The Aliens

I'm sick of big budget shows which look great, but deliver nothing. This show is an interesting premise riffing off the current "alien" & border patrol crisis. I really enjoyed it. It's funny & quirkey. I don't understand the haters.

I first saw the ad for this a while back and I was really exited because it had some of my favorite actors in it. However I didn't watch it the on the air date. I looked at some other reviews a couple days after and they where mediocre. But as I was exited for it, I gave it a watch. I went into it feeling like it was going to be boring and not at all funny, but it really engaged me. Sure, the show is your typical channel four comedy filled with sex jokes, but it's actually enjoyable. It's sort of like misfits with it's humor, typical but hilarious. This show is really underrated and people should really give it a chance. Micheal Socha steels the show for sure, as he does in everything, without him the show would be dreadful. Sure it lacks a few things, and comes across as a bit cringey, including the whole hair smoking thing, but Aliens surprised me, it's a fun show with a pretty good cast.

The Aliens, is one of those earthy, unabashed, human drama's the UK does so well.

The initial premise is a little reminiscent of District 9. The aliens who arrive on earth as refugees, live in a segregated zone. That said, in this instance, the otherworldly refugees are, in most respects, more human than not. There are some differences, which offer the opportunity for some classic, rather ribald, Brit humour. Alien pacifying sound grenades, for example, that can be rigged to make the aliens run to the toilet. Or alien body hair, that can be shaved off and sold as a smokable narcotic.

The acting is good too, with the well cast Michael Socha, who some might remember from the series Being Human, in the lead role. Socha's character's rather sad sack, doe eyed, hopelessly unaware misfit, who works as an alien border guard, is a brilliant comedic foil, that softens some of the series more hard edged moments.

The Aliens is, if episode one is anything to go by, off to a good start. I look forward to seeing where this rather zany, quirky series, goes next. Eight out of ten from me.

This came up as a trailer for me yesterday. I like socha and cole so I decided to watch it( almost didn't when I saw the average rating here, glad I didn't. My only compliant is the alien thing? There wasn't anything to really differentiate an alien from a human other than where they lived. They didn't possess any powers and they died like normal. Anyways other than that I quite liked it. I wasn't a big fan Of Micheala Cole's character but I thought it was a decent watch. I wouldn't put it in the Sci-fi category more like Drama, crime, drugs oh and the actress that I recently watched in Harlots( forgot her name) in it. I'd recommend to any one that likes UK thrillers, crime stuff since that's my genre.

I don't usually write reviews but I felt I had to as this show is incredibly underrated here for completely irrelevant and silly reasons. Someone said it was created by the same people as Misfits? Irrelevant. The apartheid theme is too liberal for your political persuasion? Irrelevant. Too "urban" (seriously, what?) for you? Irrelevant. Not as good as a completely unrelated sci-fi movie with one similar plot point? Also irrelevant.

The story lines are compelling, the acting is very good, and the plot is very believable. I have never seen so many ridiculous complaints about a show (and no, I am not a "fanboi").

Science fiction isn't just about superheroes and superpowers, at it's core the genre is meant to portray difficult topics (like the immigration/migrant/refugee debate for instance here) in an atypical way that makes you think about them conceptually rather than exactly as they are. Does this show achieve that? Yes, absolutely. We can quibble about whether it does it effectively or not (I think it does) but it seems like some people reviewing this show can't wrap their heads around the fact that that's what sci-fi is often meant to do. It balances that with some humor and cringe comedy, which works here, nothing truly hilarious but decent enough.

All in all, it's a decent show with good writing, good acting that shows a lot of promise. It's mind boggling why it would deserve a 5.7 rating (not least of all because it's only 3 episodes in so far!).