By Justin Partridge Alien: Earth
Episodes 1-3
“Neverland”, “Mr. October”, & “Metamorphosis”
Starring: Sydney Chandler, Alex Lawther, Samuel Blenkin, Babou Ceesay, and Timothy Olyphant
Written by: Noah Hawley and Robert De Laurentiis
Directed by: Noah Hawley & Dana Gonzales
Created for Television by: Noah Hawley
Based on ‘Alien’ Created by Dan O’Bannon & Ronald Shusett
The specimens ARE the mission…
Minor Corporation-Approved Spoilers Ahead
Despite an almost lifetime obsessed with the xenomorph, a lot of my fondest Alien memories are on the comic page. All throughout the 90s and early 2000s, I breathlessly collected the misadventures of hapless dolts and overconfident operators bumbling into hives. I obsessively tracked the wars between the xenomorph and their contemporaries and guest-starring opponents; icons like Superman, Judge Dredd, and the Yajuta. I even stumped for the criminally underrated Prometheus based efforts, increasingly impressed with how the page added more depth to that still-frustrating film experience.
However, as my collection grew, I often opined that not enough of the MOVIES were giving me this same effort. We’ve gotten a bit closer in the recent years. The aforementioned Prometheus, for it’s obvious flaws, is at least weird and ambitious. Kicking of a run of movies that I actually find myself remembering more fondly than they probably deserve. Looking squarely at you, Alien: Romulus. But none of them ever really felt…there, you know? Nearly, sure, but not a complete close encounter.
But now we have Alien: Earth. And boy, oh, boy is it a stunner. At the very least, it’s first three episodes are. Better still, we finally have a xenomorph story on screen with the same scale, oddity, and heady ideas that all those comics seem to have at the DNA level. Oh, and a fully grown xeno tears apart a bunch of Barry Lyndon cosplayers at a fancy dinner party.
In short, rules.
And best of all, wastes little time establishing both our stakes and cast. The year is 2120, just two years before the original film. Corporations have all but divided the Earth amongst themselves, but new player, Prodigy, led by the nuclear-level smarm of Boy Kavalier (a deliciously petulant Samuel Blenkin), is experimenting with a major breakthrough in synthetics. Sequestered in his remote research island “Neverland”, Kavalier and a host of gimmicky “do-gooders”, including Olyphant’s scene-stealing Kirsh, have successfully transferred the first human consciousness into a synthetic body. A young, dying girl who now takes the moniker of Wendy (a luminous Sydney Chandler); a somewhat forced nod to Kavalier’s Peter Pan obsession.
Over time, more and more of these transfers are completed, providing Wendy her very own cadre of Lost Boys who can never age, never die, but can also never know what it means to be fully adult in the way that humans can. Neither can they return to their families who have survived, like Wendy’s brother Joe (a solidly cast Alex Lawther, who is having quite the few years it seems), who, ironically, also works for Prodigy as a Search and Rescue Medic. Big time shades of our favorite Colonial Marines from Aliens.
And that’s not even the first twenty minutes, friends.
Because on the other side of the universe, another company’s “research” is about to be the entire planet’s problem. The USCSS Maginot, a deep-space vessel commissioned by Weyland-Yutani starts back home after it’s 65-year mission. Unfortunately (and wholly expectedly) things go…awry. Species collected break containment and only Mr. Morrow (a magnetic Babou Ceesay), the ship’s Security Officer, is the sole survivor. Surviving both the slaughter inside and the thrilling crash that places the Maginot right at Prodigy’s front door. Or rather, boring dangerously in a major building block in their corporate “capital” New Siam.
And from there…we are off and running.
Hawley’s written and directed “Neverland” is really a fantastic statement of intent for the whole series. With the focus on an almost entirely synthetic and corporation cast, he cuts right to the beating heart as to why these endure as class texts and monster movies. Sure, actual monsters are stalking our new protagonists, but the show so far hasn’t shied away from just how monstrous and uncaring the mechanisms that drive these businesses into literal hell are. And how the people all throughout the structures of them, real and robotic otherwise, can’t help but be complicit in that monstrosity.
As the show’s bonafides are established, then comes the real crux. Prodigy wants the ship (and the things inside) while Mr. Morrow can’t and won’t allow that. What’s a bunch of corpo-security and synthetic humans to do?
The Dana Gonzales directed follow-up episodes, however, start to spread the slime and action around liberally. Providing the show the much needed sizzle to go along with Hawley’s very particularly crafted steak. Throats are ripped out. Secondary shunting mouths are used. And perhaps best of all, basically every sequence in these second and third episodes are all practical. I’m talking sets, monsters, props, even deep background set dressing. Its all tactile and it’s all a joy to see actual actors walk and use these wonderfully designed spaces throughout.
I still have really yet to get my head around the characters, but I imagine that’s somewhat the show’s intent. Chandler’s Wendy is a rare beam of optimism in a franchise that lives and breathes cynicism. Pairing her off with Lawther’s very practical (but barely holding it together) Joe and Olyphant’s more flighty and aloof Kirsh (himself a full Synth ala Bishop) gives them all a lot of interesting dynamics to explore. Both as characters and has separate representatives as to what this franchise considers “human” now.
But really, I think the thing that really boils down into making Alien: Earth feel so great is that it feels so NEW. Sure, it it using a ton of the same visual and textual language of the first films, but its not so precious about them that it isn’t afraid to do something out there (see: the whole subplot about Ice Age? Not joking, btw) or just outright shocking just to make sure we know what we are in for.
Precisely like it felt opening every single Alien comic when I was just a shitty teen. Time can only tell if it sustains it, but for now, Alien: Earth is a major step in the right direction for our favorite acid-blooding killing machine.
Alien: Earth, episodes 1-3, are streaming now on Hulu. New episodes drop Tuesdays at 8 on FX.
