Missing 3rd Rock? Resident Alien Has Just The Cure

Some days, he just wants to kill other people’s children. And I’ve felt the same way at times, so that makes him endearingly human. Even though he's an alien. Even though he's a squishy, bug-eyed, mucous-y, murdering monstrosity.

But hey, opposites attract, right?

I now have a standing appointment with Resident Alien every Wednesday night, and it's done me a world of good. Although I've only been watching for two months (it premiered January 27), it's already my #1 favorite.

Fellow 3rd Rock Fans, Meet Resident Alien

A show with the geek appeal to follow 3rd Rock from the Sun doesn't just fall out of the sky, of course. Resident Alien is a double-geek treat, born of a comic book of the same name, created by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse, and adapted for TV by the highly talented writer Chris Sheridan (Family Guy). You'll notice the opening credits give a little nod to this cool factor with comic book sketches leading into the show.

Like 3rd Rock, the story line follows the adventures and adversities of an alien who's living incognito among humans. Through fresh eyes, we get to view the absurdities and complexities of humanity, allowing us to laugh at ourselves while reveling in all the sweet, wondrous things that make us uniquely human.

It's a prescribed theme that's stood the test of time: even though 3rd Rock only ran five years, it won so many awards you can get a blister just scrolling through them. The series ended two decades ago, but it's still considered one of the best shows of its genre.

If you think that means this shtick has all been done before, I would counter that it's never been done like this before. With Resident Alien, the whole aliens-studying-humans premise that 3rd Rock made famous gets even better. If you craved 3rd Rock because you loved the comedy, but need more than one-dimensional genres, then Resident Alien is your turducken, with the best bits of all your favorite shows rolled up into one.

In fact, Syfy calls it The Sci-Fi Murder Mystery Doctor Dramedy that Earth needs now. While you'll adore it as a 3rd Rock fan, it's also a great next series to watch for any more recent show featuring a fish-out-of-water character, like The Big Bang Theory, The Office, The Good Doctor, Family Guy, Stranger Things, The Simpsons or even Living Alaska. With Resident Alien, you really can have it all.

(By the way, I’m not trying to be exclusive of vegans with my turducken analogy, but the only vegan comparable I could think of involved tofu, and tofucken just sounds so rude.)

Start with an idea they loved to the moon and back

To create the perfect show to follow 3rd Rock, I believe the most important ingredient in the formula is to give fans more of what they loved the first time. To see what I mean, here’s a quick summary of what Resident Alien is all about – don’t worry, no spoilers, as the show is very fast-paced and this all happens pretty much within the first episode.

Resident Alien is based on a comic book of the same name, created by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse, and adapted for TV by the highly talented writer Chris Sheridan (Family Guy).

The plot follows the adventures and adversities of an alien, whose spacecraft crashes near the small town of Patience, Colorado. The alien soon comes across Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle (VANDER-spee-gull; rhymes with beagle), a man living alone in a remote cabin outside of town, and globbersphates him by plunging him through the surface of a frozen lake. (I just made up the word “globbersphates,” because “murder” doesn’t quite cut it.)

The alien then takes on the human form of Dr. Vanderspeigle, and learns how to walk, talk, eat, shave, brush his teeth, and otherwise act like a human from watching TV. While many of us were also raised by our television sets, this show has a fresh take on how this shapes the alien’s personal interactions down the road.

In his spare time, the alien searches for missing parts of his broken space craft, as well as a mysterious device he lost upon crashing. We soon learn the purpose of the grapefruit-sized device – and the alien's mission – is to globbersphate all human life on Earth. He also tries to find the real Harry Vanderspiegle’s body, because he knows a corpse washing up on shore that looks exactly like him could lead to awkward conversations with the townsfolk.

Sure enough, his solitary life comes to an end when humans come calling. Turns out the town of Patience has lost their only doctor (who’s died under mysterious circumstances), and they’d like Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle to fill in while they find a replacement. Thus the fun begins as the alien, who now goes by the name of Harry, is forced to not only interact with these confounding humans, but to practice medicine on them as well. He’s not a doctor, but as he says to himself, “How hard could it be?”

Like Spock and so many other aliens that came before him, Harry pooh-poohs emotions as something that makes other life forms weak. But as he begins to develop human emotions himself, he finds it increasingly harder to contemplate globbersphating his new friends.

He also has another wee challenge, a young boy named Max who can see Harry in his true alien form, and wants to tell the world about it.

Next, make the plot lines light years apart

You’ll see some much-loved similarities to 3rd Rock and other "the alien amongst us" shows, but Resident Alien takes things on a different trajectory with fresh ideas and perspectives you’ve never seen before. Despite its brisk pace, it's generously sprinkled with funny one-liners, humorous situations, twists and turns you never saw coming, and hauntingly poignant perspectives on what it means to be human – and to feel alien in a human world.

That's the beauty of having multiple genres interwoven in the same show. Because the situation can switch from funny to dramatic to tense to poignant in the span of a few minutes, you're never flying in a straight line. The constant change in trajectory means there's never a dull moment and you can rarely predict what's going to happen next.

Make people laugh like no one's watching

Resident Alien isn’t the kind of show you can watch while drinking red wine on a white couch. I mean, I've laughed out loud at the alien hi-jinks on 3rd Rock, but with Resident Alien, I’ve literally spewed my beverage. Laughter gets sloppy with this show.

Research shows that “He/she can make me laugh” is one of the top things people want in a life partner, so it’s not surprising we expect it from our entertainment as well. I've found Resident Alien brings on the kind of laughter that just bubbles up from my soul, the kind that usually only happens when I’m sitting with old friends, and something just strikes us all as funny and soon we’re gasping for breath with tears running down our cheeks – but we can’t stop.

It’s laughing like I haven’t experienced in years. Some of the humor is just fun, silly slapstick, like we all loved in 3rd Rock, but some is so dark and deep and complex, it takes the comedy to a higher level.

John Lithgow and Alan Tudyk: Two sides of the same face

If you thought John Lithgow's facial expressions and award-winning acting made 3rd Rock brilliant, then the casting of Alan Tudyk will give you reason to smile.

I have to confess that before watching Resident Alien, I’d never heard of Alan Tudyk. I was quite impressed by how the makeup artist made Tudyk’s face look both human and subtly lizard-like, exactly how I imagine an alien hiding amongst us might appear. I don’t mean that in a bad way, but in a cute, gecko-like way, with the hint of a smile and a glint of mischief in his eye, as though at any moment he’s about to snatch a fly out of the air with his tongue and then give you a wink.

Then I looked up his previous acting credentials, and discovered he always looks like that. It’s just his resting face. But it's one among many aspects that makes him so perfect for the role. Superb acting is, of course, an essential ingredient in the winning formula of any show, and like 3rd Rock, both the lead and supporting actors are stellar.

You may also be reminded of The Simpsons, as the show has a growing cast of supporting characters, such as the mayor, barkeep, the sheriff and assistant deputy, medical staff and various significant others, yet they all feel so familiar, so inside your head and memorable, that you can relate to each one, reveling in their little quirks and secrets. Special treats include Sara Tomko as medical assistant Asta Twelvetrees; Elizabeth Bowen as Deputy Sheriff Liv Baker; Judah Prehn as Max Hawthorne; and Gracelyn Awad Rinke as Sahar, Max's partner in alien hunting.

There has to be a human connection, even if he's an alien

Yes, I’m human. Harry’s an alien. But I found I could still picture myself in his shoes, especially in the few scenes where he appears in alien form with his shirt off. I couldn’t help but notice the extra pair of tiny hands he has jutting from his abdomen, and really, who among us multi-taskers wouldn’t give our right arms to have such an anatomical set-up?

But I digress.

I think one of the biggest things that attracts people to 3rd Rock and Resident Alien is being able to step outside of ourselves and watch human feats and foibles unfold in all their glory. The connection isn't so much about what you've watched on screens, but what you watch when there are no screens around. If you've sat on a sidewalk bench and observed the subtle dance of human emotions play out on the faces of passersby, if you’ve traveled on trains and wondered about the inner thoughts of those around you, then you’ll feel a special kinship to Harry. Deep down, he's as human as the rest of us.

It can be very touching, but be warned that this show is not designed for small children. While kids do appear in the show and they go bike-riding and they find an alien, this is not E.T. When our beloved Harry isn't trying to globbersphate the one kid who can see him in his true alien form, he launches F-bombs at the tiny tots—real F-bombs, not bleep-outs—while E.T. just nattered on about wanting to go home.

Throw in a box of eye-candy

Nearly all of 3rd Rock took place in two settings: the aliens' attic apartment and Dick Solomon's office. With millions having been confined to home in a COVID-19 world, I don’t think a show launched today can get away with such a claustrophobic setting.

A good "next show" should always improve upon the formula of the last show, and Resident Alien doesn't let me down with its scenic mountain-town setting and breathtaking cinematography. But just so you know, the show is actually shot not in Colorado, but in B.C., Canada. It will make you want to book a trip there once the pandemic is over.

In the end, leave us longing for more

3rd Rock had some memorable cliff-hangers at the end of every season that kept us coming back for more. Resident Alien, however, somehow manages to have a gobsmacking cliff-hangar at the end of every. single. show.

Each time, I’m left wracking my brains trying to figure out how Harry is going to get out of the seemingly impossible pickle he’s in, and I can’t wait to see the next episode. In fact, the end of the show always takes me by surprise, because it doesn’t seem possible a full hour has passed. The roller-coaster plot line has me in a tight knot of suspense one moment, then laughing out loud the next, then tearing up a moment later. I can experience all the nuances of human emotions, just as Harry is discovering them for himself.

Time will tell if they can keep up this fast pace and level of suspense, but with everything Resident Alien has going for it, I predict it definitely won’t be a failure to launch. Check it out, and see if you don't fall in love yourself.