Almost Human, the new series from J.J. Abrams and his Fringe cohort J.H. Wyman launches in a two night premiere event Sunday November 17th and Monday November 18th – on FOX in the U.S. and on Global in Canada. The first 7 minutes of the series was released earlier this month courtesy of Global, which reveals a little bit of what we’re in for. You can watch it here.
The sneak peek opens with a screen that tells us the year is 2048 and crime has gotten so out of control that human cops are being paired with super human android partners. Then we smash right into the action where John Kennex, a cop played by Karl Urban (who will forever be Eomer in my mind) is in the middle of a firefight. A fellow human officer is wounded and John stops to help him, while an Android calculates that his life isn’t worth the risk and runs off to continue fighting. The combatants throw a bomb, John tries to crawl out of the way as it explodes and…We cut to John lounging lovingly with a beautiful woman in bed, tenderly caressing her face…Until we are thrown back into a scene of John hooked up to some type of machine. We learn that he’s been in a coma for 17 months and he’s enlisted the help of an Asian doctor to perform an experimental procedure that will help probe his memories to help him identify the killers who murdered his team.
The Tortured Hero
This sneak peek does a great job of setting John up as the dark, broody main character who is so vital to this type of series. We can already see that he’s an intense person obsessed with justice, who has little regard for his own health. He’s warned by the Asian doctor that he shouldn’t even be attempting the procedure until he’s been conscious for a year, his nose is bleeding after he’s done, and we see him popping some type of red pills in his car. He’s suffering and he’s not well. His distrust of androids is thinly veiled when he’s stopped by one and flashes his badge. He’s going to be a loose cannon. Exciting!
The Juxtaposition of Humanity and Technology
Obviously the central theme of this series is going to be what is means to be human. In the first minute of this sneak peek that conflict is crystal clear. John is shown making choices based on emotion, whereas the Androids are shown to be cold and calculating with no regard for the individual over the greater good. And the imagery is beautifully thematic. John’s memory of his ex-girlfriend Hannah is so soft and vibrant – full of love and LIFE. I love how it’s interrupted by a jarring image of John hooked up to a monstrous looking machine – cold and metal. It’s a great juxtaposition – really sets up the premise.
Mystery
Only 7 minutes in and there are already so many things – big and small – that we’re dying to know! Because we dive right into a key battle moment in John’s life, we don’t know how he got there or what led to the attack. It will be fun to unravel that while John searches for the identity of the attackers. There are also little symbolic shots that really pique our interest. John keeps a necklace hanging from his dashboard with the letter A engraved in it. Whose was it and why does he treasure it? I love how information is slowly revealed so that we’re disoriented from the start and only slowly start to understand what’s happening. When John is attached to machine, we learn in bits and pieces what he’s doing there (working with a recollectionist), that it’s dangerous (illegal and unsafe) what he’s trying to accomplish (learn the identity of killers) AND that already something isn’t going according to plan (he’s having unplanned recollections of his ex-girlfriend) And the world these character are living in!? We know next to nothing at this point other than it’s in the future, there are flying cars (aren’t there always?) and there is some type of ‘wall’ that people are sneaking over. How infuriating and intriguing! I can’t wait to find out more.
What did you guys think of the sneak peek? Was it a good start to a premiere episode and did it make you want to tune in?
Photo Courtesy of Global
