Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Alien TV’ On Netflix, Where Three Alien Reporters Are Tasked With Investigating Things Earthlings Do

Netflix has a number of kids’ animated shows that are more about physical comedy than dialogue; Mighty Little Bheem comes to mind right away, as does Larva Island. They like kids shows that can appeal to more of a worldwide audience. So who better to speak gobbledygook than cute little aliens investigating Earth? That’s the idea behind Alien TV.

ALIEN TV: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Pixbee (Julie Lemieux), Ixbee (Rob Tinkler) and Squee (John Cleland) are on their ship hovering over Earth. They get marching orders from their boss Sqood (Kyle Dooley) to investigate the early phenomenon of “bicycling”.

The Gist: Ixbee, Pixbee and Squee are aliens who are essentially interstellar journalists, who go to earth to investigate what Earthlings do and report back to their audience all over the multiverse.

Each episode of Alien TV consists of three 8-minute segments, where the trio, speaking in their alien language, investigate three different things. When they look into bicycling, they go to a park in Paris and find a bike to try out. They have some computer assistance to let them know what to do, but the three of them like to try things themselves, which is why one of them tried to saw open a bike lock with a key. Once they get the bike loose, none of them are big enough to operate it, and they careen out of control until the bike crashes and flies apart. They put it back together, but have bolts and screws left over. Who needs those, right?

Then other two segments are about gymnastics and camping. In the gymnastics segment, their ship is trapped bouncing on a trampoline. As they try to figure out the rest of the equipment, they fly around the gym and get chased by a floor cleaner. In the camping segment, they struggle to build a tent, and one of them (Squee? Pixbie?) strings a hammock but stretches it so tight that when one of the others (Squee? Pixbie?) catches a stick on it, it sends the one who sleeping on it flying. Then the trio figure out what helps keep mosquitoes away: Bean-based alien farts.

At the end of every segment, Ixbee gives his report and we hear what he says through a translator (Rupert Degas), explaining things about “the strangest planet” in terms of how they found things, like the manhole they fell through while biking being more of a “trap” set by the humans than anything work-related.

Our Take: A joint Canadian-Australian production, Alien TV is produced by Carmel Travers and directed by Ian Brown. It’s one of those shows that’s designed to be accessible to kids through physical comedy more than dialogue. After all, Ixbee, Pixbee and Squee don’t speak English, they speak their own language, so all of their dialogue is more or less gibberish. You can get some idea of what their characters are via inflection and personality — one is negative and put-upon, one always has her tongue out and is a complete goof — but the idea behind each segment is how they interact with these earthly activities.

Because of the lack of dialogue, the physical comedy has to be good, and it generally is, especially because the CGI-animated trio interacts with live-action items, but there are generally not humans in sight. It makes things a bit detached and odd, but you can think of it as the trio coming down during the height of COVID quarantine where there aren’t any people around (though the show was likely shot and animated a year ago).

To adult ears and eyes, the episodes are interminable, because of the lack of dialogue. But this show isn’t for adults, and the little ones will likely love seeing these cute little guys interacting with real things. And when the trio starts to pass wind because they’re eating beans while camping, even crotchety old people like us let out a chuckle, because, let’s get real: Alien farts are pretty funny.

What Age Group Is This For?: The show is rated TV-Y7, likely because of mild cartoon violence. But this is the kind of show that kids around 4 or 5 would probably like. In fact, the older kids might think that the show is too basic for them. At least the parts where the aliens aren’t farting.

Parting Shot: Ixbee reports on the trio’s camping trip, covered in mosquito bites. He says that the best remedy for the buggers are beans.

Sleeper Star: We like the goofy one. Is that Squee? Pixbee? We have no idea.

Most Pilot-y Line: Hard to pinpoint a goofy line or scene in a mostly goofy show.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Your little ones (and we mean little) will like Alien TV because of the physical comedy. But you’ll likely want to be in another room when you watch it, because the lack of dialogue will drive you nuts for 24 minutes.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.

Stream Alien TV On Netflix