Resident Status

There are a handful of television series named for their principle character -- and the character is usually a spotlight for an actor to go broad and make a meal of the role. I think no one has ever been given license to ham it up like Alan Tudyk on the series Resident Alien.

Over three seasons (and counting), Resident Alien is the story of a literal alien from outer space who assumes human form, replacing the doctor of the fictitious Colorado mountain town of Patience. He tries to maintain his cover as he plots the destruction of the human race -- but the longer he maintains human form, the more he begins to sympathize with the lowly creatures and to consider abandoning his mission.

Award shows continue pushing the lie that one hour shows are "dramas" and half hour shows are "comedies"; Resident Alien strongly demonstrates how untrue that is. Sure, each season-long arc tracks some impending jeopardy, touches on emotional developments in the lives of people of Patience, and features its share of heartfelt conversations. But the north star of Resident Alien is letting Alan Tudyk act as ridiculously as possible and do anything for a laugh.

Any fan -- of Firefly, or Rogue One, or Harley Quinn, or any of the countless Disney movies in which Tudyk has voiced everything from a duke to a tech guru to a rooster -- will know that Alan Tudyk can steal any scene he's in seemingly without effort. And no thievery is necessary in Resident Alien; the scripts are just written to hand over the goods. The show is reliably over the top, but always in service of storytelling and/or a good laugh.

It takes a while for the regular human characters to be fleshed out anywhere near as well as the show's titular alien. But many of the show's earliest and best laughs come from the alien's rivalry with a child played by Judah Prehn. (The two characters are about on the same level of maturity.) The town sheriff played by Corey Reynolds emerges as an outsized buffoon that would easily be the wildest character on any other show. Then suddenly, almost before you know what's happened, you find yourself caring about the other major characters played by Sara Tomko, Alice Wetterlund, Elizabeth Bowen, and others.

Many recognizable faces from comedy and science fiction ultimately come along to play for an episode or a protracted run, including Linda Hamilton, Terry O'Quinn, Alex Borstein, Enver Gjokaj, and Edi Patterson. (Voices too! See -- or actually, don't see -- George Takei, Clancy Brown, and Nathan Fillion.)

Through 3 seasons, each of a wildly different number of episodes, Resident Alien never quite reached "must-see" status for me amid other compulsively-watchable shows I follow. Yet at the same time, it was always good for some fluffy fun, and there was never any question that I would eventually watch all the episodes and be exactly where I am now: waiting for season 4 to arrive. If you need a lighter addition to your TV diet, Resident Alien might be the show for you. I give it a B+.