History Series / ResidentAlien

* AliensSpeakingEnglish: Just like in the comic, Harry knows English, only instead of being an experienced speaker, the TV version learned it in a matter of months by binge-watching Law and Order.

* MushroomSamba: When Harry takes whiskey and sleeping pills, he collapses and has a nightmare that the corpse of the real Dr. Vanderspiegle comes to life to chastise him.

* AdultFear: It's usually played for humour (albeit of the dark variety), but Max's ranting and raving that the new doctor is an alien only he can see - leading to his self-admitted [[spoiler:recruiting a friend to break into Harry's home]] - definitely gets serious when his parents get so concerned about him they seriously consider [[spoiler:sending him away to a school in Georgia where he can get psychiatric help.]] Remove the fantastic elements of the series and suddenly seeing a young boy have a seeming break from reality is quite sobering for any parents watching.

An adaptation of the [[ComicBook/ResidentAlien comic series]] by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Hogan Peter Hogan]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Parkhouse Steve Parkhouse,]] ''Resident Alien'' is a Creator/{{Syfy}} original series starring Creator/AlanTudyk as Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle, a semi-retired doctor in the small town of Patience, Colorado. Unbeknownst to all those around him, Dr. Vanderspeigle has a big secret unknown to any of them: he's an alien who has crash-landed on Earth and is now hiding among them.

** Harry's love of ''Law & Order'', because he learned how to act human by watching episodes of the show.

** "Alien Dinner Party" [[spoiler:sees an alien shoot and kill David Logan in the opening scene. This is followed up with the egg that Harry found in the previous episode hatching an alien baby. Said baby then clutches Harry's head and reveals a communication from a fellow alien that his people are ''not'' coming because there is another alien species already on Earth planning to try to take it over. Harry is shot by a man from the past of the human Harry, but Asta shoots and kills the man. However, in the process, D'Arcy stumbles upon the scene.]]

** Meredith Garretson appears as Kate Hawthorne in every episode of the first season and has a fairly significant role but is nevertheless credited as a guest star. This continues to be the case in the second season.

** So, so much of Harry's feud with Max, from his DoubleEntendre laden bar conversation with D'Arcy where he cluelessly cops to his various killing attempts (and that it won't be the last time, either) while she's flirting with him to his {{Indulgent Fantasy Segue}}s about killing him, including blowing up his house and dropping a piano on him.

* EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether: Asta, D'Arcy, Ben, Judy and Liv grew up together in Patience. Old memories and classmates' names regularly come up in conversation.

* GlamourFailure: As in the comics, certain humans can see through Harry's disguise, and by what Harry terms "some bullshit" the mayor's son Max can see his true form. Harry even states the chance of a human carrying the gene needed turning up in his tiny town in the middle of nowhere are one in a million.

* IntergenerationalRivalry: Between Harry and the ten-year-old Max. However, WordOfGod says Harry's [[ManChild emotionally]] around the same age.

* MedicationTampering: The town doctor who suffered from diabetes is killed by someone poisoning his insulin injections.

* NeverFoundTheBody: One of Harry's many problems is finding the body of the original Dr. Vanderspeigle. After throwing him in the lake on the night he assumed his identity, he now worries the corpse will wash up on shore and expose his ruse. [[spoiler:It washes up in episode 3, with Harry managing to get to it before anyone else]].

** In "The Green Glow", Creator/NathanFillion does the voice of the Octopus. Fillion and Creator/AlanTudyk were on ''{{Series/Firefly}}'' together.

* StringTheory: Sheriff Mike builds a board of the crimes that had occurred (Sam's murder, washed-up foot, fake prescriptions). [[HyperCompetentSidekick Deputy Liz's]] secret board is much more detailed and offers new insights.

* StealthInSpace: Harry's spaceship has a cloaking device that kept it from being discovered. That is until the two agents track Harry to the landing location.

** The opening of "Heroes of Patience," showing [[spoiler:the original Harry injecting Sam Hodges's insulin, revealing he was Abigail's accomplice in the murder (or that he framed Abigail, depending on what theory you believe)]].

* WorldOfJerkass: Played with; while most of the main characters have unpleasant edges initially, there's reasoning for it shown as the series goes along. Asta's initial snappishness with Harry is shown to be down to his replacing her ParentalSubstitute Sam, D'Arcy's being a complete prick to her patrons seems to be her trying to impress Harry (who she has a crush on), Max's increasing weirdness is understandable considering Harry tried to kill him (twice), Mayor Hawthorne's incompetence is because he's a well-meaning ExtremeDoormat and Deputy Liv is more tragic than anything else. Even the sheriff's dickishness seems to be partly down to both frustration he's stuck in such a middle-of-nowhere job and delight the murder ''finally'' gives him something to do.

** The idea of Harry having a job at all is dropped after "The Green Glow," even though that episode strongly implies that he needs one.

* FakeGuestStar: Meredith Garretson appears as Kate Hawthorne in every episode of the first season and has a fairly significant role but is nevertheless credited as a guest star.

** The idea of Harry having a job at all is dropped after "The Green Glow,' even though that episode strongly implies that he needs one.

* Harry and Asta discuss E.T. in "Girls' Night," in which Harry calls E.T. an idiot, albeit sexy and very attractive.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Harry's backup job as Patience's therapist is dropped after "Homesick."

** Isabelle cooks meat for the alien who has assumed the form of her husband from a package that was part a set covering the body of her ''real'' husband.

* EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether: Asta, D'Arcy, Ben, Judy, and Liz grew up together in Patience. Old memories and classmates' names regularly come up in conversation.

[[caption-width-right:350:The '''other''' kind of illegal alien]]

* EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether: Asta, D’Arcy, Ben, Judy, and Liz grew up together in Patience. Old memories and classmates’ names regularly come up in conversation.

* FreeRangeChildren: Max and Sahar bike all the way to Harry’s isolated cabin without notifying their parents on multiple occasions. Not even getting pulled over by the sheriff deters them.

* ImmediateSequel: "Old Friends," the premiere of Season 2, picks up right where Season 1 left off with Harry and Max in Harry's spaceship and Max demanding that Harry take him back to Earth.

* GreenAesop: The reason Harry was sent on a KillThemAll mission was that humans were changing the planet, but not in a good way.

* StrongGirlSmartGuy: David deduces the presence of aliens without being told of their existence and uses his knowledge of ancient civilizations to correctly identify that Harry had come to KillThemAll. Lisa, on the other hand, has no qualms about killing anyone who gets too close to their mission.