Last week, Andrea and I finished up season 3 of Resident Alien and we’re feeling kind of sad about it.
OK, first some good news: the show has been renewed for a 4th season and will be moving from (this channel still exists?) SYFY to the more higher profile USA Network (thanks to nearly endless reruns of Law & Order: SVU).
We began watching this show a few months back when the first 2 seasons dropped on Netflix and the 3rd season I DVR’d from SYFY.
The show is entertaining enough with the always remarkable Alan Rudyk as the weird, wacky and wonderful alien “Harry Vanderspeigel”. But the show’s supporting cast has ingratiated itself with us almost like a family.
Asta, responsible and compassionate, always ready to help, even an alien being with zero social skills.
Asta’s friend D’Arcy, a troubled and damaged soul whose propensity for getting into trouble can be very amusing but also darkly sad as her crazy antics are there to cover up her self-doubts and self-loathing.
Ben and Kate Hawthorne, uptight and stressed, the victims of alien abductions.
And Sheriff Mike and Deputy Liv. I am so glad this relationship got to a better place after season 1 where Mike’s dismissive attitude towards Liv bordered on abusive. They’re in a better place now although Mike can still slip into nonsense theories while oblivious to whatever facts Liv has discovered. And Liv has her own stuff to deal with, her own witness to alien activity.
Season 3 of Resident Alien ends on a cliffhanger (to quote Harry’s favorite catchphrase “That is some bullshit!”) and I am glad we will get a resolution with season 4.
Next up on today’s Tuesday TV Touchbase, old TV!
As I’ve noted before, one of the TV habits Andrea and I have is to just turn on TBS and let their endless reruns of Big Bang Theory reduce our last functioning brains cells to mush after a long and busy day at work.
Lately, I’ve mixed in some other classic sitcoms to render us into motionless puddles of goo.
Night Court
Andrea and I have had a chance to catch up on some old school Night Court on the IFC channel. The look of the show is definitely dated: Markie Post’s feathered hair, shoulder pads, satin blouses and the ubiquitous hose ‘n’ heels clearly marks this as the 1980’s.
And the jokes and references haven’t always aged well either. But OG Night Court still delivers more laughs than the new show by a mile.
I hate to say it but I think the problem with the Melissa Rauch version of Night Court is… Melissa Rauch. Her Abby Stone clearly channels her dad’s positive and compassionate spirit. But Harry Anderson as Judge Harry Stone was more uninhibited, more willing to embrace being a total goofball. Rauch is limited to bad puns and smirking about them. Also Anderson was not afraid to take on key dramatic moments. Which served as a counter weight to make his positive energy and goofball antics feel earned somehow.
Modern Family
I’ve lured Andrea into watching Modern Family. It didn’t take her long to understand these characters and their perpetual tendencies to be the cause of their own problems. The show is done in a mockumentary style with confessional pieces where the characters will frequently contradict whatever they just said or promised to another character.
Gay dads Cameron and Mitchell are the worst; Cameron is always desperate to be the center of attention of whatever room he is in and Mitchell can't seem to control his fearful and judgmental nature.
Jay and Gloria are my favorite, I think. Jay's old school vibe is actually grounded in a remarkable progressive self awareness. And don't let Gloria's thick Charo style accent fool you; she is smarter than you think and scarily good at shooting things from a distance.
Malcolm In the Middle
A recent marathon for Father’s Day drew me in to watch some episodes of this series. There’s a Modern Family dynamic at play except the family is perpetually poor and are outright abusive to one another. But in the end, they are all that they have against a world that is always working against them.
Malcolm breaks the 4th wall to address the audience. Malcolm is a genius… who realizes he’s in a TV show, I guess?
Since that marathon on Father's Day, I've taken to sampling episodes of this show and I find it very amusing.
That is that for this week's Tuesday TV 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.
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