Apple TV+’s Strange Planet review: Do we get a look into the character's persona?

Apple TV+ has taken a creative step in adapting the beloved webcomic series Strange Planet by y Nathan W. Pyle and has brought the series to our screens on August 9, 2023. Created by Nathan W. Pyle and Dan Harmon, the upcoming animated comedy series based on science fiction and blue beings will depict everyday struggles in the most human way possible.

The brief description of the series on the official website reads,

"Welcome to a distant world not unlike our own, with hilarious yet poignant observations on life, love, and friendship - told in the most peculiar way. From creators Nathan W. Pyle and Dan Harmon."

The trailer for Strange Planet was released on July 25, 2023, and has gathered close to 130,000 views so far.

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Strange Planet - A review of a whimsical yet candid extraterrestrial depiction of the world

Based on the New York Times' number 1 bestselling graphic novel, Strange Planet has already captured hearts with the fascinating aspect of animated adaptation - brutal honesty. As blue balloon-headed creatures bring the usual human life on our screens in a matter-of-fact manner, viewers enjoy a slice of their life without any societal inhibitions.

Each 25-minute episode showcases the unnamed characters navigating life with the most simple yet straightforward conversations possible as they occupy themselves with an equally clear task such as hiking, petting a dog, or dining.

These aliens have ways of addressing gestures and verbs such as confetti, sun tan, kissing, coffee, alcohol, and tea as tiny trash, star damage, mouth-push, jitter liquid, mild poison, and hot leaf liquid, respectively - enough to build a separate dictionary.

As a being in the Apple TV+'s trailer says,

"The bad moments will pass. Even the good moments will pass. That's what our existence is all about."

What emerged as an internet sensation has been turned into half-hourly episodes that magnify the bit-sized strips into a few dry laughs and chuckles through a more complex storyline - the result feels rather stretched-out. Still, it ends with fun lessons irrespective of age. So far, three episodes have been dropped, which include The Flying Machine, Greyscale Finger Bandit, and Careful Now, while viewers await the fourth episode, The Big Wet, to be released on August 16, 2023.

Strange Planet's cast can be seen shifting in and out of a cliffside restaurant named Careful Now which is the house of the manager (Hannah Einbinder) working on her crush on another meek customer (Danny Pudi). The whimsical owner (Lori Tan Chinn) plans to bring in more customers and provides aid to the manager in charge. Demi Adejuyigbe enters as the newly hired employee who is more enthusiastic than experienced.

Either way, Strange Planet brings together similar-looking aliens with less personal quirks and a more complex satire of human existence.

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Strange Planet voice cast explored

The voiceovers for the blue blobs generally begin with a narration of an ordinary day while twists unfold into the episode. The drama unfolds in co-worker issues, rows between friends, or an exchange with the barman. Each of these episodes has voiceovers by award-winning actors such as Hannah Einbinder (Hacks), Tunde Adebimpe (Rachel Getting Married), Danny Pudi (Community), Demi Adejuyigbe (The Amber Ruffin Show) and Lori Tan Chinn (Orange is the New Black).

Nathan W. Pyle and Dan Harmon have shaped the world of blue blobs and pink shadows like Rick and Morty as the characters explore existential dread and anxiety for the future, but with a sense of hope lingering somewhere.