Review by C.J. Bunce
Wow! Alien: Romulus was a fun movie worthy of the franchise, but when you watch the first images at the opening of the new streaming series Alien: Earth you’ll instantly realize the series is really in the right hands. Even the name S.S. Maginot works, fitting into the names of those doomed ships that came before it in the franchise. Viewers are introduced to the crew and see the familiar banter over chow time. The interiors mimic not only the original 1979 Alien movie, but the set decoration appears like it could have been from other space movies of the era, or as if original Alien art director and mastermind Roger Christian had his hands all over this series. And that’s only the first few minutes. Next we meet a young girl with a terminal illness as she’s about to undergo a new treatment under the eye of someone who is clearly a mad scientist–also too young for what he’s a part of. And that girl is not the only one like her. A team is built of similar young people, and viewers learn our young heroine has a brother. Then everything comes all apart. This is Earth of the future, but it doesn’t seem all that far away.
So many ideas are packed in the series opener, it leaves the question of whether creator Noah Hawley (Bones, Legion, Fargo) can keep this up for eight episodes. It’s an amazing start. And for fans of all things borg, this show is filled with cyborgs. And you know what? The second episode is even better.
This series is on par with the story complexity of Dune: Prophecy, with the cinematic look and music of The Orville, and leaves far lesser shows like Andor and The Acolyte in its (space) dust. It’s about time audiences get some compelling sci-fi on the small screen. And for horror fans this series takes H. R. Giger’s nasty monsters to the next level. The first two episodes of Alien: Earth are now streaming on FX and Hulu.
The series stars relative newcomer Sydney Chandler (Super 8 star Kyle Chandler’s daughter) as Wendy, a new human/Synth hybrid, adding a new construct to the franchise following the robotic Synths and human-hybrid cyborgs developed in the books (check out the links to my book reviews below to dig into the human/Synth hybrid stories that have come before). Wendy is cast too old in the opening scenes, but once her mind is transferred to an older body the idea of this strange Frankenstein extension begins to seem like something that could be real. The name Wendy is part of a framework underlying the series–J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan and its Disney animated adaptation–mad scientist Kavalier (played by Peaky Blinders’ Samuel Blenkin) and Wendy have a strange attachment that is part of Wendy’s very being. Kavalier is way over the top, and will bring science fiction fans back to the ahead-of-his-time mad genius of the Continuum TV series.
The Mandalorian’s Timothy Olyphant plays a Synth advisor to Wendy, plus Adarsh Gourav, Erana James, Lily Newmark, and Jonathan Ajayi play the other hybrids, named for Barrie’s Lost Boys. Their formation resembles something out of X-Men: First Class. When Wendy jumps off a cliff and lands unharmed, it becomes clear this is most definitely a superhero squad. When the Maginot descends to collide with Earth, Wendy and the other hybrids have their first superhero mission: save her brother Joe (played by Alex Hawther) who thinks Wendy is dead, and others at the crash site. Joe is likeable and Wendy and Joe have real chemistry once they encounter each other. In the second episode Joe becomes the point of view character viewers will be with for the rest of the show. Hawther is superb, that perfect guy encountering one very bad day.
Essie Davis (Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries) plays a mother figure for Wendy. At last we meet Ms. Yutani of Weyland-Yutani fame (played by Sandra Yi Sencindiver). Babou Ceesay (Into the Badlands) plays Morrow, a classic cyborg (human with tech components) and the mysterious surviving member of the Maginot, who will be a key character in the horror aspects teased throughout the first episode: yes, folks, of course this is an old fashioned alien invasion story–The War of the Worlds for the 21st century.
Kudos to Jeff Russo (Bosch, Counterpart, Altered Carbon, Star Trek) for tapping into a century of science fiction, military, and horror movie sounds and music callbacks. Wolfgang Metshan (Atomic Blonde, Beauty and the Beast) passes muster as the next Roger Christian taking on the lived-in appearance of the future. Skyscapes mimic the Syd Mead concepts on the original Blade Runner. And the new uniforms for the franchise that have that retro 1970s-1980s creative influence will have you hoping costume designer Suttirat Anne Larlarb (No Time to Die, Obi-Wan Kenobi) can get her hands and scissors on a remake of The Last Starfighter, Outland, or similar classics. Somehow the series doesn’t include writers of the many fiction paperbacks that have fleshed out the world of the corporate warlord called Weyland-Yutani and the terrifying Xenomorphs from far away. Yet it’s clear somebody must have read those books as many of their ideas made their way into this story.
In my earlier preview of Alien: Earth, I suggested this looked like AMC’s Humans. The comparison is apt–this is another series that will look at what it means to be human, that concept that goes back to the first science fiction novel, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. And it will likely result in some new members of the borg Hall of Fame at year end. The only thing that doesn’t score 100 in that first episode are the Xenomorphs themselves, in various stages. The reveal of the first adult creature isn’t quite as detailed as what audiences have seen in the movies. But the series makes up for it in the second episode, where the visual effects and special effects departments must have worked overtime on new gory monstrosities. Here the series leans into the body horror, including a scene with an infested cat that will exceed most peoples’ threshold for gore. As another nod to the 1970s and 1980s, the monster gore itself seems more the stuff of John Carpenter’s The Thing, although a scene with a man crawling across the floor with his lower half missing looks like it could be out of a real war film clip. But that kind of horror is part and parcel of what the franchise has always been about.
This is big league science fiction television you won’t want to miss. This is not the dragging, boring attempt at drama of Andor, where nothing ever happens. No, this is non-stop action with thoughtful ponderings on man vs. machine, science fiction for science fiction fans with the faithful vibe and look of Ridley Scott’s original vision. Like the better movies in the franchise, this will be something to watch again and again. The first two episodes of Alien: Earth are streaming now on FX Networks and Hulu, and subsequent episodes will follow each week until the finale September 23, 2025. A season two seems likely.
borg is your best source for Alien franchise news. Check out our reviews of books and tie-ins in the franchise:
Alien: Out of the Shadows by Tim Lebbon
Alien: Sea of Sorrows by James A. Moore
Alien: River of Pain by Christopher Golden
Alien: The Cold Forge by Alex White
Alien: Colony War by David Barnett
Alien: Inferno’s Fall by Philippa Ballentine
Alien: Prototype by Tim Waggoner
Alien: Into Charybdis by Alex White
Alien: Enemy of My Enemy by Mary Sangiovanni
Alien The Complete Collection: The Shadow Archive Collection by various
Alien The Complete Collection: Symphony of Death by various
Aliens: Infiltrator by Weston Ochse
Aliens: Bug Hunt by various
Aliens: Vasquez by V. Castro
Aliens: Bishop by T.R. Napper
Aliens vs Predator: Rift War by Weston Ochse and Yvonne Navarro
Alien3: The Unproduced First Draft Screenplay by William Gibson and Pat Cadigan
The Book of Alien: Augmented Reality Survival Manual, by Owen Williams
Alien Covenant: Origins, by Alan Dean Foster
The Making of Alien by J.W. Rinzler
The Making of Aliens by J.W. Rinzler
The Art and Making of Alien Covenant, by Simon Ward
Alien Covenant: David’s Drawings by Dane Hallett & Matt Hatton
Aliens: Bug Hunt, anthology
Alien: The Weyland-Yutani Report, by S.D. Perry
Aliens: The 30th Anniversary Edition
Cinema Alchemist: Designing Star Wars and Alien, by Roger Christian
Aliens: The Set Photography, by Simon Ward
The Movie Art of Syd Mead, Visual Futurist
Jonesy: Nine Lives on the Nostromo
Find the Xenomorph: An Aliens Search-and-Find Book
Tech Noir by James Cameron
Need to resupply your collection of Alien toys? Look at all that’s available here at Entertainment Earth.
Or go directly to the source, the movies themselves, all at affordable prices on Amazon, and even less with subscriptions to various streaming platforms:
Prometheus (reviewed here)
Alien: Covenant (discussed here)
Alien: Romulus (reviewed here)
Game over? Not even close. Keep coming back for more Alien coverage at borg.
