Almost Human Review

I recently got back into watching television shows.  Seriously. Not too much, but just enough to keep me sane and help me relax.  I like to think that my list is pretty exclusive--e.g. Game of Thrones, Scandal, and The Walking Dead.  I attempted to watch American Horror Story: Coven but there were a whole slew of stereotypes in that show that I just could not get behind.

Then comes along Almost Human, and it looks like it could be great.  However, it also looks like it could be  really bad.  However, I decided to gamble and give it a shot. I mean what harm could it do besides wasting an hour of my life? It helped that the first episode had an enticing plot line involving sex bots whose skins are being illegally harvested from humans.   And while this could have gone off the deep end of being cheesy and perverse in a bro type of way, the episode turned into a touching and thought provoking story.

First, a little bit of an introduction.  Detective John Kennex (Karl Urban) is a detective who is partnered with an android named Dorian (Michael Ealy).  We do not learn too much about these characters in this episode; however, we do learn a little. We learn that Detective Kennex does not like children or kittens and is woefully single, and Dorian is great with children and is programmed to feel.

Now back to the show. The sex bots, who could have come off cheesy in a Vegas type of way, were these completely sympathetic characters because of their programming to sympathize.  On the surface they are sex tools, however, their core essence/programming is not to sexually please but to connect with people.  Its this connection that makes viewers care when in the end all of the sex bots with human DNA have to be terminated.  Its equally touching when Dorian insists on witnessing one of the sex bots termination.  You can see Dorian questioning who will remember him when he is gone and ultimately what is the meaning of "life"?

The official season premier airs November 17th and November 18th (its two part, yeah!), and I will definitely be watching!

Legend of Korra: Four new episodes all in one night, including the Season Finale!

I have had a somewhat off and on relationship with the Legend of Korra.  It is an amazing show! However, I found it difficult to continuously watch it every Friday.  Sometimes the show got way sidetracked in the side stories involving Republican City and it was hard to stay focus on what the larger picture was.  With that said, I am glad that I stuck with it and forced myself to catch up on episodes that I missed online because the last four episodes of Book Two was inspiring and beautiful.

The story that was told of the connection between mankind and the spirits was powerful. Both Tenzin and Korra had to accept who they were to and that they were not a reflection of those who came in the past to grow spiritually and save the day.  Korra's  and Tenzin's path to self acceptance and connect with the physical and spiritual world around them was so well told that it could be used as a lesson in our own actual life.  That is the true beauty of this show--it is entertaining and lighthearted but has a basis in actual spiritual beliefs and truths.

I will not give any spoilers here.  What I will do is encourage everyone to watch the last four episodes of this amazing series.  You can watch them at nick.com.