TV Shows Like Resident Alien
If you like Resident Alien, here are 11 similar TV shows — each with its current AI renewal verdict, so you can see which are still going and which have been cancelled.
USA Network · Sci-Fi & Fantasy · Resident Alien is cancelled
Resident Alien works because it commits fully to a genuinely weird premise and then uses that weirdness to ask real questions. Harry Vanderspeigle is not a lovable fish out of water in any comfortable sense, he is a homicidal extraterrestrial who does not understand why humans matter, and watching him slowly, reluctantly start to care is the engine that drives everything. The show is set in a small Colorado mountain town, and that specificity gives it texture. The comedy is sharp and mean, the sci-fi is taken seriously enough to have stakes, and the whole thing holds together because the writing never lets Harry become simply cuddly. He stays dangerous and strange even as he becomes, against his own better judgment, something like a person.
The best shows like Resident Alien
1. Supergirl
Like Harry, Kara Zor-El is an alien trying to figure out what she owes the humans around her, though she arrives at very different answers. The show is more optimistic and sincere than Resident Alien, but if you are drawn to the question of whether an outsider can truly belong, Supergirl works through that with some care. It also takes the comic-book source material seriously without being grim about it.
Stream on Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
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2. Futurama
Futurama is probably the sharpest comedy on this list, and like Resident Alien it uses a clueless protagonist dropped into a strange world to make pointed observations about human behavior. Fry's thousand-year jump forward is a different kind of displacement than Harry's crash landing, but the satire operates the same way: humans look ridiculous when seen through fresh eyes. The show also has an emotional core that sneaks up on you when you least expect it.
Stream on Hulu, fuboTV, YouTube TV
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3. Superman & Lois
Superman & Lois puts an alien with a secret identity at the center of a family drama, which is closer to Resident Alien's DNA than it might first appear. Clark Kent managing the gap between his alien nature and his very human domestic life echoes some of what makes Harry so watchable. The tone is warmer and more straightforwardly heroic, but the tension between who a character really is and who they are pretending to be runs through both shows.
Stream on HBO Max Amazon Channel, YouTube TV, HBO Max
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4. Falling Skies
If the alien invasion backdrop of Resident Alien is what hooked you, Falling Skies leans fully into that premise with a post-apocalyptic survival story built around ordinary people fighting back against an occupying extraterrestrial force. It is a more serious and action-heavy show, without the dark comedy, but the stakes feel real and the human drama is grounded. Think of it as the version of Resident Alien where the aliens actually won the first round.
Stream on Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
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5. Lost in Space
Lost in Space shares Resident Alien's crash-landing setup and its interest in survival in an unfamiliar environment, though here it is a human family stranded on an alien planet rather than the other way around. The show is tense, visually ambitious, and keeps its focus tight on the family dynamics under pressure. Fans who like the way Resident Alien uses an extreme situation to force its characters into hard emotional honesty will find something similar here.
Stream on Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
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More on shows like Resident Alien
Fans of this show tend to want one of two things from their next watch, and sometimes both at once. The first is more alien-as-character storytelling, where the outsider perspective on humanity is the point rather than a gimmick. The second is tonal balance: a show that can be funny and dark and emotionally grounded without lurching awkwardly between modes. Pure action sci-fi usually does not scratch that itch. What Resident Alien fans are really after is a show with a distinct voice and something real to say underneath the genre trappings.
The five recommendations here cover a range of those needs. Futurama is the closest tonal cousin, a show that uses animation and a fish-out-of-water setup to satirize human behavior with real wit and occasional emotional gut-punches. Supergirl and Superman & Lois both put alien characters at the center of family and identity drama, though both lean more earnest than sardonic. Lost in Space takes the crash-landing premise literally and plays it as a tense family survival story with honest heart. Falling Skies is the most straightforwardly action-driven of the group, leaning hard into alien invasion territory with a post-apocalyptic edge.
None of these are perfect substitutes for Resident Alien, because nothing else is quite doing what that show does. But taken together they map out the territory around it: the alien outsider thread, the small-scale human drama, the genre stakes. Futurama is probably the best starting point for someone who wants the comedy and the sci-fi in equal measure. The others are worth the time depending on which part of Resident Alien you find yourself missing most.
More shows like Resident Alien
Frequently asked
- What is the most popular show like Resident Alien?
- Supergirl is the most popular show similar to Resident Alien in the IsItRenewed catalogue.
- Are shows like Resident Alien still on the air?
- Of the 11 shows similar to Resident Alien listed here, 2 currently carry a renewed verdict — the rest are cancelled, ended, or awaiting a decision.
- How does IsItRenewed pick shows like Resident Alien?
- The recommendations come from TMDB's similar-titles data, and each is shown with its current AI renewal verdict so you know which are still going.