I’ve been watching the new Fox show Almost Human since its premiere in November. While the pilot was rough around the edges (but what pilot isn’t kinda awful here and there?), Almost Human showed a huge amount of promise in regards to the near-future world it exists in as well as the show’s overall story arc. Subsequent episodes have continued to build up ‘Almost Human’s world-building as well as the camaraderie between Detective Kennex (Carl Urban) and android cop Dorian (Michael Ealy). What’s now missing is any semblance of a seasonal arc.
It seems that Bad Robot wanted to do the complete opposite of Fringe and make this show’s format more week to week. Does this procedural approach work? Kinda sorta. Subsequent episodes has displayed a much lighter touch since the pilot. However, there seems to be much less back story and no mention of the nefarious Syndicate that Kennex was gunning for in the pilot episode. Overall the show is entertaining enough to keep watching. But a primary antagonist, even if they stay in the shadows as a behind-the-scenes manipulator, would give ‘Almost Human’ a more focused direction. This would also allow us to dig more into Kennex’s backstory as well as his now-forgotten relationship with the girlfriend who betrayed him. And more screen time for the lovely Minka Kelly would make me happy as well.
On the writing front, I reached my short story goal for 2013! I wanted to write at least fifteen shorts and hit that goal yesterday. Yay! Anyway… As noted in a previous blog post, I started doing these shorts as a way to keep my writing skills sharp during times when I’m editing longer manuscripts. Its also became a great world-building exercise. A couple of characters have really grown and benefited from being more fleshed out in the short stories, giving me more to work with when I write them into the novels.
Speaking of the novel, I got some initial feedback from one of my beta readers. Mostly positive, with some good critiques. I’ll wait until he’s done completely with the full manuscript review before implementing his changes. Also, I want to get a few more of my editors’ feedback so I can catch any issues that more than one of them as caught. Cover art is still on hold for now. More updates once the right designer comes into play. More updates soon.
Below are this week’s short story and short film.
Here’s “The Turing Test,” a great sci-fi short about A.I. intelligence by NY Times-bestselling author Beth Revis. Really dug this story, which was fitting given my thoughts on Almost Human.
The Continuum: So Pretty – This indie short film takes a very realistic take on vampires (as realistic as vampires can be) in a post-Twilight world. Its great!
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