Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Alan Tudyk, Sara Tomko, Corey Reynolds, Alice Wetterlund, Levi Fiehler, Judah Prehn, Elizabeth Bowen, Meredith Garretson, Kaylayla Raine, Gary Farmer, Ben Cotton, Alex Barima, Jenna Lamia, Diana Bang, Linda Hamilton, Alvin Sanders, Trevor Carroll, Terry O’Quinn.
In one of the most inventive and comical series of its kind, Resident Alien has been a refreshing combination of satire and down-to-earth comedy drama, one that plays upon the old idea of the miscommunication of the stranger in town, the traveller from abroad who is unaware of the social customs and niceties and who in time comes to be appreciated for what he can offer rather than what is expected of his kind.
The fourth season of the series is about change and its final consequences, the ability to adapt and learn truths of your pain and how you wish to be remembered, perhaps as having been a person who was able to bring out the best in someone who maybe lost, caught in the comfortable surroundings of their home town but never realising just how important it is to view the world and other cultures so that you can revise your opinion, and perhaps take something of theirs and spread the word on just how worthy, even noble, it is to others.
This is not confined to the main character, played by the ever reliable Alan Tudyk, it is a course travelled by almost every person within the show, but especially Sara Tomko as the town’s nurse Asta Twelvetrees who finally sees the worth of her experiences and leaves town in search of something bigger, and Alice Wetterlund as D’arcy Bloom, the once golden girl of the town who sacrificed herself to attain Olympic glory, but who suffered afterwards and turned to the bottle to ease her pain, she matures thanks to Alien Harry’s offhanded truth and finally reconciles her disappointments and fears as one.
Resident Alien has been one of the standout series on television in the last few years, its combination of comedy and observant keenness of the modern day American remote town, of how small and yet significant the feelings of people might be when considered against the bigger, more universal picture; and it is to this, the ensemble grouping which has barely altered over the course of the series, which makes it a deserved recipient of praise and recommendation.
Ian D. Hall