Okay so Almost Human is finally getting my attention

A hacker for hire by the name of "Nico" that got arrested in "Almost Human."
This guy was an interesting character. However, I thought the portrayal of
hackers in last night's episode was laughable with eyeliner, light rods straight
out of an early 90's rave, and a good portion of them actually looked hot.
Come on, I know some hackers and they have acne and are out of shape.

Okay, so I'm going to admit now that Almost Human is finally getting my attention. When I first started watching this show, I was surprised at how boring some of the episodes ended up being. But now, things are starting to gel and I like it. Monday night's episode had to do with Smart Home technology, and this is what I do for a living. I have to admit, I never went down the road where Smart Homes could end up killing people, but I suppose it could happen in the absurdly high-tech future.

What I install for a living are environmental controls for people who can't move (quadriplegics). Imagine controlling the thermostat, the television, the satellite, all your lights, cameras, fan, radio, and basically anything electronic with the sound of your voice. Well that technology is right here, right now. I make it possible for someone to look at a camera, see who's at the door, and then open the door from the bedroom to let them in. But all of this is done through Insteon, X-10, and infrared technologies. It doesn't involve a personal hologram that stands in your living room and communicates with you like a human being and has its own artificial intelligence to provide you with all the security and environmental control that you could ever desire.

I suppose that's the next step, right?

In "Disrupt" (the episode that aired Monday night), Almost Human imagined that next step and then took it to the dark side by posing the question: What if a hacker who hates you killed you with your own house?

Right now, the technologies to do this kind of anonymous murder don't exist. I don't even think they exist in Bill Gates' house. But who knows, it could be a different story twenty years from now. Maybe we will have houses that are so hermetically sealed that they can have all of the oxygen sucked out of them to put out, say, a fire. A hacker (as the one in the show) just makes it so the house doesn't see anyone living in the house before doing this and voila, asphyxiation by vacuum while standing at the dish washer.

I found particularly horrific the death of the woman that got trapped under the pool cover while swimming. This pool cover was made of some kind of unbreakable plastic. It didn't even crack when the husband pounded on it with what looked like a fire extinguisher. The Smart Home just covered her up with the transparent top while she was swimming and she didn't even notice it was happening. How awful, right?

Now don't get me wrong. I haven't become a raving fanboy of Almost Human overnight, but I am intrigued. I want to see what's over the Wall (Dorian's creator fled there at the end of one episode). The existence of the Chromes has raised all kinds of ethical questions in my mind (which has been good for tabletop discussion). And the world development has finally reached a point where I get it and am starting to care for some of the characters. So yeah, I'm actually starting to hope it might be renewed. It's still no Sleepy Hollow though. That show just knocked everything out of the park.