‘For some reason, I feel like bursting into song – how about Reflections from Lost Horizon?’
RESIDENT Alien, the new “sci-fi dramedy/murder mystery” featuring Alan Tudyk in a perfect showcase of his comedic versatility, is a fish-out-of-water tale where fish and water are separated by a gulf of many light-years.
Sure, the concept is not all that new – from
Mork And Mindy to
E.T. to
V and so many more, extraterrestrials trying to get by in our midst have entertained or terrified us for decades.
The title character of this new series (based on the Dark Horse comic by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse), however, aims to do both.
Resident Alien Season 1, Episode 4, Birds of a Feather.
Video of An Alien Is Coming To Dinner [SNEAK PEEK] | Resident Alien | SYFY
For those seeking small-town examples of strong women challenging the patriarchy, look no further than Deputy Liv Baker (Elizabeth Bowen). Soft-spoken and insecure, Baker is still no shrinking violet. For although she s been relegated to getting the Sheriff s coffee and translating his language from rated R to something a bit more family-friendly, she has a much better handle on the case of the severed foot (read: the real Harry s foot) than her boss does.
When their all-night lake cruise fails to produce a body, Baker consults the current tide schedule and realizes the corpse must have washed up onshore. Baker uses science and her powers of deduction to arrive at a (quite accurate) conclusion. Meanwhile, Sheriff Thompson (Corey Reynolds) gets there by relying on his, um, primal instinct: I can feel it. In my balls. That sounds. inadmissible in
That there is nothing novel about the basic premise of “Resident Alien,” a showcase for actor Alan Tudyk premiering Thursday on Syfy, is not a problem. Indeed, in its very familiarity the template extraterrestrial(s) stranded on and/or infiltrating Earth hides its/their identity becomes almost a blank slate, allowing as many variations as “Two people with different temperaments live together,” the mulch from which a thousand comedies have bloomed. “Mork & Mindy,” “The Coneheads,” “The Brother From Another Planet,” “Roswell,” the “Roswell” reboot, “The Neighbors,” “Invader Zim” and for that matter Superman are among the many examples to spring from that well.