Critic Reviews

From the setup to the incidentals, People of Earth is packed with humor and heart forever revealed in clever ways.

The comedy, and there’s a bunch of it, comes from the support group members--as you can imagine, nobody believes their stories--and the aliens, who generate some very, very funny and spot-on workplace humor in a spaceship setting.

It’s a set-up that leads to one of the most humanist shows I’ve seen in a while, truly spotlighting the unique energy of its ensemble in a way that suggests real love is involved.

Delightful, under-the-radar and a real treasure, People of Earth is a series you should seek out.

As Ozzie’s empathy for the group’s misfits grows, so does the show’s, and the supporting characters, including Ana Gasteyer, who plays the group’s empathetic leader, develop into more than mere punchlines.

It manages to be sweet, smart, quirky, story-strong and funny all at the same time with what appears to be minimal effort.

A funny, bizarre high concept comedy about a support group for alien abductees.

Carefully crafted performances balance the hilarity with notes of trauma lurking within, adding a winning sincerity to People of Earth.

People of Earth deserves praise more for its high concept and intelligence than for its ability to generate laughs. It’s the kind of show that doesn’t make you LOL so much as chuckle softly while admiring its subtext.

None of this is revolutionary. But the delight of this odd, humane show is how it rearranges old alien tropes to find a new way to say what “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” once did: We are not alone.