Almost Human S1, you lousy tease!

[rheasilvia]

Here's the thing about Almost Human: The entire season was a long, unsatisfying tease. Fascinating topics were briefly mentioned and then immediately dropped again.

It's like the show was constantly telling me: "Wow, isn't this a sparkly plot point, riveting question and/or tangled ethical issue that you'd really like us to explore? Hah, we thought so! Let's not go into it and then never bring it up again!"

Off the top of my head, here's an unordered list of things I would really have loved the show to explore, not just tease:

• Dorian's emotional competence vs. Kennex's emotional lack of competence
• What truly defines a person?
• Where exactly is the line between a machine and a person?
• What are the ethical problems with the view and treatment of androids in this society?
• What does Dorian as a character think and feel? How does he feel about Kennex / humans in general / his situation? What does he want / dream of / hope for?
• Chromes / genetically modified humans - how "real" are they? How do they fit into society? What problems and prejudices do they face?
• What parallels exist between artificially modified human life and artificial life in the form of androids?
• The MXes - what is their true range of emotional and intellectual capacity? Can they develop an individual personality if given time? What kind of bonds do cops and MXes form? *
• The Wall - what is it? How did it come to be? What is happening on its other side? What is wrong with this society that something like The Wall can exist?
• Dorian's odd memories - where do they come from? what are they? what do they mean?
• Rudy's shady past and the secrets he is clearly hiding in the present
• The terrorist who posed as Kennex's ex-girlfriend and her nefarious plans
• Even Kennex's history and issues (is he really as desperately lonely, vulnerable and clueless in terms of relationships as he seemed at the end of the season?)

* As a sidenote: To me there's no doubt that some of the cops are fucking their MXs. Humans will have sex with almost anything. Something that looks human, is fairly attractive, works with you, talks to you, and brings you coffee? HELLO, baby. So they don't have a penis or an anus, so what. They have mouths, fingers and strap-ons.

Ultimately, I found this both frustrating and inexplicable. Why make a scifi show clearly set up to explore the fluid boundaries between biological and artificial life - it's even called "Almost Human", for god's sake - and then just… not explore?

Maybe the show intended to go into more depth in later eps. If so, I must say that delaying gratification entirely for 13 whole eps is a lousy tactic.

Bottom line: I wanted more from this show than it would give me. But even so, I still love it for its potential, and think it can easily become an amazing show. If it isn't cancelled... and if it stops being such a damned tease.

What did you think? Tell me! :-)

Poll Almost Human