Aliens in America

I think I've mentioned this show before (as has the unflappable Eric Stoller), but I wanted to mark the presence of a couple more things related to the show.

First, this review from Newsweek:

[T]he conceit of "Aliens" is couched in post-9/11 xenophobia...A teacher turns [Raja's] religion and ethnicity into a class discussion, in which one girl innocently says, "I feel angry because his people blew up the towers in New York." Cue the laugh track.

...

They are the aliens in the show's title—Raja because he's a visitor from a distant world, Justin because, well, he's a geek. But equating Raja's exclusion with Justin's minimizes the psychological stress that comes from racial discrimination. It's similar to the person who hears that his friend's parent has passed away and thinks he's sympathizing when he says, "I know how you feel. I was a complete wreck when my goldfish died." That isn't to say social exclusion doesn't hurt, too, but as we've seen time and again through then-and-now photos of glamorous Hollywood stars, geek washes off, Pakistani doesn't.

...

"Aliens" [doesn't] work because the subtlety required to explore racial dynamics doesn't mix well with the broad strokes required of a network sitcom. The result is two shows about intolerance that feel intolerant in their worst moments, and emotionally disconnected from the subject matter at best.

Yup. Still barfing. Still a pathetically bad show.

On the other hand, there is this biting and spot-on comment from the actor that plays Raja (South African Adhir Kalyan):

One writer asked Kalyan if he experienced culture shock, coming to the U.S. from South Africa. His reply: "In truth, the only thing I found difficult to deal with coming to the States is the size of the portions of food. Really -- I mean, really, do we need portions that are that big? I mean, Africa doesn't need Bono. Africa doesn't need Geldof. Africa needs a Denny's grand-slam breakfast."

Burn.