In an era where franchise fatigue has become a real problem for fans, with endless re-iterations of popular films and television series, Alien: Earth, the latest chapter in the saga which began with director Ridley Scott's 1979 classic, has arrived to shake things up in the Alien universe. The new series, now airing on FX, was created by writer-director Noah Hawley, who was the driving force behind the television version of Fargo and the offbeat X-Men spinoff, Legion. Alien: Earth is set two years before the events of the first film. Governments have been abolished, and five multi-national corporations run the world.
One of those corporations is Prodigy, run by a young genius known as Boy Kavalier, whose company is experimenting on transferring the consciousness of a human being into a synthetic body. Kavalier and his team of scientists have taken the minds of a group of children and implanted them into artificial bodies, called hybrids. He's named these hybrids after characters from J.M. Barrie's novel Peter Pan. Meanwhile, a spaceship from the Weyland-Yutani corporation (a name long-time fans of the Alien series will recognize) is returning to Earth with several types of alien specimens, including a very familiar xenomorph. When the ship crashes into a building owned by Prodigy, a race begins to obtain and do research on (as well as exploit) these valuable specimens.
Unlike previous entries in the saga, Alien: Earth takes place not on faraway planets or the cold steel corridors of spaceships, but right here on our own planet. The alien menace is just as dangerous as ever, but this fascinating series focuses on another dangerous predator as well: mankind. Noah Hawley and his writers have cleverly united the science-fiction concepts from the world of Alien with another Ridley Scott directed film set in a dystopian future: Blade Runner. There are several kinds of cybernetic beings featured in Alien: Earth, all of whom are questioning what they are (just like the replicants in Scott's 1982 movie) and if they are really human, as well as what that word means.
Alien: Earth does a great job examining the ethical and scientific experiments (and obvious greed) of the insidious Weyland-Yutani and Prodigy corporations, while exploring new ideas in the Alien universe. The series builds its own mythology, while cleverly acknowledging what has come before. One episode, a flashback centered tale relating how the Weyland-Yutani ship crashed, is a chilling homage to the original film. There are also callbacks and nods to other films in the series, which will delight long-time fans. While those Easter eggs are fun, this is a truly original story that is set in an existing world, taking the Alien saga in exciting new directions.
The cast is excellent, with standout performances from Sydney Chandler as Wendy, the lead hybrid, Timothy Olyphant as the android Kirsh, and Babou Ceesay as Morrow, the security officer from the crashed spaceship. Visually, the series delivers a blend of grounded futurism and biological
surrealism. Practical effects and CG are expertly combined by the talented crew, and the series is atmospheric and well-directed. What
makes Alien Earth so compelling is how it reinvents rather than
reboots, bringing the alien terror to our home planet, and showing us that the most frightening monster of all just might be humanity itself.
Here's a look at the trailer for Alien: Earth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbsiKjVAV28, now airing on FX and streaming on Hulu.
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