Why Resident Alien Deserves All the Awards
A love letter to a TV show that delights and surprises.
Full disclosure: I’m not that into sci-fi. My partner James is a massive fan of the genre — it’s almost exclusively what he reads.
Me, I’m a fan of a good story. I can get on board with sci-fi novels, shows, and movies as long as there’s a good story (which there often is!) I just don’t often seek them out.
So, a couple years ago when James suggested we watch a new show on SyFy called Resident Alien, I was less than enthused. It sounded silly — not quite my cup of tea — but I always end up liking the shows he picks out, so off into the world of Patience, Colorado I went.
I don’t think I’ve ever been so pleasantly surprised by a TV show. It is silly. It’s a comedy about an alien whose spaceship crashes on Earth while on a mission to annihilate the human race. It’s gonna be silly.
The alien, played by the incredible Alan Tudyk, is a shapeshifter. The first thing he does (obviously) is kill the town doctor and assume his form.
This alone leads to comedy gold — the alien not only has to figure out how to blend into human society while he tries to locate and repair his ship, but he also has to figure out how to pass for a doctor.
