Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 01:00:19 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Resident Alien (Alan Tudyk show)

Started by Ant Farm Keyboard, April 10, 2021, 10:33:20 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Ant Farm Keyboard

The first season (ten episodes, it's also been renewed) is over, but there hasn't been any thread about the show here, while it could be of some interest to a few people, as it's a sci-fi dramedy with a rather original concept.

Resident Alien, originally on Syfy, is about an alien, a squid-like creature, stuck in America after his spaceship crashed. He then stole the appearance and identity of some human, a doctor called Harry Vanderspeigle, he accidentally killed, spent months in his house (in a remote area) discovering humanity through Law & Order reruns, until he's called in the closest town to replace the local doctor who just died and has to blend in with other actual humans.

Alan Tudyk plays the alien, and he is predictably a blast in the part of a tone-deaf weirdo. It's based on some comics, but the adaptation puts the emphasis on the main character being an asshole towards everybody, especially as his mission (revealed at the end of the pilot)
Spoiler alert
is to wipe all human life on Earth.
[close]
He displays a lot of pettiness and arrogance, especially in his narration, which is always delightful.
The rest of the show is more hit and miss, but it finds its stride towards the eighth episode, where they change the dynamics between a few characters.
The stuff with the mayor's kid who, due to a genetic anomaly, is able to see through Harry's disguise (and whom Harry fails to kill repeatedly due to his own ineptitude) is usually very good. So is Alice Wetterlund's character, as a former Winter Olympics hopeful with low self-esteem (Wetterlund was previously on People of Earth, another sci-fi comedy-drama about alien intruders). Or the sheriff's assistant, who's been doing the most of the job but gets no recognition from her boss.
Not good: the stuff with the mayor or his wife, which gets quirky and tedious, the total lack of prejudice in rural America (it's shot in Canada, and the place definitely feels Canadian), the side plot about the army trying to find the alien. This one hurts, as, in addition to Linda Hamilton, it has Mandell Maughan, who was great on Bazillion Dollar Propertie$. She's mostly asked to played a plain sociopath, while it was her desperate need for validation that made her character work on BDP.
Hit and miss: Asta Twelvetrees, the Native American who's also the doctor's assistant. Her backstory turns melodramatic early on, but when they get the character focused on her interactions with Harry, the actress works quite well as the straight woman to Tudyk's antics.

If you can overlook some of the dull moments (ie. whenever Tudyk, the kid, the deputy sheriff or Wetterlund aren't on screen), it's very entertaining.

Alberon

I liked the show, but did feel it faded towards the end of the season. The army plot was totally arse and it would have been a far better show without the forced melodrama in the last few episodes as well. Hopefully it can get over that bollocks and get back to Tudyk's fish out of water antics. Sometimes smaller is better.

St_Eddie


olliebean

I enjoyed it more than I expected as I'm not normally a fan of Tudyk, but I do feel this role suits him particularly well. Kept meaning to start a thread while it was on and then forgetting, so I'm glad someone else has been less flaky than me.

phantom_power

He was channelling the aliens in Galaxy Quest a lot in his portrayal I think, which is no bad thing

MojoJojo

Is this streaming anywhere in the UK, or do I need to get my tricorne hat?

Neomod

I enjoyed the earlier episodes but it kind of petered out for me. I only kept watching because of Sara Tomko who I'm sweet on.

ArchieGemmel

Quote from: MojoJojo on April 12, 2021, 11:38:32 AM
Is this streaming anywhere in the UK, or do I need to get my tricorne hat?

It's on Now TV.

Have had it saved in my 'to watch' list for a while but haven't started it yet.

phantom_power

Alice Wetterlund is great in this, and was great in People of Earth. She should be in more things

timebug

I liked it but agree it sort of petered out along the line. Pity, it was initially nicely quirky and made me laugh. Later on, not so much....

phantom_power

I thought it got better as it went on. I was a bit bored to start with but as the characters developed and actors like Wetterlund got the let their weird loose a bit more it became more interesting.

A good cliffhanger going into season 2 as well

SteveDave

I enjoyed the first 5 or 6 but once the scope got bigger and now Sarah Connor's involved I'm wavering.

dissolute ocelot

I automatically assume that anything on Sky One is going to be shit, but Tudyk is normally worth watching, so maybe I'll have to readjust my prejudices once I've watched every episode of the Magnum reboot.

SteveDave

Quote from: SteveDave on April 15, 2021, 11:15:08 AM
I enjoyed the first 5 or 6 but once the scope got bigger and now Sarah Connor's involved I'm wavering.

It turns out I'd seen 9 episodes of this so we watched the last one last night. It was quite good. It did feel about 3 episodes too long.

Head Gardener



I thought Alice Wetterlund was good in it but her stand-up comedy routine is a bit lame https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Edm_8ZO5FP8


The Culture Bunker

Quote from: SteveDave on April 15, 2021, 11:15:08 AM
I enjoyed the first 5 or 6 but once the scope got bigger and now Sarah Connor's involved I'm wavering.
Same for me - liked it a lot at first and I watched up to the episode where
Spoiler alert
they were trapped up in the mountains and nurse lady found out he was an alien
[close]
and found I had gotten bored of it. A lot of the smalltown stuff earlier on was fun, though I didn't like at all the stuff with Harry's wife..

I keep meaning to back to finish the series, but there's not much motivation to do so at the moment

Famous Mortimer

Episode 9, for no good reason, was a total filler episode where Harry and Asta meet Giorgio Tsoukalos from "Ancient Aliens" at an alien convention. Oh, and the Mayor now seems indifferent to welcoming new people to his town, and he and his wife are completely fooled by the two agents. When you've only got ten episodes, you really shouldn't need to have lulls like this.

I've enjoyed it, and will wrap up season 1 tonight. I'm rooting for Harry to blow up the Earth, honestly.

phantom_power

Quote from: Head Gardener on May 07, 2021, 10:40:04 AM


I thought Alice Wetterlund was good in it but her stand-up comedy routine is a bit lame https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Edm_8ZO5FP8



Yes, she should stick to acting

Famous Mortimer

Here's an article from the showrunner about season 2

I finished it last night, and the feeling it was padding things out was hard to shake. Yet that article complains about them not being able to give enough screen time to Linda Hamilton. What about the entire episode at the alien convention? Why not cut that shit?

Alberon

She probably cost too much and they only had her for a day or two of shooting.

Famous Mortimer

I'm sure that was the case, but the way the showrunner phrased it seemed to me, to be more like they just couldn't find the time for her character.

Ant Farm Keyboard

Season 2 has started.

There's been a massive effort to reshape the mayor, his wife, and sheriff Big Black into something more interesting, and I quite like it. Tudyk also got the opportunity to bring his best Jerry Orbach impersonation.

Famous Mortimer

I like how they're going with season 2, but it's handy before I get too excited to read back my comments from season 1. Saying that, the most recent episode was really good, and it's rare to have a show with as many really strong women characters as this one does.

Ant Farm Keyboard

The main issue of the latest episode was that they used a ton of generic low-cost songs during the party to preserve their budget (still they bought the rights to a much more famous song for the last scene of the episode), and it sounded quite off.
The stuff with the mayor and his wife, which I felt was a chore during season one, is much more pleasant. Who knew it would just take some gag balls or suspiciously large icicles to make them interesting?

Anyway, I've just found out that we'll only get eight episodes this winter...
and it's because it's only the first part of the season, with the rest of the episodes coming this summer. I'm not sure it's eight plus eight, but it looks like that they have significantly expanded the episode order for season two.

https://tvline.com/2021/12/09/resident-alien-season-2-premiere-date-syfy/

phantom_power

It's not on in the UK yet is it? Will it be on Sky/Now TV at some point?


timebug

I am finding series 2 different, but somehow a bit funnier (to me). Tudyk just has one of those faces that is made for playing weirdo's anyway!

Ant Farm Keyboard

There were many good lines in the latest one. The delivery of "Don't forget to like and subscribe" was a thing of beauty.

Famous Mortimer

It's really strong. I kept seeing Nathan Fillion's name in the opening credits but enjoyed the shows so much I kept forgetting to look for him - obviously, he's the octopus, disappointed it took me this long to figure it out (or just look it up).

Linda Hamilton and her lot aren't very smart, though. They've had the other doctor for two months and haven't done any experiments on him? I presume it's going to have a payoff of some sort, but this feels a little off somehow.

But, never mind my grumbling. The way it has so many women in central roles, all given interesting things to do (none of whom are the typical body shape for TV), is often written and directed by women...I really like it.

Ant Farm Keyboard

The scene with the two kids at the dinner was great, especially when the girl yells something at Harry that's silenced in the mix, as we see that particular moment from outside the window.

It's quietly turning into something special.