Tagged: Almost Human

Tom Ellis as Lucifer Morningstar

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A review of Fox’s Lucifer first episode

A review of Fox’s Lucifer first episode On January 25th Fox’s latest TV show will air. Lucifer stars Tom Ellis’s as you may guess, Lucifer… The Lord of Hell. The shows is loosely based on the comic-book character created by Neil Gaiman which was developed into its own spin-off book series Lucifer written by Mike Carey. Lucifer is hard to categorize. In the pilot episode we see Tom Ellis’s title character attempt to solve the murder of his sweetheart Delilah. He is also confronted by other supernatural entities, presumably arch-angels sent by God to question why he is not performing his duty as Lord...

Dash is too late to stop the murder. Minority Report Pilot Review

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Minority Report Pilot Review – Fox takes another stab at Sci-Fi

Minority Report Pilot Review Today the pilot episode of Fox’s new Science-Fiction drama Minority Report leaked onto the internet. Several other TV shows such as Lucifer and Blindspot also had an episode released early by content pirates. It is as of yet unknown whether it has anything to do with the fact that the Redskins were renamed in the show, a nod to the team’s controversial name. As old news is no news I decided to write an early review of the leaked pilot episode. With people talking about the show on IMDB and elsewhere I think it can add to the discourse. Minority...

Almost Human - Karl Urban and Michael Ealy - www.scifiempire.net

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Almost Human cancelled by Fox

In news that has taken me a little bit by surprise I am sad to inform readers of this blog that Almost Human has been cancelled after just one season. I am surprised the news came so suddenly because despite lower than expected ratings they did not seem desperate. I really liked this show, Karl Urban and Michael Ealy had very good chemistry together as John Kennex and Dorian. The special effects were also top notch and the show wasn’t afraid to tackle difficult topics such as sex-trafficking and pointless violence. Nonetheless the first half dozen episodes felt rushed, there were no overall story arc to connect...

Almost Human - Kennex and Dorian final scene

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Almost Human S1Ep13 Season Finale ‘Straw Man’ Review

After not doing a preview of this weeks episode of Almost Human I completely missed that yesterday’s episode was also its seasons finale. Almost Human is sadly one of those shows that ahs to make do a with a half season of just 13 episodes. After the partial reboot of the show after episode 9 the stakes have risen and the cliffhanger at the end of ‘Straw Man’ proofs. I will miss Almost Human, hopefully just because it’s a long way to go until its second season airs but also because with its low ratings there is a risk it...

Almost Human - Perception - Karl urban as Kennex suffering from flashbacks

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Almost Human S1Ep10 ‘Perception’ Review

Last weeks episode of Almost Human practically rebooted the series and re-introduced The Syndicate as the main villains. This week’s episode ‘Perception’ also introduces new features to the show such as Detective Stahl’s genetic enhancements and Kennex’s drug addiction that was last mentioned in the pilot episode. Both this episode and that of last week make up for some of the deficiencies of the first 8 episodes, namely a future world that seemed far too shallow and little in the way of an overarching story to keep everything focused. ‘Perception’ essentially has two storylines. The first is about Kennex and...

Almost Human - Simon Says - Karl Urban as Kennex with a collar bomb

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Almost Human S1Ep7 ‘Simon Says’ Review

Almost Human is back from its holiday hiatus with the episode ‘Simon Says’. Despite it being a good show it sadly did not use a cliffhanger like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D to keep viewers returning. Instead Almost Human is still in standalone mode with each episode being a self-contained story arc. The story thus progresses only slowly with the focus laying particularly on the relationship between Dorian and Kennex. I suspect that shortly the focus will be places more on creating some sort of mythology with ‘The Syndicate’ acting as the principal villain, I guess we can be grateful the show...

Almost Human - Karl Urban and Michael Ealy - www.scifiempire.net

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Preview of 2014 Science-Fiction TV shows!

As the year 2013 has come to a close it is time to make up the balance and see what the year has meant for Science Fiction on TV. I will also be giving a preview of the Sci-Fi shows that will make their return or début during 2014. After a cursory view of the dates listed below you will also see that many shows will be back during the course of next week. I won’t be reviewing them all but I’ll cherry pick the best. Continuum 2013 saw the return of Simon Barry’s Continuum starring Rachel Nichols as time traveler Kiera...

Almost Human - Kennex, Dorian and DRN-494

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Almost Human S1Ep6 Arrhythmia Review!

This weeks episode of Almost Human is entitled ‘Arrhythmia’. It deals with a blackmail operation undertaken by a group of people who have access to artificial hearts. As there are citizens who can’t get insured in the future they buy such a ‘second-hand’ heart on the black market. They must pay a regular fee or otherwise their heart will be made to stop. That is what happened in the opening scene to a man who couldn’t pay anymore. While investigation this unusual homicide Dorian and Kennex meet up with another DRN android that looks just like Dorian. Kennex is not pleased with this ride along...

Almost Human - Kennex (Karl Urban) questions why the chief witness would go for a walk

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Almost Human S1Ep5 ‘Blood Brothers’ Review!

Who is a clone? Blood Brothers is an effective procedural whodunit. It established most of the pertinent facts quite early on, so in fact it was no big mystery that the antagonist Ethan Avery used clones to commit his crimes. The episode can thus focus more on unraveling the reason why he was clones in the first place and on stopping his schemes. This set-up allows ‘Blood Brothers’ to switch into a higher gear early on. Like many TV-shows these days Almost Human is a fast paced and tightly written shows that uses up its 43 minutes at a lightning pace. Though...

Almost Human - Blood Brothers - Karl Urban as Kennex

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Almost Human S1Ep5 ‘Blood Brothers’ Preview!

Last week’s episode of Almost Human left me with mixed feelings. Watching the character of Rudy Lom (Mckenzie Crook) grow and take a more central role on the show was fun, along with the good dose of humor. However, the humor also undermined an episode that was focused on drugs and corruption within the police force. That combined with a few leaps that I thought went too far (such as Rudy cooking the drugs for the drug lord in under 2 minutes) made the episode feel weaker than it needed to be. At this moment four episodes have aired and it is becoming difficult to judge what kind of...

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Almost Human S1Ep4 ‘The Bends’ Preview!

Now that the fourth episode of Almost Human is almost upon us I thought I’d write a preview article, something I rarely do these days. The upcoming episode of Almost Human seems to focus more on the secondary characters than previous weeks. Specifically the character Rudy Lom (played by McKenzie Crook) is heavily featured in the promo trailer below. Almost Human has an unusual start in that the characters weren’t introduced to each other. It wasn’t like they were ’rounding up the heroes’ that is such a popular story telling mechanism. Instead we saw John Kennex (Karl Urban) returning to the police force after a leave...

Almost Human - John Kennex to repair Dorian

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Almost Human S1Ep3 ‘Are You Receiving?’ Review!

After the pilot and the rather weird second episode of Almost Human I was ready for a run-of-the-mill story that would allow me to get an idea of what to expect. This week’s episode is entitled ‘Are You Receiving?’ and deals with Kennex and Dorian responding to a hostage situation. The story follows a familiar ‘Die Hard’ style episode structure whereby the protagonists steadily wear down the terrorists in what culminates in a ‘boss’ fight that includes a twist. In the movie ‘Die Hard’ Hans Gruber is revealed not to be a freedom fighter but a dirty thief. In this episode the...

Almost Human - sex bot in garter belt

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Almost Human S1Ep2 ‘Skin’ Review!

Yesterday’s pilot of Almost Human was very polished though it did shy away from taking too much risk. The banter between Michael Ealy as Dorian and Karl Urban as John Kennex is clearly the biggest attraction to the show. The only possible problem I foresee is writer fatigue and the need to find increasingly outrageous dialogue between the two. Which kind off killed House for me. After yesterday’s episode I expected the special effects for the show to decrease in quality but the opposite is in fact true. The opening shot of the episodes neatly shows in spectacular fashion the ends to...

Almost Human - Karl Urban as John Kennex

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Almost Human S1Ep1 ‘Pilot’ Review!

Bad Robot Productions Almost Human is an unexpected treat, the first hints of a new Sci-fi show from Bad Robot Productions came last year. The news kind-of got buried by ‘Agents of SHIELD’ and this summer’s Hollywood blockbusters. It wasn’t until this spring that it looked as though ‘Almost Human’  created by J.H Wyman (Fringe) could be something big and a game changer. Bad Robot Productions has a good reputation with hit shows such as Lost and Person of Interest. Other shows such as Alias and Fringe were also very good but were cut short due to falling ratings. BRD...

Almost Human - Karl Urban and Michael Ealy - www.scifiempire.net

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Almost Human trailer shows it could be this falls hottest show

I for a while mourned the loss of Fringe. With hard-core sci-fi shows dropping like flies Fringe acted as a real backbone of TV. Sadly it was still a troubled show when its fourth season lost direction and its fifth being a snooze fest. Now viewers can look forward to ‘Almost Human’ created by J.H Wyman, the show runner of Fringe. ‘Almost Human’ will also be aired on FOX just like Fringe. Though it originally was supposed to start on November 4th it has been delayed until Sunday November 17th. The release schedule is still a bit fuzzy but it seems that the 17th is just...

Sleepy Hollow - Tom Mison as Ichabod Crane & Nicole Beharie as Abbie Mills

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Whats wrong with TV these days?

This week was hardly a good week for TV. It was worse than last week which itself was already mediocre. It can be that we are spoiled with too many good TV shows and we are expecting to be confronted with cliffhangers and denouements every episode. It does seem that after the initial excitement of new TV-series and seasons we have entered a bit of a rut. That said, some new shows such as Sleepy Hollow will need to try hard to keep viewers interested because it almost seems ripe for cancellation. Below is a list of TV-shows that I think need some rework. Strangely enough...