Almost Human

[Spaz]

Come on people, sex is used to push everything nowadays. Advertising firms use it to sell literally everything. For crying out loud, they made a Dannon Oikos Yogurt commercial sexy during the Super Bowl, not to mention what they already do to car commercials, male hygiene products...etc.

Of course they're going to show sex bots, they want to hook some people in. I am just hoping that once they get comfortable with the show, they introduce some less sexy, but more real units in.

[bilbo]

Spaz,

Already said that sex sells in the comment directly above yours - read the sentence starting "I agree that there is on.........." or didn't you read the previous comments??

[Spaz]

Must not have, but at least we are in agreement.

Still, I'm not going to give up on the show because it is pandering to the sex enthusiasts out there. I think it still has great potential.

[dale coba]

When bots are sold for sex, will users give a damn about sexy advertising for other products?

No. The ads are based on stoking desires which can not be fulfilled.
Sexy ads will lose their power over every sexbot owner.

- Dale Coba

[Svengli]

When bots are sold for sex, will users give a damn about sexy advertising for other products?

No. The ads are based on stoking desires which can not be fulfilled.
Sexy ads will lose their power over every sexbot owner.

- Dale Coba

Hmm,

That's a good point. I don't know if it's true or not but it's interesting to think about.

As a counter-point, a lot of people today in our Western society eat every day and eat whatever they want. But advertisers still have ads that showcase the sound and appearance of food. Advertisers don't use food images to sell other stuff that much but they sometimes do. I think this works even if the viewer is fairly certain of eating their next meal.

Selling with sex is different than selling with food, however. Sex-selling often is connected to prestige and social acceptance as well as to one's own self-image as someone desirable. Here, having a sexbot who always tells you are desirable would go against an ad which says you need this to be desirable.

So multiple effects are possible - I think humans will always respond to cues around physical sensations. Having a Fembot might mean a person no longer would have the social anxiety which advertisers play on with sex-tinged commercials. It might mean that an owner wouldn't be influenced by any commercials pushing social conformity.

We could speculate multiple ways.

[SunshineInTheGarden]

Well, here goes a bit off-topic from me.

I like female robots because of their charm. They are so similar to us, yet so different. They have eyes, ears, a nose, a mouth, arms, legs, skin, all that stuff. But at the same time, beneath the skin that wrap their bodies lies metal, they are powered by electricity instead of calories, their eyes can see in night-vision or thermal vision, their arms and legs are so strong because inside them are servos instead of muscle and instead of a brain, they have a CPU to process information. They can't think like us, they don't have emotions and without us, they wouldn't know what to do. They are ( manufacturer dependent ) very intricate and well made machines, and that's what I like about them, not just because they provide sex or something.

On topic, this series is pretty interesting, too bad there's not alot of fembots yet.

[dale coba]

Any pretty fembot made explicitly for non-sexual purposes is not assuredly pure forever. Upload the right programming, maybe install some parts below the panties - voila, her essential nature is unmasked.

If a show set in the future has fembots, but their appearances aren't frequently, overtly sexual, then the writers have failed to project how objects with such inherent potential will be utilized once they become a familiar fixture of life.

I am not expecting Almost Human to attempt to depict such a world. Why is Rudy such a [nerd, dweeb, whatever]? Why hasn't he had many hours of private time with fembots, to coach him, to develop his character and confidence while having sex/fun?

- Dale Coba

[Nathan]

well that sucks, i liked it even if it had very little fembot action.

[tdlsn]

Good riddance.

[WilloWisp]

This was about as surprising as a Garfield comic. Airing episodes out-of-sequence? Airing a different episode than the one listed? Shuffling around the timeslot? This is how Fox tells the world "GTFO our network, nerds."

They do not want us (sci-fi fans in general, not just technosexuals), and only make token efforts to even look like they tolerate us. They're like a high-school football jock who's forced to be nice to a science geek.

[quietness]

http://www.deadline.com/2014/04/fox-dra ... cancelled/

[MisterXYZ (RoboTomo)]

http://www.deadline.com/2014/04/fox-dra ... cancelled/

Well, THAT sucks...

[DukeNukem 2417]

http://www.deadline.com/2014/04/fox-dra ... cancelled/

And FOX proves that they're run by synthophobes once again. Meh.

[Brytestar]

Remember the words RENEWAL CONSIDERATION! Does that make you wonder?

[dale coba]

If they had near as good the writing and production quality as the Scifi Channel's Continuum, Almost Human would have deserved to be saved from cancellation.

- Dale Coba

[Brytestar]

Short of chewing out the writers. Any other ideas? Who would step in? Anyone know the writers?

[Moxon]

Is anyone honestly surprised by this? I could've told you this show was going to fail before it was even released. I watched 5 minutes of the first episode and turned it off. It was your typical b-grade network drivel and was unwatchable.

[dale coba]

It's not like I enjoy the fact that the writers' work so richly deserves skewering. I'm old-ish and have watched way-way-way-way-way-way too much t.v., so I can claim I've seen worse and I've seen better - and the writing for Almost Human wasn't even good.

What other quickly cancelled show should we compare with this A.H., that makes A.H. look better in comparison?

1) Cancelled after one complete season (Ex: The Lone Gunmen, Total Recall 2070, VR5, The Flash, Terra Nova, The Chronicle, Special Unit 2, Nowhere Man, Strange Luck, Journeyman, Charlie Jade, Crusade)

2) Cancelled midseason or after only a few episodes (Ex: Space Rangers, Mercy Point, Veritas, Zero Hour, Century City, Jack & Bobby, Defying Gravity)

3) Never got beyond the pilot or converted into a TV movie (The Osiris Chronicles (Warlord), Island City, River World, Knight Rider 2000/2010, Virtuality, Time Tunnel (2002), Genesis II/Planet Earth)

I know A.H. had to be better than Knight Rider 2000/2010 or Mercy Point, right? But not nearly as good as Total Recall 2070 or VR5.

- Dale Coba

[Diana Knight]

Almost anything produced was better than Knightrider 2010. IMHO.

[dale coba]

Almost anything produced was better than Knightrider 2010. IMHO.

Yeah, I was picking some rather overripe, low-hanging fruit with that reference.

- Dale Coba

[eyebore]

They should have mixed things up and made Kit a Ford Escort hatchback. Granted all the car chases would have to be down hill, but when you're producing something idiotic why not go all in.

[Diana Knight]

[tmc_6882]

http://www.hollywood.com/news/tv/569759 ... shows-fail

BY: MOLLY FREEMAN MAY 14, 2014 | 12:02PM EDT

Another one bites the dust. Last week, Fox canceled one of its few sci-fi shows, Almost Human, reaffirming the network’s reputation as a bad home for science fiction programming. The network may have given rise to the sci-fi kingpin The X Files, as well as the well-liked Dark Angel, but they haven’t been able to find another hit since, which may be the result of too many early cancellations. Most notorious of the killed-too-soon sci-fi series are Joss Whedon’s Firefly and Dollhouse. But Whedon wasn’t the only victim: Terra Nova, Tru Calling, and now the J.J. Abrams produced detective series were all canceled before their time. So where is Fox going wrong?

It’s safe to say that Fox's first misstep took place in regards to Firefly. The show became such a cult hit that Whedon revived it for a concluding film, Serenity, and was asked if he might resuscitate the long-finished series after the Veronica Mars Kickstarter raised enough money to fund a film. Firefly was canceled after a mere 13 episodes when it wasn’t receiving the kind of viewership Fox expected. Given the amount of praise the series has gained in the 15 years since cancelation, it’s easy to see that Fox missed out on a diamond in the rough.

The problem with Fox is that the network never fully commits to its sci-fi shows and expects too much. If Fox wants to have a successful science fiction series on its network, they should give those shows creative freedom. For instance, Fox shouldn’t air episodes out of order (like it did with Almost Human) or try to force a show in a direction they think might be more successful (like it did with Firefly).

At this point, Fox’s bad reputation with sci-fi series has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more that Fox mistreats its science fiction series, the more sci-fi fans decide not to even bother investing in those shows. Science fiction is a niche genre that won’t appeal to as wide a range of viewers as reality competition shows, but that doesn’t mean the audience isn’t there. However, fans aren’t going to invest in a show that could very likely be canceled after 13 episodes.

Either Fox needs to decide it really wants to draw in science fiction fans, which might mean letting a show run a little longer than a single 13-episode season to allow viewers a chance to actually get invested; or, Fox should just give up. They’ve seemed to hit gold with its paranormal drama, Sleepy Hollow, so maybe Fox should stick with projects of that ilk and leave the sci-fi series to networks that will give them a real chance.

[tmc_6882]

http://www.vulture.com/2014/05/kevin-re ... g-fox.html

Reilly’s exit as head of Fox Entertainment shouldn’t come as a surprise his boss, the head of Fox, vetoed his decision to renew those two struggling first-year shows. PLUS: Reilly tried to fix broadcast TV, and was fired.
Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/tv-tattle/2#LGDXYye0hJUdSH4S.99