Entertainment
The Comedy Sci-Fi Series That Took Over Netflix And Wowed Rotten Tomatoes
By Jacob VanGundy
| Published
Resident Alien, starring Alan Tudyk, is a Syfy original comedy that was released in 2021 and didn’t make much of a splash on release. However, with a pristine Rotten Tomatoes score indicating critical approval and a spot in the top shows when it arrived on Netflix, the series found a new lease on life. Real fans of the show have been saying all along that Resident Alien is great, but putting it on Netflix helped grow that audience.
Based on a Dark Horse comic by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse, in theory, the show had a pre-existing fanbase to build off of, albeit a small one.
Part comedy, part sci-fi, part procedural, and part mystery thriller, Resident Alien has something for everyone with a straightforward plot that gradually builds on itself. It follows a marooned Alien, who was sent to end all life on Earth but instead crash-landed in rural Colorado forcing him to take on a human disguise and gradually learn about humans.
Most shows about aliens living among humans lean on one joke and hope it holds. Resident Alien doesn’t do that. It uses the joke to get in the door, then quietly builds something smarter and more observant than it has any right to be.
Disguised as Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle, a man he knows nothing about, he ends up becoming the small town’s only doctor. Things get weirder for the new Harry from there, throwing him into an increasingly complicated web of social dynamics and mysteries.
Harry doesn’t misunderstand humans in cute ways; he misunderstands them in ways that expose how arbitrary many of our social rules actually are. Watching him struggle with basic concepts like politeness, grief, or compassion is funny because it’s accurate. A lot of human behavior only makes sense if you grew up inside it.
The show thrives on restraint. It resists the urge to constantly reassure the audience. It lets scenes run a little long. It allows discomfort. Sometimes the joke is simply that Harry says the wrong thing and no one laughs. Sometimes the scene ends without a joke at all.
Resident Alien never forgets that its central character is dangerous. This isn’t a cuddly outsider learning to love Earth. Harry is capable of mass murder, and the show keeps that fact in play. His growing attachment to humans creates tension because of what we know he could do to them. .
The series is an ideal showcase for Alyn Tudyk’s comedic talents, giving him a unique character with no understanding of human interaction, creating plenty of opportunities for slapstick comedy and genuine emotion. It’s the kind of role he was born to play.
Resident Alien doesn’t treat the town around Harry as background noise. They aren’t just there to react to his weirdness. They have problems that existed before he arrived and would continue if he left. Because of that, much of Resident Alien’s success also comes from a stellar supporting cast built up by the show, a great mix of established actors and lesser-known names. Those include Sara Tompko, who is often the straight man to Tudyk’s slapstick, Corey Reynolds as a butt of the joke sheriff, and Alice Weterlund as a bartender unknowingly pining for an alien.
Resident Alien flew under the radar on release, creating a dedicated but small fan base on the Syfy channel, hampered by not being available on any of the major streaming services. While it initially failed to reach the popular zeitgeist, it was an immediate critical darling, garnering a 97 percent on Rotten Tomatoes after the first two seasons.
Now that it’s finally on Netflix it has found a larger audience, briefly making its way onto Netflix’s top ten shows when it first arrived on the platform. The show’s audience was always there; it just needed the right platform to find it.
Resident Alien is worth your time. It trusts the audience and uses science fiction the way it’s supposed to be used, as a tool to look at ordinary life from an uncomfortable angle.
Entertainment
Save on gas (and everything else) with a $15 BJ’s membership
TL;DR: Score a one-year BJ’s membership for $15 (reg. $60) and save up to 20¢/gal. on gas through April 30 — just in time for spring shopping and road trips.
Credit: BJ’s Wholesale Club
The warmer weather tends to sneak up fast, and so do those grocery bills and gas receipts. A one-year membership to BJ’s Wholesale Club is one of those simple upgrades that can make everyday shopping feel a little more manageable.
You can currently grab a Club Card Membership with BJ’s Easy Renewal for just $15 (reg. $60) through April 30, which opens the door to savings across groceries, household essentials, and even your weekend cookout prep.
Mashable Deals
Let’s start with the obvious, though. Gas prices. Members already get everyday savings at BJ’s Gas, but during this promo window, you’ll get an extra 15¢ off per gallon stacked on top of the usual 5¢ discount — bringing your total to 20¢ off per gallon through April 30.
Inside the club, it’s all about stretching your dollar further. BJ’s is known for offering competitive pricing on national brands, plus a wide selection of fresh produce, meats, bakery items, and deli favorites. Whether you’re planning a backyard BBQ, stocking up for a party, or just trying to cut down on weekly grocery runs, buying in bulk can help simplify things.
Mashable Trend Report
There’s also something to be said for convenience. Fewer trips to the store, more options in one place, and access to seasonal items that make spring and summer feel extra special.
Get a one-year Club Card Membership with BJ’s Easy Renewal® for just $15 (reg. $60) and enjoy an extra 15¢ off per gallon at any of the 199 BJ’s gas stations through April 30.
Grabbing this deal? Build your cart to $100+ and score a lifetime license to Microsoft Office 2021 free with code GWP4MAC (for Mac) or GWP4WIND (for Windows) through April 19.
Gift with $100+ purchase promo ends April 19, 2026. Exclusions apply. Only one promo code applicable per order. Prices subject to change.
StackSocial prices subject to change.
Entertainment
This $43 bundle quietly upgrades your entire PC experience
TL;DR: This rare Microsoft bundle deal gives you a lifetime license to Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows and Windows 11 Pro for only $42.97 (reg. $418.99) through May 17.
$42.97
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Save $376.02
Looking for an affordable way to make your old PC feel new again? If you don’t have the funds to buy a brand new computer, don’t worry. The Ultimate Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows lifetime license and Windows 11 Pro Bundle is the next best thing, offering your computer a total upgrade for only $42.97 through May 17.
Don’t count out your dusty old PC. This Microsoft bundle is here to give it a total facelift for less than $50. It kicks off with a lifetime license to some of the brand’s most popular tools — Microsoft Office, which you’ll pay for once and enjoy without any subscription fees.
Mashable Deals
You’ll get permanent access to a suite of eight helpful apps with Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows. It includes staples that have been around for decades, like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. You’ll also get newer favorites like Teams, OneNote, Access, and Publisher.
Once you’ve loaded the apps onto your device, you can upgrade your OS to Windows 11 Pro. It’s an operating system made for modern professionals, with tools that support your workflow. Enjoy a more powerful search experience, improved voice typing, a seamless interface, snap layouts, and much more.
You can rest easy knowing Windows 11 Pro takes your cybersecurity seriously. You’ll have biometric logins, encrypted authentication, and advanced antivirus defenses to keep your data secure.
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Show your PC some love with the Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows and Windows 11 Pro bundle for only $42.97 (reg. $418.99) now until May 17.
StackSocial prices subject to change.
Entertainment
Star Trek’s First Broadcast Episode Was Very Carefully Chosen, Because It Was Boring
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
These days, Star Trek is a bona fide pop culture phenomenon. But during the development of The Original Series, there was anxiety that the general public wouldn’t really understand Gene Roddenberry’s mashing up Western tropes with a sci-fi setting. Making matters worse was that the original pilot, “The Cage,” had been rejected by NBC for being too brainy. Fortunately, Roddenberry got a chance to shoot another pilot, one which impressed the network enough to order an entire season worth of episodes.
Several episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series had already been shot when the time came for this new show to make its broadcast premiere. The first episode that the general public saw was “The Man Trap,” which featured a shapeshifting monster that was revealed to be an alien salt vampire. This good-but-not-great episode was an odd choice, and it was one that the cast and crew hated. As it turns out, though, this episode was very carefully selected by executives because it served as an inoffensive, relatively straightforward encapsulation of everything Star Trek had to offer.
It’s A Trap!
Most of the information we have about why “The Man Trap” was selected as Star Trek’s first episode comes from the book Inside Star Trek: The Real Story. Within this impressive reference tome, Robert H. Justman and Herbert F. Solow revealed something surprising: NBC had several other episodes to choose from for the premiere, including “The Corbomite Maneuver,” “Charlie X,” “Mudd’s Women,” “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” and “The Naked Time.” All of them had already been shot and were mostly finished, so it was just a matter of figuring out which episode would serve as the best introduction to Star Trek, a heretofore unknown sci-fi series.
“The Man Trap” won out, mostly because the powers that be worried that other episodes would be off-putting to general audiences in some very specific ways. For example, they worried that audiences would find “Charlie X” a story that was “too gentle” because it focused on an adolescent with special powers. This was probably the right call, in retrospect: when Variety gave a negative review of “The Man Trap” (an episode chosen, in part, because of its relative maturity), they declared that Star Trek: The Original Series was “better suited to the Saturday morning kidvid bloc” (ouch!).
A Monster Hit Of An Episode
“The Corbomite Maneuver” was a great potential choice, but this episode’s impressive special effects were still in post-production, and almost all of its action took place on the ship. “Where No Man Has Gone Before” really outlined the premise of the new show, but it was deemed “expository” for general audiences expecting more action and danger. Justman thought “The Naked Time” was a killer introduction to the crew’s personalities, but the network passed, presumably because of how over-the-top (half-naked, swashbuckling Sulu? Oh, my!) that episode gets. “Mudd’s Women,” meanwhile, was deemed too offensive because the plot involved literally selling women to miners.
Through this process of elimination, executives decided that “The Man Trap” was the best intro to Star Trek. It had cool scenes on both the Enterprise and a distant outpost (a strange new world) and featured a straightforward action plot you didn’t have to be a sci-fi aficionado to understand. Finally, it was all about finding and defeating a creepy monster, which offered thrills to audiences of all ages. The network’s choice paid off, and Star Trek: The Original Series became the most popular sci-fi show in television history, even though the cast (including William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy) thought “The Man Trap” was the worst possible episode they could have chosen.
All of this is a keen reminder of how much thought and work went into putting Star Trek’s best foot forward. It might be a reminder that Paramount’s current upper leadership needs, as Starfleet Academy hit the ground running with the worst episodes of Season 1. The show got better after that, but it didn’t matter because the prospective audience had already been driven away. As it turns out, today’s execs need to learn something that the network execs of the ‘60s had learned very well: series succeed when you give the audience what they want to see and not what you want to show!
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