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PORTSIDE CULTURE

‘ALIEN: EARTH’ IS ONE OF THE BEST SHOWS SO FAR THIS YEAR  
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Eric Deggans
August 12, 2025
NPR
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_ 'Alien: Earth' is one of the best shows so far this year. Many
classic themes recur: A modern world corrupted by corporate
exploitation of average people. The question of whether technological
advancements are meant to serve humans or replace them. _

Sydney Chandler as Wendy in Alien: Earth. , Patrick Brown/FX

 

FX's new series _Alien: Earth_ opens with a scene familiar to any
fans of the storied science fiction horror film franchise: A crew of
dysfunctional, blue-collar workers waking from extended hibernation in
a sprawling spaceship.

In this case, it's the year 2120 — two years before the events of
Ridley Scott's classic 1979 film _Alien_ and about 60 years before
the time depicted in James Cameron's 1986 sequel _Aliens_. The crew
of the USCSS Maginot is working for Weyland-Yutani, the same
corporation that ran everything in those earlier films.

And it becomes obvious that showrunner Noah Hawley — who also
masterminded FX's TV adaptation of _Fargo_ — has crafted a program
that is, at least in part, a loving callback to the best elements of
the original two films, especially _Alien_.

The area where the Maginot crew gathers looks a lot like the dining
hall where an alien xenomorph exploded from John Hurt's chest in the
first film. And the well-worn futuristic look of the spaceship
in _Alien: Earth_ matches nicely with the '70s-era vision of the
future presented in Scott's film.

Turns out, the Maginot's crew has been on a 65-year mission for
Weyland-Yutani — one of five corporations that run Earth — to grab
up a host of awful alien species from deep space. And when their ship
inevitably malfunctions and they crash in an area of Earth owned and
run by a different corporation called Prodigy, the creepy aliens get
out of their cages and the screaming begins.

All the companies are scrambling to offer life-extending services
through different technologies. There are cyborgs — humans with
artificial parts — alongside synths, who are completely artificial
people, like Ian Holm's character Ash from the
original _Alien _film.

[Samuel Blenkin as Boy Kavalier, Adrian Edmondson as Atom Eins.]

Samuel Blenkin as Boy Kavalier, Adrian Edmondson as Atom Eins.

Patrick Brown/FX

Prodigy is controlled by a young trillionaire, Boy Kavalier (Samuel
Blenkin), who acts like a cross between a barefoot Mark Zuckerberg and
Dr. Frankenstein. And his company has developed the technology to
create a third form — hybrids — by placing human consciousness
inside superior, synthetic bodies. They start by putting sickly
children into adult bodies — young minds can better handle the
transition — creating a small cadre of physically superior hybrid
characters with the minds of inexperienced youngsters. These hybrids
don't age and, theoretically, won't die.

It's a great stew of different storylines, offering Hawley lots of
room to play in. One of the backbone ideas of the _Alien_ franchise,
especially early on, centers on the notion of humanity undone by its
own arrogance and ambition — so sure it can harness and control
forces of nature which eventually rise to annihilate everything.
(Sounds disturbingly like the conversations we're having in real life
about artificial intelligence.)

Here, Hawley brings those ideas together in an interesting way: As the
Maginot crashes in an area of Earth controlled by Prodigy, the hybrid
children are sent in to corral the creatures originally captured by
the ship's crew. Aliens from nature and creations of human technology
meet in a volatile situation.

[Timothy Olyphant as Kirsh.]

Timothy Olyphant as Kirsh.

Patrick Brown/FX

The children are led and mentored by a synthetic person named Kirsh,
played with creepy precision by Timothy Olyphant. In
the _Alien_ franchise, the artificial people often bring a spooky
contempt for their human masters, and Olyphant delivers — offering a
particularly odd treatise on the nature of humanity.

"You used to be food … You built tools and used them to conquer
nature. You told yourself you weren't food anymore. But in the animal
kingdom, there is always someone bigger or smaller, who would eat you
alive if they had the chance. That's what it means to be an animal."

Um, yeah. Looks like Kirsh, with his spiky blonde hair and aloof
manner, may have inherited a bit of that human arrogance mentioned
earlier.

All this adds up to one of the best TV shows of the year. I saw the
first two _Alien_ movies in theaters decades ago, enthralled by the
suspense and tension Scott and Cameron cultivated in their work.
Hawley evokes those same feelings stretched over eight bombastic
episodes, as the characters — and viewers — learn more about these
aliens and all their terrible ways of taking down humans.

And many of the franchise's classic themes recur: A modern world
corrupted by corporate exploitation of average people. The question of
whether technological advancements are meant to serve humans or
replace them. The ways deadly threats can reveal the core of a person
— are they smart, resourceful or stubborn enough to stay alive, even
when the universe throws its worst at them?

Since the _Alien_ franchise encompasses a lot of storytelling,
science fiction nerds will spend time wondering about the implications
of Hawley's series. Why, for example, haven't we seen hybrid people
in _Alien_ movies before? And why did people in
early _Alien_ movies act as if they had never heard of the
xenomorphs, when Hawley's series shows they crash landed on Earth
years before the events of the first film?

The science fiction geek in me is hoping these are questions Hawley
gets to answer in subsequent seasons of _Alien: Earth_, which manages
the slick feat of offering a story that feels new, builds on the past
and offers loads of tantalizing possibilities for the future.

* alien
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* alien: earth
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* FX
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* artificial intelligence
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* capitalism
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* Corporate Personhood
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* colonialism
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