One of the characters that has stood out the most out of the supporting cast since the pilot has without doubt been Mackenzie Crook’s Rudy Lom. This week he actually got to play out on the field as he had to go undercover in a mission. He has a nerdy personality to him and it’s nice to see a show like Almost Human have their genius character already getting to play with the big boys so soon.
They way that Lom’s character is structured, both in writing and acting, is in a way representing the audience who are watching futuristic show. The golden moments were definitely when he was trying to get his undercover the way he wanted it, with the hat and everything.
It was outstanding at the end when he got invited by Dorian to join him and John to go to the bar. “Any chance we can get into a bar fight?” was the best line in that final scene. Hopefully Lom will get to play a bigger role on the show because he is a nice addition
Another strong factor of this episode was the fact that almost all the cast members got to be featured together in several scenes this week. This was actually the first time when the show felt like an ensemble. This is a very strong cast and that is why it’s important to try and have them together in many scenes as much as possible.
One concern last week was that some of the supporting characters, like Valerie wasn’t being used enough. This week it got solved almost immediately. While it wasn’t a lot, she did get to be out on the field this week and it was a decent start. Just because this is a buddy-cop show based on Dorian and John the most, it doesn’t mean that some of the other big players can’t join them.
Perhaps what the show could do is feature some of them out on other missions as B-stories that could connect in the end with the A-stories involving Dorian and John. It’s probably safe to say that Captain Maldonado will most likely be the only one who won’t be out on the field that much, except for rare occasions perhaps. She is still an interesting character and there is definitely an intriguing dynamic between her and John.
The case of the week was sadly not as intriguing as expected since this would be the case when Lom would get to go undercover. It wasn’t awful by any means, but at the same time it wasn’t that interesting. The strong thing that came out of it was seeing John handling the death of a friend which gave Urban another great opportunity to flesh out his character. Urban has definitely nailed the balance in his comedic and dramatic elements when it comes to this character.
The relationship between Dorian and John continues to develop and it’s the number one reason why the show is working. Whether it is hilarious moments in a sushi bar or dramatic scenes where they are investigating, their chemistry is powerful. However, it was disgusting to see John eating that weird-snail thing or whatever it was that he had to eat.
Overall, “The Bends” was a decent episode and while it wasn’t weak, it wasn’t that strong either. It was however a really good episode for the character of Lom and gave the audience the chance to see more layers of Crook’s character. Almost Human is still a show that is growing and just like any other show, it just needs to find its place and at this point, it shouldn’t be a problem for them to get there fast.
Almost Human airs Monday nights, 8/7c on FOX.
[Photo via Liane Hentscher/FOX]
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