Strange Planet premieres August 9 on Apple TV+ with three episodes, followed by new episodes weekly.
Since 2019, the unnamed blue beings of Nathan W. Pyle’s webcomic Strange Planet have filtered the inanities of everyday human life – from trying to interpret a cat’s behavior to thoughts on death – through their alien lens. Having conquered social media, Pyle now brings his creations and their disarmingly literal vocabulary to Apple TV+ in a cartoon that’s a welcome, downtempo alternative to the rapid-fire, adult-animation mainstream. Pyle teams with one of the biggest stars of that scene, prolific comedy writer and Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon, to adapt the comics into a charming, fleshed-out world of interconnected characters who ruminate with emotional sensitivity on topics like the fear of flying and stage fright.
The pilot episode, “The Flying Machine,” introduces the town of Beingsburgh, whose inhabitants do a lot of things that we humans do: They travel on airplanes, they form obsessive attachments to bands – they just do it with a lot more emotional maturity and awareness of their actions. None of these characters have names, but over the span of the 10-episode season, they become more distinct thanks to vocal performances and their unique accessories. Pyle and the Strange Planet writers craft dialogue in the idiosyncratic dialect of the webcomic, so a lot of the initial fun of the series involves mentally translating terms like jitter juice (coffee) or Emergence Day (birthday).
While the beings may be prone to occasional bouts of stupidity, Strange Planet is mostly interested in telling stories about the health and well being of their interior lives, as they confront or explore their sources of anxiety, resentment, vulnerability, and even love. Sometimes the episodes struggle with presenting equally compelling A and B stories to fill their 25-minute run times; “The Flying Machine,” “Tiny Trash,” “Adolescent Limbshake,” and season finale “Double Shadow Day” possess the best mix of relatable topics. These episodes’ takes on the fear of flying and feeling like a failure in your 20s make the plots about sea sickness or sports fandom found elsewhere in season 1 feel slight in nature, and a bit undercooked.
Appreciators of the webcomic’s simple forms and pastel color palette will be pleased to see the aesthetic transposed to and elevated by the animated series. Featuring the mostly 2D work of BoJack Horseman and Tuca and Bertie studio ShadowMachine, the series establishes a world for audiences to invest in. The webcomic doesn’t have a defined setting, so the writers take the opportunity to establish through dialogue and set pieces where Beingsburgh exists in relation to other islands and hamlets. This provides viewers with a sense of scope and scale for the planet, which helps the overall worldbuilding. And like all good sitcoms, there are recurring locales like the Careful Now Cafe contributing to the series’ cozy, lived-in feel.
Strange Planet won’t appeal to everyone’s taste. If you’re a fan of shows where characters wearing their hearts on their sleeves is essential to the storytelling – say Ted Lasso, or The Bear – this will most likely scratch your empathetic itch. And if you’re a parent or guardian to kids who have big feelings, Strange Planet is the kind of show you can watch together as a family and follow up with some deep conversations.
