Episode Title: “The Bends”
Writer: Daniel Grindlinger
Director: Kenneth Fink
Previously on “Almost Human”:
There’s something unsettling in the way that “Almost Human” really only has two identifiably human characters: John Kennex (Karl Urban) and his android partner, Dorian (Michael Ealy).
I really do love the dynamic between John and Dorian, but the rest of the cast might as well be soulless robots for all the depth that “Almost Human” gives them. Captain Sandra Maldonado (Lili Taylor) and Detective Valerie Stahl (Minka Kelly) have lines, but they show little in the way of personality. And Asshole Cop, aka Richard Paul (Michael Irby) seems to exist only to be jerk. Now, almost every show has a jerk to give the audience someone to hate. But Asshole Cop isn’t even a useful jerk. One of John’s friends on the force gets murdered and Paul can’t wait to get in John’s face about it.
Even the tech guy, Rudy Lom (Mackenzie Crook) is basically a human cartoon on this show. Some of the “Almost Human” fans seem very taken by Crook, but there’s really not much too Rudy. In theory, “The Bends” is supposed to be a showcase for Rudy as he finds himself front and center in the case of the week. However, Rudy’s first time in the field is largely played for laughs with jokes that commit the cardinal sin of comedy: they just aren’t funny.
Which isn’t to say that every joke was a misfire. Rudy’s impassioned speech about loving his creations and listening to them actually did reveal something about who he is and his banter with the severed android head was pretty amusing. But there were so many interesting places that this episode could have gone and instead of giving us those it provided fart jokes and moral dilemmas that weren’t even acknowledged as problems.
There are full spoilers ahead for “The Bends,” so if you missed last night’s episode of “Almost Human” then you may want to skip this review or else Rudy will fall in love with another hat.
Let’s get the big one out of the way first, as apparently it’s cool for future cops to flat out murder a suspect as John does late in the episode. Alexio Barros (Benito Martinez) may have had it coming, but it’s still murder. John has Barros down and he blows him away. Now, Barros’ promise to beat the charges against him probably had some truth to it. But our lead character just killed someone in cold blood and there’s not even a raised eyebrow or an IA investigation. No one even gives it a second thought.
That’s a scary world to be living in. I don’t have a problem with protagonists who kill. But it felt wrong to have that moment to occur without any consequences from John’s actions. Earlier in the episode, John also gets Dorian to drop the charges against a criminal informant’s girlfriend without authorization… and nothing. That never comes up again and the Captain never even calls them out on it.
The beginning of the episode dealt with the idea of whether John and Dorian are friends. Despite Dorian’s dickish sense of humor, it’s clear that John likes him. But when Dorian sees how far John is willing to go to posthumously clear the name of his friend Trevor Cooper, then Dorian appears to wonder if John holds him in the same regard. Dorian calls John his friend in conversation and he seems hurt when John reacts by essentially saying, “oh great, we’re friends now?”
But from that point on, the real friendship angle is largely dropped in favor of Rudy’s undercover misadventures. There is an amusing moment when Rudy looks in a mirror and sees himself as the slick undercover cop that he wants to be. Rudy romanticizes the idea of being an undercover police officer and he treats it like a game.
Rudy’s ridiculous love for his fedora was amusing, especially as his colleagues kept vetoing the hat and taking it away from him. However, the episode never really sold me on the jeopardy that Rudy was supposedly in. The beginning of the episode pulled the old flash forward trick by showing Rudy in the crime lab as he attempted to escape when his cover was blown. But that was a pretty lackluster opening scene. The flash forward opening is usually used for two reasons: either because there’s an amazing scene later in the episode that the writers want to tease or because the original opening wasn’t compelling enough. This was firmly in the latter category.
If Rudy had learned something from his undercover experience or come out changed then a lot of the flat jokes and lame comedy could have been overlooked. But instead, Rudy appears to think that his undercover career is just beginning and he gets Dorian to force John to bring him to a real cop bar to celebrate. As a conclusion, it just wasn’t very satisfying.
On the other hand, who doesn’t love a good android vs. crimebot fight? It was inevitable that we’d see some androids used for evil on this series. But despite being overpowered and manhandled by his criminal counterpart, Dorian still comes out on top. Although given how effective Dorian has been as John’s partner, we may eventually see more of his android model on both sides of the law. There was a moment in Cooper’s cabin when John and Dorian reach the same conclusion simultaneously; which indicates that Dorian has great cop instincts despite his relative inexperience. Even though it’s unspoken, it seems like John notices that and appreciates it.
As much as I enjoy watching John and Dorian in action, they can’t carry “Almost Human” by themselves. All of the other aspects of “Almost Human” have been disappointingly underdeveloped since the pilot episode. This show really needs to explore this strange new world with more than two compelling characters. Otherwise, what’s the point of telling this story?
