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Hmmm...VERRRY interesting! By Noah Hawley, the creative genius behind Fargo and Legion.

https://www.facebook.com/alienearthfx/vi...3490277863

"This video isn't available anymore."

But I remember this being mentioned in very early development, a few years back. Despite Hawley being referenced as part of it, there was something said that made it sound reminiscent of Jurassic Park stuff -- just mundane material of monsters running around killing people thrills and amusement.

Still, it's Hawley. Difficult to conceive there not being some twist or eccentric "WT_" labyrinth running through it that mangles the stereotype. Timothy Olyphant has a character role, too (my god, he's so white-haired) -- hopefully they haven't traded in the "neo-cowboy" personality for some kind of erratic weirdness. Have to give the series a shot, regardless.

The lead is maybe a Ripley-like character -- she's the android body or non-human this time around, instead of Michael Biehn? Since Ripley was the original trope-busting action female in a horror movie (methodically surviving instead of hysterically screaming), no criticism is possible about that -- it's indigenous to the very franchise. Probably the most ground-breaking item the film is remembered for (barring Giger visuals and design).

EDIT: I don't know. The second trailer below sure does have the "Jurassic Park" island vibe to it. All I can see offsetting that as a possibility is lots of "Lost"-like mysteries tossed in (J.J. Abrams haters moaning in the background).

And Sydney Chandler's character has an Alita: Battle Angel resonance about her that might be too much of a superficial caricature to be interesting for multiple seasons of a television show. But maybe she has more depth than what it looks like.

https://youtu.be/FqIi3N9dusk


https://youtu.be/ZbsiKjVAV28

"New TV show Alien: Earth has hit a significant milestone for the sci-fi horror franchise: it's the installment that's been the best received by critics in nearly 40 years.

Ahead of its release next week, the show debuted to a score of 89% on Rotten Tomatoes today, based on 37 reviews. That's the third-best score in the franchise after 1979's Alien and 1986's Aliens, which have scores of 93% and 94%, respectively (and if you're going to come in third place to anyone, you can't get more worthy competitors than Ridley Scott and James Cameron). By comparison, the last installment in the series, 2024's Alien: Romulus, has a score of 80%.

Created by Fargo's Noah Hawley, Alien: Earth is set two years before the events of the original Alien and follows Wendy (Sydney Chandler), a hybrid who volunteers to retrieve the mysterious cargo from an intergalactic vessel after it crash-lands on Earth. It's the first installment in the franchise to be set on our own planet.

Alien: Earth creator Noah Hawley hopes the show’s new earth-bound backstory is adopted by other Alien projects going forward: "There's a surprising paucity of mythology in the seven films"

Alien: Earth release date, trailer, cast, and everything else we know about the Alien TV show
Our own four-star Alien: Earth review says the show is "bold, ambitious, and often brutally violent" and, despite its flaws, is "never less than ferociously entertaining."

Rolling Stone writes, "As he did with Fargo, turning a classic and beloved movie into a long-running, award-winning anthology series, Hawley has taken a concept that has no business working for television and shaped it into something thrilling, strange, and surprising."

Meanwhile, The Hollywood Reporter calls the show "a heady, sprawling, occasionally unwieldy but eventually thrilling epic about personhood, hubris and, of course, the primal pleasure of watching people get absolutely rocked by space monsters."

"Nearly 50 years after Ridley Scott introduced the xenomorph, Alien has rarely felt this alive," argues Paste Magazine."--- https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment...9FdcGYGcng

Reminder---"Alien Earth" premiers tonight on FX at 8:00 PM followed by another episode right after.

Thoroughly enjoyed both episodes of Alien Earth last night. The effects and CGI are cinematic level. Hawley incorporated a lot of the same techniques in filming this that the original Alien film employed--dripping sticky stuff, strobing lights and steam, eerie high tech music, and ofcourse the alien creature itself with its retractable head-penetrating jaws. He also includes a subplot about 3 corporations battling for control of earth involving various types of cybernetic lifeforms. The heroin herself in one of these. So overall I give it an 8 out of 10 stars.

(Aug 13, 2025 06:37 PM)Magical Realist Wrote: [ -> ]Thoroughly enjoyed both episodes of Alien Earth last night. The effects and CGI are cinematic level. Hawley incorporated a lot of the same techniques in filming this that the original Alien film employed--dripping sticky stuff, strobing lights and steam, eerie high tech music, and ofcourse the alien creature itself with its retractable head-penetrating jaws. He also includes a subplot about 3 corporations battling for control of earth involving various forms of cybernetic lifeforms. The heroin herself in one of these. So overall I give it an 8 out of 10 stars.

We often binge-watch an entire season or series much later, but there's probably little chance of this being canceled. But OTOH, I formerly felt that Westworld was immune from termination on a clliffhanger, too (nothing expensive ever is). Still, I probably won't wait it out.

Watched the first episode. In the beginning, it did kind of capture the ambiance of the original film. There are other '70s and early '80s resonances in there too. Like Blade Runner -- what with the synths, cyborgs, and hybrids -- and the cityscape. And the fixation with governing corporations back in that era, as in Rollerball.

Never really got the "Wendy" connection with Sydney Chandler's character in the trailers, but perhaps apparent in retrospect. And the Neverland childhood fable maybe siphons from the the Pinocchio spirit of Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence.

Still kind of weirded out by Timothy Olyphant being a white-haired synthetic. That's as far from his usual cowboy-ish persona roles in Deadwood and Justified -- and even his appearance in the fourth season of Fargo -- as you can get. But OTOH, maybe that sets him up to develop into some kind of Roy Batty character down the road (again, those echoes of Blade Runner).

And as expected -- there are other creatures beside the xenomorph to provide a well-rounded alien ecosphere. With the budget that the series has, though, it can't survive on monsters, atmosphere, and intrigue alone. It needs to develop some human interest and eccentric plot twists stuff. Something one usually doesn't have to worry about Hawley coming through on. But any showrunner can eventually get lost in spectacle, at least once in their career.

When I watched those 2 episodes, it didn't occur to me that those hybrids were still kids on the inside. So now that explains a lot of their humorous interactions!

(Aug 25, 2025 01:10 AM)Syne Wrote: [ -> ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqZkyKWBmow

Yah, even if "Mother" went bonkers because it was pre-programmed with a secret mission like HAL, and not in a communicative and corrective mode as a result -- it was incoherent that Earth in that era could not detect beforehand a spaceship like Maginot on a crash course, especially after it swiped that orbiting array by the Moon. There might be a retrospective explanation in a later episode as all the hidden, cabal stuff is revealed (that seems to be a trend in many television shows these days).

The shady actions of Morrow, the cyborg on the Maginot, indicated that the corporation that owned the ship had its own protocol, which would explain any violations of collecting the ET fauna. This again goes back to the series emulating 1970s/1980s paranoia about big business and how it was always darkly depicted.

But for me, the real worry about the series -- even back when the only thing available was the trailers -- is the apparent lack of a true lead character, or any group of characters that are interesting enough for viewers to care about what happens to them. All the characters are weird in one sense or another, and the fact of Wendy's band of hybrids having formerly been children isn't helping the situation.

There is a lack of a genuine (human) adult presence in these events -- the boy genius magnate is certainly not that, and eccentric Dame Sylvia doesn't provide it, and unemotional Kirsh the synth sure as heck doesn't fit the bill. And Wendy's brother is too much of a secondary character to fill the void.

So it really is kind of like Neverland. No adults in a landscape of villains (pirates) and monsters. And no character or associated agenda that you can really invest much interest in. All of these superficial individuals could be killed off and nobody would give a flip. At least, that's as it currently stands. Things might change.

Note that the above would not necessarily be a crippling problem in a one-shot, two-to-three hour movie. But it is for a TV series that is expected to run for multiple seasons.