The Perfect Couple
I just learned something about this show that makes me want to like it more. Jenna Lamia who plays Judy Cooper on Resident Alien developed, wrote, and executive produced The Perfect Couple. She is so talented and such a force of nature. I mean, have you seen how professionally she digs a grave? And yet, I can not bring myself to actually give a fuck about this show. I mean, if the best part about your show is the opening credits, I think you have a problem. The Perfect Couple hons in on what all trashy prestige television does, rich, pretty people getting put through the blender. Here they were just able to get bigger names and luck out by getting two actors from White Lotus. Nicole Kidman has kind of made this her niche, Big Little Lies, The Undoing, Nine Perfect Strangers, and The Perfect Couple. I think it's time for her to move on. Nancy Meyers Coastal Grandmother is over with and you need more than a pretty house to make a show. But damn, that house is pretty. The people though? They might be pretty on the outside, but are horrible on the inside. Though speaking of the outside, there's some serious WTF going on with plastic surgery. Isabelle Adjani is unrecognizable and as my brother perfectly phrased it, Nicole Kidman looks like she's had a Photoshop filter applied. Whereas Liev Schreiber just wandered onto set and they put hipster glasses on him and called it a day. Damn the double standards of Hollywood! The main problem here aside from the fact they don't believe in fair play and there are so many things that are dropped or unexplained is Amelia Sacks. Our protagonist played by Eve Hewson is about to marry into this privileged world and is to be the viewer's surrogate, and yet I have no idea why she's marrying Benji. She obviously doesn't love him. Yes, there's the, before her mother dies she gets to see her daughter married angle, but I felt like there was something deeper. Like she needed Benji's money or connections to help her mother out. Amelia obviously cares more for her murdered maid of honor than she does for her future spouse, and yet the whole cancelling of the wedding is just like a plot point that's not quite hit. It's an afterthought. And then throughout the show she becomes more and more irrelevant until the end when she and Benji just shrug and walk away from each other. Um, what now!?! All this production, all this fanfare, that ends on a whimper not a bang... I think that is a perfect metaphor for the whole show. It started strong, it started joyous, I mean, look to those opening credits, and then, by the end you literally didn't care. This was six episodes and it felt overly long. It lacked focus and didn't play fair. But then again, it was about foul play and at least it felt like Dakota Fanning was having fun.
Over five years ago it was announced that Syfy was adapting the Resident Alien comic by Peter Hogan. Me being me, I read the first volume and liked the nostalgic vibe of classic television it exuded. It was part Quincy, part Andy Griffith, part X-Files, I was definitely going to be a viewer. Fast forward to now and this adaptation got it just right for my generation, making it a new Northern Exposure wherein Dr. Joel Fleischman is an alien with a Law and Order/Jerry Orbach obsession played brilliantly by the comic genius that is Alan Tudyk. I also love how self-aware they are even including the most wonderful Easter Egg for lovers of Cicely in the season finale; Iris DeMent's "Our Town." But most important to me is that Alan Tudyk FINALLY has a staring vehicle! I have been literally waiting twenty years for this to happen. Of course he's created so many memorable characters over the years from Steve the Pirate to Wash to Noah Werner to Wray Nerely, the list goes on and on and this doesn't even touch the vastness of his voice work! And yet never a starring role. I mean I love Alan so much that I went to see Spamalot a second time on Broadway when he replaced Hank Azaria. He was better than Hank because he threw himself fully into the role. And that's what he does here with Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle. He's an alien who has assumed Dr. Vanderspeigle's life when he crash-landed on Earth. The childlike behavior and potty mouth of an alien trying to blend in among the townsfolk is something only Tudyk could have pulled off. He is Peter Sellers-esque and deserves just as many awards as that great man. Though it's only due to the genius of the ensemble that makes this the best show of the year. Hands down. They bring the human element that is so foreign to Tudyk's amazing performance. The revelation is Judah Prehn as Max, a young kid who can see Harry for who he is. Their interactions are some of the best comedy on television right now. Thankfully this show was renewed for another season because I don't know what I would have done if it was cancelled. I NEED to know what happens next. For like six seasons and a movie. 
I don't think it's just me, but I feel like there has been a plethora of book adaptations over the last year. Not only have I not gotten around to watching them all, but of the ones I've seen I feel like I'm barely touching the tip of the iceberg! I want to binge them all! Bridgerton, The Stand, Clarice, Resident Alien, All Creatures Great and Small, and on and on. Because if there's one thing Covid has done it's to let us fully embrace the binge on a level heretofore never seen! What's Bridgerton or The Queen's Gambit in a day? That's nothing compared to not leaving your couch for months on end! In fact it gives you something to do while on your couch! But what I'm amazed at is that we're constantly getting new shows, how is it that the film industry has kind of wobbled but television and streaming have continued on so robustly? Oh, does it really matter? Not when so many beloved books were finally adapted this year. Terry Pratchett? Yes please! Alan Tudyk is a what? I'm overjoyed! Regency England is cool again? What, is this 1996 again? Because at this moment I think I'd be OK with that. So here's to all the shows I've watched, I'm watching, and I plan to watch, all emanating from my favorite medium, books! Because I want to make it abundantly clear, an adaptation doesn't legitimize a book, a book is a perfect finished product in it's own right. An adaptation just gives me joy at seeing what I envisioned on screen. And even if they get it horribly wrong... well, they tried right? Plus, I do kind of like complaining when things go wrong...
