Karl Puschmann: Strange Planet is quirky, cutesy and … just a little bit dull

Strange Planet is an animated science fiction comedy television series based on the webcomic by Nathan W Pyle.

The premise of Strange Planet is best summed up by Jim Morrison, the rocking, writhing, leather-pantsed Lizard King of The Doors who sang: “People are strange”.

Here, however, the “people” are cutesy, blobby blue aliens and the soundtrack is less mad organs and dark crooning and more a very particular shade of hipster twee.

The planet may be a fanciful place of pleasing pastel colours and disturbing three-eyed pigeons but the strangeness is oh too familiar. It comes from us and everything we do, say and believe. And, in case you missed it, people are strange.

Apple TV’s newest adult-orientated animated series is based on the hugely popular webcomic by Nathan W Pyle and brought to television with the help of Dan Harmon, the meta-comedy veteran behind the often brilliant Community and the animated cult favourite Rick and Morty.

Where Harmon’s previous shows oscillated between hard-edge cynicism and heartfelt sincerity, Strange Planet is a different beast. A gentler, kinder beast. A sadly not-as-funny beast.

That’s not to say the show’s not smart or clever or humorous. With Harmon behind the scenes, it is all of those things. But the laughs match the tone. They’re gentle, quiet acknowledgements rather than rollickingly wild LOLs.

Strange Planet is streaming on Apple TV+.

The show has some similarities with Netflix’s popular mockumentary Cunk On Earth, itself a parody of David Attenborough-style documentaries. Where it differs is that because Strange Planet is an anthology series there’s no central presenter pointing out the absurdities of everyday life. Instead, there is a narrator and a small handful of recurring characters that pop up in various episodes.

A lot of the humour derives from quirky observations about our modern world mixed with a jargon-filled, super-literalism that sees the little blue aliens saying “Gratitude” instead of thanks, or calling sport an “orb kicking activity” or, my favourite, referring to coffee as “jitter liquid”. In that regard — and that regard only — it’s a lot like Nasdat, the made-up language spoken by the droogs in A Clockwork Orange where common things are given an exotic spruce up that you’ll want to add to your own everyday vernacular. But while it’s all very cute and twee it is somewhat distant. Because the characters talk in a hyper-literal style — as they do in the source material — you’re automatically distanced from them and their crystal-clear feelings.

Still, there’s much amusement to be found. In an episode detailing the history of flight, a request for a drink on a plane is worded as: “Do you have some mild poison?” The flight attendant — sorry Air Comfort Supervisor — replies: “Yes. If you can prove you have existed long enough.”

Now repeat similar jokes for the next 20 minutes and you have Strange Planet. It’s warm, fuzzy and inoffensive. It pokes fun holding a padded stick. It’s never less than gently humorous and reassuringly amusing. It could just do with a little more bite.