Almost Human Review: Are You Receiving?

If he was still playing Bones, this scene would have gone much smoother.

Warning: The following review definitely contains spoilers.  Read at your own risk.

 

Finally.  After a rather lackluster first couple of episodes, Almost Human seems to break itself out of its "familiar" territory.  While almost the entire first half hour is Kennex and Dorian climbing a staircase, this builds tension leading to a great ending sequence where we see both leads display some worthy gunplay.  Although hostage situations have been done multiple times in television shows and films, the one presented in tonight's episode provided enough entertainment, keeping viewers interested in how it was all going to play out in the end.

 

There's not too much to say about plot, because, quite frankly, there's not a lot of it.  Like I already mentioned, Kennex and Dorian are climbing a staircase almost the entire episode, trying to get closer to a hostage situation, while Kennex is staying on the line with a hostage who is speaking to him on her cell phone.  During the Kennex/Dorian scenes, we start seeing that Kennex, underneath his tough exterior, is actually a really good guy.  He tries calming the woman by telling her a story, while finding out more and more about the hostages/armed assailants and  eventually a robbery at a separate building.  There is also a side-story happening with a "decoy" being built to give to the men as per their demands but it was really just there for plot progression.

 

A very interesting moment occurs after a shootout, when Dorian is shot in the head.  Initially not phased by it, he slowly loses functionality and lets Kennex know that "in 5 minutes" he wouldn't be able to walk.  Kennex tries his best to repair this wound by using a nail clipper and a dirty cotton swab, but fails at doing so.  As a last resort, he pulls a piece of gum out of the garbage can, and after chewing it briefly, sticks it in the wound, bringing Dorian back.  While comedic, not only because of the tools he was using (but because in his last role under the guidance of Abrams, he was Bones), I also found this scene touching because he was really trying the hardest he could to bring Dorian back with what little he had to work with.

 

During the ending sequence, Dorian really stands out, going in guns blazing to help save the hostages. In his moment of defeat, we realize that one of the guards standing by is actually Kennex in disguise, who quickly dispatches the final two armed men.  The car ride back at the end, Dorian and Kennex have a touching talk about "death" before Dorian rocks out to some Elton John (watch the episode to get the joke).

 

This episode, in my opinion, was significantly better than the first two.  The first episode, while not "bad" by any means, was rather weak for a pilot.  The second episode was utterly ridiculous and, as I stated in that review, felt like a mid-season filler episode.  This episode was unique and much more entertaining than the initial two-night premiere, as it actually inserted the characters in a situation the viewers cared about.  We see Kennex's ability to have a tough exterior, but a heart deep down.  We see that Dorian, while very intelligent, posses the ability to be efficient in combat situations, and more importantly, feel human emotion.  While these were outlined in the first couple of episodes, this episode did the best job of displaying these sides of the characters.

 

Although the episode provided nothing more than a simple hostage situation, it really fell on Urban and Ealy's performances during the lengthy stair climbing sequence.  I have said it before, and I will say it again, the highlight of the show is, and will always be, the performances by the two leads.  Whether there's an attempt at humor, an action sequence, or something as lackluster as stair climbing, these guys are able to pull it off effortlessly.  Now that we are away from the first couple of episodes, the real question is whether or not the writers can provide consistently entertaining material and varied situations.  If the show continues on in the same fashion as tonight's episode, I think it's in good hands.

 

Rating:

8.5/10

 (8.5 out of 10)