How I Took Tips from a Dating App to Find My New Fav Show

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 to me. Even though he's an alien. Even though he's a squishy, bug-eyed, mucous-y, murdering monstrosity.

But hey, opposites attract, right?

Resident Alien is now my regular Wednesday-evening date, and he's proof-positive that the best way to find the perfect show is to take a page from a dating site – and apply the same formula you'd use to find the perfect mate.

After all, a show is asking me for a commitment, whether it’s a one-hour weekly date night or binge-watching to the point my family sends the authorities over for a welfare check. So if I’m going to swipe right on my TV remote, then I expect the following minimum standards to be met:

1. Don't treat me like a cheap date

A hotdog stand won’t do when I’m craving a whole buffet. If, like me, you soon tire of one-dimensional programs, then Resident Alien is your turducken. That’s because it’s got the best bits of all of your favorite shows, all rolled up into one. It’s a triple threat, branded as a comedy, a drama, and a mystery – and many claim it’s also a sci-fi, a thriller and a medical show. So whether your exes include 3rd Rock from the Sun, The Big Bang Theory, The Office, The Good Doctor, Family Guy, Alien, 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.)

2. Make a stellar first impression, and then just keep getting better

Although it can take a while to warm up to some shows, I felt an attraction to Resident Alien within the first five minutes. Subsequent episodes have proven to me that it wasn’t just a first-date infatuation.

This is important to me, because I expect a long-term commitment from my programs. There’s nothing worse than getting into a show only to have it cancelled after the first season, or find myself tempted to cheat three or four years into a series, so bored I start secretly channel-surfing even while the TV is in the room.

And not to sound kinky, but I need my husband to be able to join in the fun as well. It's always better to have someone enjoy a program with you, instead of knowing they'd rather be watching the game. It's so convenient when you both love the same show, and it's a good sign the program has staying power, with the ability to build long-lasting relationships and high ratings with a multi-demographic range of viewers, helping to make it cancel-proof.

To help you understand the charismatic attraction, here’s a quick summary of what Resident Alien is all about – don’t worry, no spoilers, as the show is fast-paced and this all happens pretty much within the first episode.

First aired on January 27, 2021, 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, Captain Hah Re, whose spacecraft crashes near the small town of Patience, Colorado, stranding him.

Hah Re soon comes across Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle (VANDER-spee-gull; rhymes with beagle), a man living alone just outside of town in a remote cabin, and globbersphates him by plunging him through the surface of the frozen lake. (I made up the word “globbersphates,” because “murder” doesn’t quite cut it.)

Hah Re then takes on the human form of Dr. Vanderspeigle. He must figure out how to walk, talk, eat, shave, brush his teeth, and otherwise act like a human, which he learns 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 social interactions down the road.

In his spare time, Hah Re searches for the missing parts of his broken spacecraft, as well as a mysterious device he lost in the surrounding terrain. We soon learn the purpose of the device, and Hah Re's secret mission, is to globbersphate all human life on Earth. Hah Re also tries to find the real Harry Vanderspiegle’s body to dispose of it, because he realizes that a corpse washing up on shore that looks exactly like his new human form could lead to awkward conversations with the townsfolk.

Sure enough, Ha Reh’s solitary life is finally interrupted when humans come calling. Turns out the town of Patience has lost their doctor (who’s died under mysterious circumstances), and they’d like Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle to fill in. 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 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.

You’ll see similarities to 3rd Rock from the Sun here, and other fish-out-of-water, alien-living-amongst-humans shows, and you might think this shtick has been done before. Maybe, but I would counter that it’s never been done like this before. Resident Alien has taken a much-loved theme that’s stood the test of time, but made it all crunchy fresh with new ideas and perspectives you’ve never tasted before. It moves along at a brisk pace but is generously sprinkled with funny lines, 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.

3. No canned laughter; I want the fresh stuff

Resident Alien isn’t the kind of show you can watch while drinking red wine on a white couch. I mean, I’ve smiled at the antics of Family Guy, chuckled at Sheldon’s brilliant facial expressions on The Big Bang Theory, even laughed out loud at the alien hi-jinks on 3rd Rock. But with Resident Alien, I’ve literally spewed my beverage.

Research shows that “He/she makes me laugh” is one of the top things people want in a life partner, so it’s not surprising we expect the same from our entertainment. 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 among old friends, and something just strikes us all as funny and we start giggling and soon we’re gasping for breath with tears running down our cheeks and our sides hurt – but we just can’t stop. It’s laughing like I haven’t experienced in years.

That says a lot about this show because while I love comedy, I’m picky about it. I’m not that easily amused. But the humor is so cleverly woven into the show where you least expect it, that you're laughing before you even realize it. Some of the humor is just silly slapstick, and that’s fun in its own right, but some is so dark and deep and complex, it takes the comedy to a higher level. I’m not sure how Alan Tudyk, who plays Harry, can deliver some of his lines with a straight face.

4. There has to be a human connection - even if you're an alien

I’m not saying there has to be more chemistry than the periodic table of elements, but I need to relate to the main character, even if he’s a bit of a bad boy.

Yes, I’m a human. Harry’s an alien. But I couldn’t help but notice, in the opening scenes, the extra pair of tiny hands he had jutting from his abdomen, and really, who among us multi-taskers wouldn’t give our right arms to have such an anatomical set-up? I could just imagine myself killin’ it in the kitchen, with my tiny arms slicing and dicing the veggies at counter height while I use my regular arms to fillet the fish. I’d enter one of those TV cooking shows where I’d win hands-down (all four of them) before publishing my first bestseller, The 7 Highly Effective Habits of Four-Armed People, and moving to a tropical paradise.

But I digress.

Resident Alien is the perfect way to move on from many of your old favorite shows and movies, which I mentioned above, but you’ll find your deepest connection to it is built on what you watch when there aren't any screens around. If, like me, you love to watch the subtle dance of human emotions play out in real life, if you’ve sat on trains and wondered about the inner thoughts of those around you, or sat on a sidewalk bench studying the faces of passersby, then you’ll feel a kinship to the resident alien. Deep down, he's just as human as the rest of us.

And it’s not just Harry who's grappling with our complex and lovely galaxy of human emotions and motivations, but the entire cast of townsfolk, each of whom has their own secrets, fears, dreams, quirks and hopes.

But be warned: This show is not 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 alien 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.

5. Act like you mean it

Confession: Before watching Resident Alien, I’d never seen or heard of Alan Tudyk. I was quite impressed by how the makeup artist made Tudyk’s face look both human and very subtly lizard-like, just how I would imagine an alien hiding among us might appear. I don’t mean that in a bad way, but in a cute, gecko-like way, with a subtle 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 just one more aspect that makes him the perfect actor for the role.

Like The Simpsons, the show has a growing number of supporting characters such as the mayor, barkeep, the sheriff and assistant deputy, medical staff and more, yet they all feel so familiar, so inside your head and memorable, that you can relate to each and every one, reveling in their unique quirks and secrets to reveal. The acting overall is stellar, and special treats include Sara Tomko as medical assistant Asta Twelvetrees; Elizabeth Bowen as Deputy Sheriff Liv Baker; Judah Prehn as Max Hawthorne, the only person who sees Harry's alien form; and Gracelyn Awad Rinke as Sahar, Max's friend and partner in alien hunting.

6. Bring me flowers and a box of eye-candy

I don’t watch those shows where couples buy homes off-the-grid or on sunny beaches because I’m interested in real estate. I watch them so my eyes can indulge in glimpses of blue waters, lush green peaks, tropical blooms, and panoramic views that stretch on forever.

Resident Alien’s scenic mountain-town setting gives me that sensual feast, and the cinematography is so fetching that I’ve found myself, once or twice, getting distracted from the actual show.

There is, however, a little white lie here, as the show is actually shot in the Vancouver region of Canada. It will make you want to book a trip there once the pandemic is over.

7. Leave me longing for more

Good storylines have a surprise cliff-hanger at the end of every season that keeps you coming back. Great storylines, like the one Resident Alien has, have a gobsmacking cliff-hangar at the end of every single show. Time will tell if they can keep up this level of suspense, but each time, I’m left wracking my brain 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 rollercoaster plotline 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.

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.