I really enjoy the comic Strange Planet, which is just short and quippy enough to tackle a hyper specific topic and show the absurdities in them. When I learned just recently that Apple was releasing a series of this, I was hoping for a fun little continuing story that had their odd mannerisms peppered throughout as they attempt to navigate towards whatever their nebulous goal is.
Its not that. Its a sketch comedy show essentially, and I use that term very lightly.
The series, unfortunately, is blandly one note. Its less interesting than the comic because it has to try to tell snippets of a story for a couple minutes, but the story of these strange aliens engaging in normal human behavior and showing the silliness of everyday life is lost in translation here.
When reading the comic you will use any voice you want for these aliens, and with their very specific styles of speaking (often with "Oooooh"s), its easy to imagine them with the typical "alien" voice. One that is higher pitched, kind of silly, and not a standard American English. These aliens speak like American actors, which tends to break the scifi/fantasy/mundane style reality of their world.
This translating into a show from the comic seems like a no-brainer easy win, but they seem to have forgotten part of what makes the comic enjoyable: being funny. I feel part of it is dragging out a 4-panel comic to a 10 minute sketch/joke. Theres just not enough there to realistically buy into it and the humor is stretched way too thin and way too repetitively.
I gave up on my first viewing about 75% the way through the first of two skits in the first episode, but came back to give it a full chance. I regret it. I watched episode one and two and did not even so much as gently blow air out of my nose in amusement, as the aliens would say. Its sad to say that the show is about as funny as my review was.
Its not that. Its a sketch comedy show essentially, and I use that term very lightly.
The series, unfortunately, is blandly one note. Its less interesting than the comic because it has to try to tell snippets of a story for a couple minutes, but the story of these strange aliens engaging in normal human behavior and showing the silliness of everyday life is lost in translation here.
When reading the comic you will use any voice you want for these aliens, and with their very specific styles of speaking (often with "Oooooh"s), its easy to imagine them with the typical "alien" voice. One that is higher pitched, kind of silly, and not a standard American English. These aliens speak like American actors, which tends to break the scifi/fantasy/mundane style reality of their world.
This translating into a show from the comic seems like a no-brainer easy win, but they seem to have forgotten part of what makes the comic enjoyable: being funny. I feel part of it is dragging out a 4-panel comic to a 10 minute sketch/joke. Theres just not enough there to realistically buy into it and the humor is stretched way too thin and way too repetitively.
I gave up on my first viewing about 75% the way through the first of two skits in the first episode, but came back to give it a full chance. I regret it. I watched episode one and two and did not even so much as gently blow air out of my nose in amusement, as the aliens would say. Its sad to say that the show is about as funny as my review was.