In 1979, the movie poster for Alien read, “In space, no one can hear you scream.” After 46 years, nine feature films, eight shorts, a stage production, over 50 video games, more than 40 novels, and way too many comic books to accurately count, the screaming has come to television in the form of the miniseries Alien: Earth. And it should be heard — and seen.
With two of its eight episodes having aired on FX and Hulu (and a third coming this week), the suspense-ridden Alien: Earth is akin to other entries in the science fiction/horror franchise initiated by director Ridley Scott’s 1979 haunted-house-in-a-spaceship classic Alien, taken to greater interstellar heights by filmmaker James Cameron’s 1986 sequel Aliens, and prolonged by the lesser Aliens 3 and Alien Resurrection. Alien: Earth still features the threat of the Xenomorphs, the sleek, bloodthirsty extraterrestrials introduced in the 1979 film and inspired by illustrator H.R. Giger’s terrifying designs. But the setting of the TV series is a few years before the events of Alien, and rather than the action occurring amid the void of space or on other planets, it’s mostly happening on terra firma — as is made explicit in its title — after a research spacecraft bearing dangerous specimens crash-lands in a densely populated Southeast Asian metropolis.
There have been previous attempts at creating one or more backstories for Alien and Aliens. Three prequels have been produced and released, including the decent 2024 entry Alien: Romulus. It might be prudent to discount a pair of box office-driven Alien vs. Predator movies teaming the big bad beasties from beyond our solar system in a weird double act going down on Earth decades prior to the rest of the installments. Alien: Earth is more thoughtful in its approach to something that has always been primarily about scaring audiences. While the show hasn’t faltered when it comes to generating tension and unleashing shocks, it seems to be equally concerned with issues such as the abuse of corporate power, the limits of technology, the morality of scientific inquiry, the question of sentience, and rights when it comes to artificial intelligence — all of which are inherent to the franchise and more relevant than ever.
Corporations in charge, synthetic bodies on the line
A major reason that Alien: Earth deserves a look is the presence of Noah Hawley on the production side. He apparently wanted to play in the Alien sandbox and came up with the concept and direction of the series. Hawley is the creator of Fargo — the addictive, darkly droll crime anthology show based on the Coen Brothers’ movie of the same name. His usual attention to character-driven drama and the social, cultural, and political themes he can explore in Alien: Earth might help squeamish viewers endure potentially off-putting aspects of the Xenomorphs’ stomach-turning gestation and incubation in host bodies, their grisly birthing process, and their inevitable trail of death and destruction. Those of us who have followed the Alien saga from the start accept the gore as part of the package.
The show also addresses the abuse of corporate power, the limits of technology, the morality of scientific inquiry, the question of sentience, and rights when it comes to artificial intelligence.
In Alien: Earth, five corporations have carved up the planet into geographical spheres of influence. Humanity is also grappling with the development of cyborgs, which are cybernetically enhanced humans; synths, which are artificially intelligent beings; and hybrids, realistic-looking synthetic bodies that are downloaded with actual human consciousness. Boy Kavalier is the CEO of the Prodigy Corporation and the world’s youngest trillionaire — an impudent cross between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. Having bankrolled a group of newly minted hybrids that were given the brains of terminally ill kids, Kavalier sends them to Prodigy City in New Siam to see what can be salvaged from the space vessel that has slammed into one of his skyscrapers and happens to be owned by his competitors at the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. This pits the hybrids — led by the earnest Wendy and her mentor, the super-smart synth Kirsh — against the bizarre creatures let loose by the crash. One of the monsters is the Xenomorph, as expected. Complicating things for Wendy is the fact that her beloved brother Joseph, who thinks she died from her illness, is a Prodigy medic assigned to save survivors at the crash site.
Hybrid Lost Boys from Neverland
Questions might be raised regarding continuity between Alien: Earth and subsequent stories in the Alien timeline. Depending on what occurs over the rest of the series, answers may or may not be forthcoming. In the meantime, there’s a lot to like and a lot of fear as the adventure unfolds. The suggestion that tech giants like Google, Meta, and Amazon would divide every square mile of territory on Earth to exploit and control their customers, that is, the population, is particularly unsettling. In a gentler element that might very well turn bleak, Peter Pan and the Lost Boys are referenced via Wendy and the rest of the hybrid children who are reborn in the lab on Kavalier’s Neverland island headquarters and then fly to Prodigy City to take on an adversary far more treacherous than Captain Hook.
The cast is more than capable. Relative newcomers in significant roles include Sydney Chandler (daughter of actor Kyle Chandler) as the determined, deceptively cute Wendy; Samuel Blenkin as the nasty Kavalier; and Alex Lawther as the well-intended, in-over-his-head Joseph. On the veteran side, Timothy Olyphant (whose prolific career includes the lead in FX’s much-admired neo-Western police drama Justified) plays the chilly, mission-focused Kirsh, and Essie Davis (The Babadook) is sympathetic Prodigy employee Dame Sylvia. Like a number of prestige TV offerings, the art direction and effects are cinematic in scope, and with his track record in mind, Hawley at the helm is almost an assurance of quality as Alien: Earth runs its course.
Alien: Earth airs on FX and Hulu with new episodes released on Tuesdays.