Almost Human Axed
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Almost Human, starring Star Trek into Darkness‘ Karl Urban, will not be returning for a second season.
The sci-fi police drama was co-created by J.J. Abrams and J.H. Wyman.
Almost Human was “an action-packed police drama set thirty-five years in the future, when police officers are partnered with highly evolved human-like androids. An unlikely connection is forged when a cop with an aversion to robots and a robot with unexpected emotional responses investigate cases in a brave new world.”
Urban took on the role of “hardened detective” John Kennex is the short-lived series.
The series started out with strong ratings (9.2 million viewers and 3.1 rating in the coveted 18-49 year old adult demographic range) but viewership dropped as the season progressed.
There was an uptick in ratings for last month’s finale, but it was not enough to save the show.
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Given the comments he made at SLC Comic Con last weekend, I wonder if Urban is bummed out or relieved?
I’m sure he was fully committed to it for as long as it would run, and it must have been nice for him at least to get the opportunity to explore a character and be a hero, since Trek isn’t giving him those things. He probably has more mixed feelings than the rest of his US-based castmates though…
Sorry, Karl. It was a half-baked idea to begin with, but you gave it your all, as always. On the other hand, the Dredd sequel is moving slowly forward.
Agreed. It was probably a good experience, something different, a nice earner, but it didn’t work so time to move on. Here’s hoping he puts the time he now has ‘free’ to good use, taking some interesting roles in decent movies.
I’m intrigued by your comment about how Trek “isn’t giving him those things”. Do you mean that the McCoy character has limitations that prevent him from exploring, or that he isn’t being given the opportunity in the first place? My personal view is towards the latter. I think his McCoy has been seriously neglected, especially in Star Trek Into Darkness. YMMV 🙂
I’m one of the people who avoided “Dredd” like the plague when it hit the cinemas, because I thought it looked like a piece of crap. When I finally saw it on DVD, I thought it was f*cking fabulous. What a mis-marketed, mis-managed waste of a great movie opportunity.
I’m crossing every bodily part for a “Dredd” sequel, but I’m also not holding my breath. Maybe if the new movie Urban has coming out in August is a huge sleeper hit, someone might decide it’s worth the risk.
When was the last time a JJ Abrams show wasn’t axed? Hollywood’s golden boy seems to have a lot more failures than successes.
Drats; we really enjoyed this show, too! Perhaps it will get picked up by Sy-Fi?
The studio is tentatively developing a modestly budgeted sequel based solely on Dredd’s impressive DVD sales. It’s something they could do at fairly low cost, even *sniff* without a more futuristic MegaCity One. It may even be sustainable as a TV or web series.
Yes, I agree with you.The reboot writers are doing both McCoy and Karl a huge disservice, because they aren’t developing the character in new ways, and they also aren’t letting him be the multi-faceted guy De Kelley played. So Karl gets very little of substance to do, and when he does it doesn’t matter because the audience has never been encouraged to identify with Bones or even care about him, because he has been left out of the main relationship dynamics. In STID the writing in scenes involving McCoy even actively encouraged the audience to see him as annoying and peripheral, which I hated and found really sad. The Trek writers have done Karl dirty, for sure, and I think he knows it.
Yeah, I get that feeling when you see the interviews with Urban in which he discusses the character. He talks about how even though McCoy is cantankerous and argumentative, he’s also really cares about people and has a big heart underneath the layer of cynicism. These are all McCoy traits we know and love from the TV series and original films, but that haven’t really come through in the new films at all. Urban is a long time fan so knows how it’s supposed to work, but there’s only so much he can do when the source material is lacking.
Hmmm. That’s good news. My only concern – would Urban stay interested for a TV or web series? I loved the movie because he played Dredd very well. I’d prefer to see him come back instead of a recast to another actor.
I tried the show a few times and gave up. Great chemistry between the leads, and good work from Urban, but the writing was just plain awful. Story logic, dialogue, plot , , , it was all poor. Good riddance.
I’m bummed because I rather liked the show and thought it had a lot of promise.
I hope he would, I can’t see anyone doing any better. I was surprised he did Almost Human, as he was pretty in-demand for movie roles already.
I’m wondering if his decision to do ‘Almost Human’ was influenced by the fact that it was JJ Abrams offering the role instead of someone he didn’t know and had never worked with…
Entirely possible. However since JJ made a point of stifling him in Star Trek Into I’m The Director Beeyotch, I don’t know if he’d do it for him again.
Yeah, good point. I’m curious, do you believe Abrams made a point of stifling McCoy the character or Urban the actor? What happened from the first movie that Abrams and the writers felt the need to undermine the role so much?