After last week’s premiere, Resident Alien returns with episode 2 ‘Homesick’ and begins to open up its premise a little bit. This is giving us some major hints as to how the dynamics of the show may play out in the long run.
The first thing that is obvious is that like last week, the central performance of Alan Tudyk as Harry/the alien is what is holding all this together. Without such a strong lead this may well fall apart, but he keeps this rolling along even when at times the plot does meander. At several points during ‘Homesick’ it felt like there was loss of direction, but this was only fleeting before it found its way again.
Tudyk isn’t alone in keeping it going though, as both Asta (Sara Tomko) and D’Arcy (Alice Wetterlund) have major roles here that elevate things, albeit for different reasons. Tomko looks like she will be handling a lot more of the emotional weight during the show and does an admirable job away from Harry’s stumbling efforts, while also keeping him in check. In contrast Wetterlund is great at the more comedic side of things, but does it in a magnificent layered way, combining humour with a bittersweet element. Her interactions with her old frenemy Judy (Jenna Lamia – Oz, Awkward) are snappy and delightful, so hopefully that kind of thing will continue.
What also seems to be forming is an almost Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner relationship between Harry and Max (Judah Prehn), as he is the only one who can see Harry’s true identity. The cutaway gags, with his doodling on the pad, or daydreams about killing Max were great and were nice little set pieces. As things develop there will probably be an ongoing escalation in the feud, which is sort of becoming almost like a childish playground battle, but with potentially mortal consequences. Whether Harry is just naturally petty, or his apparent childishness is all due to his lack of human knowledge will no doubt be revealed as we go.
That lack of knowledge, along with the Dunning-Kruger effect is also impacting Harry elsewhere and affecting how he operates both as a Doctor and socially. Obviously, that is where a lot of humour is going to come from and is central to the premise, but they do make the good point that on his home planet he is a scientist, so isn’t inept at all. This is especially highlighted by his mining of the tellurium, that has levitating properties which he crafts into device on the kitchen counter. This is followed up afterwards by two skidoo riders finding part of his ship that displays the same properties, so everything is about to unravel.
So far, the pilot and ‘Homesick’ are doing a good job of balancing the three main aspects of the show: the ongoing murder mystery, Harry’s adaptation to Earth life, and his search for the ship to complete his mission. Much of this episode focused on the second of these, with Harry discovering that despite his race not experiencing emotion, he was now feeling something like it due to taking human form. Thus he is confused by what could be hunger, loneliness, or homesickness and he’s not sure which it is. It’s a very common comedy staple and could easily become dull, but they work it into some neat gags, including one about cows which totally and neatly twists the common UFO story.
It’s still early days and they’re still finding their rhythm, but there are a lot of promising signs in ‘Homesick’ that show that Resident Alien could really fly. Tudyk is already proving once again how good of an actor he is, both dramatically and comedically, with his physical comedy particularly on show in this episode. The supporting cast are also excellent though, and it is clear there is a going to be a lot of good material with those characters. D’arcy and Asta have already shown how good they can be, while the Sheriff (Corey Reynolds) and his deputy (Elizabeth Bowen) have a lot more to offer. Harry may still want to kill us all, but we’ll be amused greatly until then.
Resident Alien airs Wednesday’s on Syfy
