As the title suggests, Alien: Earth finally takes the Alien franchise to the setting fans have been clamoring to see for over four decades. Set only a few years before the original film, the show tracks what happens when a ship full of alien lifeforms crashes on Earth, and two powerful corporations go up against each other to control the contents.
Alien: Earth comes from creator Noah Hawley, who's also behind other shows including the excellent Fargo and subversive Legion. Through both those shows, he's demonstrated an ability to work within an established style without being overwhelmed by it, telling his own powerful stories that take advantage of franchise trappings rather than being hemmed in by them. He now brings all that to bear on Alien.
To be sure, the show feels absolutely set in the established Alien universe. It brings us the gritty "future" (as imagined in 1979) with the highest fidelity we've ever seen; every single thing you see on screen feels contemporaneous with Ridley Scott's original film. With those bona fides established, the show has leave to add to the universe.
To me, the best thing about Alien: Earth is that it dares to assert that the xenomorphs we all know might not be the most dangerous (or even most interesting) form of life in the universe. The show introduces a number of nasty new creatures, and any one of them feels like it could have carried its own iconic 70s horror film. In particular, a horrifying new "eyeball octopus" is an effective and creepy invention that could easily fuel more seasons of this show just as surely as the original creature of Alien fueled myriad sequels. Moreover, the final episode of the season (without getting too specific) squarely hits on another theme that previous Alien films have tried to center with varying success: it might be that the most diabolical menace of all comes from our own home planet.
But novel creatures are only the beginning of countless clever creative choices made by the show. At the core of the story is a project to transfer human consciousness into synthetic bodies, using children as the initial test subjects. The premise allows adult actors to play pre-teen kids, and is the most brilliant way to "have your cake and eat it too." It allows the show to use the Alien in a completely new context: we've only really seen one child in an Alien movie (Newt in Aliens), and that was just one specific story. Yet at the same time, it doesn't feel like the story is crassly putting children in harm's way. And it also provides a neat workaround for one of the enduring problems of horror storytelling: the characters often have to make dumb choices to perpetuate the danger... and dumb choices don't feel as illogical when a sheltered young child is making them.
The casting is great. Timothy Olyphant is the scene-stealer as Kirsh, in large part because he's playing so against type. He still shows the wit and cleverness you expect if you know him from, say, Deadwood or Justified -- but all the charm and intensity is held at at an eerie, icy remove. Playing "Wendy," Sydney Chandler delivers on the most complicated story arc of the season, and has to step out of the shadows cast in a franchise with a long history of complex female leads. Fantastic villains are played by Samuel Blenkin, who gives us a delightfully awful narcissist, and Babou Ceesay, who negotiates the nuance of a villain who "has his reasons" that never actually seem all that good to the audience. And as the "Everyman" plopped down amid the chaos, Alex Lawther is quietly collecting major science fiction franchises (after portraying perhaps the single most influentual character in the story of Andor).
You might argue that Alien: Earth is a bit slow to get going. The first two episodes seem a bit limited and cramped -- even more so when you realize there are only eight episodes in the entire season. But once the story gets going, it's fascinating -- and satisfies even as it sets the stage for future seasons. I give it an A-. No word yet on whether there will be a second season, but it feels impossible for the Powers That Be to not see they have a good thing here. I wait with hope and eagerness for a renewal announcement.
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