12 years after being canceled this ahead of its time sci-fi series is finally able to be stream for free on Tubi
When people talk about sci-fi on television, a few giants jump to the front of the line. The X Files. Battlestar Galactica. Fringe. Firefly. On the movie side, you hear Blade Runner and The Matrix. One title that rarely gets mentioned right away is Almost Human, a short lived Fox series from 2013 that put a fresh spin on the buddy cop formula. It had the right cast, the right world, and in many ways the right ideas at the wrong time. Now it has a second life. You can stream Almost Human for free on Tubi, which makes it easier than ever to see what fans were raving about during its brief run.
Almost Human is set in 2048, a future where technology has raced ahead faster than most people can handle. Crime has surged as black market tech, bio enhancements, and weaponized software outpace traditional policing. In response, every human officer is assigned an android partner. Detective John Kennex, played with world weary grit by Karl Urban, rejects the standard issue MX units that follow rules to the letter but cannot read a room. He ends up paired with Dorian, a discontinued DRN model designed to emulate human emotion. Michael Ealy plays Dorian with humor, empathy, and a quiet edge, turning what could have been a gimmick into the heart of the show.
The pilot wastes no time establishing its hook. Kennex is a damaged cop who survived a massive ambush that cost him his leg, his partner, and his sense of purpose. Dorian is a machine that feels too much in a world that does not want him to feel anything at all. Together they walk a narrow line between instinct and logic while chasing criminals who use tools like face swapping biotech, illegal synthetic organs, and predatory smart homes. The crimes feel ripped from near future headlines, the kind of speculative police work that sits halfway between cyberpunk fiction and tomorrow’s local news.
Casting is a big reason the show still plays well. Urban and Ealy build a lived in partnership by episode two, cracking jokes about olive oil in coffee one minute and weighing the value of a human life the next. Minka Kelly brings warmth as detective Valerie Stahl, Lili Taylor anchors the precinct as Captain Maldonado, and Mackenzie Crook adds prickly charm as the resident tech whisperer. The interplay is light on its feet, but it stays grounded in the idea that empathy is a strength, not a bug. You can feel J. H. Wyman’s Fringe DNA in the pacing and in the way the series treats its futuristic gadgets as extensions of human choices rather than magic boxes that solve the plot.
Production values also stand out. Shot in Vancouver, the show leans into rain slicked streets, neon reflections, and tactile props. The world looks used. Police gear has scuffs. Dorian’s synthetic irises are beautiful and eerie without turning him into a special effects showcase. The score, with a theme by J. J. Abrams and music from The Crystal Method, gives the action a pulse without drowning it in noise. When the show slows down, you hear it breathe.
If you remember any discourse around Almost Human, you probably remember the episode order drama. Fox aired several episodes out of order, which blunted character arcs and muddled the build up of the show’s central crime syndicate. Viewers could still follow the cases of the week, but small continuity threads landed with less punch than intended. It is a classic case of a network trying to lead with the most exciting standalones and paying a price in long term momentum. Fans still share preferred watch orders so newcomers can experience a cleaner narrative flow.
The cancellation stung. After only one season and thirteen episodes, Fox pulled the plug in April 2014. Reports at the time pointed to a mix of ratings pressure and production cost, which is the same story many genre shows face when they are more ambitious than the schedule can support. The decision left loose threads on the table, including deeper questions about Dorian’s origins and how far Kennex could come back from the brink. Even so, the season works as a complete meal with a clear first bite and a satisfying final note between its two leads.
Revisiting Almost Human today, the show feels prophetic. Conversations about synthetic partners and rights for sentient machines are no longer the stuff of distant futures. Cities already wrestle with predictive policing, facial recognition, and private security drones. The series takes those trends and frames them through a partnership that argues for nuance. Kennex is not a technophobe so much as a man who hates tools that reduce people to lines in a codebase. Dorian is not a Pinocchio story about a machine who wants to be human. He is a person with a job who expects respect. That framing gives the cases emotional weight and sets the show apart from colder police procedurals.
Streaming on Tubi lowers the barrier for discovery. There is no subscription to weigh and no season count to scare you off. You can drop in for a few episodes and decide if you want to keep going. If you do, consider following a fan suggested order that keeps the personal beats in sensible sequence. Even in aired order, the show’s mix of humor, heart, and tech noir style shines through, but the alternate path tightens the screws in a way that better rewards the relationships.
If you love the grounded future of Blade Runner, the character forward casework of Fringe, and the wry warmth of Firefly’s crew dynamics, this series sits right in your wheelhouse. It never drowns in exposition, it rarely pauses to admire its toys, and it keeps its focus on two partners teaching each other how to be better. That is timeless television, whether the badge is pinned to a cop or embedded in an android’s chassis.
Twelve years on, Almost Human reads like a show that arrived early to the party. The tech now feels close to everyday life, the questions feel current, and the core duo still spark. It did not get the chance to evolve into the multi season standout it might have been, but it did leave thirteen hours of sharp, human sci fi that earns a recommendation. Fire it up on Tubi, pick a watch order, and let Kennex and Dorian take the wheel for a weekend. The ride is fast, funny, and far more thoughtful than most shows that burn this bright for this short a time.
Screen Rated 