Don’t Overlook … People of Earth

People of Earth | TVNZ 2, 12.45am Saturday

➢ “TBS’s comedy hot streak continues with this new comedy executive produced by Conan O’Brien and Greg Daniels (The Office, Parks and Recreation). Starring The Daily Show alum Wyatt Cenac, this idiosyncratic series centers on incredulous reporter Ozzie Graham (Cenac) as he probes a support group for alien abductees —sorry, I mean ‘alien experiencers” …  Ozzie starts to realise that he may have more in common with the group than he thought and discovers, much to his surprise, that there’s some truth to their stories.” — Entertainment Weekly.

➢ It’s hard not to fall for the charms of TBS’ newest comedy, the Wyatt Cenac-led People of Earth, about a support group for survivors of alien abduction: It manages to be sweet, smart, quirky, story-strong and funny all at the same time with what appears to be minimal effort … This is a really fun and absurd little comedy that gets better and more lovable as you watch.” — The Hollywood Reporter.

➢ “Storytellers have had comedic fun with the premise before, most notably in The X-Files, which didn’t always take itself all that seriously. In fact, People of Earth could be read as an homage to one of the Fox series’ greatest hours, Jose Chung’s From Outer Space. It doesn’t have the poetry of that instalment — few episodes of television do — but the TBS series also uses alien-abduction scenarios as a vehicle for exploring ideas about connection, loneliness, and the ways in which memories can be manipulated for possibly unsavory reasons.” — Variety.

➢ “The slight but appealing People of Earth, is a contemporary anti-comedy or semi-comedy with a traditional sitcom core. The misfits who meet at a church to share their abduction stories are special in the same way as the drivers and mechanics of Taxi or the barflies of Cheers or the superannuated students of Community. They’re especially, comically delicate.” — New York Times.

➢ “Instead of ridiculing the abductees, the show is a surprisingly earnest look at a group of lonely oddballs struggling with hazy but traumatic memories. But both its humour and its more serious themes feel undernourished, and the end result is a comedy that, despite its potential, feels slight. — Los Angeles Times.