Review by C.J. Bunce
Eureka. Chuck. Warehouse 13. Haven. Grimm. iZombie. These five-season series have a certain unique brand of pop culture commonality. Humor plus singular twists on supernatural, fantasy, and science fiction equals shows anyone can drop in on for a good fix of genre fun. In its third season, showrunner Chris Sheridan’s Resident Alien has firmly established itself as the kind of series with the potential to have a similar enduring place in TV land. Alan Tudyk turned what could have been just shtick into a performance in the league of Don Knotts’ Barney Fife. Yeah, it’s goofy. But it’s goofy with sincerity. This season the writers’ room started playing games with the supporting cast. These are characters we now love, but the puppetmasters moved them around in strange ways. If the series makes it to a fourth and fifth season, will we look back years from now and see these episodes as turning points, like those other five-season gems?
Co-star Sara Tomko’s Asta Twelvetrees hasn’t needed to drive the plot. She’s more of a Samwise–everyone loves her and wants a friend like her. This season saw Tomko and supporting actress Alice Wetterlund’s D’arcy dabbling in comedy duo territory–the vintage kind with lay-up jokes in the style of Abbott and Costello. The writers are having fun, and that fun is making it to the audience. Is the long game all that memorable? Probably not. But for this kind of TV phenomenon, that’s not always mission critical. Wetterlund continues to dazzle in the gritty realms, too–her character is a fascinating, almost-drowning heroine always trying to make her way to the surface but never quite getting there. Storywise she must, eventually.
Tomko and Wetterlund aren’t the only comedy teams getting their weekly stand-up comedy night. The best humor is consistently from Corey Reynolds and Elizabeth Bowen. The writing for their sheriff and deputy should be taught in comedy school. Reynolds’ sheriff is zany, but a zany that hasn’t been done before. Some of his dialogue is so creative you want to dissect it, contact the writers and interrogate them about the anatomy of a gut-busting laugh. Bowen’s deputy is pure straight man, but updated. She is the 2020s heroine in every way. She says what she thinks in light of all the wrong she is confronted with from her boss. The relationship seems like it could work in real life somehow, like a shared understanding and respect for the idiosyncrasies of their opposites.
Then there’s the mayor and his wife–the kind of cookie cutter characters you’d find in a sitcom-dramedy. Yet Meredith Garretson seems like she’s an actor with much more potential than this show, and she showed that in her small role in The Offer. Finally this season she has been given the opportunity to showcase more of her talent as she becomes the target of alien abductions and–gasp–aliens taking her baby. This leaves Levi Fiehler’s mayor in a bit of a Howdy Doody position, yet Fiehler can convey sincerity, too, and when he gets his chance he shows this character also has at least two seasons left to grow.
The quaint mountain town of Patience saw some new faces this season–standouts in every way. Edi Patterson’s Blue Avian alien in the form of Heather was a perfect foil for Tudyk, a love interest similarly wacky, requiring an actor who could really sell the believability. And their enemy who became a friend was of a similar mold. That was Enver Gjokaj as the Grey Alien Hybrid, Joseph Rainier.
The best drama of the season came from a surprising place: Jenna Lamia’s Judy Cooper–usually the best at sweet but shocking comedy in the series–got jilted by the sheriff, and her performance was so well done the episode jerked viewers from comedy territory to Downerville drama.
The writing and acting are so well handled it’s easy to overlook the visual effects, beginning with the alien effects of alien kid Bridget and Blue Avian Heather. The season finale delivered The Mantid (voiced by Clancy Brown!) and a new direction that could carry an entire season if done right in Season 4.
And of course great genre shows make the best of stunt casting. Here that was the return of mega-genre star Linda Hamilton as General McCallister, still on the scent of the aliens in the vein of Jack McGee on The Incredible Hulk. And just when you thought you’d seen it all, Silver Bullet and Lost’s Terry O’Quinn’s alien tracker is back–this time as a borg. It’s enough to make a sci-fi fan absolutely giddy. Let’s not forget that like iZombie, Resident Alien sprouted from the comic books–these by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse.
Catch up on the first three seasons now on Peacock. And let’s hope Resident Alien earns its way to at least a fifth season.
