Resident Alien (2021-Present)

My free Peacock ran out, so I don’t have that streaming service anymore, but when I did, I enjoyed watching Resident Alien. Though it can at times feel a little less than the sum of its parts, it’s entertaining and features some talented people.

Unbeknownst to the residents of Patience, Colorado, their town doctor is actually an alien. Living in a remote cabin under the identity Harry Vanderspeigle, the alien is forced to come to town when the previous doctor dies unexpectedly and the mayor is in need of someone to conduct the autopsy and run the clinic. It’s Harry’s first experience actually interacting with humans, and despite his extensive study of human behavior via Law & Order marathons, his impersonation isn’t exactly foolproof. But as Harry gets more and more involved in the town, especially in the friendship he strikes up with a nurse named Asta, he finds it harder to stay detached from humanity.

This is a wild show. The design for Harry’s alien body is cool and weird, Patience is peopled by typically-quirky small-town characters, and there’s a recurring plot about the one person in town who can see through Harry’s human disguise and sees him in his natural form—this means that, in their scenes together, we get random shots of an alien dressed in human clothes doing “normal” things like eating pie at a diner or giving someone the finger. And Alan Tudyk’s performance as Harry is so entertainingly odd. He really puts his whole body into playing someone who genuinely does not know how to pass as a human. Whether through his clenched-teeth smiles, his arhythmic vocal cadence, or the way he moves through scenes, everything about him screams that he doesn’t understand the ways of those around him.

The overall cast of characters is pretty broad, and even though many of them are painted along tropey lines—the young mayor who tries too hard to attract tourism to Patience, the former golden girl turned nihilistic townie, the big-city cop who can’t adjust his scale to being a small-town sheriff—it all mostly works. I especially like Asta, who rolls with Harry’s weirdness but expects better of him when he’s rude or dismissive. Even though she’s positioned as a straight man compared to the larger-than-life Harry, Sara Tomko’s grounded performance keeps her interesting and engaging. I also enjoy the sheriff and his long-suffering deputy, the real brains of the operation. (Side note: the sheriff is played by Corey Reynolds, who I still remember for his Tony-nominated performance as Seaweed in the original cast of Hairspray.)

Other recurring cast members include Gary Farmer and Sarah Podemski, both of whom I really like on Reservation Dogs—between these two and Tomko, I like that this show features a number of Native actors, despite not being a “Native show.” And on the more alien/Area 51-type storylines, we get appearances from Linda Hamilton, the always-good Enver Gjokaj, and Terry O’Quinn (Locke!)

Warnings

Violence, language, sexual content, drinking/smoking/drug use, and thematic elements.