Resident Alien: Series Premiere Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out This is a spoiler-free review for Alan Tudyk's Resident Alien, which premiered Jan. 27 on Syfy. [poilib element="accentDivider"] While it’s already drawing obvious comparisons to Northern Exposure, Syfy’s new sci-fi dramedy Resident Alien reminds me a little of Dexter, the Michael C. Hall-starring show about a Miami serial killer hiding in plain sight. Stay with me here: That series was a divisive one given the inconsistency of its quality and the heavy-lifting that Hall did to carry the show’s appeal squarely on his back, with most of the supporting cast left as a bit of an afterthought. That lack of balance seems to be the case with Resident Alien too, at least in the early going. Based on the Dark Horse comic series by Peter Hogan and artist Steve Parkhouse, the show centers around an alien disguised as a small-town doctor, played by the infinitely talented and likable Alan Tudyk. The show does well by its lead - giving him ample opportunity to explore our resident alien’s (aka Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle) many strange habits and overall confusion with humanity’s own peculiarities - but it doesn’t quite know how to utilize the rest of its eccentric ensemble. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/14/syfys-resident-alien-official-trailer"] There’s a fair amount of potential that gets set up in the series pilot - a quirky hour of familiar but amusing fluff - only to be undercut by its more baffling narrative choices. For one: why is this show an hour long when it clearly wants to be a half-hour comedy? Like... Alan Tudyk playing an alien trapped on Earth pretending to be a doctor, whose only knowledge of actual doctoring comes from TV? Yes please, give me all that physical comedy - no other contrivances or plot twists needed. Unfortunately, Resident Alien doesn’t give Tudyk much room to run with the insanity of the concept, since he’s too busy dealing with mounting narrative wrinkles and side missions, including a quest for his lost spaceship; a murder mystery in town; his need to stay ahead of some shadowy government types; and his scheme to murder the only person in town who can see through his disguise (who happens to be a kid, not that Harry cares) - and that’s barely scratching the surface. The show has more plot than it knows what to do with, but is at its best when it focuses on the characters. Syfy has advertised the series as “the sci-fi, murder mystery, doctor dramedy Earth needs now” and that blend of genres, tones, and ideas is definitely on display - to the point where it doesn’t seem to know what it actually is or how best to deploy the considerable talents of its cast - it’s an everything and the kitchen sink approach that leaves Resident Alien feeling torn in too many directions. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=syfys-resident-alien-season-1&captions=true"] But the generic, slapdash way in which the series’ world is fleshed out may be its biggest problem. While the supporting cast members often steal their scenes with moments of dark, odball humor, the character archetypes themselves - the inexperienced town mayor and his bland wife, suspicious sheriff and his downtrodden deputy, flirty bartender, ominous government agents - feel copy and pasted from some worn-out “supporting parts” handbook that can't hold a candle to Tudyk's deranged central performance. There’s also something oddly dated about the show’s setup - right down to Harry’s love of Law and Order: SVU. Though I could arguably watch Alan Tudyk do pretty much anything, his charm and relentless physical comedy skills can only take the series so far. Resident Alien is amusing enough, if half-baked science-fiction storytelling is your thing, but you can’t help but wish they’d settled on one idea rather than five. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/10/09/resident-alien-watch-the-first-7-minutes-of-alan-tudyks-syfy-comedy"]

from IGN Reviews https://ift.tt/3oua7MB
This could be a real lead forward for personal gaming... Revolutionise gaming