Blood Brothers had one real goal tonight. Bring Valerie and John closer together. Now people who "ship" relationships will be very excited. While others will groan when the two most attractive people in the show are paired together just like every other show you've ever seen. Initially I was against the idea, since Almost Human is such a great shift from the regular dramas you find on network TV. However, I am the first to admit: when something works, it works. They aren't drowning us in it, and they're exploring their relationship with some finesse.

I love Chicago Fire. I went into "You Will Hurt Him" knowing several stories I was very invested in would be either concluding or expanding. I was not only supremely satisfied with them, I was again amazed and surprised by the other stories as well. Something I've grown to be accustomed to with this show.

Want to know what happens tonight in "Off The Record"? In short, more of the same. Any good moments in tonight's episode are tainted by the show's horrible understanding of character and the elements that make for a good drama. Sandrine agrees to be a mole and takes two new Canadian passports and 10,000 in cash from Logan the Secret Service guy as payment. Brian goes on and on to his kids again about "cooperating, not collaborating" while Duncan and his team lock them in a room with a padlock. Right then and there I knew this episode was going to be terrible - using Stockholm Syndrome to keep them padlocked in a room protected by a wooden door they could clearly kick in is lazy beyond belief. But don't worry, Hostages took that to an even more insane level.

The Bends finds John and Dorian investigating a double homicide. Not just any double homicide, but a double homicide where one of the victims was a potentially shady police officer with a large amount of a drug nicknamed "The Bends".

New and familiar faces populated "Rhymes with Shout" tonight.

Two main stories dominated this episode. One revolved around Leon, Cruz's little brother. After witnessing a little girl get gunned down in their neighborhood, Cruz and Leon are informed by Voight and Detective Lindsay (her first introduction as a cast member of the upcoming spin off Chicago PD) that an increase in Leon's former gang in the area was to blame. Voight then becomes typical conniving Voight and threatens to look into the fire that killed Leon's former gang leader Flacco if Cruz didn't let Leon go back into the gang and become a CI. After some kind of terrible advice from Casey who tells him to "trust that he'll make it out on his own this time" (seriously, what?), Cruz is forced to watch as Leon leaves to join the gang again. It was interesting to watch Detective Lindsay use the unfortunate death of their 10 year old neighbor to strong-arm and convince Leon. Their cop unit seems ruthless when it comes to getting what they need to take down the bad guys. It was also great to see the Cruz character get some real meaty stuff to play with.

In true Hostage fashion, "Burden of Truth" picks up right where the last cliffhanger left us. Ellen (like the rest of us) is trying to find out why Duncan felt like he had to assassinate the president to get a bone marrow transplant. She poses questions such as:

Are you Receiving? takes on the hostage episode. Now, if you're a TV watcher who watches a lot of drama like myself, you'll already know that some shows have done this episode way better than others. I'm happy to say on Almost Human with it's unique spin on the police procedural, and their own spin on the hostage contained episode, they knock it out of the park.

Wow. what an episode.

For the first time (at least from what I recall) Chicago Fire had only one "call" for the whole episode. However, boy was it a call.

Yikes. That was my reaction after watching "Loose Ends". Once again Hostages fails to deliver. They set themselves up multiple times to provide some quality storytelling and answers - and took the easy way out every time.

Episode Two titled "Skin" has arrived.

This episode finds John and Dorian investigating the murder of Sebastian Jones, a high end sex bot maker at the hands of two thugs and a beautiful woman who seduces him. Dorian quickly proves his usefulness when he identifies that the murderers used a DNA bomb to eliminate all trace evidence from the room. He also reviews security camera footage and determines that the beautiful woman was an android herself, and that the men used flash masks to conceal their identities.