2023/11/17

Hard to believe it has already been 10 years this year, on November 17, when Almost Human first aired on FOX in 2013. Back then, when I saw the first trailers, read the first interviews about the upcoming new SCI-FI SHOW on FOX, I got very excited! The premise, perhaps not really original but before it started, I could only imagine it being a BIG hit, although airing on FOX, which had a track record when it comes to cancellation of SCI-FI SHOWS, The X-Files and Fringe excluded.

One of the reasons I really was excited because it had a great cast, at least the two lead characters were very well cast, Star Trek's "McCoy" Karl Urban played the cranky cop who has been teamed up with an android, played by Michael Ealy. Mackenzie Crooke who played Rudy Lom was also a very strong character. I bet, if the TV series would have continued, he would be getting a much larger role. Although beautiful, Minka Kelly, who played Valerie Stahl, played her part a bit bland but on the other hand, I think her character really had been under-used. Also, the captain (Lili Taylor as Maldonado) was not the one I tuned in for each week to watch a new episode of Almost Human.

It soon became clear Almost Human could not hold the ratings, which is normal, but it dropped too hard, people apparently just weren't watching this, which is something I also don't understand because if you ask me, Almost Human was the best new TV series in the fall of 2013. Fox soon had its doubt about the show, the episodes aired not chronologically, so they weren't broadcast in the correct order and also, I remember that, for such a short run, it had an erratic schedule.

I still can't wrap my head around it why Almost Human did do so bad in the ratings, it really still has me baffled, it had so much potential, interesting characters, the stories were engaging, some cool CGI and a lot of humour! Who would have thought that with an actor like Karl Urban in the lead, people did not even give this a chance.

Almost Human had competition from a show called The Following with Kevin Bacon in the lead. I watched a few episodes, thought it was an awful show, predictable as hell. But other people continued watching it and it has the same kind of viewing figures as Almost Human. But presumably because Almost Human costs more to produce, they granted The Following another season while they cancelled Almost Human. Only 13 episodes, Almost Human did not get a chance to become even better than it already was, this was truly a gem in the making and sadly it's already faded from everybody's memories. You cannot even purchase it on a regular DVD or Blu-Ray set, it only is for sale via DVD on demand, as far as I know, you cannot buy it any other way at the moment, just a set of DVD-R's, not even in the correct chronological order, it's a real shame. Come to think of it, I did read somewhere it was released on standard DVD in Asia.

Fox did it again, oh yes, they let Fringe run it's course but there are a lot of genre examples which FOX  killed off before it's time: Firefly, John Doe, Tru Calling, Dollhouse, Drive, The Lone Gunmen, Millennium, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Wonderfalls... the list is just too damn long.

Only SCI-FI fans remember this show 10 years later, the show debuted in 2013 with okay ratings, for a pilot with so much buzz, 9.1 million viewers and a 3.1 rating. This is something I could not wrap my head around, there was enormous buzz for this series, it got a huge promotion, at least online, I can't tell if this also was the case on American TV because I don't live there, but it had everything to become a big hit. Sadly, it didn’t and 10 years later we are left with only 13 episodes of exciting and fun television.

Final Word:

On this website Almost Human will for always be remembered, remembered as a show with lots of potential, like with Firefly, for me, in that league. All we can do is rewatch the 13 episodes and enjoy them as much as possible. Every once in a while, a TV show gets created, which doesn’t get the attention it deserves and fades away, this happened with Almost Human.