mayorsnowflake

[mayorsnowflake]

their beef will be studied by historians

[mayorsnowflake]

resident alien is a special kind of tonal whiplash bc one second harry will be experiencing depression for the first time and fundamentally not understanding this sharp emptiness that cannot be filled. and then next he’ll be daydreaming about a gas leak blowing up the hawthorne household while ben is in a therapy session with him

[mayorsnowflake]

seeing mike in the pilot episode of resident alien is so sad when you know his backstory, man.

when ben announces that a grief counselor is coming to help the town cope with the loss of their doctor, mike immediately undercuts him with mockery: “is that coming out of the town budget, or is he working for hugs?” then when deputy liv admits she didn’t know how to break the news to the doctor’s widow, mike volunteers with a brutal indifference: “I’ll tell her he’s dead. I don’t give a sh*t.” on the surface it plays like hard-nosed machismo, but it’s something else entirely. mike relocated to this small colorado town after the death of his partner back in washington, and that context reframes his reactions entirely. this isn’t just about him being callous. it’s about avoidance. he’s seen what grief looks like up close, and instead of facing it, he ran from it. because he was never equipped with the tools or emotional mentality to cope with his own grief. now when it creeps back into his life through someone else’s tragedy, he throws up these same defenses: sarcasm, bravado, emotional distance. he feigns indifference to loss because he can’t get too close to it. because he knows loss like a second language he’s been spending his time trying to unlearn it in all the wrong ways. because he doesn’t understand grief, just like he eventually tells lev on the park bench

[mayorsnowflake]

this will probably be the only time i post abt resident alien but it is so important to me that harry and asta DO NOT under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES get together. it’s like a brett-reagan thing to me. they make eachother better but also asta is forcefully parentified by harry . harry explicitly differentiates the type of love he had for her and then a different for heather. that is his best friend and the source of his hope in humanity. not because he romantically loves her, but because she is fucked up and weird and good. that’s what being human is. romantic love is not what makes us human, it is the bonds we create (metaphorically speaking ofc) and that is the point

[mayorsnowflake]

this is what this show is about!! resident alien is a great many things (sci-fi thriller/comedy/murder mystery/etc) but at the core of it all is the humanity of it! it’s about this small community of people who are all hurting in different ways that matter, but in that same vein help each other pick up their pieces in different ways that matter. that is the thesis statement. corey reynolds put it perfectly in this quote

and in mike’s case one of stunted fragments of that brokenness was his strained relationship with his dad. one happy memory helps propel him towards better. at the same time it allows harry to practice empathy for others

it’s all about broken people growing & healing together

"Only an alien would have been able to put a memory in the sheriff's head. And if that memory gave him a good day... then that is just a coincidence."

you dont understand actually how unwell I am about this. all Harry had to do to benefit himself was to put a new memory in Mike's head to get him off of his trail. but when he told him how he lost a friend a few years ago and he didnt think he had had a good day since, Harry not only decided to put a new memory in his head but to make it a good one. I'm going to start crying over this you dont understand how important this is to me. I'm.

[mayorsnowflake]

resident alien season 4 airing on JUNE 6TH??