“Aliens in America” — No Man Is An Island
It seems like one of the big trends this season when it came to the new shows was to have pilots that gave no real insight into how the series would play out over the long term. Aliens In America certainly fit this mold. Sure, the assimilation of Raja into American culture (and vice versa) is an obvious starting point, but in terms of the narrative, our main characters had a lot of their realizations in that first episode, so I was looking forward to seeing where things were headed. More after the jump…
For starters, the whole Pakistani living in Wisconsin angle isn’t nearly as prevalent as I would have imagined for the series. Sure, he’s there and his presence greatly affects our main character, Justin, but this isn’t a “they do things this way/we do things that way” series. Instead it’s more about what it’s like to be an outcast in high school, regardless of your religion. In the episode’s most clever moment Justin is in school walking behind his popular sister calling out her name while she ignores him. Simultaneously, Raja is following Justin calling out his name while also being ignored and while ignorning Small Paul, the genius 11-year-old calling out for Raja at the end of the train. In one shot you basically saw an entire school’s sociological hierarchy.
Tonally, I was having trouble figuring out what show Aliens In America most reminded me of (because it’s 2007 and the notion of a completely original idea is foreign to all of us), but as the episode went on it finally clicked. The series plays a lot like The Adventures of Pete and Pete. Not exactly like the cult fav (it isn’t nearly as odd) but the vibe is strikingly similar. Perhaps it’s the almost exclusive reliance on narration or the cartoon-like behavior of the supporting cast, or the idea that a kid could fall asleep in class and wake up five hours later in a completely empty school building. Either way the shows are most definitely kindred spirits. If Michael Stipe appears selling ice-cream cones in a future ep I’ll know something is up for sure.
