Alien Earth S1 review

I've had a complicated history with this show. You may remember leaks for this series go all the way back to 2019 before Disney purchased Fox. In 2020 Noah Hawley revealed he was working on an Alien series for FX that ultimately can set on the back burner due to the merger. Some months later he confirmed the show was back. If you're still thinking this is "Disney Alien" I really doubt it. I never wanted a series and through the years statements from Hawley caused disinterested in me. Hawley would gripe about the amount of movies Scott was making while he waited to get the show running. The dismissal of Scott's prequels. He's nothing if not arrogant. Hell when production was shut down during the strikes I didn't mind one bit if production wasn't resumed. Starting with the marketing though I Started to become more convinced. Now let me get this out of the way I did for the most part enjoy the show. For all the lows there were highs. And I'll attempt to break down the pros and cons 

Characters: I actually quite like this ensemble. Morrow is without a doubt the stand out but Marcy, Nibs, Slightly and Kirsh are fairly memorable. Kavalier is rightfully despicable. Others don't fair as well. Tootles is really underdeveloped and hard to care about his demise. Curly is given a moment to shine early on with wanting to be Boy's favorite but this goes nowhere. Smee doesn't do much of anything. With the exception of Morrow and Tang the crew of the Maginot is generally forgettable. Joe is likable but never really evolves past being concerned for his sister. The Silvia's are perhaps too black and white with Arthur being humane and Silvia ultimately coming off as surprisingly inhumane. Way to stick up for your husband lady. Still aside from Alien no cast in this series is perfect. As much as I love Aliens ensemble there's a few Marines that exist purely for canon fodder. The difference here though is that this had almost 8 hours so the underdeveloped characters is a little less forgivable. 

Production: Easily the highlight here. The set design is magnificent especially the Maginot. The creature effects for the Ocellus, Plumbicare, the flys and the ticks are all quite good. The facehuggers and eggs are also well done. The xenomorph are a bit disappointing though. I get the desire for practical effects and the xeno performers do quite well but these suits are as Scott might say "dodgy". I won't spend much time on this because its already heavily discussed but I agree they could be better.  A little cgi touch up may not have been a bad thing.

Score: OK. The theme is simple and memorable. The score itself is surprisingly forgettable. I've listened to the score on its own and it's fine but not much stands out.

Writing: Very hit and miss. Like I said for everything I think its exceptional it's brought down by something ridiculous. I think my biggest issues are these. One it's inconclusive. Why does Kirsh let everything happen? Everyone's fate is left in the air. If you get a season two prepare for a two to three year wait. Two I get the feeling that Hawley was more interested in making an original series about AI but couldn't get funding and used Alien as an excuse. I mean it's not the first time the series has done this. Scott definitely was more interested in artificial intelligence than the titular beast. There's books and comics that explore Ai more. I can pick on inconsistent writing like why did Morrow even ask slightly to procure a specimen if he was going in anyway? Why didn't he go directly to Yutani first? Eh who knows. It is what it is.

Overall Alien Earth is a big bizarre series that feels like Alien at its most comic booky. Big ideas not introduced but not super well executed in favor of bonkers moments. Alien has never fealt more B movie grade and I almost feel that's the intent. I enjoyed it and hope it gets a season two. There's certainly room for improvement. Andor it is not but it's definitely above a bulk of Disney + SW series. 

Final score i rate a 7 out of 10. I get the hate as I do with all things hated about the franchise (ie most of the movies)but I felt there was enough good here that kept me engaged. I honestly probably would have put this a score higher it were a comic. I'll just conclude by quoting David, for season two "Try harder".