Tuesday TV Touchbase: Resident Alien, Stupid Pet Tricks and Jeopardy

Today we welcome Resident Alien to the Tuesday TV Touchbase.  The series recently began it's 3rd season on the SyFy channel and it's a show I was always interested in trying. 

Recently Netflix gave me a chance to catch up by posting the first two seasons. Andrea and I are almost through season one,  

Resident Alien stars Alan Tudyk and I could just stop right there if I am making a case to watch this show. Alan is good in everything I've seen him in such as Firefly and Doom Patrol. 

But perhaps a bit more detail is called for. 

Let's start again.

Resident Alien stars Alan Tudyk as "Harry Vanderspeigle", the alien who crash-lands on Earth, kills the real Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle, and assumes his identity. He learns how to speak English by watching reruns of Law & Order. 

Harry (we'll just call him "Harry") tries to blend in with the humans in the small town of Patience, Colorado.  He hasn't quite got speech and behavioral patterns figured out yet.

While pretending to be a human and taking on the role of being the town's doctor (after the previous one was murdered!), Harry spends his spare time looking for his lost space craft and the device he was sent to deliver to Earth. 

The device that is intended to destroy all humanity. 

Despite his strange way of speaking and his annoying habit at blurting out stuff most humans keep quiet about, Patience has accepted this odd man into their community. 

Except for Max.  

Max is a young boy who is the only one who can see alien Harry's true alien form. Harry has resolved to kill the boy and his efforts to do so evoke a "Coyote Vs. Road Runner" absurdity. 

Meanwhile, of course, no one believes Max's claims that their new town doctor is an alien. (A recurring trope we covered in this past weekend's Cinema posts.)   

The more time the alien spends in the human identity of Harry Vanderspeigle, the more he begin to experience an unaccustomed moral quandary over his mission to destroy the human race.  

Resident Alien is a really good showcase for Alan Tudyck's comedic skills and he's supported by a strong collection of characters who have their own fascinating back stories which I will address in future Touchbase posts.  

Resident Alien is as good as thought it would be and I'm glad I finally have a chance to catch up on this series. (While doing all I can to avoid season 3 spoilers.)  

There's this new series on TBS called Stupid Pet Tricks. Based on the recurring feature from David Letterman's talk shows, the series is hosted by Sarah Silverman and it features well, pets doing tricks that are stupid. 

Andrea and I watched a couple of episodes and decided this just wasn't something we were going to follow. As with Letterman's original bit, the show's premise can be undermined when the trick isn't really that stupid. It's sometimes impressive when a cat or dog or bird or whatever does a particular trick and not so much as what one might call stupid.   

Also a bit that was going for a laugh on 10 minutes of a talk show every few months or so is stretched a bit thin having to wheel out a half hour of this nonsense every week. 

Sarah Silverman is game as the host, ready with a quip for whatever comes her way. Including the horse who would roll over on his back for belly rubs. The horse who by the way had a massive erection. 

That's the level the show is going for. 

Andrea and I watch bits and pieces of the show whenever we tune in for the ubiquitous Big Bang Theory reruns we use to melt our brains to goo after a long day at work.  

Jeopardy has moved on to the Tournament of Champions after interminable events like Second Chance and Wild Card tournaments. 

Even after TOC is done, we've got one more event to get through before Jeopardy resumes regular game play in April.

And that is that for this week's Touchbase.

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.