Alien: Earth

I'm a huge Alien fan, ever since seeing Ridley Scott's original 1979 thriller. I was blown away when James Cameron topped it with his 1986 masterpiece, ALIENS.

The films since have been a mixed bag, from Fincher's misfire ALIEN III to Fede Alvarez's invigorating ALIEN ROMULUS last year, it's been a rollercoaster for fans of the series.

I was truly excited to hear that Noah Hawley had been given the greenlight for an FX series ALIEN EARTH. His FX series "Fargo" is my go to when people ask me "what series should I watch next?". Season One, with Billy Bob Thornton is, for me, the best television of the past twenty years.

Hawley had also previously worked with FX on his XMen spinoff series LEGION, which I found visually fascinating if a tad off the rails by its conclusion. But Hawley plus one of my favorite film series of all time??? HELL yes, bring it on.

Hawley has said that his challenge was to create something wholly original, but respectful and exciting for long-time fans of the Alien films. Telling a story over eight ~hour long episodes is also a much different canvas than a two hour movie.

And for the first five episodes, especially in Episode Five "In Space, No One...." Hawley weaves a fascinating tale deftly combining the methodical, stunning world building of Ridley Scott with the explosive violence and thrills of James Cameron.

The series takes place before the original film, on Earth in the year 2120.

Several large corporations, including Weyland Yutani, who all Alien fans know, are battling for supremacy across discoveries that will decide the future.

Some things are universal and apparently timeless, as most of the battle centers on death and immortality. In this 2120 world, Cyborgs (cybernetically enhanced humans) and Synths (AI beings) are commonplace, but young genius Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin) and his company Prodigy are developing a new being, Hybrids, synthetic beings downloaded with actual human consciousness. It's the chance to live forever.

We meet the first Hybrids, led by Wendy (the excellent Sydney Chandler) and her gang of lost boys, including Smee (the hilarious Jonathan Ajayi) and Slightly (Adarsh Gourav). All allusions to Peter Pan are intentional.

The initial episodes detail the birth (development) of Wendy and her gang and the discoveries are all fascinating, as is the rich atmosphere and environments offered up by Hawley and his production team.

We are also introduced to the crew of a massive spaceship that's been scouring the universe to capture undiscovered species and horrors from across the stars. Guess what's in their hold? You got it, a xenomorph.

In one of the most pleasant surprises of the series, and also one of its greatest flaws, our massive, giant headed xeno with the extra set of retractable razor sharp jaws is NOT the most fascinating or deadly creature in the ship's giant glass cages.

There's a very creepy and smart eyeball with octopus tentacles that you have to see to believe. It's fun, scary and hilarious. Hawley does a hell of a job making great use of it, along with the very strange menagerie in the cages next door.

What else does Hawley get absolutely, thrillingly right?

There are recreations of the Weyland Yutani ships that we know from Ridley's world, on steroids. Massive ships, with familiar sounds and hallways that offer up lots of easter eggs for Alien fans. These ships are floating cities, with residential homes, massive work and play areas.

There's a sequence when some xenomorphs escape captivity on the massive ship

and interrupt a bonkers "Barry Lyndon" style dinner party at a very wealthy resident's massive, luxurious condo. It's the funniest "who's at the door" since Death knocked on the door of a flat in Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life" to gather anyone that ate the salmon. I laughed and winced as these terrifying creatures found plenty to eat amongst the guests.

This ship crashes on Earth, bringing every power hungry corporation instantly to the site to claim the horrors within. Episode 5, detailing that crash on Earth is by far the best hour of the series. Hawley is clearly paying tribute to one of the seminal films of his youth, Cameron's "Aliens". The action is non-stop, the visuals excellent and the scale of the action is jaw dropping. It's fantastic.

But....

The final three episodes paled by comparison.

Hawley's a fantastic storyteller. I expected things to build to an amazing conclusion. For me, the story got bogged down in the story of Wendy and her band of misfits. Suddenly, she has the verbal gifts to communicate with the xenomorphs and the most terrifying creature of our movie memories turns into Old Yeller, who likes a scratch under his chin. Huh? What am I watching?

I don't want to see domesticated killing machines, especially since I already know that everyone in the timeline's future has no idea what the hell they are?

Maybe Hawley is playing a long game that I can't see yet.

There are some real standouts in the large cast.

Timothy Olyphant (Justified) is excellent as Kirsh, Boy Kavalier's right hand synth. Alien fans know Bishop and Ash all to well, so we know it bears watching Kirsh very closely. Olyphant is a blast, all control and shrewd one liners.

Babou Ceesay damn near steals the movie as Morrow, the head security officer on the massive ship that crashes on our home planet. Ceesay held my attention 100% of the time he's on screen.

Compared to Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner's scores for the original films, Jeff Russo's score just kind of blends into the high tech backgrounds.

After the last episode and the cliffhanger that it set up sat in front of me like one of those unhatched, slimy eggs, I was left feeling mostly disappointed with my lack of excitement for what's next.

If you ask anyone whose seen the entire series what their favorite parts are, they are very likely to note the crisis aboard the ship in advance of its crash and all the creature mayhem involved, that fantastic crawling eye creature and the giant xenomorphs crashing the 18th Century European themed dinner party.

If you're going to call a series ALIEN, shouldn't they be heavily featured and a key part of the tale you are telling?

Sadly, they feel like special guest stars popping up on episodes of "The Love Boat" in the final three hours as we get mired in Wendy's self realization and the emerging conscience of the Hybrids.

Does the series have its visually stunning, thrilling moments? YES.

Does it have some of the slimiest, creepiest creatures since the original film? YES

So why does the ending feel so.... meh?

ALIEN: EARTH piddles its way to a surprising B-. There was no series I was looking forward to more in 2025. I'll board with lower expectations if there's a Season Two.