The show became the most viewed TV show on Netflix upon premiering on the streaming platform, and has appeared on its top 10 chart (usually within the top five) every day since.
Tudyk clearly has no problem finding work, given that he’s appeared in some of the biggest movies on the planet and acted on screen regularly since 1997’s 35 Miles from Normal.
In Resident Alien, Tudyk plays a space alien named Harry who crash-lands in Colorado with the mission of destroying humanity. That quickly becomes complicated as he absorbs the town’s culture and forms various alliances, and he eventually ends up working to save the town of Patience amid the arrival of more aliens like him.
The series, which is part campy trope-fest, part thoughtful drama and all weirdness, is based on the comic book series of the same name, and was shepherded to TV by veteran Family Guy writer Chris Sheridan.
The mountain-town setting and its sense of isolation – the show is mostly filmed in and around Vancouver, not Colorado – allows for characters with backstories that complement but don’t always overlap one another.
“The big thing for my character, Harry, this season is love,” Tudyk, 52, says. “Harry started out without emotions and his people don’t have emotions, so his human form has begun to affect him from the inside out. Season 3 [which has been released on American TV but not Netflix] is sort of his teenage years. He’s still very naive.”
The new season brings back central characters such as Asta Twelvetrees (played by Sara Tomko), who acts as Harry’s medical assistant while he assumes the role of town doctor. She is a rarity in TV portrayals, as a member of Colorado’s Ute tribe, but she isn’t the only Indigenous writer or actor on the show.
He bleeds partly human blood, so literally there is that part of him that’s identifying with the culture
Tazbah Rose Chavez, a citizen of the Navajo Nation, was one of the Native American writers “hired to ensure authentic representation of the Native characters and storylines”, according to The Southern Ute Drum, a publication based in Ignacio, Colorado.
American Indian magazine compared Resident Alien to the comedy hit Reservation Dogs in its portrayal of “real Native lives on screen”. The fact that the titular alien crash-landed near a Ute reservation is no accident, but rather a chance to represent a more authentic slice of Colorado’s culture. It’s also a potent exploration of what it means to be an immigrant.
“In a lot of ways it shows the white population as the aliens, because they’re also the ones that came in,” Tudyk says. “Refugees and immigrants are trying to give themselves a better life, although I guess the difference here is that Harry’s coming to Earth to destroy it. At least at first.”
Other characters include a self-obsessed sheriff (Corey Reynolds), an ex-Olympic skier and bar owner (Alice Wetterlund), a youthful mayor (Levi Fiehler) and a quip-happy deputy (Elizabeth Bowen).
Acknowledging the show’s absurdity while also working towards an “emotional reality and touching scenes” is not easy, Tudyk says. And yet the show has clearly figured this out.
Maybe it’s the visible evolution of the characters – particularly Harry, who is constantly challenged by his weak grasp of human culture – that has made it so relatable. Maybe it’s the escapism, or alternately, the real-world themes.
Like Harry’s bond to the town of Patience, Tudyk thinks the show and its viewers are growing together.
“He’s much more of an earthling now,” he says of his character. “He bleeds partly human blood, so literally there is that part of him that’s identifying with the culture after immersing himself in it.
“I love [the US] for that, that we have so many people from so many different places. I feel like some people take that as, ‘OK, so I don’t have to go anywhere!’ Travelling gives you a nice broadening of your world, but it also makes you love home that much more.”