From Emmy Award-winning executive producer J.J. Abrams and creator/executive producer J.H. Wyman, comes Almost Human. Starring Karl Urban and Golden Globe Award nominee Michael Ealy, the new series is an action-packed police procedural set 35 years in the future, when police officers are partnered with highly evolved human-like androids. The year is 2048. Meet Detective John Kennex, a cop who survived one of the most catastrophic attacks ever made against the police department. After waking up from a 17-month coma, he can’t remember much – except that his partner was killed, he lost one of his legs and he is now outfitted with a highly sophisticated synthetic appendage. Suffering from depression, mental atrophy, trauma-onset OCD, PTSD and the "psychological rejection of his synthetic body part," John returns to work at the behest of longtime ally Captain Sandra Maldonado. By mandate, every cop must partner with a robot. And despite his passionate aversion to androids, John is paired up with a battle-ready MX-43. But he abruptly terminates his partnership after the robot discovers incriminating information about him.

So technician Rudy Lom introduces John to Dorian, a discontinued android with unexpected emotional responses. Although such responses were deemed flaws, it is in these "flaws" that John relates to Dorian most. After all, John is part-machine now, and Dorian is part-human. John and Dorian’s understanding of each other not only complements them, it connects them. As he adjusts to working with his new partner, John also must learn to get along with his new colleagues, including the sharp and insightful human intelligence analyst Detective Valerie Stahl and the distrustful Detective Richard Paul who does not welcome John back with open arms. Almost Human will follow the week-to-week missions of John and Dorian, as they fight crime across this futuristic landscape, while the mysteries surrounding John’s attack and the larger mythology of this new world unfold... 

J.J. Abrams (Fringe, Lost, Revolution, Star Trek franchise), Bryan Burk (Revolution, Person of Interest, Fringe), J.H. Wyman (Fringe, The Mexican), Naren Shankar (CSI, Grimm)

A buddy cop series set in the near-future. The human cop has an artificial leg and his partner is an android. Of course, the android series was "discontinued" when they began showing emotion. That emotion will make the android at least as human as his human partner and teach the human things about humanity (not unlike Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation). Like most shows this year, I don't see a long future for this, but I'm interested. Two things: the leads are John and Dorian. Homage to Scrubs? Minka Kelly, my transcontinental airplane seatmate (it's true!), gets to carry a gun and (one would believe) kicks ass. That alone will make me check it out.