Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Alan Tudyk, Sara Tomko, Corey Reynolds, Alice Wetterlund, Levi Fiehler, Judah Prehn, Elizabeth Bowen, Meredith Garretson, Gary Farmer, Diane Bang, Jenna Lamia, Kaylayla Raine, Gracelyn Awad Rinke, Alex Barima, Linda Hamilton, Mandell Maughan, Sarah Podemski, Deborah Finkel, Ben Cotton, Justin Rain, Trevor Carroll, Alvin Sanders, Terry O’ Quinn, Nathan Fillion, Nicola Correia-Damude, Michael Cassidy, Kesler Talbot, David Bianchi, Enver Gjokaj, Jan Boss, John Innes, Paul Piaskowski, Robert Moloney, Eleanor Walker, George Takei.
Aliens are amongst us, not that they want to be of course, but just by the simple fact that we are not trusted to be left to our own devices, they walk around constantly shaking their heads in wonder of absolute ineptness and misplaced superiority.
It is not the fear of being subjugated, dominated, and annihilated by beings that see the Earth as a valuable prize, it is the sense of having to explain ourselves and the red tape that is invariably associated with the fear of first contact; and even when the alien is more than capable of descending to our level when the need, or the situation arises, it is still a case of the universal language that requires work to bring species together.
If the first series of Resident Alien pushed the boundary of comedy, then in its second series it digs deep into its own spectacular mythos and brings the audience closer to the alien who took over the image, if not the true personality, of Harry Vanderspeigle.
Based upon the graphic novel by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse, the television adaption of Resident Alien is a piece of art in itself, it is vibrant, colourful, prepared to highlight the plight of the modern Native American, and the mirroring of the alien from the stars, and the beauty and insight of the microcosm of small town America, perhaps in itself just as strange to the viewers in Britain to whom the closest equivalence would be perhaps if they were to lose their way and find themselves in one of the many villages of Wales or Cornwall; people and places with their own marvellous insight of what makes a society.
It is in the mix of tense and true confrontation and superb observational humour, portrayed with distinction by the likes of Alan Tudyk, Sara Tomko, the excellent Alice Wetterlund, and Corey Reynolds, as well as the sublime authority figure of General Eleanor McCallister, played by the legendary Linda Hamilton, and Terry O’Quinn as the alien hunter Peter Bach, that the miscommunication that ensues is one of generous dialogue, one that is not afraid to insist that the unspoken text be taken as seriously as the articulated wit and comedy.
The second series sees the alien/Harry become more embroiled in the affairs of the town, and despite his best intentions, become more attuned to the concept of humanity; and with his own turmoil of being left alone and finding a kind of faith in the future with the addition to his life of a child, of the army narrowing the search area of his position, and the introduction of the fearsome Greys with their own agenda, the series is one of pleasurable groove, of outlandish innocence magnified, and a feast for the science fiction/ serious family drama combination fans.
Resident Alien is the strange and eccentric made human, a face of the extraordinary given prime television real estate, and one that gives the imagination a huge boost of adrenalin.
Ian D. Hall