ALIEN: EARTH
Just when fans thought things couldn't get any worse for our beloved Alien…
SPOILERS
Alien: Earth’s portrayal of the Xenomorph is horrible. James Cameron's Aliens reinterpreted the creature by moving away from the first movie’s more intelligent-feeling, humanoid-formed design. He dropped the human skull from the "Big Chap" and explored insect and colony themes instead. That gave us swarms of Xenos, hive-inspired interiors, and an egg laying Alien Queen—and it worked brilliantly. It was so successful that the animalistic approach cemented itself as a core part of the franchise’s identity, and up until Alien: Earth, had been handled more or less with nuance, maintaining the creature’s intelligence and complex behavioral dimensions. They’re savage, but something more mysterious and cerebral always underpinned it. Hudson’s line—"How could they cut the power, man? They’re animals"—captures this perfectly.
Alien: Earth absolutely butchers the anthropomorphic portrayal of the Alien. What used to be a calculated and considered life-form is now a mindless animal that’s broken out of a cage. It sort of thrashes around desperately and screeches incessantly as it runs in and out of conflict. It’s a cat. No surprise, then, that the writers thought making it Wendy’s pet was a good idea. I just had to put my head in my hands. First, you rob it of its intelligence, and now it has no agency. This is the ultimate life-form, and it’s recoiling sheepishly in anticipation of a pat on the head from its new friend, as if it's been misunderstood this entire time. For fuck sake.
The design of the Xeno also has issues. Conceptually, I feel it’s one of the weaker designs due to how slender it is, but personal preference aside, it did still make for lovely shots and fantastic brutal scenes of violence. But when exposed in daylight, or given complex movements, it felt too obvious that it was a man in a suit. It was very awkward and immersion-breaking. I appreciate the prosthetic approach, but when comparing this to Covenant’s or Romulus’s prosthetics, it feels like a step down.
And let’s talk about how little jeopardy and tension it brings to the plot. If we’re talking nameless grunts (who can’t hit a barn door), it doesn’t hesitate for a moment, beautifully eviscerating entire groups in mere seconds. If we’re talking main cast, its approach is lingering—likely adding a few harmless tosses or a tail swipe—and always a slow pause before the lame last-minute saving intervention arrives. This is Marvel-level writing. What’s more, Wendy—a child with no combat experience—goes toe-to-toe with this pathetic, flailing Alien in Episode 2, which, fortunately for her, had apple vinegar for blood instead of the typical hull-eating acid. You could actually take the Xenomorph out of this show, and the plot would fundamentally remain the same.
The Xenomorph’s awful writing extends equally into the plot. We all remember when Prometheus came out and the backlash it received for its dumb writing and character behaviors. Quarantine was a distant concept, scientists approached hostile life as if it were puppies, and trillion-dollar expeditions appeared to have no plan or competence. Ridley Scott then shockingly repeats all of this in Covenant, bringing us more “expert” scientists who stroll onto random planets with no helmets, lean over opening eggs, and haphazardly make every situation worse to further the plot.
Cue Alien: Earth, and here we are once more, with useless cast members starring curiously into hissing Alien eggs and bumbling their way carelessly through labs housing the deadliest lifeforms ever discovered. If Prometheus and Covenant are two of the franchise’s most stupidly written entries, then Alien: Earth helps finish what Ridley Scott started and completes the trilogy.
Why is it so rare to experience cohesive and sensical storytelling in TV and film today? We’ve been crying out for tightly written Alien content for decades, but it’s the same lazy writing again and again. Straight into the first episode, Boy Kavalier is sending his entire prized collection of multi-billion-dollar miracle hybrids—who are also children—into a dangerous catastrophe and likely combat situation. He builds no safety protocols or kill switches for these insanely powerful and unstable “products” and chooses to wander around carelessly with a single guard amidst the breakout of multiple deadly killing machines and Weyland soldiers. He’s the dumbest genius you’ve ever seen.
His “Prodigy” Island is also a joke. This hyper-advanced, top-secret facility has no cameras or monitoring, so you see Aliens and hybrids sneaking around in bushes, and children moving through corridors with stolen specimens. Oh, but when you need to catch a rogue chestburster that’s escaped into a massive jungle environment, you can do so in minutes. Whatever the plot needs, it’s delivered, and nothing is earned. And yes, quarantine is once again insulting. I’ve had pint glasses hit the floor and shatter less violently than whatever “The Eye” was being kept in during its Weyland ship escape.
The Eye might actually be the most interesting character in the show—which says a lot, considering it’s predominantly a sheep with no lines. We were teased with the potential for a human takeover and exploration of its intelligence, but they never delivered. The show teases a lot of different stories, but nothing really comes of any of them, and when the ending arrives, you feel like it’s a penultimate episode leading into a mid-season break, as there’s nothing satisfying or conclusive to be witnessed.
In fairness, Morrow was a good character, bringing menace and true conflict to the story. Kirsh, as his counterpart, had potential but is underdeveloped and written with confusing character behaviors and actions. Wendy also suffers from poor writing, making her very hard to like, even if her presence as the lead is strong. She switches into psychopath mode on extremely flimsy grounds, making enemies of Kirsh and Sylvia (who had been nothing but supportive to her) and is fuming at her brother, who goes out of his way to save people while she decides it’s reasonable to unleash an alien that kills scores of innocent people (but not Boy Kavalier) because she’s having a tantrum.
None of this is helped by the dialogue. Lines from the children, like “That’s a big ass-alien dude,” create tonal whiplash; “Stay frosty” from soldiers entering an obvious laboratory while trying to “find the armory” is painful, and Boy Kaviler’s Peter Pan subtext doesn’t land. Finishing the series with the line “Now we rule” is the worst of all, again hitting Marvel-level cheapness.
Episode 5, showing the flashback of what went wrong on the USCSS Maginot, has been mentioned online as being the sole light of the series and representing the high level of quality we should be expecting. I disagree. It is indeed the best episode of the season, mostly because it relies on the rehashing of tried-and-tested franchise hallmarks, but there's no question this episode also suffers from everything mentioned prior: tropey alien interactions with awkward bodysuit shots, clueless scientists lacking expertise and logic, a badly done saboteur plot, and many moments of poor acting and dialogue. It's a 6.5/10.
I do want to end on a positive note, as there are some bright spots. Even if the plot is a mess, I appreciate the effort to tell a non-alien-centric story and expand the world to explore a future human world consumed by corporate influence and greed. The new creatures and synth technology were cool enough, and the premise of crashed spaceships, secret research facilities, and an Earth-based island to isolate the terror is solid on paper. Cinematically, they delivered all of this at a high level for TV, with some beautiful sets and moments of real atmosphere—even if not as jaw-dropping as the recent Romulus.
VERDICT
Amidst strong competition, Alien: Earth might offer some of the worst writing the franchise has seen. It looks the part, through high quality set design and atmospheric visual tone, but is amateur across almost all other dimensions. The story is messy and fueled by stupidity, the dialogue cheap, the music misplaced and characters poorly developed. None of it is gripping or interesting, and worst of all our beloved Xenomorph is cheapened with tropes, poor concept design and lack of narrative impact. I'm pissed, honestly. This is one of the greatest IPs on earth, yet it's handled so lazily. We expect so much more.
RATING BREAKDOWN
Story
38
Directing:
57
Visuals / Production:
80
Acting / Dialogue:
58
Music / Sound
45
BONUS
FINAL
