Before the 2013-2014 season began, there was a lot of buzz about Almost Human.  Not only was it coming out of the fairly successful Bad Robot stable, with one of the producers of Fringe on board, but it had overtones of the classic Robot novels by science fiction grandmaster Isaac Asimov.  Add to that a fairly well-regarded cast, especially the two leads (Karl Urban, Michael Ealy), and there was a lot of reason to think that the show was a sure thing.

 

So what went wrong?  Why is Almost Human on the verge of cancellation, and why was the first season so tragically mediocre?

 

It’s hard not to point to FOX and wonder if they all but destroyed the show’s ability to gain a following.  Shall we enumerate the sins of the much-reviled network?  First, putting a genre show into a mid-season slot puts a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths; it suggests that the show needs more work before it’s ready to hit the airwaves.  Rumblings about changes to the production staff behind the scenes, including a push for the series to adopt a more episodic, procedural direction vs. a serialized piece, added fuel to the rumor fire.

 

Then the show aired, and some problems were immediately apparent.  The pilot itself was full of exposition, not a small amount of which set up some apparent ongoing plot elements.  The very next episode to air, on the premiere night, wasn’t even the next episode in the production order.  It had almost nothing to do with following up on the plot threads from the pilot, and also seemed to be designed to capitalize on the “sex sells” portion of the audience.

 

Running episodes out of order was a common drawback, and reminded genre fans of similar circumstances with shows like Firefly, Dollhouse, and Wonderfalls.  This decision, almost certainly mandated by the FOX network, became ever more inexplicable over the course of the season.  Episodes produced early in the run, but aired late in the season, were clearly intended to focus on characters within the ensemble and introduce specific details about them.

 

One particularly bad example concerned Lt. Stahl.  For much of the season, Stahl was most notable for being fairly bland, with little personality or rapport with those around her.  Various hints to attraction between Stahl and Kennix were wildly inconsistent and seemingly out of order.  More than halfway through the season, however, it was revealed that Stahl was a “chrome”, a genetically engineered human that was designed to be perfect.  Her apparent blandness was an in-universe commentary on what eugenics might produce: a somewhat empty version of “perfection”.

 

Had that episode aired as per the intended production order, very early in the season, Minka Kelly’s performance would have made a lot more sense.  Indeed, once her true nature was revealed, it tied into the show’s theme incredibly well.  Instead, because of the decision to air episodes out of order, the actress seemed to have no idea what she was doing, and the writers seemed inconsistent with her character portrayal.  With no overt communication that the episodes were out of order, it’s little wonder that genre fans felt like the show couldn’t get out of its own way.

 

There also seemed to be a conflict, over the course of the season, between the stated premise of the show in the opening credits (delivered via one of the worst voiceovers in recent memory) and the actual product.  The premise was simple: technology had outstripped society’s ability to control it, so law enforcement had to step up its game with robotic officers.  The implication is a step beyond the scientific nightmares of Fringe; instead, beyond a few occasionally hints of a world where entire sections were no longer considered inhabitable, the incidents seemed somewhat isolated.

 

And that’s a shame, considering that some of the best moments of the season provided the audience with a look at how much of a police state society had become, and how the cities were essentially a façade of civilization.  Too often, the show was reduced to a futuristic buddy-cop procedural, with every episode wrapping up neatly at the end.  If that had been how the show was presented, it would have probably been more accepted as such.  If anything, those hints of something bigger and better in the background kept reminding the audience of the show they could have been watching.

 

That’s not to say that all the blame falls on the network; the writers ultimately failed to end the season on a strong note.  The final three episodes produced were also the final three episodes to air, and yet there was no attempt to build to a strong finale.  The elements introduced in the pilot were barely even mentioned!  Perhaps worse, the finale included a subplot in which Dorian was under evaluation to decide if he should continue to work for the police department.  This might have been more suspenseful if the question had been raised in previous episodes, or if the episodes leading into the finale had raised doubt in Dorian’s future.  Instead, the outcome felt like a foregone conclusion.

 

The one saving grace for Almost Human is that FOX is trying to develop a year-round schedule of fresh content.  Airing in the fall or the traditional winter/spring mid-season period is no longer an absolute rule.  High profile programming like the return of 24 is coming right after the May sweeps period, when most shows air their finales.  So it’s very possible that FOX might bring Almost Human back for a second season, if only to keep the year-round schedule a viable concept.

 

If it does return, one can only hope that the writers are given a chance to break out of the suffocating mold of the procedural underpinnings, and that the intended flow of the season is respected.  Adding an ongoing thread to a second season, not unlike the first couple seasons of Fringe, would be one way to help the series escape its currently average standing.