Almost Human Continues Stealing From The Futurama Playbook

Right on the heels of 2013's last Almost Human — in which we learned that, thirty-five years from now, America still won't have enacted universal single-payer health insurance and black-market organ transplants will still take place — this year's first episode informs us about yet another contemporary problem that we can't count on future thinkers to have solved. To wit: energy shortages will still occur. In the case of this week's episode, this means that rolling blackouts are limiting the degree to which all the police force's androids can be charged. This makes no difference to the ones in the emotionless MX line — not that they would worry about it even if they could, since they've been granted charging priority over Dorian. And Dorian does not take it well: apparently, the consequence of a DRN android receiving a partial charge is to give him the robot version of a hormone surge, and he takes his mood swings out on the whole force, starting with Paul, whom he punches in the face.

Dorian has a solution to his constantly getting jammed out in favour of his MX cousins: he doesn't want to live at the cop shop anymore. If he can't have his own place, can't he just move in with Kennex? After all, Kennex has that whole room he's not even using! (Kennex's claim that what Dorian terms unused space is actually his trophy room doesn't seem very convincing.) By the end of the episode, Dorian has saved Kennex from a serial bomber, and let it never be said that Kennex is ungrateful: he does appeal to Capt. Maldonado and gets Dorian sprung from the police HQ and into a robot/human cohabitating situation. Except he won't be living with Kennex: he'll be shacking up with Rudy. [Sad trombone.]

If an episode ending with a robot and a human deciding to split rent seems familiar, that's probably because you've seen TV before: it hearkens back to the Season 1 Futurama episode "I, Roommate" you may have seen when it first aired, or any time in the fourteen and a half years since then. And this isn't the first time Almost Human has "borrowed" from Futurama. The whole premise behind Dorian's "synthetic soul" is reminiscent of the emotion chip Bender tried for the S2 episode "I Second That Emotion." Sexbots, as in Almost Human's second episode "Skin," have run throughout Futurama, including at least one instance I can recall offhand when Bender was a robot pimp. Almost Human's clones in the "Blood Brothers" episode are but a criminal spin on Prof. Farnsworth's clone Cubert. And in Futurama's New New York, organs aren't just sold on the black market: they're sold on the street, out of a sketchy dude's trench coat.

Fortunately for Almost Human, there are seven seasons of Futurama for it to plunder. Here are some of the Almost Human episodes I'm pretty sure we can look forward to, and the Futurama episodes for which they serve as "loving homage."

S02.E02: Dorian's Inferno

Due to a clerical mix-up, Dorian gets relocated to a locked storage space for decommissioned androids, known within the police department as "Robot Hell"; will Kennex get his partner out, or enjoy the silence? (See also: "Hell Is Other Robots.")

S02.E03: Kappa Gamma Android

An accidental blast from a taser turns Dorian into a total party animal, who starts spending all his off-duty hours corrupting the morals of the MX androids. (See also: "Mars University.")

S02.E05: The Sweet Science

When Kennex needs quick cash to upgrade his prosthetic leg, Dorian volunteers to help raise funds by getting involved in an underground fighting league, though none of his opponents can quite figure out how he manages to stay unscathed.... (See also: "Raging Bender.")

S02.E08: Controlling Interest

When a cyberterrorist attacks the company that builds all the police department's androids and remotely reprograms their operating systems, Kennex has a hard time keeping Dorian from committing all manner of criminal activities. (See also: "Mother's Day.")

S02.E13: Dynamite

In the explosive season finale, Kennex goes about his daily business with Dorian, oblivious to the fact that Rudy's accidentally implanted Dorian's robot glutes not with an extra battery, but with a tiny but powerful bomb. (See also: "War Is The H-Word.")