Faraday and Justin track down failed patent lawyer, Hatch Flood in Seattle in their quest to access the vaults of mysterious tech firm, OriGen.

Some mild spoilers

While I have been enjoying this solid new TV iteration of The Man Who Fell to Earth, I’ve been waiting for it to escape some of the more familiar ‘Alien Abroad’ tropes that have stopped the series openers from taking off in their own right. Episode 3 sees the audience’s patience rewarded as the show opens up a major new story strand with the introduction of Hatch Flood (Rob Delaney), a down-on-his-luck patent lawyer disinherited from the family tech empire – OriGen – now run by his estranged and emotionally chilly sister, Edie (Sonya Cassidy).

On the down side, to establish this new strand, the episode opens with a flashback to 2017 and a humungous backstory info-dump. Luckily, it is driven by Delaney’s perfectly pitched and genuinely funny portrayal of the schlubby Hatch. If you’ve seen Catastrophe (Delaney’s comedy drama co-written with Sharon Horgan), you’ve seen the performance, but it’s great to revisit it in this very different context, and Delaney makes several pages of potentially indigestible dialogue extremely entertaining.

Meanwhile, back in New Mexico, Faraday starts to reveal the true nature of his earthly quest to Justin, one which ties in to our own planet’s existential failure to combat climate change. With Delaney in the mix, this episode has a broader comedic feel – bordering on the surreal – while starting to hint at far more serious themes that will underpin the series as it progresses.

Verdict: The Man Who Fell to Earth is still structurally uneven, but I find it a hugely enjoyable watch, and I’m absolutely in for the duration. 8/10

Martin Jameson