In Alien: Earth, Fargo creator Noah Hawley brings fresh ideas to the Alien franchise
Fast facts about Alien: Earth
What: A prequel to the original Alien (1979), where a team of human/synthetic hybrids must contain an alien infestation before it spreads across the world.
Created by: Noah Hawley.
Starring: Sydney Chandler, Timothy Olyphant, Alex Lawther, Samuel Blenkin and Essie Davis.
Where: Streaming now on Disney+.
Likely to make you feel: Fear, dread and a few chuckles.
This is how medic Hermit (Alex Lawther, The End of the F***ing World), trembling with fear, describes what he sees when calling for backup. It's a reminder that these aliens (or xenomorphs, as they're often referred to) are most terrifying when a character encounters them for the first time.
The Alien franchise has been many things over the years, but it's this fear of the unknown and the nightmarishness of their newness (plucked from the mind of Swiss artist HR Giger) that made Ridley Scott's 1979 original an all-time sci-fi horror masterpiece.
Fast-forward seven years (and 57 years in narrative time), with the aliens no longer having that same element of surprise, James Cameron pivoted the sequel (1986's Aliens) to be less horror and more action-oriented. That movie, featuring a now-pantheon-level bad-ass Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), became an all-time sci-fi action masterpiece.
On that spectrum, Alien: Earth, the new FX series (Disney+ in Australia) created by Noah Hawley (Fargo, Legion), sits somewhere in the middle, serving an entertaining mix of eerie dread and balls-to-the-wall action.
And being a series, with almost six hours run time over six episodes, Alien: Earth manages to be an excellent, well-rounded Alien experience that also incorporates (and expands on) several running themes of the franchise, such as corporate greed and the essence of what makes us human.
Set in 2120, two years before Ripley wakes up from stasis in the original movie, Alien: Earth begins with the space vessel Maginot (owned by the Weyland-Yutani corporation featured in the original films) mysteriously crash-landing on Earth in a city run by rival corporation Prodigy.
When Hermit and the rescue team arrive at the crash site, they find several alien creatures have escaped from containment and the whole crew dead, except for their security officer, Mr Morrow (Babou Ceesay, Into the Badlands), a cyborg who escapes their attempts to detain him.
Joining the fray is a group of hybrids (synthetics with uploaded human consciousness), owned by Prodigy, called the Lost Boys (one of the show's many Peter Pan references). The team is led by Wendy (Sydney Chandler, Pistol), who isn't so much interested in the crashed ship as she is in being able to protect Hermit, who was her brother when she was still a human.
Oh, and each hybrid houses the consciousness of a once-terminally-ill child, who now gets to be in a super-powered young adult body, with a supercomputer brain, that can live forever.
While there's a lot there, the world building is rich and complex without being overbearing. The show deftly weaves new information in and newcomers should be easily able to follow along without having to fire up Wikipedia on a second screen.
Noah Hawley's biggest strength as a showrunner is that he's a creative chameleon, which makes him ideal as a caretaker for existing IP.
He is best known for his work on anthology series Fargo, which, over five seasons, was able to arguably match, or even outdo the success of the 1996 Coen Brothers film of the same name that it was based on.
In Fargo (the series), Hawley was able to harness the essence of what made Fargo (the film) great and then push that concept to its very limits.
Likewise, Alien: Earth feels like it belongs in the Alien universe, both in tone and visuals. If you're familiar with the franchise, you will recognise the now-anachronistic macho vibes of the ship's crew, the ponderous musings about the nature of humanity and the ominous shadow of malevolent multinational corporations.
You'll also notice the computers having analogue light-up buttons and green text on MDA monitors that visionaries from 1979 apparently couldn't imagine a future without.
Hawley has been able to grow this world, populate it with interesting characters and give them the room to develop themselves and their relationships with one another. It feels like an essential expansion for a franchise best known for gnarly alien creatures, visceral body horror and claustrophobic gun-based action.
What little lightness there is in the show mainly comes from the natural comedy of children occupying adult bodies, and the interactions between the Lost Boys, particularly between Slightly (Adarsh Gourav) and Smee (Jonathan Ajayi), are welcome comic relief.
As protagonist Wendy, 29-year-old Chandler convincingly plays a child growing more comfortable with being in what is essentially an adult superhero body (though she complains about having breasts, saying 'they get in the way'). Her relationship with Lawler's Hermit is the beating heart of the show.
Playing the kids' stand-in parents are synthetic mentor and trainer Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant, Justified, Deadwood) and human scientist Dame Silvia (Australia's own Essie Davis, The Babadook). Olyphant, known for charming but emotionally avoidant characters finally gets to play a robot, while the always superb Davis makes the most of a somewhat limited role.
The Peter Pan of the story is Prodigy Corporation's CEO and founder Boy Kavalier, a genius megalomaniac played with gusto by English actor Samuel Blenkin. It's a fun performance, but the character is just a little too much of a comic book villain for my liking.
It's an eclectic cast of characters — the majority of whom are either synthetic or partially synthetic — that effectively explores themes of family, childhood and humanity … whenever they take a break from fighting off xenomorphs.
Alien: Earth is a remarkable achievement, given how inconsistent some of the Alien sequels and spin-offs have been. It's a show that understands what makes the source material so special but at the same time feels fresh and new. It doesn't just play the hits; it introduces new ideas to further build and fill out the world.
Given the critical and box office success of 2024's Alien: Romulus, we could be looking at the next franchise resurgence to grace our screens, both big and small.
Alien Earth is streaming on Disney+.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News.com.au
2 days ago
- News.com.au
Donald Trump pushes to shut down climate data-collecting NASA satellites
Donald Trump's administration is moving to shut down two key NASA satellite missions which monitor planet-warming greenhouse gases, in its latest hit to climate science. The missions – which include a freeflying satellite known as OCO-2 and an instrument attached to the International Space Station known as OCO-3 – measure carbon dioxide levels and crop growth around the world, providing critical information to scientists and farmers. But funding for the missions, collectively known as the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, has been scrapped under the President's budget request for fiscal year 2026, starting in October. NASA told AP the missions were being terminated 'to align with the President's agenda and budget priorities'. If decommissioned, OCO-3, would be switched off and remain mounted to the International Space Station. However, freeflying OCO-2 – which already has enough fuel to last through 20240 according to CNN– would be relocated to a lower orbit, where it would remain for years before it eventually burnt up in the Earth's atmosphere. The US Republican-controlled Congress is yet to make a decision on Mr Trump's budget request but David Crisp, a retired NASA scientist who managed the mission, has confirmed the decommissioning planning for both missions is already underway. Dr Crisp told NPR that NASA employees are working on 'Phase F' plans – where teams work out how to end a mission. 'What I have heard is direct communications from people who were making those plans, who weren't allowed to tell me that that's what they were told to do. But they were allowed to ask me questions,' he told the outlet. Other sources also confirmed the decommissioning planning to CNN. Dr Crisp said the missions are 'national assets' and are more accurate than any other systems. He said they have led scientists to discover the Amazon rainforest emits more carbon dioxide than it absorbs and can help monitor drought by detecting the 'glow' of photosynthesis in plants. 'This is really critical. We're learning so much about this rapidly changing planet,' he told AP. Anna Michalak, a climate researcher at Carnegie Science and Stanford University, also pointed out the missions have helped other countries. 'It's not just that these are the only two NASA-funded missions,' she told CNN. 'It's that these have been the most impressive, inspirational missions in this space, globally, period.' Dr Crisp is hoping Congress will vote to maintain funding. However, with Congress currently in recess, a budget may not be adopted before the new fiscal year. In the meantime, the former NASA scientist is among those calling on outside partners, including from overseas, to fund OCO-3, attached to the International Space Station. 'We're going out to billionaires. We're going out to foundations,' he told AP. 'But … it's a really, really bad idea to try and push it off onto private industry or private individuals or private donors. It just doesn't make sense.' A NASA spokesperson told CNN if Mr Trump's proposed budget passes, it 'will be implemented upon the start of the next fiscal year'. US to rewrite its past national climate reports The news comes as the Trump administration announced last week it is revising past editions of the nation's premier climate report. The decision, announced by Energy Secretary Chris Wright on CNN, followed the government's revocation of the Endangerment Finding, a scientific determination that underpins a host of regulations aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Asked why previous editions of the National Climate Assessment were no longer available online, former fracking company CEO Mr Wright told the network: 'Because we're reviewing them, and we will come out with updated reports on those and with comments on those.' First published in 2000, the National Climate Assessment has long been viewed as a cornerstone of the US government's understanding of climate science, synthesising input from federal agencies and hundreds of external experts. Previous editions warned in stark terms of mounting risks to America's economy, infrastructure, and public health if greenhouse gas emissions are not curtailed. But in April, the administration moved to dismiss the hundreds of scientists working on the sixth edition. Under the Global Change Research Act of 1990, the government is legally obligated to deliver the climate assessment to Congress and the president. Mr Trump's administration and Congress have pressed forward with their pro-fossil fuel agenda – dismantling clean energy tax credits through the so-called 'Big Beautiful Bill' and opening more ecologically sensitive lands to drilling. Last month's proposed revocation of the Endangerment Finding by the Environmental Protection Agency was accompanied by the release of a new climate study from the Department of Energy, authored by climate change contrarians. The study questioned whether heat records are truly increasing and whether extreme weather is worsening. It also misrepresented the work of cited climate scientists, according to several who spoke to AFP, and suggested that rising atmospheric carbon dioxide could be a net benefit for agriculture.
ABC News
3 days ago
- ABC News
In Alien: Earth, Fargo creator Noah Hawley brings fresh ideas to the Alien franchise
"There's a creature loose, approximately 8 feet tall, armoured." Fast facts about Alien: Earth What: A prequel to the original Alien (1979), where a team of human/synthetic hybrids must contain an alien infestation before it spreads across the world. Created by: Noah Hawley. Starring: Sydney Chandler, Timothy Olyphant, Alex Lawther, Samuel Blenkin and Essie Davis. Where: Streaming now on Disney+. Likely to make you feel: Fear, dread and a few chuckles. This is how medic Hermit (Alex Lawther, The End of the F***ing World), trembling with fear, describes what he sees when calling for backup. It's a reminder that these aliens (or xenomorphs, as they're often referred to) are most terrifying when a character encounters them for the first time. The Alien franchise has been many things over the years, but it's this fear of the unknown and the nightmarishness of their newness (plucked from the mind of Swiss artist HR Giger) that made Ridley Scott's 1979 original an all-time sci-fi horror masterpiece. Fast-forward seven years (and 57 years in narrative time), with the aliens no longer having that same element of surprise, James Cameron pivoted the sequel (1986's Aliens) to be less horror and more action-oriented. That movie, featuring a now-pantheon-level bad-ass Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), became an all-time sci-fi action masterpiece. On that spectrum, Alien: Earth, the new FX series (Disney+ in Australia) created by Noah Hawley (Fargo, Legion), sits somewhere in the middle, serving an entertaining mix of eerie dread and balls-to-the-wall action. And being a series, with almost six hours run time over six episodes, Alien: Earth manages to be an excellent, well-rounded Alien experience that also incorporates (and expands on) several running themes of the franchise, such as corporate greed and the essence of what makes us human. Set in 2120, two years before Ripley wakes up from stasis in the original movie, Alien: Earth begins with the space vessel Maginot (owned by the Weyland-Yutani corporation featured in the original films) mysteriously crash-landing on Earth in a city run by rival corporation Prodigy. When Hermit and the rescue team arrive at the crash site, they find several alien creatures have escaped from containment and the whole crew dead, except for their security officer, Mr Morrow (Babou Ceesay, Into the Badlands), a cyborg who escapes their attempts to detain him. Joining the fray is a group of hybrids (synthetics with uploaded human consciousness), owned by Prodigy, called the Lost Boys (one of the show's many Peter Pan references). The team is led by Wendy (Sydney Chandler, Pistol), who isn't so much interested in the crashed ship as she is in being able to protect Hermit, who was her brother when she was still a human. Oh, and each hybrid houses the consciousness of a once-terminally-ill child, who now gets to be in a super-powered young adult body, with a supercomputer brain, that can live forever. While there's a lot there, the world building is rich and complex without being overbearing. The show deftly weaves new information in and newcomers should be easily able to follow along without having to fire up Wikipedia on a second screen. Noah Hawley's biggest strength as a showrunner is that he's a creative chameleon, which makes him ideal as a caretaker for existing IP. He is best known for his work on anthology series Fargo, which, over five seasons, was able to arguably match, or even outdo the success of the 1996 Coen Brothers film of the same name that it was based on. In Fargo (the series), Hawley was able to harness the essence of what made Fargo (the film) great and then push that concept to its very limits. Likewise, Alien: Earth feels like it belongs in the Alien universe, both in tone and visuals. If you're familiar with the franchise, you will recognise the now-anachronistic macho vibes of the ship's crew, the ponderous musings about the nature of humanity and the ominous shadow of malevolent multinational corporations. You'll also notice the computers having analogue light-up buttons and green text on MDA monitors that visionaries from 1979 apparently couldn't imagine a future without. Hawley has been able to grow this world, populate it with interesting characters and give them the room to develop themselves and their relationships with one another. It feels like an essential expansion for a franchise best known for gnarly alien creatures, visceral body horror and claustrophobic gun-based action. What little lightness there is in the show mainly comes from the natural comedy of children occupying adult bodies, and the interactions between the Lost Boys, particularly between Slightly (Adarsh Gourav) and Smee (Jonathan Ajayi), are welcome comic relief. As protagonist Wendy, 29-year-old Chandler convincingly plays a child growing more comfortable with being in what is essentially an adult superhero body (though she complains about having breasts, saying 'they get in the way'). Her relationship with Lawler's Hermit is the beating heart of the show. Playing the kids' stand-in parents are synthetic mentor and trainer Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant, Justified, Deadwood) and human scientist Dame Silvia (Australia's own Essie Davis, The Babadook). Olyphant, known for charming but emotionally avoidant characters finally gets to play a robot, while the always superb Davis makes the most of a somewhat limited role. The Peter Pan of the story is Prodigy Corporation's CEO and founder Boy Kavalier, a genius megalomaniac played with gusto by English actor Samuel Blenkin. It's a fun performance, but the character is just a little too much of a comic book villain for my liking. It's an eclectic cast of characters — the majority of whom are either synthetic or partially synthetic — that effectively explores themes of family, childhood and humanity … whenever they take a break from fighting off xenomorphs. Alien: Earth is a remarkable achievement, given how inconsistent some of the Alien sequels and spin-offs have been. It's a show that understands what makes the source material so special but at the same time feels fresh and new. It doesn't just play the hits; it introduces new ideas to further build and fill out the world. Given the critical and box office success of 2024's Alien: Romulus, we could be looking at the next franchise resurgence to grace our screens, both big and small. Alien Earth is streaming on Disney+.
AU Financial Review
4 days ago
- AU Financial Review
Tech bros the real horror in Alien: Earth
In Hollywood's book of big budget franchises, Alien has been a shape-shifter. In 1979, director Ridley Scott fused gothic horror with blue-collar sci-fi to birth the xenomorph: an H.R. Giger-designed space monster that's haunted screens ever since. Almost half a century on, Noah Hawley, the show-runner of Fargo, whose genre-bending talent adapted the Coen brothers' bleak classic into one of TV's most innovative dramas, leads a new prequel, Alien: Earth.
