'Aliens' is a sweet, gentle take on teen misfits

The topically tinged "Aliens in America," could have been excruciating. About a 16-year-old Pakistani Muslim boy staying with a small-town Wisconsin family, the sitcom could have been 22 minutes of terrorism jokes and aggressive canned laughter. Perhaps you're one of the cursed who still hasn't been able to shake "Whoopi," the 2003 sitcom that never saw a Muslim it didn't want to goose.

So it's a relief that the CW's "Aliens in America" is decent, and quiet, and genuinely sweet. The show, which premieres tonight at 8:30 on Ch. 56, isn't "aww" sweet, where your nose is being rubbed into sticky sap. But it's a gentle show about the bond between two high school misfits, Justin and Raja, and how Raja's worldly perspective helps Justin out of his petty worries. The territory is familiar teen TV - the politics of cliques, fear of what's different from you, nutty parents - but nonetheless well done.

Justin (Dan Byrd) is a school outcast, and the victim of a pair of bullies. One of the "aliens" of the title, he's the "Wonder Years"-like narrator of this laugh-track-free show. Desperate for her son to fit in better, Justin's nutty mother, Franny (Amy Pietz), brings a foreign exchange student into their home to help him mingle. She is appalled when, at the airport, she sees that he's a Pakistani Muslim, and more upset to find Justin and Raja (Adhir Kalyan) connecting, even praying toward Mecca together. Justin's cheap father, Gary (Scott Patterson), likes the monthly stipend.

Both Byrd and Kalyan are important parts of the show's success. They're remarkably easy to take, unlike so many of TV's highly strung young actors, and they have a very real chemistry together. Next week, in a class discussion of "Robinson Crusoe," Raja announces that if he could only bring one thing to a desert island, it would be Justin. Raja wants to move his classmates by the honesty and love of his statement, but of course the ruthless gay ribbing starts instantly. Kalyan, with his mellifluous voice, makes Raja's innocence and wisdom really persuasive.

Justin loves having a friend of his very own, but he struggles with Raja's cultural missteps. He is aghast when Raja befriends a geek genius known as Small Paul, who is even lower down on the school hierarchy than he is. And Raja's comfort being naked in the locker room makes Justin and all the other boys cringe.

Naturally, Justin always finds his way back to what matters: his friendship with Raja. It's hard to imagine how "Aliens in America" will proceed beyond that basic plot - in some ways, the fifth episode of a new series is generally more indicative of long-term success than the premiere. Justin's parents don't offer much obvious potential for development - Pietz is funny, but her social-minded character isn't very fresh, and Patterson barely registers as the patriarch. And Justin's brittle sister, Claire (Lindsey Shaw), is shallow.

But perhaps the producers, who include Tim Doyle ("Still Standing") and Richard Day ("Ellen"), have some other cards to play. They've created a mild, appealing family comedy that deserves to live up to its promise.

Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com. For more on TV, visit boston.com/ae/tv/blog/.