Almost Human: 1.1 "Pilot"

Series summary (from FOX): The year is 2048. Meet Detective JOHN KENNEX, a cop who survived one of the most catastrophic attacks ever made against the police department. After waking up from a 17-month coma, he can't remember much – except that his partner was killed, he lost one of his legs and he is now outfitted with a highly sophisticated synthetic appendage.

Suffering from depression, mental atrophy, trauma-onset OCD, PTSD and the “psychological rejection of his synthetic body part,” John returns to work at the behest of longtime ally Captain SANDRA MALDONADO. By mandate, every cop must partner with a robot. And despite his passionate aversion to androids, John is paired up with a battle-ready MX-43. But he abruptly terminates his partnership after the robot discovers incriminating information about him. So technician RUDY LOM introduces John to DORIAN, a discontinued android with unexpected emotional responses. Although such responses were deemed flaws, it is in these “flaws” that John relates to Dorian most. After all, John is part-machine now, and Dorian is part-human. John and Dorian's understanding of each other not only complements them, it connects them.

As he adjusts to working with his new partner, John also must learn to get along with his new colleagues, including the sharp and insightful human intelligence analyst Detective VALERIE STAHL and the distrustful Detective RICHARD PAUL, who does not welcome John back with open arms.

ALMOST HUMAN will follow the week-to-week missions of John and Dorian, as they fight crime across this futuristic landscape, while the mysteries surrounding John's attack and the larger mythology of this new world unfold.

I'm watching this because: It's from J.J. Abrams (Alias, Lost, Fringe) and J.H. Wyman (Fringe). Enough said.

Recap: Detective John Kennex (Karl Urban) is involved in a terrible attack in which he loses his partner and his leg and ends up in a coma for 17 months. He is desperate to learn the truth of what happened, so he visits a back-alley doctor to try to regain his memory. He has apparently been visiting this doctor for some time, even though the process is quite dangerous.

The next day, his boss convinces him that it's time to return to work. He's given an MX (android) partner, as it's now mandatory for each cop to have an MX as a partner. Things don't go well with that partner, and he's soon assigned a new one—Dorian (Michael Ealy), an earlier MX model who has human emotions. While John doesn't trust Dorian at first, the MX soon proves himself invaluable.

John soon discovers that recent crime in the city is connected to the attack that put him in the coma. He and Dorian work together to find the culprits, and they learn that the police headquarters—and something in the evidence locker—is the criminals' ultimate target.

They aren't fast enough to stop the attack on headquarters, but they are able to drive off the criminals and capture one of them before too many cops are killed. The police have no idea what the criminals were after in evidence, but we soon learn that it's a woman—perhaps an MX of Dorian's generation?

Reactions: This has a definite Fringe vibe to it with weird science and gross visual effects, and that is fantastic! It also has some genuinely humorous moments ... something that was sorely lacking in Fringe. Urban and Ealy are perfect together, and I think it will be fun to watch their relationship develop. I've been missing good sci-fi, and this looks like it could fill that void.

Keep watching? Absolutely. I can't wait for episode two tomorrow!