On The Air: Resident Alien (2021)

 Dark Horse Comics has occasionally dipped its corporate toes into television, usually not with much success, aside from the current Umbrella Academy on Netflix. Adaptations of Timecop, an ABC live-action series, and Big Guy & Rusty The Boy Robot, a 1999 animated series for Fox, didn't fare very well in the ratings.

SyFy, meanwhile, hasn't had any sustained success with comic book-centric series of late. Deadly Class was one and done. Happy! & Krypton each got two seasons before being cancelled.

Enter Resident Alien.

Based on a series of miniseries produced by Dark Horse since 2012, Resident Alien uses the familiar concept of an alien crash-landing on Earth. But, unlike sitcoms such as My Favorite Martian, Mork & Mindy, & ALF, the newest alien emigre (Alan Tudyk, late of Doom Patrol & Harley Quinn) came here with evil in mind, due to his planet's distrust of humans. His goal is to terminate life on Earth.

However, after assuming human form, he takes on the role of a small town doctor while he tries to locate the remnants of the device he brought with him. At the same time, he now is thrust into a mystery surrounding a killer.

Tudyk, it seems, specializes in genre roles. His resume also includes Firefly, Powerless, and several sci-fi and comics-centric animated films.

Let's take a look at the trailer.

If you were expecting something between My Favorite Martian and, say for example, Marcus Welby, MD, fuhgeddaboutit! British creators Peter Hogan & Steve Parkhouse have produced five miniseries over the last nine years, with one final series on the way soon. Not sure if they accounted for the prospect of a romantic interest that could turn the alien's head away from destroying Earth, though.

NBC-Universal-Comcast wanted to make sure people tuned in to the opener, such that it was simulcast on USA Network on Wednesday. 

As I've never read the books, I came into this cold. This will not change SyFy's or Dark Horse's bad luck.

Rating: C.