Alien Nation Did Not Age Well
Originally uploaded by Joshua Hale Fialkov. My Tivo's Conspiracy Wishlist taped Alien Nation for us. I have pretty fond memories of both the movie and the series. There's some great stuff in there (the drunk Newcomers in the milk bar, the knee to the balls, etc.) but overall it just feels... empty. It has the tone and depth of a Schwarzenegger film, which is fine, except that it deals with big (and interesting) issues.
And James Caan is suprisingly bad in it... he does this sort of whiney complainer type thing that belies the character. Maybe it's having recently watched his powerhouse performance in Misery (which gets more or less ignored for the more obvious Kathy Bates performance), but, it's not Caan at his best.
Mandy Patinkin on the other hand....