(no subject)
That was fun! I mean, I fully realize that the show's kind of problematic - in particular, I have HUGE issues with policemen torturing suspects, and if that doesn't taper off in a hurry, I'm not gonna be able to stick with it - but of all the new shows coming out that I've been really looking forward to (SHIELD, Sleepy Hollow, the new Person of Interest season) this is the one that actually managed to engage me on an emotional level, the one that made me want to watch the next ep, and watch it NOW. (Well, okay, this, and Grimm. But I've long ago given up on trying to explain my inexplicable enjoyment of Grimm. So terrible! Yet so enjoyable!)
I realize that John's survivor guilt manpain is like the most played-out cliched white dude backstory out there (Even his name is John. JOHN! You know how many white-dude-manpain-ridden-PTSD-survivor-guilt Johns have been starring TV shows in the last couple of years?), and yet, I'm into it. I care about that dude and his manpain. I'm sure it helps that I like Karl Urban, but also, I was so totally ready for a "repressed dude fails to deal with his feelings" show, and Almost Human is delivering that in spades. In fact, I was desperately looking for a "repressed dude fails at feelings" show or movie yesterday, and didn't find anything good, and then Almost Human came out and scratched that itch JUST RIGHT.
In particular I'm interested in his total failure to deal with his synthetic leg, which I hope they deal with some more. I completely and totally failed to give a shit about his "my girlfriend left and and so I need to pine while staring at her video" pain, so I'm happy they turned that around, although I'm hoping they'll do something a little more nuanced with that storyline than "my ex is a straight-up evil bitch."
Even more though, I really, really, really liked Dorian. I like his snarkiness, and his quiet hurt when John was treating him like a robot, and his whole fucked-up backstory. He's a feeling, emotional being! And they just turned him off and stuck him in a bodybag for four years! Fucked up. TELL ME MORE.
Most of all, though, I just really want the story where Dorian gently puts his hand on John's thigh and calibrates his robot leg for him. I mean, for fuck's sake, I was genuinely surprised that the show didn't go there in some way. Dorian has a special talent for fixing broken robot software through, idk, empathy and the ~power of intuition, or whatever the fuck they were going for there. John has broken robot software. COME THE FUCK ON.
(What the fuck is going on with LJ and the comment function? Half the time I can't even see comments at all, and when I can, I can't respond. LJ! Let me talk to people!)