Netflix Sci-Fi Comedy Series Gives Fan-Favorite Actor His Best Role

Resident Alien’s story follows an alien who’s on a mission to wipe out all of humanity. Unfortunately, things start to go awry when he crash-lands in a small town in Colorado. Making the best of a bad situation, the alien kills off a physician and assumes his identity as Harry Vanderspeigle. 

Being a human isn’t easy though. Despite watching Law & Order reruns on repeat to learn how to pretend to be a medical examiner, he still struggles with connecting with people in real life. His behavior and speech are off, and he doesn’t usually pick up on social cues while talking with others. 

As he helps people while playing the doctor of the town, he finds himself struggling with completing the mission assigned to him to kill off all of humanity. He starts to care for some of the humans and see them as people worth protecting. Unfortunately, the mayor’s son, who is able to see his true form for some reason, makes his life difficult in several ways. 

Resident Alien is a comedy, but the comedy stops short of being too simple or too bland thanks to the plot of the story. There are elements of all kinds of humor, including sarcasm, witty lines, and dark humor that help to offset the rather dark premise of the show. 

The series is based on a comic book series, also titled Resident Alien, by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse. The comic was made up of seven miniseries published from 2012 to 2022. The comic was set to add a fresh breath of life to aliens depicted as monsters, and the comic certainly delivered.

The freshness was further brought to life with the Resident Alien TV show adaptation. Chris Sheridan (Family Guy) is responsible for bringing the comic to life.  

Resident Alien features some great actors, most notably Alan Tudyk (Firefly), who plays the alien in question, Harry Vanderspeigle. Additional cast include Sara Tomko (Once Upon a Time), Corey Reynolds (The Closer), and Alice Wetterlund (People of Faith).

Resident Alien is still in production, with Season 3 having finished in April 2024. The series has managed to stay well-loved throughout the seasons so far, with a critic review of 97 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and an audience score of 85 percent. 

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I find that, despite the rather basic premise of Resident Alien, the series is funny and a breath of fresh air. Alan Tudyk is a majority of the reason the show does so well. I’ve always loved Tudyk as he played comedic roles, such as in A Knight’s Tale and even the little chicken, Hei Hei, in Moana, and this series gives him the chance to really embrace that hilarity and show how well he can do when he’s in his element. 

While Resident Alien is on Netflix, that’s not the only place you can watch it. It’s also available on Peacock for those who want to use or have a different streaming service.