Anybody remember Alien Nation?

[BBally81]

As of recently, I began reconnecting with a franchise I haven't followed in a long time, Alien Nation.

I remember the first time I watched the film and while I've only seen a few times, I still have fond memories of enjoying it. Then I found out about the TV series, while I didn't watch it at the time, I did watch several of the TV movies that came after the show was canceled.

One of the things I liked about the show was how it tackled themes like racism.

Dena 'Cyborcat' Natali is doing a retrospect on the series (though she started with a small review of the film)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F3RNbA ... 5z&index=1

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I remember catching the movie when I was really little, and that there was a TV show, both of which I didn't hear anything bad about, so I was intrigued. Also James Caan is in the movie that I think I remember beginning to watch, but I still don't remember anything about either the show or movie.

[McAvoy]

I remember it. I remember it when it first came out. My parents were huge fans of it. I was only a kid at the time and never really caught on the themes of the show until I got older.

People joke about how Married With Children could never be made without liberals complaining. Well this show would never be made without the conservatives complaining about it being too 'woke'.

[Mabus]

I remember some bits about it, must have seen a few episode clips of the series on TV a long time ago.
The only thing that I properly remember and felt that was weird is how splashing them with salt water would be like splashing a human with acid and that confused me greatly; How that would work, given that they're still carbon-based lifeforms mostly made of water, they don't sweat? Their CNS doesn't use salt? Would fruits or certain vegetables act as blister agents? Also, wouldn't that mean they can't touch us since our bodies are constantly covered in sweat which is salt water?
I couldn't take the series seriously from that scene, I thought it was some comedy like Coneheads.

[McAvoy]

I watched it several years ago but I do remember one of the earlier episodes having Grandpa Alien going into the ocean without getting burned or killed.

They also have other things like they eat random things that we wouldn't, or they do get drunk off of sour milk. The sour milk thing I found funny because they get to get drunk off something so cheap. Gallon of milk in the early 90's was like $2.50 or something. And the milk doesn't go to waste either. Like we dump it when it goes sour, in that series you just go to your neighbors and give it to them.

[Nealithi]

I recall both the movie and the show. The show was mostly alright.
But the movie I thought was good because you had the grizzled and yes racist cop partnered with an alien. And at several points comes out defending his partner. The big one to me was a body on the beach and his partner was afraid to come down. When the two uniformed police ragged on the cowardice he snapped at them. "And how brave would you be at an ocean of sulfuric acid?"

[clearspira]

I remember the film, it didn't make enough of the concept. If you replace the aliens with immigrants/gangbangers and the super special alien drug with heroin, it basically reads exactly the same. It occurs to me that District 9 did the same thing but better.

[McAvoy]

I remember the film, it didn't make enough of the concept. If you replace the aliens with immigrants/gangbangers and the super special alien drug with heroin, it basically reads exactly the same. It occurs to me that District 9 did the same thing but better.

Uhhh I am pretty sure it was done like that on purpose.

The TV show went further using the aliens for pretty much every minority issue of the day (and today, things haven't changed since then).

There was a scene in the first episode I believe, where the alien cop's kids were being harassed or the alien mother was. Not sure. I think it was during a protest. The alien mother goes to the restroom where a black teacher I believe had a short story about how she remembers the protests of the 60's.

[Beastro]

I appreciated the world build effort, but I found it a show that didn't have enough to be a proper show. It was only later I realized it was a movie first.

That, plus the TV series was very early 90s in vibe, and while it evokes nostalgia in me, it wasn't an era of good quality in TV.

[CharlesPhipps]

It was a weird mix of hard boiled cop show and scifi premise.

I liked it.

I also didn't realize it was a pun on alienation until 2020.