Alien: Earth delivers everything you'd want from a series with "Alien" in the title: The iconic Xenomorphs hunting down hapless humans; gratuitous body horror; and androids who you can never fully trust. But writer/director Noah Hawley (Legion, Fargo) and his team also manage to push the franchise to new heights, delving into the philosophical questions that Ridley Scott's Prometheus and Alien Covenant couldn't fully explore. It's not just merely an Alien TV show — it's a meticulously crafted experience that elevates the entire franchise, even more so than the recent Alien: Romulus.
The series, which premieres today on FX and Hulu, takes place two years before the original Alien. It starts with the familiar: A group of astronauts awakening from cryosleep on a retro-futuristic-Weyland Yutani shipping vessel. We learn they're carrying precious extraterrestrial cargo, which predictably breaks loose and wreaks havoc throughout the ship. Meanwhile on Earth (somewhere we haven't seen at all in the franchise), we're introduced to a terminally ill child undergoing a radical new procedure: having her brain uploaded into a Synthetic body (played by Sydney Chandler).
This child takes the name Wendy — one of many Peter Pan references in the series — and embraces her new (and more mature) robotic body with childlike wonder. Instead of just being a frail kid, she becomes incredibly strong, with fast reflexes and the ability to jump down safely from great heights. It's like she's become an anime heroine a la Battle Angel Alita (at one point, she straps on a katana-like sword simply because it looks badass).
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Wendy isn't human, but she's not a total android either since her personality and memories are uploaded from a human brain. She's something entirely new. She becomes a sort of older sibling to other sick kids going through the same human-Synthetic hybridization process, and together they form their own spin on the Lost Boys (including some girls). They even go so far as to take names from Peter Pan characters (one kid, unfortunately, gets stuck with the name Smee, after Captain Hook's cowardly lackey). And to her creator, Prodigy Corporation head Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin), she's the key to a future where people can cheat death and practically live forever in synthetic bodies.
Alien: Earth (FX)
The alien-filled spaceship ends up crash-landing in one of Prodigy's cities in Southeast Asia (in this universe, five mega-corporations run the world, nation states no longer exist), and Boy Kavalier recklessly decides to test his new hybrid superteam with a rescue mission. They discover one survivor, Morrow (Babou Ceesay), a loyal security officer with a badass robotic arm, as well as a classic Xenomorph and a slew of new species. I won't spoil much about them here, but I have a feeling the cheeky multi-eyeball parasite will quickly become a fan-favorite.
Alien: Earth finally immerses us in elements of the franchise the movies could only hint at. We see what a completely corporate-run Earth looks like, and it's as gross as you'd imagine. As usual, Weyland-Yutani prioritizes its extraterrestrial treasures over the lives of its workers. But it's even more sickening to see Boy Kavalier — the sort of obnoxious tech bro who defiantly puts his bare feet on desks during meetings — salivate at the opportunity to steal and study the alien cargo. Never mind the hundreds (and potentially thousands) of lives lost in his own city, or the inherent dangers in bringing deadly alien creatures into his research lab.
Timothy Olyphant as Kirsh. (Patrick Brown/FX)
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