FX's 'Alien: Earth' is everything 'Alien' fans could want: Review
The original 1979 Ridley Scott film is a classic for a reason, a master class in body horror and bone-jangling terror grounded in philosophical musings and deeply uncomfortable truths about humanity. The face-hugging xenomorph aliens of the film aren't just scary, they're violating in their torrent of consumption and obliteration, their cold, ceaseless hunger the very anathema of the warmth and hope of the human condition.
Noah Hawley, creator of FX's "Fargo" and trippy X-Men series "Legion," fundamentally understands what makes the aliens of "Alien" scary, and what makes the world Scott created so enticing to return to for film after film. His big-budget, big-impact FX series "Alien: Earth" (Tuesdays, 8 ET/PT, streaming simultaneously on Hulu, ★★★½ out of four), the first time "Alien" has graced the small screen, is a worthy entry in the franchise. Literally bringing things down to Earth, the series manages to preserve the aesthetics and feeling of "Alien" while creating a truly unique, compelling story. By the time you finish eight episodes of terror, both comfortingly familiar and disturbingly novel, you might feel the same way you did after watching the film.
"Earth" smacks you in the face with all things "Alien" from its very first moments, describing a capitalist world controlled by corporations instead of governments, and bringing us to a deep space research vessel with sleep pods and a congenial crew. Nothing could possibly go wrong with all the vicious alien specimens on board, right?
Well, as this doomed spacecraft comes crashing down to Earth, it encounters a world where those powerful corporations are vying for a scientific answer to mortality itself. There are "cyborgs," humans who have been altered with technology; "synths," full-on robots like the android Ash (played by Ian Holm in the original film); and a new category of being: "hybrids," human minds who have been downloaded into a synthetic body. Annoying trillionaire Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin) is experimenting with hybrids, by downloading children's brains into adult bodies. The very first hybrid is Wendy (Sydney Chandler), self-named after the "Peter Pan" character (there is heavy-handed homage to the J.M. Barrie story throughout). She has what appear to be limitless physical and cybernetic powers that are only getting stronger. When Wendy discovers her brother Hermit (Alex Lawther) is a first responder investigating the crash of that contaminated spacecraft, she manages to get herself and her fellow synths deployed in search and rescue.
The series sets the various human and humanoid segments of its cast on a direct course with the distinctly inhuman alien flora and fauna on the ship – there are some inventive little monsters aboard, disgusting and harrowing in their own special ways – to great effect. Everyone wants what's on the spacecraft, for profit or discovery or just to kill to protect others. The aliens simply want to divide, devour and destroy.
Hawley's scripts and deft direction create a near-constant tension and apprehension in each episode, jam-packed with action and violence. Its opening installments even find a way to cram in some exposition amid all the terror and mayhem, but by the end of the season the ceaseless adrenaline and motion of the plot is something to behold.
But lest you think all that action leaves little time for something more intellectual, "Earth" is deeply philosophical, sometimes so overtly so it's a bit too on the nose. When Timothy Olyphant's dead-eyed "synth," informs Wendy that humans are all really just food, it's hard not to feel as though we're being beaten over the head with the show's theme. But anyone who has seen Hawley's "Legion" will easily spot his penchant for asking questions about what makes us human and why. And fans of his five seasons of "Fargo" adaptations will see his penchant for sprawling casts full of idiosyncratic characters that are lovable in odd and surprising ways. The actors portraying the child/adult hybrids never lose the physicality of adolescence, even as they tumble about at full height. Olyphant and the other humanoid characters radiate a robotic alienness all their own. The series is immersive even before any extraterrestrials try to hug your face.
"Earth" has many masters to serve: The "Alien" fans who want a faithful extension of their beloved franchise, Disney and FX, seeking a hit that will bring in the film's fans and newcomers alike, plus all those fans watching. It must do all this and make a coherent story in the process. The series pleases all, without ever giving into something gimmicky or tawdry with the signature long-headed monster at its core.
You'll certianly hear yourself scream at the horrors the show creates.
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