In the first season, a certain alien flew to Earth with a mission to destroy all life: the tribesmen of the Alien came to the conclusion that the earthlings are too backward and undeveloped, and the people of the Alien need a new planet for development. However, as a result of some incident, the Stranger lost the bomb, and his ship crashed near the town of Patience, Colorado.
The alien had to move into the body of Dr. Harry Vanderspiegel (Alan Tudyk), well, and somehow settle in these parts. In the process of learning, the Alien befriends Asta Twelvtrees (Sarah Tomko), a nurse at a local hospital. Because of his friendship with Asta, the Alien decided not to kill the entire population of the Earth, but simply was going to fly away on his spaceship to his home planet, however, when the Alien had already started, it turned out that the child Max Hawthorne (Juda Pren), the son of a local mayor. This ended the first season.
During the return to Earth – the Alien cannot take the child to his planet, he simply will not survive there – the spacecraft was badly damaged. It is not possible to fix it, and then the Alien disposed of the ship, receiving in return an emergency kit, consisting of four balls of a mysterious purpose, which somewhat expand the Alien’s capabilities.
However, the Alien fails to calmly enjoy life in Patience in the body of Harry Vanderspiegel. First, local sheriff Mike Thompson (Corey Reynolds) and his deputy, Liv Baker (Elizabeth Bowen), came pretty close to unraveling the story of Dr. Vanderspiegel and the murder of the city’s only doctor, Sam Hodges.
Then an intelligent octopus, which the Alien discovered in the aquarium of a local restaurant, reported that the Alien’s tribesmen sent another creature to Earth, which should destroy all earthly civilization. The alien is in a panic: he is trying to find some way that would allow at least Asta to escape, but Asta categorically refuses to be alone, so the alien will have to work to save all the people of the planet.
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The first season of “Alien from Space” was great, I really liked it. The series was based on the Resident Alien comics, created by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse, but the personality of the alien was greatly changed: in the comics, he was a pretty nice character, and in the series, the Alien is a real asshole from outer space: he is evil and cynical, and only friendship with Asta makes him change it somehow, although not much.
The beginning of the second season was never impressive at all: Bublik and I watched the first episode and thought that somehow we didn’t particularly want to watch further. However, we always give the season a chance and decide whether we will watch it or not by watching at least the first three episodes.
And they didn’t regret it, because the second episode was already noticeably more fun – there the sheriff and the deputy came close to the issue of revealing the identity of Harry Vanderspiegel – well, in general, the season went on quite smoothly, and we watched it not without pleasure. By the way, like the first season, the second season ends with a certain cliffhanger (#this is a twist) that sets the stage for the third season, and it has already been announced that the third season will be released from February 1 to April 5, 2023.
What did they do with the second season? Well, I must say that the writers failed to come up with something fundamentally new for this season. All the same story – before the Alien was going to destroy everyone, now he is trying to save everyone – and most importantly, all the same characters, and without much development. Something relatively new appears only in the penultimate series, but this is just a touch on the third season.
The alien was what it was, it remained that way, but that’s just fine, because the type was invented very cool: an evil alien creature in the body of the charming Harry Vanderspiegel, who, nevertheless, is sincerely attached to Asta, because without Asta it would be completely lonely on alien planet, and which is like part of that force that always wants evil, but in the end does good.
Alan Tudyk, back in the first season for the Alien, found a completely hilarious manner of communication and facial expressions, and in the second season he literally brought it all to perfection: despite the fact that in the second season not everything revolves around the Alien, all episodes with him are completely hilarious, and Tudyk is certainly the decoration of the series, and only for the sake of it the second season can be watched.
Asta, the second most important character, is still, as they say, “on horseback”, but this heroine has not received any noticeable development this season (as, I note, and all the others). He still supports the Alien, constantly communicates with his closest friend Darcy (Alice Wetterlund), tries to communicate with his biological daughter (in the first season there was more drama with this, but here it’s just for the sake of formality), and, in general, , all.
The slightly goofy mayor played by Levi Filer and his wife Kate played by Meredith Garretson are almost the same from the first season, only they added a variety of sexual preferences here, and this, on the one hand, looked funny at times, but, on the other hand, with this was a clear overshoot.
The unfortunate Darcy Bloom, played by Alice Wetterlund, is just as badass and still trying to confidently derail her life, and Asta and her other friends worry about her. Also no character development: what was – then they used it.
The sheriff and the deputy played their main roles in the first season. Here they continue the same line and are quite active: the sheriff is still very funny with his manner of speaking and the tricks of the southern sheriff from old westerns (despite the fact that the sheriff himself is African American), and Liv Baker still pulls the main job, but with the sheriff added some drama, and his relationship with Liv became closer and more touching. Likewise – nothing new, but the couple is still very funny.
With the kids – Max and Sugar – the story from the first season is also chewed up, but, however, there are funny moments related to the fact that Max makes an alien balloon that Max stole from the Alien, but that’s all.
Almost the only thing that the writers brought to the second season was a feminist agenda. Unequal pay, harassment, all sorts of other women’s issues run like a red thread throughout the season, reaching a peak in the third episode. I really have nothing against it, and unlike many other viewers, it doesn’t annoy me at all, but I just wanted to ask the writers: are you making a series about an alien and the destruction of life on Earth, or are you concerned about the agenda? It just looked rather strained and artificial. And this was clearly overkill.
However, I note that in the third series, Alex Borshtein (Suzie Meyerson from The Amazing Mrs. Maisel) appeared as a guest star, on whose heroine the entire series was built, and in the end, on a far-fetched one, don’t even understand for which the stage turned on the music from the old cult series, which I love very much – and for this I forgave a lot of things this season.
What is the result? Tudyk is still gorgeous. As a continuation of the first season – well, in general, it’s quite good, but since there is no real development, it can be assumed that with the third season they will already slide into an open swamp. However, in the penultimate and last episodes, they made a reserve for the third season, which can still be interestingly beaten – well, we’ll see.
So the first season is a must-see, the second is possible, but you are unlikely to lose anything if you do not watch it. In what we with the cat Bagel and subscribe.
Upd: It turns out that the second season was not released in its entirety: 8 episodes were released, and in total there will be 14 episodes in the second season. The idiotic way of breaking the usual season into two parts has reached here as well.
Resident Alien. Season 2
Director: Chris Sheridan Cast: Alan Tudyk, Sarah Tomko, Corey Reynolds, Alice Wetterlund, Levy Fieler, Judah Pren, Meredith Autry, Elizabeth Bowen, Keith Arbuthnot, Mandell Maufan, Gary Farmer, Gracelyn Awad Rinke, Alex Borstein
Series, USA, 2022, 46 min. Black humor comedy, 2 seasons, 10 episodes in 1 season, 14 episodes in 2