Joe the Neanderthal has a slightly pulp-noir ambiance, but is set in the near future. It centers around Joe Myers, a journeyman rock drummer who, while on the run from his homicidal sister, stumbles into a seaside bar where a reality show about a Jersey rock band is being filmed. He is quickly enlisted to play drums in the project only to discover that one of its members is a rogue scientist intent on tweaking a state-of-the-art robot named Gulf. As Joe embarks on an affair with an emotionally damaged woman, he gradually befriends Gulf as well as a detective who is stalking him. Together they investigate what it means to be human in a dystopian world where the divide between man and machine is on the verge of becoming blurred.