Written by Scott Clifford
Remember when I said that you couldn’t have a protagonist that acts like a jerk, goes against the rules all the time, and has no other depth to his character? That no one will like him or her unless they are funny, are good with animals or kids? Well, it’s almost as if they read my review yesterday because this episode has John Kennex joking around with Dorian a lot more, saving women, and showing his softer side to children. It’s as if they read my review, realized that I’m a recently graduated filmmaker, and took my opinions to heart. This realization has caused me to sit patiently next to my mailbox. Waiting for a big paycheck from FOX that will make me rich. Oh wait, they make these shows months before they air? Fine, let’s move things along.
The second episode titled “Skin” has John and Dorian dealing with the underground sex trade. To be more specific, they are dealing with the underground sexbot trade. The world of Almost Human features groups who use androids that look and sound like beautiful women in order to make money in the prostitution scene. However, things go wrong when a client is murdered and the police realize that the prostitute is wrapped in human skin. John and Dorian realize that a recent increase in missing women cases is related to the rise of illegal sexbots using human skin. This leads to the gang going after an Albanian sex trade group that is kidnapping these women in order to graft human skin onto their sexbots. While the main plot arc is pretty standard, the themes that are expressed are not. Michael Ealy as Dorian brings the show to a new level by discussing what happens to people after they die with John. Dorian uses this experience to keep a sexbot at ease as she is decommissioned once the investigation is over. John also uses this experience to talk to the son of his fellow partner about the incident that killed his father.
My only worry for this series now is that the jump between John’s angst going from killing his character to making him prefer darker jokes shows that FOX may be airing episodes out of order in order to keep its audience. Hopefully this is not the case because I don’t want this show to become another Firefly. Otherwise I now consider myself a fan. The writers are able to properly use the futuristic setting to keep the police procedural elements interesting by having crime scenes littered with “DNA bombs” and other similar plot devices to keep the cops on their toes. John has more depth now than in the pilot so I can watch him without constantly rolling my eyes and Dorian continues to be the character element that makes the show better than it ought to be on paper. I look forward to next week’s episode.
