Television: Almost Human, "Straw Man"

I feel like maybe I missed something here. Like, shouldn't the season have been building up to Dorian's review? Seems like a missed opportunity. It means that I had very little tension about or investment in that part of the plot.

The core story linked back to Kennex's dad, something they've hinted at a few times in the course of the season. Here we finally got most of the story: Kennex Senior's big collar was of the "Straw Man," a man who targeted runaways and homeless people, killed them, removed their organs, and stuffed them with straw. Seems like a lot of work, really, but everybody needs a hobby, I suppose.

But then . . . Shortly after this big arrest, Daddy Kennex was accused of stealing evidence (robotics) and selling it on the black market, then he was killed in the line of duty, so leaving a taint on his name.

Last night saw the return of the Straw Man killings, even though the supposed killer was in prison. So there was the whole "copycat" angle, but it was soon pretty clear they were dealing with the real, original killer (the stitching up of the bodies was apparently exactly the same).

And a visit to the man locked up for the crime revealed that Kennex Sr. had been convinced of the man's innocence and was onto something much bigger, something involving dirty cops. Hmm.

Long story short, our Kennex and Dorian did eventually find the actual Straw Man. He'd been harvesting parts in order to deal with some kind of biological problem, and he also had—tada!—many robotic parts as well, so that he'd become a kind of self-made man cyborg.

So: Kennex finished his dad's work and cleared his dad's name. Oh, and Dorian passed his review and was allowed to keep working with Kennex. He even gave Kennex a neat new prosthetic leg, the latest model.

But have we really solved whatever Kennex's dad was digging at regarding the dirty cops? I wasn't entirely clear on that.

This show seems to have a lot of balls in the air. The "Syndicate" thing that involves Kennex's ex-girlfriend, and Kennex's dad and whatever he was on to, and the weird memory stuff going on with Dorian, and whatever John Larroquette is doing on the other side of the Wall. I mean, I love a show that has multiple layers and a strong mythology, but . . . For whatever reason, here it seems very choppy. As if these things only surface when it's convenient to the plot, or when someone goes, "Oh, man, shouldn't we remind everyone about that?" I assume it might all tie together at some point; it's not difficult to draw a few lines between things. Still, I just wish the show were a bit more even-handed about it all.