Fox’s Almost Human Farewell Video Twists The Knife

Did Fox forget they're the ones who canceled it?

By David Wharton | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

Almost Human isn’t the first young science fiction show I fell in love with, only to see it canceled all too soon. It’s definitely isn’t the first one canceled by Fox: Joss Whedon’s Firefly is by far the most predominant, but it’s just one in a long, long line of Fox sci-fi casualties. And sure, it’s kind of unfair to hate Fox outright. After all, they gave these shows a shot they might not have had otherwise. But as much as I’m trying to be evenhanded about the whole Almost Human thing, Fox sure isn’t making it easy by releasing the above retrospective video, which is the audiovisual equivalent of packing salt into the wound.

Listen, Fox, it’s great to know you apparently recognized that Almost Human was a good show. Kudos to you for recognizing how much fun it was to watch Kennex (Karl Urban) and Dorian (Michael Ealy) banter but still have each other’s back when the shit hit the fan. I’m in the midst of rewatching Almost Human right now for an upcoming article, and this little retrospective does highlight a lot of the things I love about the show.

But…you guys are the ones who canceled the show. I know, I know, Almost Human wasn’t doing a bang-up job in the ratings, and I get that showbiz is ultimately as much about the biz as it is about the show, and Almost Human wasn’t cheap to make. It was a business decision. It sucks, but I get it. But I’m frankly a little mystified at what the hell Fox was thinking here. Who is this video for?

The fans? I’m pretty sure most of Almost Human’s fans are going to react the same way I did. It’s like the guy who stabbed your girlfriend to death sidling up next to you at the funeral and saying, “Man, she was a great lady, I’ll really miss her.” Whatever the intent behind the message might be, it’s just going to make me want to smash your metaphorical head against the nearest equally metaphorical tombstone.

Or is the video intended as a self-applied pat on the back for making a good show? Well, if you loved Almost Human enough to be mourning its loss with a memorial video, if you were that confident it was a solid show that deserved a bigger audience, you should have put your money in your piehole and given it a second season. Or, hell, maybe you could have just aired the show in the right freaking order in the first place. Because I’m watching it in that order right now, and it improves the show in a ton of ways, both large and small.

So this video thing? Just a bit disingenuous. If Fox was trying to connect with the fans and have a little, “Well, we gave it the old college try” moment, I don’t think that’s gonna happen. Instead they’re just adding more fuel to Fox’s reputation as the Graveyard of Promising Genre Shows.