Every now and then we just need a change from epic, sprawling sci-fi epics like Foundation or mind-bending future dramas like 3 Body Problem. Every now and then it can get a little stupid, it can get nastyhumor can also play with the idea of killing a few annoying children. Sounds like something for you? It gets even better.
The sci-fi satire Resident Alien on Netflix has all of these factors. But there is also a good pinch of heart that you wouldn’t have expected. In the mix, that could really fall on the blue and purple alien nose. But it doesn’t. Because the series has a secret weapon in the form of its main actor.
In Resident Alien, an alien is stuck on Earth and has to pose as the local family doctor
On the whole, Resident Alien is a kind of comedy of errors. Hah Re, an alien captain with a noble mission (at least from an alien perspective), is actually supposed to destroy the Earth. But before he can detonate his weapon of mass destruction, his spaceship crashes. Hah Re is stuck. Of all places, in the remote little town of Patience, Colorado.
The first person Hah Re meets is a reclusive retired doctor, Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle. Hah Re overpowers him, transforms his appearance and assumes his identity as a disguise. Inconveniently, “Harry” is soon asked by the townspeople to return to his old job. The town’s acting family doctor was found murdered.
Harry reluctantly slips into his new role, has to learn to behave like a human – and becomes curious. By chance, he enjoys investigative workHis assistant, Asta Twelvetrees (Sara Tomko), also piques his interest. Her stubborn nature somehow fits in with his strange one. And he may start to like his new home a little more than he planned.
Resident Alien is wonderfully black humorous and strange – not least thanks to Alan Tudyk
Harry is not your average protagonist. Harry is not a human being and Harry doesn’t really like us real people. Especially not his arch enemy, who just happens to be a primary school child. More than once our protagonist (yes, he really does become a PROtagonist over the course of the series) plans the death of a child. And that’s all damn funny.
Because what would perhaps fail gloriously in other constellations works here, above all, thanks to the comedy talent of Alan Tudyk. He carries both human and warm moments, as well as borderline disturbing and bitterly evil ones. His way of immersing himself in the role of Harry and to devote oneself entirely to strangenessmakes Resident Alien an experience.
Resident Alien stirs together every emotion imaginable in its big bowl of bizarre ingredients, confusion and small-town chaos. Alan Tudyk and Sara Tomko convey them ingeniouslyAnd in the end, we learn together with Harry that humanity is perhaps a little more beautiful than we would like.
Resident Alien is currently part of the streaming program on Netflix.