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Hercules Profiles CW’s ALIENS IN AMERICA!!
SPOILER ALERT !!
I am – Hercules!!
A sitcom with big laughs, a big heart and the insanely milfy Amy Pietz from writer-producers Moses Port & David Guarascio (“Mad About You,” “Just Shoot Me”), “Aliens in America” tells the tale of a nerdly Wisconsin high school outcast who finds his stock rising after his family hosts a good-natured and devout Muslim Pakistani exchange student.
“Aliens” is paired with “Everybody Hates Chris” and airs opposite “Chuck,” “The Big Bang Theory,” “Prison Break” and “Dancing With The Stars.” No one is going to watch it (because, I ask rhetorically, who doesn’t enjoy Mark Cuban doing the Rhumba?), but I do look forward to whatever Port & Guarascio conjure next, hopefully with Pietz in tow.
Entertainment Weekly gives it a “B-plus” and says:
… two likable, unaffected actors (or at least as unaffected as Aliens' heightened reality allows them to be; this show would be a mess in lesser hands). Along with the fellows of Chuck and Reaper, they are guys who just seem kinda...nice. It's a pleasure. …
USA Today gives it two stars (out of four) and says:
By all rights, you'd expect CW to cherish and nurture Aliens in America, a cross-cultural fish-out-of-water comedy that received a near-rapturous reception when it was first screened last spring. Since then, however, the show has been subjected to development "improvement" — changes that include a new star in tonight's premiere and, much worse, a shift in next week's second episode to the smarmy that makes one wonder whether the real out-of-touch aliens in America are sitcom writers. … What gives you hope for the long run are the heartfelt moments, from Justin's pain at being an outcast to Franny's transformation from bigot to loving mom. …
The New York Times says:
… fresh, funny and charming in a tart, sardonic way, one of the best sendups of adolescent angst since “The Wonder Years” and “Malcolm in the Middle” (and perhaps even “My So-Called Life”). …
The Los Angeles Times says:
… winning …
The Chicago Tribune says:
… not your typically brainless network sitcom. It's a topical, sharp comedy … The well-made, provocative comedy mixes the wistfulness of "The Wonder Years" with the prickly outsider humor of the CW's "Everybody Hates Chris," and as one perceptive Northside student noted, it also has elements of "Freaks and Geeks," …
The Washington Post says:
… despite plenty of surface sparkle, there is something discomforting about the show, and not just because it borrows tone and form from other sitcoms with youthful heroes, especially Fox's "Malcolm in the Middle." The show says not only that racism but also bullying, baiting, ignorance, homophobia and other social afflictions can be quite hilarious. Maybe up to a point -- but it's a point beyond which "Aliens in America" unfortunately seems willing to go. It's no fun to laugh and then feel guilty about it. …
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
Easily the funniest of the new broadcast network comedies … more than another series about a geek. It's a timely look at cultural differences and a timeless depiction of young friendship. It's that rare TV comedy with both humor and heart. …
The Boston Herald gives it an “A-minus” and says:
You’ve seen high school depicted as hell in everything from those John Hughes and Cameron Crowe teen films to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." But you’ve never seen its cruelties and heartbreaks so comically detailed as in The CW’s "Aliens in America," the biggest surprise of the fall season. … Of all the new fall shows, "Aliens in America" is the one worth protecting and nurturing. This culture clash deserves to be a smash. …
Boston Now says:
… easily the best new comedy of the season. …
The Hollywood Reporter says:
… reminds us in ways both satiric and sweet that it is possible to feel like an alien even if you don't belong … The "Aliens" pilot has some of the funniest writing on TV this fall. Its single-camera format makes it earn each laugh, which it does repeatedly. A second episode, also supplied to reviewers, dials back the humor considerably but loses none of the warmth and heart that makes this show so irresistible. … consistently clever and lively, well played and directed, its corners filled with nice throwaway lines and small visual jokes.
8:30 p.m. Monday. The CW.
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* The All-New Superfriends Hour * Angel: Complete Series Collector's Set ($97.99!!) * Aquaman: The Complete Collection * Aqua Teen Hunger Force Vol. 5 * Battlestar Galactica 1.x [HD-DVD] * Battlestar Galactica: Razor * Big Love 2.x * Chappelle's Show: Complete Series * The Colbert Report: Best Of * Doctor Who 3.x * Dr. Katz: The Complete Series * Family Guy 1.x-5.x Party Pack * The Film Crew: Giant of Marathon * Flight of the Conchords 1.x * Frasier: The Complete Series * Futurama Movie I: Bender's Big Score * Galactica 1980: The Complete Series * Gilmore Girls: The Complete Series * Looney Tunes: Golden Collection Vol. 5 * Lost 3.x * Lost 3.x [Blu-ray] * The L-Word 4.x * Michael Palin: Pole To Pole * Medium 3.x * Mission: Impossible 3.x * MXC: Most Extreme Eliminatiion Challenge 3.x * My So-Called Life: The Complete Series * Mystery Science Theatre 3000 Vol. 12 * Northern Exposure: The Complete Series * The OC: The Complete Series * Saturday Night Live 2.x * Scrubs 6.x * Seinfeld 9.x * Seinfeld: The Complete Series * The Sopranos 6.x Vol. 2 *The Sopranos 6.x Vol. 2 [Blu-ray] *The Sopranos 6.x Vol. 2 [HD-DVD] * Star Trek 1.x [DVD/HD-DVD] * Studio 60: The Complete Series *Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians * Tales From The Crypt 7.x * 24 6.x * Twin Peaks: The Complete Series * Veronica Mars 3.x * The Wire 4.x * The X-Files: Ultimate Collection * Young Indiana Jones Vol. 1 * Young Indiana Jones Vol. 2 * The Young Ones: The Complete Series * 
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"Someone said aliens, she thought they said `illegal aliens' and signed up..."
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No, just can't.
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One can always hope for some new Feig/Apatow-type crunchy goodness...
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Might check it out
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And of course mom is a bigot. Because parents are always bigots. Ooops, I mean white-bread American parents. But, fortunately, she will become enlightened and realize that Muslims are actually better than Americans, and that white people generally suck balls, and she'll start to hate herself. It'll be a laff riot!
Seriously, I haven't seen it, but it sounds great. Although the Pakistani Muslim sounds a little bit more like Fez from That 70s Show than a real devout Madrasa educated Death to the Infidel Muslim. Hah! I kid, I kid. -
And this sort of sounds like a watered down version of CBC's "Little Mosque on the Prarie"
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Thank you .
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except less with the gay?
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...sorry to go off-topic, but there's a bunch of us out there waiting for our usual weekly over examination of the current episode...
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Please!!!
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Journeyman SUCKED, but Chuck was awesome.
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Will Heroes not be covered anymore? Will it go the way of GG and be an every 5/6 episodes thing? Didja forget.
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For the Heroes story tis week. Mkay.
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You know how everyone likes Fez from That 70's Show, right? Right? What if we make a show that's like...all Fez, all the time. ONLY, we don't have to get that Herve Villachez guy cause he'll ask for too much money, so instead we'll just get some unknown Pakistani guy, it doesn't matter how funny he is, as long as he's brown, talks with an accent and acts clueless it will be just as funny. Plus if we make him Muslim then we can also have a running moral in each story about how Muslims are really just human beings like us, and not all savage, suicide bombing murderers. Because for some reason, all us TV execs think this is some kind of fucking revelation that only we have figured out, and need to teach the retarded masses." - Aliens in America pitch meeting
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So, Borat with heart?
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Makes me curious as to what the rest of the review said...
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to watch it...I heard Chuck will repeat on Saturday again like it did this past week...so I can check out this show and still watch Chuck.
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My F5 key is begging for you to post the Heroes talkback. I want to discuss Maya and Miguel and how well they have transferred from childrens animation to the big time on Heroes. Thanks.
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"This show was horrible, thus winning me the bet I made with my editor"
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Hey dumbshit.... You do know it got picked up for season 2 already right?
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...in the end everyone dies of AIDS. Probably.
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That's like the weekly Heroes fan magazine.
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GEEZ!!!
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Good Gravy!!!
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Turdy shit?
Goddamn, you are an idiot.
Know I understand why you didn't enjoy it.
Oh by the way, stay mysterious...jackass. -
With that one famous Russian guy, Veejay Armitraj, and a few others...somebody surely remembers that stinkbomb show. It usually follwed SHE'S THE SHERIFF.
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Seriously, this show is terrible. These critics are all talking shit.
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Pretty Please Herc?
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Seriously, if there's any way that the "creators" of this didn't see CBC's Little Mosque on the Prairie, I'll eat my hat... That's some creativity you got there CW...
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is solid family entertainment. Listen, no one's going to mistake this for The Office or Always Sunny or Curb. It's not that type of comedy. But there's a real sweetness in the writing and in the characters. I think Adhir Kalyan, who plays Raja, the Muslim exchange student, is going to break out with this role. He's got a great sense of comic timing and his chemistry with Dan Byrd is very natural. The pilot and the second episode are directed by Luke Greenfield who also mixed heart and humor successfully in The Girl Next Door. I think this one's going to be a really pleasant surprise. I know it's been garnering controversy but you have to appreciate the low-key show for what it is. The major networks seem to have gone out of their way to make the fall season Bigger and Better than ever, but high-concept, big-budget shows like Journeyman and Bionic Woman and to a lesser extent, Chuck, don't always work well. This one is a throwback to the sitcoms I grew up watching. It relies a little too much on the fish out of water scenario but overall the show plays like the Wonder Years in post-9/11 America.
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No way I am going to watch show about muslims unless they are killed in massive numbers.
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Its actually pretty funny. And Neil Patrick Harris rocks the party from the early morn' to the broad daylight. Afterwards I'll watch that Aliens in America show...I'll let you know what I think in a few minutes.
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...and it was more of a drama than a sitcom...and it was really good - I liked it. A lot of the jokes were pretty risky, and it touches on a lot of topics you don't often see covered in a sitcom, so I'll keep watching. If it can continue to walk the right side of that line and explore the scenario without getting cheap, preachy, or offensive...this could be a real quality show...which means it will likely get cancelled.
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so this means that her last series, the one with the southern stand-up comic, Doofy or Woodroy or whatever his/its name was, and the one before that, the Curse of Webber, are canceled? Because she was great as the other title character on Caroline and the Clitty.
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You swear like me cunt. that shit is trademarked so fuck off.
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Goodness!
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maybe there is a market for a Kung Fu sitcom like the Burger King Spicy Chicken Crisp Chicken that advertises a sandwhich based on his own kind.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfJeOyzVrjY
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