History Series / PeopleOfEarth

Ozzie Graham (Wyatt Cenac), once an award-winning serious journalist, now reduced to writing clickbait for a major news aggregator, is assigned to write a story on [=StarCrossed=], a support group for people who believe they’ve been abducted by aliens, who meet in a Catholic church in upstate New York. Skeptical at first, Ozzie soon begins to wonder if the abductees' -- sorry, make that experiencers' -- stories might not hold a grain of truth...

* EverythingIsAnIPodInTheFuture: The alien ship and the abduction team's uniforms are blank, sterile white. The ship that reaches Earth in the season 1 finale [[UpToEleven even looks like a giant flying iPod.]]

* FormerDelinquent: Before he went to seminary school, Father Doug was the keyboardist and singer for [[NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly Latin jazz funk]] band ''Operation Mongoose''.

* RealityEnsues: Richard spends so much time on his conspiracy theories that he's ultimately fired from his job for negligence.

* TheReptilians: Reptilians, naturally.

* AerithAndBob: Averted. All of the aliens so far have [[MrSmith ordinary, American-sounding names]], other than Reptilians who are deliberately in disguise as humans with names of other nationalities like Elon Musk (Canadian-American but born in South Africa). This makes sense for the Reptilian infiltrators, but less so for, say, Jeff. Don also isn't a very Scandinavian sort of name (Daan is, though it's not really brought up).

* AllLoveIsUnrequited: [[spoiler: Kurt]] seems oblivious to [[spoiler: Jeff]]'s crush on him.

* AnimalEyes: [[spoiler: Jonathan reveals his Reptilian status to Alex and Jasmine by changing his eyes to slitted gold ones.]]

* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Goes both ways. [[spoiler:As a child, Ozzie drew dozens of pictures of Jonathan because he was actually friendly to him during his captivity. This had a large impact on Jonathan, and years later, when ordered to kill Ozzie, he chooses to spare his life instead, even though this eventually means losing everything.]]

* {{Cliffhanger}}: Season 2 ends with a massive one, as [[spoiler: Eric, controlling Don, abducts [=StarCrossed=], while banishing Jeff and Kurt to Earth (where the latter gets hit by a car ''again'')]].

* ConnectedAllAlong: In the finale episode of the first season, [[spoiler:it is shown that all of the members of [=StarCrossed=] (other than Gerry) had been taken by aliens during childhood]]. One scene shows [[spoiler:Jonathan looking over all of the children as they play with toys in the same room]].

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: In the guise of being the wealthy young CEO of Glint Enterprises, Jonathan Walsh is at the forefront of the Reptilians’ campaign to pacify and manipulate Earth’s population. [[spoiler:Played with -- while he’s never not corrupt, Walsh eventually gives it all up, his wealth, empire, and lifestyle, when he refuses the order to kill Ozzie, instead blackmailing his superiors by threatening to expose them. They freeze his accounts and pin all the blame for his crimes, committed on their behalf, on him. As of season 2, he’s left penniless and in hiding.]]
* ClickHello: Walsh pulls this on [[spoiler: the Reptilian hitman who killed Ozzie.]]

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: In the Season 2 finale, the typically humble and kindhearted but bungling Don [[spoiler:shows off his martial arts prowess by taking out Eric's black-helmeted guards bare- and single-handedly, making it look easy.]]

* DreamWithinADream: Richard begins Season 2 traumatized by Nancy's apparent death, and has a nested recurring nightmare of people exploding in front of him: Officer Glimmer in the middle of an interrogating him, himself in the mirror after waking up from that dream, and he has to have Margaret confirm to him that she's not going to explode to, since he's sleeping on the floor in her room at the retirement home.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Second season newcomer Agent Foster is introduced on the FBI firing range, where her colleagues mock her recent injury -- shooting herself in the foot -- with a special range target in the shape of a footprint. She proceeds to [[InsultBackfire shut them up]] by [[ImprobableAimingSkills shooting out all five toes in as many shots in barely two seconds]].

* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler: Glimmer pretends to drop dead of a heart attack]] to avoid being killed by a Reptilian hitman.
* FantasticRacism: Eric makes comments to Jeff about "[his] kind", which [[spoiler: Gerry]] calls out as sounding like a pretty charged statement. The question asked by one of Eric's guards about [[spoiler: the Greys being extinct]] indicates that this could be more sinister than standard workplace harassment.

** Played for laughs when Don learns of [[spoiler: Kurt's]] death, in that he goes through all five stages in about 30 seconds. And judging by Jeff's reaction, this is not an unusual reaction.

* TheGreys: Greys, naturally.

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Ozzie takes a bullet meant for Jonathan Walsh, killing him.]]

* HumansThroughAlienEyes[=/=]MundaneObjectAmazement: [[https://youtu.be/_PKmaZWQZjs One promotional Internet short]] has the lead aliens musing over primitive, yet practical, Earth-based inventions like...the bottlecap. A whole promotional miniseries called "Humans with Don" has Don trying to explain human ways to Jeff and Kurt.

-->'''Gina:''' It just gives us a little more...agency.
-->'''Chelsea:''' Calling someone an abductee is a lot like slutshaming.

* InterruptedDeclarationOfLove: In the Season 2 finale, [[spoiler: Jeff and Kurt are teleported to Earth and separated in the middle of Jeff admitting to being in love with Kurt.]]
* IRejectYourReality: Richard seems to have a habit of ignoring facts that don't fit his worldview. [[spoiler: He pretended his wife was being held by the aliens when really she left him, and convinced himself they were perfectly happy when their marriage was actually failed.]]

* MarsWantsChocolate: [[spoiler: Jonathan starts out as a health nut, but discovers he loves fast food while hiding out with Officer Glimmer.]]

* NewAgeRetroHippie: In the years since his divorce from Ozzie's mother, Ozzie's dad has become a Buddhist. He picked it up to impress a new woman, but kept it even after breaking up with her.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler: Walsh killing the Reptilian hitman in revenge interrupts his attempt on Alex's life. This causes her alien superiors in the FBI to think Walsh is protecting her, making her a bigger target.]]

* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler: Kurt miraculously returns to life part way through Season 2.]]

-->[[spoiler:'''Hitman''': I'm glad I killed your human friend.]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Gets shot''']]
-->[[spoiler:'''Walsh''': I'm glad I killed you.]]

* RevealingCoverUp: The fact that the FBI puts zero effort into investigating [[spoiler: Ozzie's death]] tips both Alex and [=StarCrossed=] onto the fact that things are more than they appear.

* {{Sizeshifter}}: [[spoiler:Eric]] can shrink to tiny size, which he uses to [[spoiler:trick the mutineers into opening the box they've trapped him in.]]
* SpareBodyParts: Don suggests at one point that he has two hearts, despite his human appearance.

* TakingTheBullet: [[spoiler: Ozzie ultimately does this to save Jonathan from the Reptilian hitman.]]

* VowOfCelibacy: Father Doug’s, as a Catholic priest...[[spoiler:which he ultimately breaks with Chelsea.]]

** "Snake Man and Little Guy", the Season 1 finale: Ozzie uncover suppressed memories of [[spoiler: being abducted as a child, along with the other future [=StarCrossed=] members]]. The aliens' superiors arrive on Earth. The episode ends with [[spoiler: Gerry finally being abducted]].
** "The Truth Hurts": Foster and the Reptilian hitman both crash Ozzie's meeting with Walsh, which results in [[spoiler: Ozzie TakingTheBullet for Walsh and dying in front of Foster]].

* YouAreNumberSix: Jeff only ever refers to Ozzie as "Subject 28409".

* FirstEpisodeSpoiler: The end of the first episode reveals that Ozzie's boss Jonathan Walsh is a Reptilian.

* ObviouslyEvil: Eric, whose cube-shaped robot body looks like a cross between [[Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey HAL-9000]], an iPod, and one of the floating torture droids from Film/StarWars.

The series was renewed for a second season, which began airing on July 27, 2017. The series was initially renewed by TBS for a third season, but later reversed the decision and cancelled the series after the scripts were already written, resulting in the show ending on the second season's CliffHanger.

The series was renewed for a second season, which began airing on July 27, 2017.

* CrazyEnoughToWork: Richard representing himself in "Truth Or Dare" seems doomed to fail. [[spoiler:But not only does he prove he wasn't fired for his belief in aliens, he proves he's the most efficient employee at the office, in addition to being regularly harassed by the others. He gets his job back and wins 75 grand.]]

* WorkCom: Jeff, Don, and Kurt's scenes aboard the alien ship [[spoiler:until Jeff goes until full revenge mode toward the end of the season. Hits something of a soft ResetButton when [[GreaterScopeVillain Eric]] arrives]].

* AliensSpeakingEnglish: All of the aliens shown so far seem to speak only English, even amongst themselves.

* HumansThroughAlienEyes[=/=]MundaneObjectAmazement: [[https://youtu.be/_PKmaZWQZjs One internet short]] has the lead aliens musing over primitive, yet practical, Earth-based inventions like...the bottlecap.

-->-- '''Kurt'''

->''"Don't get weird, okay?"''

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: The typically bungling Don [[spoiler:takes out Eric's black-helmeted guards bare- and single-handed and makes it look easy.]]

* WhiteHairedPrettyBoy: Don.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/peopleearth_s2_v_dd_ka_tt_2000x3000_300dpi_en.jpg]]

* BrokenPedestal: Gina loses her respect for her favorite author Leonard Bechdal after he tries to exploit StarCrossed's story for his own fame.

** Unsurprisingly, [[spoiler:Alex]] also seems to be connected to the aliens. [[spoiler:Her boss at the FBI is a Reptilian, she has a recurring dream about the way she got her injury in the field (which left her with a circular scar in her foot similar to the implant scar possessed by many experiencers), and she's had dreams about a pale, blonde figure who looks an awful lot like Don. Later flashbacks suggest that she was a baby who was born on the ship in the middle of her mother's abduction, and got separated in the process.]]

* LastOfHisKind: Possibly. As of season 2, [[spoiler:Jeff might be the first and last Grey on the show, as one of Eric’s guards offhandedly mentions that he thought they were all extinct...which come as a surprise to Jeff.]]

* AnimalEyes: [spoiler: Jonathan reveals his Reptilian status to Alex and Jasmine by changing his eyes to slitted gold ones.]]

* ActingForTwo: Comes into play in the second season, when [[spoiler:Alex meets her long-lost twin sister Jasmine.]]

* TheGreys: Greys, naturally.
* TheReptilians: Reptilians, naturally.