Karl Urban's Pre-The Boys Sci-Fi Crime Series From J.J. Abrams Was Canceled Too Soon

These days, Karl Urban's television presence is most associated with the role of Billy Butcher on Amazon Prime Video's "The Boys." And when one hears his name in the same sentence as J.J. Abrams, the immediate assumption is that the Abrams-produced trilogy of "Star Trek" films — in which Urban played Leonard McCoy in a performance that honored DeForest Kelley — is what is being discussed. However, Urban had another TV role and another collaboration with Abrams: the Fox series "Almost Human."

Debuting in 2013, "Almost Human" was executive-produced by Abrams, but was actually created by J.H. Wyman. The two had previously worked together on "Fringe," which was co-created by Abrams but on which Wyman was a showrunner. Unfortunately, despite mostly positive reviews, Emmy-nominated special effects, and strong initial ratings that bounced back by the end of Season 1 after a mid-season dip, Fox didn't give "Almost Human" a second season. A combination of Fox already having an overstuffed Fall 2014 lineup, plus "Almost Human" being rather costly to produce, ultimately outweighed its strong but far from incredible viewership numbers. 

Fox rather infamously aired another of its fledgling sci-fi shows, "Firefly," out of order. The network debuted the show with the episode "The Train Job," which confused viewers, as that episode didn't seem interested in introducing the world or its characters. That's because the two-parter "Serenity" was meant to air first. As such, people needed to go online and have the "Firefly" timeline explained to them. By that point, the damage had been done, and "Firefly" became forever relegated to being one of history's best one-season shows. 

Not learning its lesson, Fox did the exact same thing to "Almost Human." In the show, Karl Urban stars as John Kennex, a police officer working in a future where every officer is paired with an android partner — a fact that doesn't sit well with him because of his dark past with androids. So, the dynamic at the center of the show is Kennex learning to get along with his partner, Dorian (Michael Ealy), and watching them gradually bond as the show goes on. 

Apparently, the higher-ups at Fox only took a cursory glance at the show and saw each "Almost Human" episode as a self-contained, monster-of-the-week type of thing. To be fair, that isn't entirely inaccurate, as each episode's main plot does tend to get wrapped up each week. However, the overarching relationship between Kennex and Healy is what the entire show is ultimately built around, and airing the episodes out of order saw them be close to friends one week and then back to acting like combative strangers the next. Like with "Firefly," that just left people confused, and once you lose a viewer, it's almost impossible to get them back.