The Alien series has had a resurgence with the recent success of Romulus, and the newly released Alien: Earth developed by FX.
Created by Noah Hawley, Alien: Earth is set a few years before Ellen Ripley had her first encounter with the iconic and terrifying Xenomorph in the original movie.
The corporation known as Prodigy, run by the declared “boy genius” Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin), is experimenting with immortality, attempting to transfer human consciousness to android bodies.
Their first test subjects are a group of terminally ill children, whose minds are transported into the adult bodies, before they are given new names based off characters from Peter Pan.
At the same time, a Weyland-Yutani ship carrying five invasive species from different planets, including the Xenomorph, crashes on Earth in a city owned by Prodigy.
Wanting to recover the subjects, and test out his new toys, Boy sends the children to retrieve Yutani’s property, led by Wendy (Sydney Chandler).
However, Wendy has her own goals, wanting to rescue her brother Joe (Alex Lawther), who has been sent on a rescue mission to the crash site, unaware of the monsters that lurk inside.
Alien: Earth has a fantastic premise, and I was very intrigued to see how it would all end when I started watching.
The show definitely leaves a great first impression, with gripping commentary on what makes someone human and the dangers of corporations, while also having awesome Alien content.
The Xenomorph is an absolute menace in the first few episodes, as it wreaks bloody death upon all it encounters.
That is not to sell short the other newly introduced alien species in this show because they all have horrifying ways of killing their victims.
By far my favorite (and I am sure a lot of other people’s favorite) new alien is the T. Ocellus, a parasitic species, which rips out its host’s eye and then takes its place, controlling the body from there.
The practical effects and the CGI for these aliens, both old and new, are all great.
Just as amazing are the performances, across the board.
The actors for the hybrids, Wendy, Slightly (Asah Gourav), Smee (Jonathan Ajayi), Nibs (Lily Newmark), Curly (Erana James), and Tootles (Kit Young) all do fantastic jobs of portraying children transferred into adult android bodies.
Samuel Blenkin is also perfectly detestable as the narcissistic Boy Kavalier.
I spent most of the show just wanting to punch his smug smile.
However, my favorites of the cast are definitely Timothy Olyphant as the android Kirsh, and Babou Ceesay as the cyborg Morrow, with the two of them having an excellent rivalry throughout the show.
Morrow is especially excellent, given his time to shine as the star of Episode Five, which is the best of the series so far.
Although, one criticism that you could level towards this episode is that many of the characters (excluding Morrow) are monumentally stupid.
But, hey, I guess if they were smart the aliens would have never got loose and there would be no story.
Unfortunately, I have what I feel are far more valid criticisms as the show progresses.
First of all, there is Wendy.
I like her and think she is a well written character.
The issue I have is that she is ridiculously overpowered, especially for an Alien story.
She has multiple incredibly powerful abilities, and it is never explained how she got them.
Thus, when the final episode rolled around, I held no fear for her safety because I knew she could power through whatever threat she faced.
She and the android hybrids are definitely the main focus of the series, which is my second criticism.
This show is called Alien: Earth after all, but the aliens definitely play second fiddle to the hybrids, with the Xenomorph being less threatening by the end as a result.
Finally, there is the last episode of the season, where nothing is resolved and it ends on a massive cliffhanger, which we will probably have to wait years to follow up on.
Going into Alien: Earth, I thought it was going to be a limited series.
I honestly think I would have preferred it to be so.
Then we would have a complete story where the conflict is resolved.
Instead, we got a finale with multiple issues and a cliffhanger ending which delivers no satisfaction for lingering questions.
Ultimately, I will still watch a second season if it happens.
I am invested in the characters and creatures, so I want to know what happens.
That being said, I hope they learn from the mistakes of the first season and make Wendy less overpowered, put the Aliens forefront and, for the love of god, offer some resolution with their ending this time.
I recommend Alien: Earth but definitely be prepared for disappointment with the way it concludes.
THE REVIEW MONSTER 