Alien: Earth is Good, But Not Quite Out of this World
It’s not too bold to say that Alien: Earth is the best show or film that’s been released in the Alien franchise in my lifetime. It’s somewhat harder to grasp that a franchise that gave us a fantastic first two films, the original horror science fiction Alien in 1979, and the far more action-oriented (but equally as good) Aliens in 1986, hasn’t really had many great releases since then. After 2024’s Alien: Romulus, which I thought was a complete snoozefest dud, I was pleasantly surprised by this fresh look at the franchise.
While Alien: Earth is definitely part of the Alien property, compared to prior media set in the Alien universe, the show is distinctly different. In fact, if you were a huge fan of the aforementioned Rolumlus, as well as movies like Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, you might not enjoy Alien: Earth as much as I did. Those movies I view as generic, mostly mindless sci fi that’s headlined by the famous movie creature. Here, while there are xenomorph aliens, they really aren’t all that important to the story being told.
Alien: Earth was created by Noah Hawley, who also created the Fargo TV series, and those earlier seasons of that show were definitely quality TV. As he did with that initial Fargo TV season, Hawley connects the Alien: Earth to an aspect of the original property, but really just uses the source material as a springboard for a totally new story.
The series opens with text on screen that lists three different types of beings: cyborgs (enhanced humans), synthetics (AI beings), and hybrids (synthetic beings with human consciousnesses downloaded into them). The show is really about the first generation of hybrids. Xenomorphs are more of an afterthought and are just one of a group of alien monsters that happen to be on a crashed ship.
The show explains that five major companies control Earth, and it’s one of these companies, Prodigy, which is working to develop hybrids. When a Weyland-Yutani (another of the major company) ship containing alien samples crash lands in a city controlled by Prodigy, we have a coming together of both the various aliens and human/hybrid characters that’ll be important.
It's a unique and interesting look into the Alien universe that really focuses in on the corporation aspect, something that was referenced in a lot of the films, but never really explored deeply.
A lot of the show works well. I found it to be thoroughly entertaining and well-made. Also, when the show leans into its horror aspects, it succeeds in creating some truly frightening moments. Episode 5, in particular, does an excellent job at paying homage to the original film with the xenomorph creepily hunting down crew members on a ship. There’s also an eye monster alien that’s scarier than the titular alien.
The decision to have the hybrids basically be the minds of dying children being placed into more developed synthetic bodies works well sometimes. I thought the cast did a good job at seeming like children in what are essentially more developed, powerful robot bodies. At the same time, there’s sometimes a disconnect tonally with these more almost lighthearted characters and the horror aspects of Alien: Earth. The show walks a fine line between these almost conflicting parts of itself and it’s not totally successful.
There are a lot of characters on Alien: Earth. While the acting is extremely good, particularly Timothy Olyphant as a synthetic and Sydney Chandler as the first hybrid, I almost felt like having too many characters spread them a bit too thin. There are cyborgs and humans and hybrids and synthetics, and I felt like they were all interesting enough, but could’ve benefited from more screen time/development.
I was definitely interested in these aspects of the Alien universe and, overall, I’d recommend Alien: Earth to science fiction fans. It’s almost too spread out and not focused in enough to be truly great show, but I found it to be an enjoyable one.
Grade: 7.5/10