Let’s just all agree that the opening scene to this week’s episode of Almost Human was nothing but incredibly bizarre. We get that supposed to be the point, but during the whole time, it didn’t even look or feel like the show. It wasn’t bad by any means, but it was just so different and didn’t look like it was an episode of the show.
“Perception” was once again one of those episodes where you were more interested in what was going on with the main characters than the case of the week. That has perhaps been one of the show’s problems (which there are few of) throughout its run so far.
Most of the time, they manage to write compelling and intriguing cases that feel futuristic and different. But then there have been a few occasions where you don’t get into the cases and instead, mostly focus on what is going with John and Dorian.
Even though it was supposed to be a very serious scene when John was getting flashes, the minute we discovered that Dorian’s ear had been ripped off, it just became hilarious. But aside from that, it was good that we got to see John’s enormous shield get a crack or two because so far, he has always been stable, physically and mentally.
We will admit that it did come a bit out of nowhere since we haven’t had a reference to the things that John was going through in the pilot. But it was still so much more interesting to follow than some weird drugs. The biggest highlight of the case was getting to see Detective Stahl be more out on the field and be involved more in general.
Something that we have been thinking about for the past few weeks when it comes to Almost Human, as well as the ratings, is the show’s structure. It has pretty much established itself since the pilot that it’s a procedural show instead of being serialized with a main storyline.
However, in this episode, we actually had elements from the pilot featured, with John flashing and getting shaky about Anna. Now it remains to be seen what these final three episodes of this season will be like, but it’s most likely not going to be based on the previous cases and continue to do individual things each week.
What if this is the problem? That the show isn’t serialized? Despite its up-and-down ratings, this is a show that has a great cast and enough of good stories that it’s worthy of a second season. While the live ratings have been a struggle, the DVR numbers for Almost Human have been pretty good for FOX.
We think FOX should renew the show for another season, but try and get it to change to a more serialized show. Have a main antagonist of the season, which is one of the things that you kind of expect to see in a sci-fi show. Who knows, maybe there is something in the season finale that will actually tie a couple of things together, but at this point, we don’t think there is.
Overall, “Perception” wasn’t exactly one of the best episodes of the season, but the focus on John’s flashes of his girlfriend was a strong story element that they will hopefully be part of these three last episodes of season 1. The case of the week wasn’t badly written by any means, but it struggled with capturing enough interest like some of the previous cases have.
Almost Human airs on Monday nights, 8/7c on FOX.
[Photo via Liane Hentscher / FOX]
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