Be It Human or Otherwise, It’s The Same in Any Language: Alan Tudyk’s RESIDENT ALIEN is Back For Season 2

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede There are moments in RESIDENT ALIEN when the title character, played hilariously by Alan Tudyk, has to speak its own language. The combination of sounds and facial expressions that Tudyk produces really has to be experienced to be believed. But even as Season 2 of RESIDENT ALIEN debuts, Wednesday, Jan. 26, at 9 p.m. ET on CTV Sci-Fi Channel, don’t expect a full alien dictionary to be published and unveiled at some sort of fan-fest any time soon. “Any time Harry speaks his language, it’s always fun, but I don’t know that it will ever be a language, like Klingon, where you go to conventions and people actually speak it as a language,” Tudyk said in a virtual panel interview. “It’s much more elusive. It’s like a back-and-forth between me and the editors. It switches up a little bit every take, and then they find the best string of sounds, and probably facial expressions, to go along with it, so that it makes for the best scene.” Of course, Harry isn’t technically the real Harry any more, but rather the alien that has taken over Harry’s body. But there’s no need to get bogged down in those kinds of details at this stage. The point is, the alien’s initial secret mission to destroy humankind has not yet been completed. Hence, Harry is still physically stranded on Earth in Season 2, while in a figurative sense he is increasingly caught between two worlds. “It’s an example of Harry’s growing emotional state and ability to process human emotions where, in the first season, he learns to love, and learns what friendship is, and it connects him to Asta (played by Sara Tomko), which is what ends up saving the human race,” said creator and executive producer Chris Sheridan. “I think his journey in Season 2 is, sort of, extending that humanity to people outside of Asta. So, learning empathy, and trying to realize that maybe there are other people in this world who he can care about, in addition to Asta. So that definitely continues into the second season.” That said, Sheridan knows better than to mess with what works with regard to why audiences have connected with RESIDENT ALIEN. “It’s going to be a slow burn – we don’t want to do it too quickly, where suddenly he’s caring about everybody, because a lot of the comedy goes away at that point,” Sheridan said. “That’s not really going to happen until the very end of the series, where he has, sort of, figured it all out. But, yeah, we are going to continue that.” Harry understandably has something of a childlike quality to him, as he learns about humanity. Perhaps that’s why his scenes with a youngster named Max, played by Judah Prehn, are particularly funny. Max is the only person who can see Harry’s true form, so Harry is constantly threatening to kill Max, even as he slowly warms to the boy, and considers him an ally. “I enjoy working with Judah, I think he’s a great kid, and he’s naturally funny, so I guess I have a lot of respect for him,” Tudyk said. “He sees what’s funny and can top it. We did some improv this season. He’s just a cool kid. I don’t have kids. So I like to think of him as not my own child, but as, like, a child that my dog might own. We have a dog. So I can relate. It’s sort of a distant child in that way.” Doesn’t that sound like an “alien” way to process emotion? Perhaps Alan Tudyk is becoming more Harry-like every day. billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv