Resident Alien Season 2 Episode 1 Old Friends Review- A Funny And Heartfelt Start

Found families, octopi, Lennie Briscoe, and way too much sexy role play combine to make Resident Alien Season 2 Episode 1 a spit-take inducing delight.

Everyone’s favorite world-ending alien is back. Resident Alien Season 2 Episode 1 continues the same trend as uber charming Season 1. This is an endearing show despite the cursing, frequent obscene hand gestures, and occasional killing. It starts with Harry, a winsome and talented Alan Tudyk(Dollhouse and Firefly) who any sci-fi fan has been begging to see in a starring role for years. The adorableness extends down the line, however. Everyone in Patience, Colorado, requires zero patience to love.

Precocious kids Max(Judah Prehn), the only person who could see Harry’s true form, and Sahar(Gracelyn Awad Rinke) are smart, snarky without being obnoxious, and capable. Local law enforcement Sherrif Mike Thompson, The Closer’s Corey Reynolds playing way off type, and sweet and smart Deputy Liv(Elizabeth Bowen) have burgeoning respect that was hard-fought and earned with a surprisingly beautiful karaoke apology in Season 1.

Asta Twelvetrees(Sara Tomka) and D’Arcy (Alice Wetterlund) are strong women with tragedy in their past that they are only beginning to deal with. They could be caricatures of female pain in lesser hands. Instead, D’Arcy’s drinking and self-doubt and Asta’s regret are simply facets of their personality and not the only things that define them.

There is a lot to like about the series based on the Dark Horse comics. There is no way to explain how it works. It just does. Campy songs, grimaced acceptance, and awkward AF Harry and the gang stay on the right side of sweet. Just enough to satisfy without sending you into a coma.

When we last saw Harry and the gang, Harry had activated the device and retrieved his ship from the covert government agency run by Linda Hamilton’s General McCallister. General McCallister is also holding new town doctor Ethan Stone, mistakenly believing he is the alien. Harry zapped the soldiers into submission and flew the orb into space to save Asta and the rest of the world. He let it detonate at a safe distance. Harry, tapping into his human side, was hurt by Asta for rejecting him after discovering he killed the real Harry. However, as hurt and reactionary, as he was, he couldn’t go through with the extinction event.

Unbeknownst to him before he took off, though, Max had stowed away on his ship. Harry may be lonely for his people, but there are those who care about him on Earth, and he will have to return to the place that is quickly becoming his home. Unfortunately, that means he is coming home to General McCallister, who will find out Ethan isn’t an alien, and D’Arcy, who discovered the dead body in his freezer.

Resident Alien Season 2 Episode 1 picks up shortly after Season 1 ends. Max returned home before his parents discovered what happened, and Harry is in the hospital with a head injury. Although not immediately apparent, Harry and Max crash-landed on Earth, resulting in Harry’s injury. His injury caused him memory loss, and in the void left by his memories, he only remembered Law and Order. Harry loves Lennie Briscoe and got to play detective before the octopus he met last season helped him remember who he was.

Every not-so-subtle scene is smartly enhanced with small in-jokes and asides that you could blink and miss them. Harry runs out of the hospital carrying a stuffed toy octopus because, of course, his species shares DNA. This comes full circle when that same octopus helps him and later when Harry runs away with the purple friend tucked under his arm.

Harry isn’t the only one with previously undiscovered depth. After Sherrif Mike admitted to needing Deputy Liv last year, there has been a change in the man. Now we know some of what made him closed off to Liv. He lost someone six years ago, and he is still mourning. Strangely, Sherrif Mike also has an intuition that is as ridiculous as it is accurate.

Resident Alien Season 2 Episode 1 began as a hilarious procedural with Harry trying to solve his murder. Hilarious and heartwarming, it is hijinks at its best. But, before we grow tired of the schtick, he remembers who and what he is, and we get the Harry back that we love. Tudyk is a gem, and everything he does, from catching a fly ball with his bare hand to tripping a ballplayer, is hysterical.

Because his ship is irreparable, Harry is forced to disintegrate it into a survival kit of black alien balls. For all his confusion and flaws, he is more human than many of us. That is the genius behind Resident Alien. Late in the episode, we understand why Max wasn’t injured when Harry was. He cradled the boy, protecting him with his own body. He can deny it all he wants, but it’s obvious he cares for these people. “I know you are, but what am I” works because we know what he is. He is an emotional being that is only just beginning to understand how human he really is. Now that he knows his planet will send more aliens to eradicate the humans, I wonder what he will do to keep his new found family safe.

Sara Tomko(Asta) is the ideal foil for Tudyk’s Harry. She is grounded and patient even when she shouldn’t be. Like the hilarious alien/human relationship that came before them, Mork and Mindy, this series has a realness that rides the line between absurd and sweetly plausible. Resident Alien Season 2 Episode 1 is just what the good doctor ordered. Grab your pizzas and prepare to be captivated all over again by the world’s most inept human but best extraterrestrial. That’s definitely not some bullshit! Watch for all our Resident Alien coverage as the season unfolds.

Stray Tentacles

• Harry has gills, who knew?
• Octopi can talk to humans but choose not too. I’m not surprised they are very smart creatures.
• The mayor and his wife are really feeling this new found sexuality. I’m all for experimentation but they might want to tone down the sexy role play in front of Max. Also I;m dying to know their safe word.
• What’s going on with the single white female dye job Judy got done?
• Why does Max have a hairy chest? Did he get some of Harry’s blood on him and it caused excessive hair growth? Asta doesn’t have hairy palms so that hardly seems likely. What other side effects will he experience?
• Kid logic is the best. You can’t argue with I know you are and I’m rubber and you’re glue.