“Resident Alien” Rocks!
We’ve all seen plot elements of this show before, in such shows as Mork and Mindy, My Favorite Martian, ALF, and Coneheads, among others. The core story varies but little; an Alien comes to Earth, either crash-landing or voluntarily visiting. For one reason or another, he exists as a fish out of water among us, learning about humanity, behaving awkwardly at times, struggling to understand us, and gradually coming to like us.
Based on a Dark Horse comic and set in the town of Patience, Colorado our alien masks his natural reptilian-type appearance with some kind of molecular projection. He has assumed the appearance, identity, and possessions of the first human he encountered, an unfortunate doctor whose body now reposes in the freezer. A scientist on his own world, our alien’s original mission was to sow a destructive device intended to exterminate humanity. An atmospheric storm caused his vessel to crash-land on our planet, however, so the parameters of his mission have been altered…
Resident Alien is at core a dark comedy, with actor Alan Tudyk doing an extraordinary job of portraying the alien Dr. Harry as kind of a clueless 10-year-old boy who frequently misreads social cues, having learned our language and culture from television. His facial expressions are all slightly off, he does a simulated laugh that is quite remarkable, and he is rather pleased with himself when he successfully makes a joke. At a social gathering, his requested beverage is “milk drawn from a cow’s teat.” Dr. Harry’s medical knowledge of humanity is all taken from Google…
…and being an extraterrestrial visitor impersonating a human can be complicated. The small town law enforcement team is closing in on the murder he committed, his home planet is unhappy with him, and not-quite Men in Black agents are also posing a threat to him…
Happily, Resident Alien has been renewed for a second season, and we will see how some of these plot complications play out. If you’ve arrived late to the party as I did, you can stream Season 1, and Harry will be riding tall in the saddle until late January when Season 2 arrives. It’s two paws up for Resident Alien… 🦊
Tags: Resident Alien series
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FOXSYLVANIA 
January 10, 2022 at 9:45 pm
I wonder if his people know that the “aliens” in Earth’s old s-f flicks are purely fictional?
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January 12, 2022 at 11:59 am
There have been a number of movies where actual aliens have developed their understanding of Earth from old TV transmissions of the 1950’s and ‘60’s. Tim Allen’s “Galaxy Quest” is one example, with the “good” aliens regarding a Star Trek- type show as “historical documents.” 👽
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January 12, 2022 at 5:06 pm
True! And, way back in the Eighties, Robert Picardo (pre-STAR TREK: VOYAGER) starred in “The Explorers.” Providing the voice for a visiting monocular organism who had telepathically given three teenagers instructions on how to build a short-range, faster-than-light spacecraft! So he could meet them on a space station far away from b/w xenophobic Earth (seen in just the kind of film montage you mentioned).
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January 14, 2022 at 3:25 am
Reading the review, I was struck by the resemblance to Starman, the movie. This movie starts out with an alien beam scanning a human hair from a deceased man. It moves on rapidly from there. THat’s what I like about movies: they move fast. THey don’t fuck around the way TV does so often.
— Catxman
http://www.catxman.wordpress.com
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January 19, 2022 at 7:02 pm
Actually, what you describe was a story element of STARMAN borrowed for the pilot/premier of what is basically a new Syfy Channel series. Whether the rest of the series lives up to the production values of the pilot/premier remains to be seen!
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