Almost Human

Let me say this right off the top. I have a serious man-crush on Karl Urban. So good in so many films, especially the criminally under seen and underappreciated Dread. With his movie career working at such a high clip one would think he had no time for series television but that is not the case. His latest work, Almost Human, premiered tonight.

Billed as Cops and Robots in the future it will be one of those cop buddy shows where the human cop doesn't trust the robot cop because he's had bad dealings with robots and the robots will want to be more human and people will shoot at people in the future. I say that going in hoping it will be much more than that old cops and robots storyline.

At first the android cops are just cannon fodder. But they also follow a prime directive that figures in probabilities over protection of human lives - hardly the Asimov model of robotics.

Our hero, Karl Urban is rebuilt after suffering an explosion that destroyed half his body. He is still a cop with memory problems. I assume already that he is a NEW kind of android. One with emotions who can figure in human judgement into robot law enforcement. The next generation. Why else would they bring a cop with a bad rep back to the force. He's a test case.

Two years after the explosion, we find him still suffering from memory loss and the effects of losing his team. I like the noir/Blade Runner feel to the whole thing. Lots of neon in the future. Energy efficient cars and a boom of a soundtrack.

Urban is his usual excellent self both as action hero and ennui emoting super-cop. His character lives in a past he cannot return to and each memory he recovers only brings him more pain.

Forced back into work he fights the good fight while searching for his own answers. With a new partner - an older model robot with 'glitch' issues - he tries to return to a job he once did while fighting the cops who don't want him back in service. Of course that part makes him a rebel, a maverick. It's an old story in a fresh setting and that is enough to make this one interesting past the pilot.

I have already figured out that the Captain who wants him back so much is the one working with the bad guys and who had Urban's team ambushed. She only brought him back to be the fall guy. They don't tell you that but I already can see this happening by midseason.

However there was enough here to bring me back next week. Too bad it's on FOX. As soon as it gets good they will just cancel it anyways. Now I think I know why Urban took the job.