It’s a pretty wise decision to debut Noah Hawley’s new Alien show by dropping the first two episodes together as the first episode contained so much stuff, it was fairly easy to become overwhelmed by the aggressive expansion of the world introduced in Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic. While subsequent sequels and prequels have focused more on either different planets, ships or the various mutations of H.R. Giger’s flawless creature designs, Alien: Earth finally clued us into how the universe is run as a whole. On top of that, it also challenged what we knew about the various types of synthetics that exist and even introduced us to other, equally disturbing lifeforms that exist throughout the Alien universe. However, with all this going on and a distaster plot involving a space ship crash landing to boot, isn’t there a danger that the lifeforms known as the Xenomorph might be shoved aside withing it’s own show? Not to worry, people – Mr. October has you well and truly covered in this respect…
With Wayland-Yutani understandibly nervous that their valuable property has crash landed in a city owned by a rival corporation, Prodigy CEO Boy Kavalier finds that his curiosity about the downed Maginot and it’s mysterious discoveries growing ever larger. Luckily for the entitled trillionaire, he’s taken a huge risk by letting Wendy and her fellow bleeding edge human/synthetic Hybrids go on an excursion to explore the ship, but Wendy has an alterior motive. Thanks to her funky, Hybrid abilities, Wendy has been keeping tabs on her older brother, Joe, through various camera feeds and even though her sibling has no idea that she’s still alive, the fact that her consciousness has been transfered from a terminally sick body to a robot body doesn’t mean she doesn’t still care for her flesh and blood. You see, Joe is a member of a Search & Rescue team that’s entered the freshly wrecked hull of the Maginot, but there’s a selection of otherworldly creatures lurking inside that the massacred crew had been collecting for their parent company.
Chaperoned by white maned Synthetic Kirsh, the Hybrids enter the Maginot with dual missions lodged in their pre-teen brains and soon are horrified by both the mutilated remains of the crew and the outlandish lifeforms that have escaped. However, while tentacled eyeballs and vampiric bugs are all approximately hideous in all their body horror glory, the big worry is the the lethal form of a Xenomorph which starts doing what it does best and racks up some major damage. But for once, the alien isn’t the only one on the hunt as Morrow, the Cyborg last survivor of the Maginot is on a mission to subdue the creature for his employers.
After an awkward reunion with her brother, Wendy tries to convince Joe that she is, in fact, his dead sister, but while the Xenomorph has many talents, reading a room isn’t one of them and their meeting is rudely interrupted when the alien makes its presence felt.
There was a sense that with such an expanded sandbox to play with, a danger existed that the Xenomorph might be made obsolete within its own franchise as plot threads about clashing corporations and rival alien species might serve to bench it for the duration. However, with its second episode, Alien: Earth dispels such notions by offering an instalment that not only keeps some of the grander themes rolling, but also delivers lashings of tongue-lashing, face exploding action as only the Xenomorph can deliver. In fact, even with the recent release of Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus, Earth manages to present a Xenomorph that feels entirely true to Ridley Scott’s original by framing it as a lithe, fluid killer that’s exceptionally tough to put down. Devious and lightning quick, it’s good to once again get a single Alien ripping faces and taking names like the old days, with numerous stand out scenes instantly ranking as all-time great moments for one of cinema’s most endearing and enduring monsters. Either hiding in plain sight by blending with a piece of modern art (genius), or laying waste to fancy dressing upper-class partiers by becoming a virtual blizzard of teeth, tail and claws, the show eases any jitters that you may have had that it was going to drop the bio-mechanical ball. Even better, the Alien seems to be having a back and forth cat and mouse thing with Babou Ceesay’s cyborg that seems strangely reminiscent of the type of protracted, farcical, Coen Brothers, cops and robbers stuck Hawley duplicated so well in his TV show of Fargo, and in a show loaded with potentially disastrous big swings, I’m really starting to enjoy the weirdness.
Another aspect of the show that’s working out just fine is the central concept that a gargantuan corporation has essentially sent billion dollar assets into a death zone that all have the personalities of twelve year olds – however, it seems to be working wonders when you realise that putting super powered robot adult children into a sci-fi/horror show means that any awful decision that’s made is instantly justified. In fact, it seems to be a running theme, especially as the decision to send them into the Maginot in the first place was made by the offensively young and horribly entitled trillionaire CEO. But not everything manages to work so well as the moment where Wendy chooses to reveal her past to Joe feels like it could have been a bigger moment dramatically, but instead feels that her brother accepts this bombshell pretty easily. While we’re on the subject, I’m a little confused to why Joe hasn’t warned anyone that he was recently stalked by a nightmarish, skull-pulping, alien beast when he has ample opportunity to do so.
Still, aside from some nicely on the nose politics (at one point, the alien literally ears the rich) and some lavish gore, the show is really starting to have fun with some of those other alien critters that populate the ship. However, among such freakshows as the weird fauna/flora thing that hangs from the ceiling and the blood bugs, the current champion of fucked-up creatures has to be the multi-pupiled eyeball that takes refuge in the eye socket of a zombified cat. Whether these things actually soon start contributing to the plot is anyone’s guess, but the discovery of a selection of face hugger eggs mean that regardless of the species, the alien threat faithfully remains high.
Yet another spirited, but busy episode continues to prove that Alien does indeed seem to have the legs for television, but while the show delivers all the snapping inner jaws and spraying blood you could hope for, it’s the sense of unfolding mystery that’s keeping me intrigued. We’re only two episodes in and we’ve managed to cover most of the standard baces already; but with six episodes still to air over the coming weeks, I believe the real shocks and surprises are still to come and that this bout of Xenomorph madness is only something to appease the fans before things start to get really weird.
Yes, weirder than continued references to Ice Age: Continental Drift.
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