Summary: A hostage situation provides a surprising amount of humor in another immensely fun episode.
Recap
Kennex and Dorian are called in to investigate a break-in at a skyscraper, only to discover that the criminals are still on the 25th floor with hostages. After communication is jammed and the building is locked down, Kennex and Dorian go against the Captain’s wishes and pursue them. With the elevators shut down, the two trek up 25 flights to get to them. On the way, Dorian taps into emergency calls, and Kennex is able to get a grasp of the hostage situation thanks to one of the hostages hiding with her phone. The men are identified as terrorists, but Kennex and Dorian realize they’re using “facemakers” to hide their real goal–a simple heist of palladium. Dorian is shot in the head, causing him to lose function, but Kennex pieces it back together with chewing gum against Dorian’s wishes. The two manage to ambush the men and take them down, successfully ending the hostage situation. Afterwards, Dorian contemplates his near-loss of “life,” and, after having learned that Kennex’s middle name, Reginald, was named after Elton John, he plays (and sings along to) “Bennie and the Jets.”
Review
Almost Human is making robots cool again. And not in the “robots will be the next fad” kind of way. (Robots might be better than zombies, vampires or fairy tale adaptations at this point, but that’s not what I’m implying.) No, for the first time in quite a while, robots don’t seem like something to be feared or looked at as a cautionary tale. The cool robot buddy of Lost in Space that every kid would want to have as a friend has been deconstructed so much over the last few decades that a purely friendly robot in a sci-fi is kind of an anomaly (think Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation.) The massive jumps in technology in the past decade or so, especially given the way the internet has pretty much taken over daily life, has bordered on scary at certain points; as such, sci-fi has reflected that fear. So it’s refreshing, then, that Almost Human is less interested on the implications of robotic partners and more on how a robot develops as a character. Maybe the show has a Terminator-esque robot uprising as its endgame, who knows. But right now, Dorian is an immensely likeable character, and his very human relationship with Kennex remains at the center.
Following in line with “Skin”, “Are You Receiving?” is very much a typical procedural plot–a hostage situation in this case–but is livened up with creative use of technology and the wonderful banter between Karl Urban and Michael Ealy. As a device, the hostage stuff is fine, providing a twist with the ingenious facemakers and a surprisingly clever cipher in Paige, but not much else. The approach at teasing a terrorist plot, but revealing it’s all a run-of-the-mill heist, works in the episode’s favor by upping the stakes early, but providing a reasonable way out of them. The claustrophobic tension is a plus, but it was quite a gamble to have 3/4 of the episode take place in a staircase–something that, again, really only worked because Urban and Ealy are so darn good at their banter. We admittedly haven’t gotten a glimpse into Kennex as a human more than as the cop character yet, and this first instance of doing so with his “ice fishing” story isn’t anything special, but Urban successfully saves it all from being boring. Urban is also particularly good at turning his gruff cop voice into a warmer heroic one, and his coaching of Paige is perfectly believable. One of the surprising parts of the episode is that a supporting one-shot female is presented as very smart in a horrible situation, even if she’s realistically scared. Again, there aren’t many gigantic twists or revolutionary story beats in the episode, but what’s played straight works about as well as it could, and certainly isn’t dumb.
If it can’t be said enough, the growing relationship between Kennex and Dorian is what makes the show work so well. The initial bit with the olive oil and the resulting banter (“I ate a greek salad!”) is certainly on-the-nose–Kennex respects his partner but is too gruff to admit it, which is pretty much every “manly cop” archetype ever–but like the rest of the show, it’s tons of fun. All of the coffee machine bits are great, too; really, all of the jokes and sarcastic insults land, which is quite a feat considering just how dense it all is with them. After Dorian is shot, it all comes to a head (no pun intended.) The episode smartly doesn’t amp up any tension with it–of course Dorian will survive–but instead plays up the laughs and the cleverness. Kennex is still annoyed enough with Dorian to ignore his requests for how he’s operated on, but clearly cares for him enough to do whatever it takes to make him functional again, too. The chewing gum solution is yet another weird, funny little bit for the show to play, and is exactly what gives hope that it can eventually evolve these ingenious bits and grow past the procedural phase.
So far, Almost Human hasn’t said anything particularly profound, settling on another variation of the “dead is dead” idea. Kudos to the show for already raising the stakes for Dorian, who’s proven to be far from invincible even if less vulnerable than humans. But hopefully Dorian’s contemplation of death won’t be hammered in too often. Outside of that, there isn’t a whole lot boiling under the surface. At this point, that’s not a bad thing; it’s an immensely entertaining “hang-out” show now, with the capacity to grow into more. It’s still got the plot established in the pilot hanging over things, but thankfully it’s being held off until there’s a better grasp of the characters, it seems.
It’s the little things that work in Almost Human thus far–the banter, the clever technological advancements, or just the way Dorian’s interface interacts (the coffee, touching Kennex’s earpiece to transfer a call, all the cool glowing lights, etc.) Heck, the episode ends with Dorian singing Elton John, and Kennex shutting down his terrible singing. It’s silly, but it’s not certainly embarrassingly so. This isn’t a brilliant show with any profound message, not yet at least. But it’s a super fun show with cool robots, and it can be really funny. Until it’s comfortable attacking its bigger storylines, that still works just fine.
Odds & Ends
- The supporting cops have very little to do again this week, but Lili Taylor stands out among them as Maldonado with her utter exasperation at the situation, especially when they believe they’re dealing with terrorists. She definitely sells the extreme stress a police captain must go through.
- If anything, this show is gearing itself to be immensely quotable in a Tumblr-GIF kind of way.
- Dorian’s frequent remarks about how boring Kennex’s ice fishing story are glorious. Especially funny considering that his story actually did exactly what it was supposed to for Paige.
- “You’re late, and the car smells like olive oil.”
- “You are aware that I don’t eat?” “Perfect, I’m buying.”
