Alien: Earth TV Review – A Promising Start for Xenomorphs on the Small Screen
PLOT: Two years before the Nostromo fell prey to a xenomorph, the space vessel Maginot crash-lands on Earth with some very dangerous cargo.
REVIEW: Noah Hawley’s Alien: Earth is probably the most ambitious TV series of the year. Featuring top-notch production values and a budget that would likely put most other shows to shame, FX is clearly trying to turn the Alien franchise into a high-end, tentpole series—something that can do for them what Game of Thrones and The Last of Us did for HBO. But how exactly does Alien work as a TV series?
Of course, Hawley is the guy who turned Fargo into one of the network’s signature shows, although it’s worth noting he’s not infallible—his last stab at sci-fi, Legion, got a mixed reaction (some loved it, some hated it—I never made it past the first episode).
Alien: Earth definitely benefits from Hawley’s clear love of Ridley Scott’s original. The first episode opens with the awakening of the soon-to-be-doomed crew of the Maginot in scenes that directly riff on Alien. The production design is nearly identical, and it leans into that same working-class vibe—just a bunch of space truckers doing their job. But rather than play as an extended homage, the Maginot’s fate is only teased through some gory flash-forwards. Without diving into spoilers, I’ll just say the show wastes no time revealing the xenomorphs, who, in a very welcome twist, are once again played by men in suits—bringing them closer in look and feel to the original creature.
That said, it’s not wall-to-wall alien carnage. The first episode keeps that stuff to a minimum, instead focusing on building an intriguing sandbox for Hawley to play in. So if you want to go in totally fresh, stop reading now.
Still here? Cool.
The story centers on Sydney Chandler’s Wendy, a terminally ill child whose consciousness has been transferred into an adult synthetic body to save her life. Turns out, she’s the first of a whole colony of such children—now in adult synthetic bodies—being prepped for hazardous work. Like, say, I don’t know… investigating a certain crashed ship that may or may not have a xenomorph on board?
Chandler makes for a compelling lead. Wendy is very much a child in a woman’s body, which gives her a unique and slightly uncanny vibe. Timothy Olyphant plays her mentor/guardian Kirsch, who—unlike her—is a full synthetic.
This review is based solely on the pilot (which also screened at Comic-Con), so it’s tough to say whether Alien: Earth works as a full series—it’s all set-up at this point. So far, I really like Chandler, and Olyphant is suitably mysterious as the synthetic who may—or may not—end up being an ally. There’s also Babou Ceesay as Morrow, the Maginot’s cyborg captain and sole survivor. I’m not totally sold on Hawley introducing cyborgs into the mix, since they’ve never really been part of Alien lore, but Ceesay’s performance is strong.
Technically, the show is top-tier. It goes out of its way to emulate the look of Scott’s 1979 classic. Jeff Russo’s score is also excellent, mixing the eerie tones of Jerry Goldsmith with James Horner’s more action-forward vibe from Aliens.
Suffice to say, Alien: Earth is off to a promising start—but it’s too early to tell if it can sustain itself. Hawley’s a terrific showrunner, but this is a big swing. So far, it’s lacking the human core that made Fargo so watchable, instead focusing on world-building and scale. It’s not as immediately gripping as the first episode of The Last of Us, but I’m definitely curious to see where it goes from here.
The post Alien: Earth TV Review – A Promising Start for Xenomorphs on the Small Screen appeared first on JoBlo.