The Fall season brings in new shows for us to contemplate and then decide what to watch. Sort of like rookies trying out for an NFL team or a Fantasy Draft every year. It usually means we will have to cut some veterans or fill in slots after some of our favorite shows are retired. My television dance card is already very full: Sons of Anarchy, Boardwalk Empire, WWE Raw, Scandal, Greys Anatomy, Elementary and Arrow are all safe. So I have dramas and a superhero/scify concept filling my roster. I added Key and Peele and Real Husbands of Hollywood as comedies after some binge watching. So going into the season I decided I would bolster the superhero ranks with Agents of Shield and wait for the return of Game of Thrones/True Blood for SciFy fix. One day I’ll catch up on Walking Dead and Supernatural on Netflix, but that’s another blog post.

But then something occurred with the heavily promoted Agents of Shield on ABC. It sucked. Me and my Comic Book ADD friends argued over whether it would get better or whether it should be watched. Its supposed to link with Avengers 2 and Avengers 3 but without the big guns like Thor and Hulk. My friends said that we need to be loyal. That Joss Whedon can’t fail. But the show was boring. I had no connection to any of the characters, even Agent Coulson. The characters were all cookie cutter. The white alpha male super spy. The cold and precise Asian “cavalry”. The geeks with accents. The hard nosed leader with a secret (ala Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan). The only person with a semi personality is the hot idealogical computer geek, Skye, who isn’t trusted. I just don’t care about any of them and it’s been over five episodes. I was going to quit after four episodes but my friend begged me to watch another episode because it was better than the first four. We are no longer speaking because he betrayed our trust as that last episode sucked as bad as the others.

Thankfully Almost Human – the highly promoted science fiction series on Fox – from J.J. Abrams came to save the day. Even though Fox ran a promo for the show and during every football game on each of its networks leading into its two night premiere I kept an open mind that it wasn’t just all hype. I considered whether it would be an empty promise like Agents of Shield or will we get character development without the stereotypes and an overall conspiracy like Fringe?

After two episodes I am happy to claim that Almost Human is Almost Great. I like the developing relationship behind Detective Kennex and the Dorian robot. I like the weekly procedural that lives within an overall conspiracy that we get to try and figure out. I like that Minka Kelly is in something interesting post Friday night lights and that her and “Smash” can brag about what they are up to with Coach Taylor and his wife Tami in Nashville. Still holding out hope for Tim Riggins after the John Carter fiasco and Matt Saracen who bombed in Off the Map. Anyway the reasons why Almost Human works and Agents of Shield doesn’t are:

1. I like the characters and already care about them. Detective Kennex gets blown up in his first episode robocop style and has major PTSD and guilt issues. He also has a pretty acceptable hate of androids/synthoids because he unfairly blames them for his loss. He is gruff on the outside but not without a soul. I also like Michael Early’s android, Dorian. He is like Data without the goofiness. Could be his grey eyes, but he is just cool. But not too cool that he can avoid insecurities about being an outdated model that people are all expecting to fail. He knows he is one mistake from being thrown in the scrap heap. How many of us can relate to that in our educational and professional lives? It makes you want to root for him. I still don’t know who to root for in Shield. They even made me not care about Agent Coulson in a short period of time.

2. The larger conspiracy is tucked into a procedural show. So yes, you can watch individual episodes without being bogged down by a larger premise and the individual shows have cool story lines you could expect in the future. Some people think the larger conspiracy is too much like Blade Runner but to be honest most of the 18-24 years olds viewing the show have never watched Blade Runner. Shield has a conspiracy within its show that is linked to our resident computer hacker, Skye, but again I am boy interested because I am not interested in Skye anymore. So I am looking forward to seeing how everything turns out with Kennex and hunting down those that killed his partners and blew off his leg, because I care about him and his character. I also want to know if he gets with Minka’s Detective Valerie Stahl.

3. The relationship between Dorian and Kennex is as natural as Riggs and Murtaugh, Reggie Hammond and Jack Cates, or Marcus and Mike Lowrey. They don’t always get along but they build a relationship of respect. I am sure that respect will grow to true friendship without the sexual tension of “Moonlighting”. They push each other to be better and share their feelings and weaknesses with each other. The Captain’s relationship with Detective Kennex is also a brother/sister vibe and it seems genuine. Even Detective Richard Paul’s hatred of both Kennex and Dorian seems real. The Agents of Shield do not have much chemistry or affection or even true dislike for each other.

For these reasons I have given Agents DVR slot to Almost Human and I’m looking forward to a new episode this week. Maybe Agents will get better and I will return to it upon enough recommendations from you readers (not from my comic book add crew since they have already cried wolf on the show too many times). But I will enjoy getting to know the future as represented by Fox and this android/human team.