General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Strange Planet

Strange Planet is an American animated comedy series based on the webcomic and New York Times No. 1 bestselling graphic novel of the same name by cartoonist Nathan W. Pyle. Co-created by Pyle and Dan Harmon, the series premiered on Apple TV+ on August 9, 2023, and ran for one season of ten episodes.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Source material	Webcomic begun in 2019 by Nathan W. Pyle, later a New York Times No. 1 bestselling graphic novel¹^•³
Creators	Nathan W. Pyle and Dan Harmon, both also executive producers¹
Premiere	August 9, 2023, on Apple TV+, with the first three episodes released that day⁴
Format	Half-hour animated comedy, 10 episodes of about 25 minutes, rated TV-PG²^•⁵
Voice cast	Tunde Adebimpe, Demi Adejuyigbe, Lori Tan Chinn, Danny Pudi, and Hannah Einbinder⁶
Reception	83% Tomatometer and 79% Popcornmeter on Rotten Tomatoes; Metascore of 68 on Metacritic⁵^•⁷
Status	One season; listed as canceled/ended after its September 27, 2023 finale²

Spoilers

Premise

The series takes viewers to a distant planet not unlike our own, where pale blue "beings" live lives that mirror human routines while describing them in unfamiliar, literal language. Apple describes the setting as a whimsical world of cotton candy pinks and purples in which the beings explore the absurdity of everyday human traditions.¹ The San Francisco Chronicle review identifies the setting as Orb, a planet much like Earth, and calls the show a rare adult cartoon that is entirely free of raunch.⁸

The humor rests on renaming familiar things. The beings speak in matter-of-fact technical terms for ordinary activities, a device carried over from the webcomic; The New York Times review described the vocabulary as endearing though occasionally overdone, and Flicks notes the show renders kissing as "mouth pushing".⁷^•⁹

Origin of the webcomic

Pyle began the comics in 2019 with his wife in a small New York City apartment. He committed to producing one comic every day for a full year, and the series gained significant popularity online; by March 2019 the Instagram account had reached about 1 million followers.³^•¹⁰ During that early period Pyle and his wife decided to pitch a television adaptation, connected with Dan Harmon and Steve Levy, and within six months the collaborators expressed interest.³ The adaptation was reported in June 2021, with Pyle and Harmon attached as executive producers.¹¹

Production

The animation studio ShadowMachine produced the series for Apple TV+; studio principals Alex Bulkley and Corey Campodonico serve as executive producers alongside Harmon, Pyle, Steve Levy, Lauren Pomerantz, Amalia Levari, and Taylor Alexy Pyle.¹²^•⁵ Pyle said that Harmon, despite his reputation from Community and Rick and Morty, deferred to Pyle's vision of the show, and that the collaboration deliberately kept the cynicism of Harmon's other series out of it.¹³^•¹⁴ Moving from a four-panel comic to animation also required visual development in the writers' room, since the comic's single-frame format does not directly supply half-hour stories.¹⁵

Release and episodes

The first three episodes dropped on Wednesday, August 9, 2023, and a new episode followed weekly on Wednesdays through September 27, 2023.⁴ The ten-episode season included "The Flying Machine" (about the invention of air travel), "Tiny Trash" (a being's existential crisis on their 25th emergence day), and the finale "Double Shadow Day," centered on a once-every-15-revolutions eclipse.²^•¹⁶ After a few episodes, recurring characters begin to appear in related storylines, but the season remains mostly episodic.¹⁷

Reception

Critical response was generally favorable. The season holds an 83% Tomatometer based on 29 reviews and a 79% Popcornmeter audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, whose critics consensus calls the series wryly amusing and relatably human.⁵^•¹⁶ Metacritic assigned a Metascore of 68, based on 14 critic reviews, with 9 positive and 5 mixed and none negative; its user score was 4.2 out of 10.⁷^•¹⁸

Reviewers praised the show's warmth while noting limits of the format. The Los Angeles Times called it bright, sweet, and cheerful, an affectionate satire more engaged with human possibilities than limitations.⁷ Rolling Stone found most episodes at the level of wry amusement rather than laugh-out-loud comedy, and The Guardian judged that the 25-minute episodes, full of gimmicky characters and repetitive takes, strained the comic's simple premise.⁷^•¹⁹ Common Sense Media rated the show suitable for ages 10 and up, noting no swearing and only mild romantic content.¹⁷

Aftermath

The series ran only one season and is listed as canceled/ended.²

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Animated television series (individual series) › Adult animated comedy series

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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