Alien: Earth has some good in it, but it doesn’t stick the landing

When I went to the cinema to see Prometheus, it was because of intrigue, not necessarily because I was hyped for another movie in the Alien franchise. As divisive as it was, I liked it. Can’t say the same for it sequel, Alien: Covenant. I did like parts of it but it disappeared from my memory shortly after watching it. Alien: Romulus on the other hand, I was actually excited to go and see. I did not know anything about the plot or when or where in the Alien universe it would be set, but I knew that it was directed by Fede Álvarez, that made me confident I would enjoy the movie. After watching that movie, I think I actually became more interested in the franchise, wanting to see what the next chapter in this universe would be. When I learned that the next media to come out would be a series set on Earth, I was cautiously optimistic. I was open to the potential of exploring xenomorphs on Earth, but what did worry me a bit was the series format. We’ve seen how fantastic movies can be made to tell the stories, but how would they do it with a series?

The show starts in a familiar way. Showing us the crew of a spaceship waking up from cryosleep. Their ship contains biological specimen and is on its way to Earth, when due to an unknown cause, most of the crew die and the spaceship crashes in a city belonging to Prodigy, one of the new companies that, along with four others, governs part of the planet. Then we are shown a little girl, Marcy, who is close to dying from disease, walking with a scientist towards an adult synth body. The founder of Prodigy, Boy Kavalier, aims to create the first hybrid with her; a synth body with the conscience of a human. Marcy would be the first to undergo this operation. It is a success and the little girl, waking up in an adult synth body, chooses the name Wendy for herself. After this success, Boy Kavalier repeats the procedure with a few other children, to observe and study them in his own isolated, secret island. These two threads, one of Wendy and the children, and the other of the spaceship and specimens, make up the story as they are shorty fused together as the show starts.

Let me start buy saying this. It amazes me when series reach a level that we often associate with movies. The production, sets, VFX, sound design, the way the episodes are shot and shown, they all feel like they are on the level of a movie. Nothing really feels cheap as sometimes you would expect in a series. It feels as if it is simply a movie cut into different parts. This quality is something that is consistent in the show. This includes the different creatures, including the xenomorphs. They all look amazing, most of the time. Other than the way they look, the ferocity and deadliness of the xenomorphs is also done very well here, demonstrating without a doubt what kind of dangerous creatures they are. The other creatures also get a chance to shine as well, some more than others.

However, the show does touch on an aspect of the xenomorphs similar to Alien: Covenant; their nature as the perfect killers. While in Alien: Covenant, David is fascinated by the xenomorphs, in Alien: Earth, there is some attempt to make us sympathize with them?! At different points Wendy, our main character, tries to defend xenomorphs and the killing sprees as they are simply animals and the humans are at fault for bringing them there. Not only did I not buy that at all, it created a contradiction. One moment we are shown a xenomorph killing 5-10 people at once, and then in another Wendy is explaining to another character that somehow the xenomorphs are better than humans because they are honest. This was a terrible idea and along with some other things that I will get into, makes the show hard to invest in.

But the show is not just about the horror of the xenomorphs, it also involves the children and their relationship not just with each other, but with their “owner” Boy Kavalier and the scientists who created them. This is where the show falters, along with its pacing. The first half of the season has a very up and down feel to it. There are sequences involving the creatures, often filled with action and horror, and then there are the calmer and slower scenes that are focused on the characters and how they interact with each other. This is fine, as we do need a break from the tense moments but it’s what we do during that time. The shows tries to answer philosophical questions such as “Are hybrids alive”, “Can they be considered human”, and “Are these hybrids really the children from before” but it never really delves deep into them. It feels like this whole aspect of the story keeps getting brought up but never properly addressed, or rather, they don’t go anywhere with it. Because of this the dialogue scenes can be a bit tiresome to get through.

This also depends on who we are watching. Acting is generally very good across the board, with Sydney Chandler being the face of the show, although Timothy Olyphant is perhaps the most recognizable of the cast. Portraying a synth may sound easy as technically they do not feel emotion and are not human, but Timothy played the synth while adding certain tonality to its voice, certain small mannerisms that can make you question the character and its true motivation. Sydney did a great job portraying Wendy as she is considered special amongst the children, not just because she was the first, but because there are other aspects to her that remain to show themselves, aspects which will make her even more precious to Boy Kavalier. She conveys the child-like behaviour in a way that at first might make you doubt if it’s realistic, but then when you think about it, you realize that yes, a child can definitely say that thing or act in that way. Actually the actors playing the children all did a decent job, but not all the children are relevant or essential to the story. So whenever time is spent with some of the children, I was not invested as they have a single trait to their whole personality and were not interesting. Other characters mostly fulfil a purpose in the story, they have a role to play and that is it. Not that the other actors do a poor job, it’s just that with a lot of the characters I found myself not caring too much about them. Maybe it is an issue of cast size, that there are too many characters and because of that some simply do not get the attention that they deserve. Of this I am not too sure myself. One thing I am sure of, I didn’t “like” anyone in the show. Even characters that are flushed out or well-acted are taken in a direction that makes me feel conflicted. That is a problem because I feel that the show wants you to root for certain characters but I just couldn’t. To summarise, I had mixed feeling regarding the characters. The most interesting "character” to me was a actually one of the specimens onboard the ship, I feel like that says a lot.

Some of the issues with story and characters start to go away during the second half of the season, as there are things constantly happening that drive the story forward and every episode contains a good amount of tense and action/horror sequences. So I felt that the second half achieved a better balance in that regard. But, even the second half suffers from a problem that plaques the show from the beginning. There are quite a few stupid choices being made by the characters. I know that in horror media people always make mistakes and those mistakes lead to other mistakes and so on, but that’s not what I’m talking about. Certain characters make decisions that do not make sense, or things happen that should not be happening or have been permitted to happen. For avoiding spoilers, I will not include them here but as they are spread throughout the show, there was a consistent annoyance throughout that took me out of the show a little bit. Also Wendy’s character is special in quite a few ways. When a character like hers has a lot of gifts, you would expect some of them to be explained. I wasn’t looking for detailed explanation for every single thing that she can do but we are never given anything really. I think her abilities and the lack of explanation for them hurt the show, especially the finale.

The finale was underwhelming I cannot lie, I’d say disappointing. I think most of all because it took a turn that was cliché to be honest and it made it feel anticlimactic. Remember that discussion about the philosophy surrounding the children? Not only doesn’t it go anywhere, but the show decides to take the most safe route with the children and what direction to take them in. I guess I am disappointed because I was expecting anything but that; something different that was actually interesting and thought provoking. Another reason that I find the finale disappointing is that I thought this show was going to be more contained, something to simply add to the Alien universe while telling a good story of its own. The finale of the show implies that there is more to tell and I am not interested in that. Partly because of the characters and partly because I just didn’t like how the show ended.

I talked about the production and it being very good, but there is one specific aspect that started to annoy me as the show went on. During quite a few scenes, there is overlap between some of the stuff that is shown to us. For example, while watching a conversation between two people, something related to their topic of conversation will often be played over their scene at the same time. It is a stylistic choice for sure and it could’ve been good, if it hadn’t been used too much. Every episode includes the use of this effect a few times and while at first it add to a scene, after a couple of episodes it starts to become repetitive and doesn’t really add anything to the scenes anymore.

The best thing about it was that we got to see more xenomorphs and other alien species. It was the right decision for the show to try and do something more and not just rely on the horror of the xenomorphs, but the execution was not done well, hence the mostly negative mixed feelings. Unfortunately, I think it will share the same fate for me as Alien: Covenant, it will fade from memory without having a significant impact.