Test Pilot: Aliens in America

Trae Patton/ The CW

A programming note about Test Pilot. I realize that at the rate I'm doing them, it will be the 2009-10 season before I finish. There's a good chance I won't get around to all of them but instead focus on the ones you and I are most curious about, so keep those requests coming! (No Fox yet, because my screeners are currently packed in a box at home because of construction work this week. And yes, I am holding back on Bionic Woman just to tantalyze you.) OK, so: insert standard these-are-not-final-pilots-this-is-not-a-review disclaimer here and let's get on with...

The Show: Aliens in America, The CW

The Premise: Justin, an unpopular kid in a Wisconsin high school, is struggling socially, so his mom does what any concerned helicopter parent would do: she imports an exchange student to be his friend. She gets not the white British teen she was expecting but Raja (Adhir Kalyan), a Pakistani Muslim. She's chagrinned, the town and students go on orange alert, but Justin and his fellow-outcast friend develop a bond.

First Impressions: Favorite sitcom pilot of the fall to date (not that there are that many, or that I've watched them all yet). This could have totally gone the crude, one-joke route, but there's a sweetness to the show's sensibility, and Kalyan steals every scene he's in. The show sets up some hilarious scenes confronting post-9/11 tensions and American school culture, as when the teacher asks the class how they "feel" about Raja's people having destroyed the World Trade Center, and he futilely tries to explain that they didn't. Granted, how you feel about the show will depend in part on how you react to Raja coming home after a day of teasing and asking what "Fudgepackistan" is, but trust me--he sells the line, and makes you believe that his character is more than Balki with a prayer mat.

Do I Want to See Another Episode? It's on my Watch List.