My Favourite Television Programme, from a Writer’s Perspective

Not surprisingly, my favourite TV programme is a sci-fi series, Almost Human. There are many others I prefer, but that’s the best one showing at the moment. While it’s a rather run of the mill crime detective thriller sort of thing, it is set in the future, and the technology is interesting. It’s more character driven than most, and the hero is a handsome, but somewhat damaged and flawed individual. I like damaged heroes! There’s no romance in it, sadly, but there is occasionally some mild flirtation. More importantly, it isn’t rife with gratuitous sex scenes or foul language.

Almost Human revolves around a detective and his android partner, who has a supposed ‘synthetic soul’, which makes him almost human. It has a bit of fairly funny comedy in it, and I haven’t spotted any instances of deus ex machina or illogical, inexplicable technology, or plot holes. I hate plot holes. I tend to shout ‘ah, come on!’ at the TV when I spot those. They’re annoying! So, the writer wrote him or herself into a corner and couldn’t figure out a good way to extricate him/herself. That doesn’t give the writer carte blanche to ‘make it so’ because that’s just ‘the way it is’. Or, worse still, ignore the problem. Put some effort into it, people! TV audiences aren’t morons, and I stop watching shows that irritate me. If I sit after the show wondering how the heck that made any sense at all, I’m not going to annoy myself with more of the same next time that show’s playing.

Almost Human also has believable action scenes. The hero is sometimes beaten up, and he and his android partner save each other from time to time, each having abilities the other lacks. That makes them easier to relate to and sympathise with, making the audience inclined to care about them and root for them. So, hats off to the writers of Almost Human. Good job.