Alien: Earth, season 1 (8 episodes)
release year: 2025
genre: science fiction / horror
viewing setting: home streaming 8/12/25 and 9/28/25
synopsis: A ship containing some dangerous alien organisms crashes into a city on Earth, but there's a lot more going on.
impressions: Well, here it is: the first-ever television series set in the Alien universe. There was a lot going on here; the main themes seemed to be potential immortality (achievable through several different paths), corporate warfare, and hostile extraterrestrial life. Not one but TWO different groups of people make the unwise decision to gather multiple dangerous creatures together in one place (and the second of those adds to the mix a bunch of children whose minds/personalities have been put into powerful adult synthetic bodies.) And that latter causes or leads to many of the problems the various characters encounter: at the end of the day, this new breed of synthetic people have the naive, inexperienced, gullible minds of young children. Anyway, if you're reading this, there are probably some key things you really want to know. Are there aliens like in the movies? (yes.) Is there blood and gore and spooky places for them to be shed? (oh, yes.) Are the classic aliens anything other than ruthless killing machines that destroy anything in their paths? (with one exception, no.) I really liked the idea that this ship had been sent out into deep space to collect not one but multiple specimens of deadly alien life forms...aside from the classic alien, there were ticks that go inside the body to get their blood, fly-like things that eat inorganic matter, giant pods that hang from the ceiling and feast on passers-by, and the Ocellus, a tentacled eyeball that burrows into a victim's eye socket and takes over its body. As I stated above, only idiots would put all of these monsters into one room and assume there wouldn't be any problems. I think episode 5 really stood out - it was the flashback one showing what happened on the ship before it reached Earth and crashed. One more thing: there were nods to various past movies sprinkled throughout, and they were fun to spot.
acting: I can't possibly cover all of the characters (major and minor) here, so I'll mention the ones who made the most impression on me. Sydney Chandler is the first of the child-into-adult-synthetic-body hybrids, and much of the story revolves around her and her journey to learn what it means to be a new life-form. Alex Lawther is her human brother, who she rescues and reunites with. Samuel Blenkin is a quirky punk kid who's also a genius and trillionaire (not to mention an obsessive Peter Pan fan) and he's _really_ annoying and unlikeable. Babou Ceesay is the sole (human) survivor of the crashed, doomed vessel. Timothy Olyphant is an older synthetic and scientist working for the trillionaire, although like many artificial people in the film series, he sometimes does his own thing.
final word: Overall this was pretty good - quality sets and effects, big questions, and new ideas. However, a couple of those new ideas don't mesh well with the past series look and feel.
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