Almost Human 1.10: Killer Genes

An excellent Almost Human 1.10 tonight, with two parallel stories - one episode specific, the other series wide - chocked full of science fictional detail, the usually good humorous touches, and having little to do with robotics.

Among the best futuristic touches, we have "chem printers" - a take-off from today's 3-D printers, except the chem printers create drugs not tangible technologies - and a nice post-it note effect, which I don't recall seeing used to such an extent on this show before, in which digital notes tossed across the room adhere to screens.  And there's also a Mendel Institute, where designer genes are implemented in humans, and a reference to "McGregor" (I assume that's the way it's spelled), in the same breath as Einstein, meaning that this McGregor is a scientist of the same iconic importance as Einstein, who hasn't yet made the earth-shaking contribution as of February 2014.

Best humor is a sequence in which Kennex's driving under the influence (of drugs) causes his car to crash with Dorian in the passenger seat, which results in Dorian's ear being clipped, and some funny repartee to follow.   I know, but I always liked The Three Stooges.

The stories are also good.  "Cromes" are humans with genetically designed genes and improved intelligence, looks, etc.   We already knew that Valerie is one of these, and tonight's episode focuses on the deaths which turn out to be murders of two young cromic women.   A nice whodunit, with a somewhat surprising culprit, and one who refreshingly for this series has nothing to do with some high-tech syndicate or villain bent on ruling the world.

The series-wide story is about as important as it gets, as Kennex begins to have memories of what almost got him killed and apparently got him betrayed by the woman he loved.   We still don't know much about this, but his returning memories, even though drug induced, are a step in the right direction for the plot, as is the revelation at the end that he's being bugged.   Presumably it's not the NSA, but you never know.

Looking forward to more next week.

See also: Almost Human debuts: A Review ... Almost Human 1.2: Sexbots ... Almost Human 1.3: Change of Face ... Almost Human 1.4: Almost Breaking Bad ... Almost Human 1.5: Clones and Holograms ...Almost Human 1.6: The Blackmarket Heart and Double Dorian ... Almost Human 1.7: Meets Criminal Minds ... Almost Human 1.8: Guided Bullets ... Almost Human 1.9: Literally Bad Robot

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Like science fiction about genetic engineering? Try The Silk Code