In a world where everyday human quirks are flipped upside down and hilariously dissected, Strange Planet promises a fresh take on animation – but sometimes, its oddities might just push the envelope a little too far. Is this cosmic comedy a delightful dive into the absurd, or does it wander too deep into the strange? Let’s unpack the peculiar charm and curious pitfalls of this out-of-this-world series.
This is also how I feel about Strange Planet, Nathan Pyle’s webcomic turned animated television show, which works way better in short, sweet bites than it does a whole series.
The webcomic launched in 2019 and quickly became popular. How could it not? It’s about a planet full of blue aliens who participate in many similar activities that human beings do, but they describe said activities in the most specific terminology possible. The general idea is for readers to chuckle as they see their everyday habits as viewed by an outsider to the human experience. Isn’t it funny that tea is basically a hot leaf liquid?
But, as it turns out, watching 25 minutes of these aliens going through the motions of everyday life and explaining what they’re doing by basically reading the dictionary definitions of their activities (and also thesaurus searching for the most complicated synonyms) is not nearly as charming as reading a four-panel webcomic. In fact, at its worst, it’s grating and off-putting.
Strange Planet is as sweet as its webcomic counterpart. And like its webcomic counterpart, that sweetness works best in small doses. If I read a few too many of the Instagram posts in a row, I feel like I’m being baby-talked to, so a full episode length of these cloying niceties that sound like they’re narrated by Young Sheldon comes off as particularly condescending. Some comics deserve a fully-fleshed out animated series. Some work best as what they are. Strange Planet is the latter.
This is not to say that the show isn’t good because it’s cozy or sweet – I love cozy and sweet shows where characters get along! It’s just that the overly saccharine tone combined with the robotic approach isn’t very funny when it’s not isolated to one four-panel comic. The reason the Strange Planet comic works is because each post is about one specific human experience. Centering in on just a couple of activities and viewing them from a distant lens is a fun exercise in thinking about human nature. But even if each episode of the show follows a particular tradition, supplementing that one activity with everything else about living as a regular human – which is, in turn, also explained in this overly technical jargon – tramples over the charm of the comic.
Look, I like candy corn in small doses. I also like the Strange Planet webcomic in small doses, when I forget it exists and one of the panels comes across my Instagram feed. I chuckle. I appreciate the sweetness. I think about how special the traditions that Strange Planet highlights can be, especially when I take them for granted. (I also think this about candy corn, when I inevitably return to it every autumn.) But I know that if I indulge a bit more, I’ll regret it and end up mulling about how much it makes my stomach hurt.
Why does Strange Planet feel more bizarre than charming in today’s entertainment scene
Strange Planet feels more bizarre than charming in today’s entertainment landscape largely because its animated adaptation struggles to capture the concise wit and innocent naivety that made the original comic beloved. Unlike the comic’s short, sharp, and uniquely phrased observations on human behavior, the show stretches these ideas into longer sketches that often feel repetitive and one-note, diluting the humor and making the alien characters seem less distinct and relatable. Additionally, the series’ choice to have the aliens speak in typical American English rather than a quirky, alien-like voice breaks the immersive oddity that gave the comic its charm. Critics also point out that the show’s focus on literal descriptions and wordplay, while clever, becomes the sole joke without enough character depth or engaging plot to sustain interest, resulting in a bland experience that feels more like a formulaic sitcom than the fresh, insightful commentary fans expected. This combination of factors leads many viewers to see the show as a compromised version that misses the magic of the original, making it feel more strange than charming in a crowded entertainment field.
How does the show’s attempt to tell a story dilute its original charm
The show’s attempt to tell a continuous story dilutes Strange Planet’s original charm because the comic’s strength lies in its short, standalone observations that highlight the absurdity of human behavior with concise wit and simplicity. When stretched into a narrative format, the humor becomes repetitive and the novelty wears off, as the series tries to sustain longer episodes with plot and character development that the source material never intended. This shift from brief, high-concept sketches to extended storytelling reduces the agility and freshness that made the original comic so appealing, causing the show to lose the tight, punchy impact of its humor and instead feel weighed down by the demands of continuity and plot progression. Essentially, the charm of Strange Planet comes from its episodic, vignette-style format, and imposing a traditional story arc dilutes that by forcing the humor into a less flexible and more conventional structure.
