was ok. Urban is always interesting to watch. My biggest reaction from this was to put on my todo list tomorrow to stop at the library and re-read Asimov’s “I Robot” for the holiday weekend.

One more thing came to mind last night watching the pilot – there were no consequences for Kennex when he broke the MX, and that seemed implausible for two reasons.

First, chucking anything that large onto the road and potentially causing an accident wasn’t a problem? There were no dash-cams in the late 2030’s to document what he did? Or, were the writers using this to illustrate how far the social contract in society had been damaged – short of a massive display of violence, anything goes and every citizen is on their own?

Second, the MX wasn’t built for free. Kennex threw away (literally!) an asset the department had to pay for. There are no bookkeepers in 2038? Or, were the writers saying that b/c of Kennex’s trauma (or police detectives in general?) have a consequence-free existence because of their value to society?