In 2013,The Boys’ Karl Urban starred in a sci-fi series calledAlmost Humanthat had all the makings of a hit, but only lasted one season. Throughout his career, Urban has played plenty of iconic characters: Judge Dredd, Bones in theStar Trekreboot trilogy, Éomer inThe Lord of the Ringstrilogy, and, of course,Billy Butcher inThe Boys. Urban’s delightfully profane performance as Butcher has made him a bigger star than ever, and a staple of the small screen.
Urban’s character inAlmost Humancould’ve joined that iconic rogues’ gallery and made him a staple of the small screen six years earlier, but the show never got a chance to get off the ground. Usually,when a TV show failsas quickly and spectacularly asAlmost Human, the reasons are clear: it got terrible reviews or the cast’s chemistry didn’t click or it was derivative of much better shows. ButAlmost Humandidn’t have any of these problems and it was still a one-season wonder.
Almost Human Put A Sci-Fi Spin On A Classic Buddy Cop Story
Set in 2048,Almost Humantakes place in a dystopian future where rapid advances in science and technology have caused crime rates to rise by an astonishing 400%. To combat these escalating crime rates, the police enforce a new policy that requires every human cop to be paired up with a combat-model android partner.Urban plays John Kennex, a grizzled detective who resents these android copsbecause one of them left his old partner to die. Michael Ealy plays Dorian, the cyborg assigned to be Kennex’s new partner.
Mismatched detectives are a time-tested character dynamic, and forcing a robot-hating human cop to work with a robot cop was a great way to use that dynamic to explore sci-fi subjects like A.I. and self-identity.
This premise put an interesting sci-fi spin on the classic buddy cop story. Mismatched detectives are a time-tested character dynamic, and forcing a robot-hating human cop to work with a robot cop was a great way to use that dynamic to explore sci-fi subjects like A.I. and self-identity.Almost Humanwasexecutive-produced by J.J. Abrams, soit had one of TV’s most successful hit-makers at the helm. But Fox canceled it after one season.
Why Almost Human Was Canceled After Just 1 Season
Low Ratings & High Production Costs Doomed The Show
On July 18, 2025, Fox canceledAlmost Humanafter just one season. The cancelation was blamed on a combination of low viewership figures and high production costs.Making a show about androids set in 2048 doesn’t come cheap, soAlmost Humanneeded a huge audience to justify its bloated budget. The show needed similar ratings toCSIin order to score a second season. On top of that, Fox’s fall schedule was already jam-packed, soAlmost Humanhad to be squeezed out.
