'Alien: Earth' season 1 review: Lost boys will be toys in FX sci-fi horror

FX

Being a flash in the Peter Pan would probably be a terrible outcome for something that cost approximately one gazillion dollars. Speaking of, Alien: Earth is a new series that is set in the 'Alien' franchise and based on "elements" created by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett. This first season begins in 2120 in space and on Earth. Humans are now accompanied by three different entities: "synths" who are fully artificial; "cyborgs" meaning humans with synthetic parts; and "hybrids" who have synthetic bodies but human brain activity, memories and such. Five corporations explore these technologies in a race to the top. One of these is Prodigy whose young, eccentric human CEO Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin) develops hybrids in his research facility on a remote island alongside synth scientist Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant) and human employees Arthur (David Rysdahl) and Dame Sylvia (Essie Davis).

We mainly follow Wendy (Sydney Chandler), the first-ever functional hybrid who is essentially a child in an adult body. Wendy is joined by fellow hybrids Curly (Erana James), Nibs (Lily Newmark), Slightly (Adarsh Gourav), Smee (Jonathan Ajayi) and Tootles (Kit Young). Things take a nasty turn when a spaceship carrying alien specimens, cyborg Morrow (Babou Ceesay) being its only alive crew member, crashes in a Prodigy-controlled city. Naturally, Kavalier wants what's inside, Morrow has his own mission, Wendy sees an opportunity to reconnect with her human brother Joe Hermit (Alex Lawther) who is a medic at the crash site and thinks she's dead, that ship's owners want their specimens back, and violence ensues.

When hitting play, what stands out first is how gorgeously this world has been rendered for small screens, and in a way that sacrifices neither the grandness nor the scale you expect from this franchise. The VFX (supervised by Jonathan Rothbart) and production design (by Andy Nicholson and Jason Knox-Johnston) work in tandem to create spaces and scenarios that feel lively, vibrant and sometimes horrifying. There's depth and excitement in the images thanks to this wonderful craftsmanship, accentuated by the costume design, cinematography (Bella Gonzales, Dana Gonzales, David Franco), stunts and SFX, all of which are first-rate stuff. You can see the money on the screen.

After that very first hurdle has been cleared, we shall turn our attention to see if the writing can rise to the challenge, too, in order to welcome you with kindness after the visuals have invited you to the island. Showrunner-creator-director-actor Noah Hawley (who portrays Joe and Wendy's dad) and his writing posse (including Migizi Pensoneau) have indeed come up with a tasty blend of popcorn sci-fi horror thrills and some deeper themes that challenge characters. Around episodes four and five is where the series starts to hit its full stride, studying identity, exploitation and ethics of certain technological advancements. In episode seven and the season finale, Hawley and co. do exchange a chance to dig deeper for those popcorn thrills and more basic questions like "Who are the real monsters/aliens?" or "Did you know that evil tech CEOs are evil?", which makes for a missed opportunity, but also for solid entertainment so it's not all that bad.

Some bugs in the system are expected when you create something new and Alien: Earth has a few of those as well. The needle drops (music supervision by Maggie Phillips) are a vibe killer in particular—in space, no one might hear you scream but the song choices do scream out mid-life crisis and they don't speak to these characters or themes in the slightest. Similarly lacklustre is composer Jeff Russo's score; it's not out of place like the needle drops, but it's not exciting either. At least the sound team has fun with alien noises, some which Wendy learns to do. The writing and direction (Dana Gonzales, Hawley, Ugla Hauksdóttir) also stumble a bit with some of the cast playing kids in adult bodies. Both the performances by Gourav, Ajayi and Newmark and the dialogue for their characters are rather uneven, sometimes even unbearable because the maturity level fluctuates so much.

Luckily, there are plenty of strong performances to act as a counterbalance (and the show is neatly cast by casting director Kate Rhodes James in general). Chandler is a very compelling lead, nailing the uncanny valley Wendy occupies unlike those mentioned above, and the camera clearly loves her expressive eyes. Blenkin executes the biggest swings in the show, but knows how to play it small in a closeup, whilst Olyphant brings a cool, mysterious presence to the proceedings. Ceesay also gets his moments to shine, especially in episode five where the actor is excellent, along with Richa Moorjani (as Morrow's shipmate Zaveri). Lawther is perhaps the person given the least to work with as he's mostly stuck with variations of "But she's my sister", and so that is where Alien: Earth could still crank up the emotional resonance.

These eight episodes end up interrogating the breaking point where humans have overstepped and crossed an ethical line—whether that relates to playing gods or hurting someone in a way that has caused irrecoverable damage—and at what point do you begin to empathise with beings that aren't fully human but express human feelings even though they can't physically feel anything. You're also asked if there's a point where you stop empathising because they've threatened, hurt or killed someone, and if you think they're truly able to regret such actions considering they will never be able to relate to experiencing actual pain or fear of dying.

Intelligent enough, but above all a pure visual spectacle that doesn't lack ambition, the series gets off to a good start with its first run. Humans should live to see another season. Even its downfalls seem like they're not too difficult to improve upon if there are more seasons on the horizon.

Smileys: VFX, production design, story

Frowneys: Soundtrack, acting

Slightly is here today, but gone to Morrow.

3.5/5

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