Syfy’s adaptation of Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse’s “Resident Alien,” starring Alan Tudyk, has been in the works for a long time: to put it in perspective, Tudyk’s casting was announced the same day Brec Bassinger was cast in Stargirl. Well, it’s finally here, and the first episode is an unexpectedly dark, funny, and poignant delight.
“Pilot”
Written by Chris Sheridan
Directed by David Dobkin
1. Darker than Expected
Full disclosure: I’ve only read a few issues of the one of the later “Resident Alien” series (“An Alien in New York“), so I didn’t expect such a dark (literally and figuratively) beginning for Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle, where he murders the real Vanderspeigle, and assumes his identity after crashlanding on Earth. It’s apparent that Harry doesn’t hold humans in high regard, constantly comparing us to less intelligent Earth lifeforms, before it’s revealed that he still intends to carry out his mission of destroying us — and of course, while under the influence, Harry tries to murder Max, the boy who can see his true appearance: this is E.T., if E.T. was one of the Martians from War of the Worlds. (I suppose I should’ve seen it coming after the image of him removing a guy’s brain in the opening titles.)
2. The Alien Detective
One of the most common ways you’ll hear someone describing what it’s like to be autistic is to be compared to an alien (I always loved that analogy, it makes us sound cool). Seeing Harry behave like Sherlock Holmes, effortlessly deducing the cause of Dr. Sam Hodges’s death, while baffling everyone else with his absolute lack of manners and decorum, emphasized the parallel: Holmes is a character widely suspected of being autistic by fans, and like Holmes when it comes to the nature of the universe, Harry is brilliant at some things, but completely clueless about others.
3. America’s Underbelly
Patience, Colorado, seems like a tranquil town, perfect for a Christmas break (despite the lack of pizza), but if Hodges’s murder wasn’t proof enough, there’s something bleak beneath the facade, something we also see when Hodges’s former assistant, Asta Twelvetrees (Sara Tomko), is confronted by her abusive, estranged husband, Jimmy. It’s also something Asta emphasizes to Harry when she talks about how her own assistant, Jay (Kaylayla Raine), would’ve had nothing apart from the streets if she hadn’t hired her: it’s not said outright, but Asta and Jay both appear to be indigenous, and their respective backstories embody the awful history between white and Native Americans, and the ongoing deprivation in Native communities today — they reflect what Harry’s people likely hate about humans.
4. A Story about Assimilation
Speaking of racism, Sheriff Mike Thompson, aka “Big Black” (Corey Reynolds), is an interestingly conservative character: he insists on people using his nickname, despite Mayor Ben Hawthorne (Levi Fiehler)’s discomfort with it, and throws around the phrase “snowflakes” to mock the notion anyone may need therapy after Hodges’s death. Despite this, the scene with his deputy, Liv (Elizabeth Bowen), in the police car shows he has a clear disdain for local radio, implying he’s not as comfortable with being in a small town as he may appear. The show was likely written well before the current discourse about whether the number of Black police on film and TV is oversized and harmful, but it’ll still be interesting to see if there is more complexity to Thompson than a hardass cop who happens to be Black.
5. A Painful Sense of Humor
The first episode of Resident Alien has a distinctly offbeat energy that makes it feel closer to a cringe comedy like Fleabag, or Veep, despite being as absurd as a more broadly comedic show like Legends of Tomorrow, or Doom Patrol (where Tudyk played Mr. Nobody). A lot of that has to do with the pacing and tone, but also because you’re genuinely curious about Harry, and how he perceives our world, meaning it takes longer than usual for your brain to realize, “wait, that was really funny.” For example, you’re wondering how Max will slip away from Harry’s fingers, and only afterwards do you wonder, “where did Harry learn to use the finger?” There’s also some obvious, wince-inducing moments you’re glad to get away from, like when Hodges’s widow walks in on Harry as he’s… doing something with the corpse’s brain.
Continued belowBonus Thoughts:
– OK, what was Harry doing massaging Hodges’s brain like that?
– So why can Max see Harry’s true appearance? Although the episode is shot as much, it was clearly a physical transformation, not a psychic projection.
– The opening credits being styled like a safety manual are a great reminder that instruction guides are, in their own way, a kind of comic.
– The cinematography here was really good, it didn’t feel as oddly claustrophobic as other Syfy series shot on location.
Really enjoyed this episode, and look forward to next week — in the meantime, be sure to let us know what you thought of Resident Alien‘s debut in the comments.
