“ALIEN: EARTH” on FX: Peter Pan, Wendy & Albino Timothy Olyphant

Going out on a limb to say that this show deserves its own thread

First 2 eps went up today I think

Anyway, discuss?

Just finished ep 1 diving into ep2 but: hell yes to ep1 credits needledrop Dio Sabbath fuck YES lets fuckin goooooo

Hahahah I was specifically thinking of you when I heard that riff kick in! Just wrapped up watching both episodes. Here's my non-spoiler thoughts, copying from FB:

Hmmmm. Thinking a bit on this one. Let me start with the downsides: essentially, and incredibly unsurprisingly, the shadow of the IP in general and the first two films by default still can never be escaped, given how much anyone playing in this pool never wants to escape it. (It's almost perverse exactly HOW much it can't be escaped in the first five, ten minutes -- the decisions made are beyond knowing and trying to own it, it's more like 'Okay, Hawley, come on.') There is also hilariously clunky IP management in general thanks to the overall Disney/Fox merger -- let's just say you'll be surprised to learn what films are mysteriously kid favorites a hundred years in the future! (You won't be surprised.) Also the fact that this IS a series and not a movie is a bit of a problem when it comes to manages scares and ominous atmosphere over hours -- if everything after a certain point is creepy and threatening in the production design, then nothing is. (Binging this seems like a mistake for this reason so watch this an episode at a time for sure.)

Now, that said? There's enough going on for me to continue watching. The new and reasonably original elements are matched with this interestingly slippery/chilly tone that's very deliberate without being boring -- the more it leans into its own sense of pace and steady development the more interesting it was to me. Without delving into details, the main 'crew' that is exploring things has a so-far unique dynamic for the whole series for a particular reason, and I appreciate the earned reactions and in-universe awkwardness that results. Separate from them: rather than one Inevitable Android Role there are two as such, one of whom is Olyphant, and I kinda appreciate the weird Rutger Hauer/Roy Batty meets Gary Busey on methadone vibes of his styling and approach. The other is an interesting variation that I'll let you discover for yourself if you watch (they don't hide it, it comes up pretty quick). There's a couple of surprisingly funny out-of-nowhere moments that vary things up, it certainly looks great, budget's on the screen, and boy was I surprised to realize Adrian Edmondson is part of this. It's a long way from The Young Ones!

Plus, as a ending fillip and as VG has just noted, they have an interesting line in end credit song syncs. Kinda wondering what we get next.

Part of me SHOULD hate this because it’s partly technically what I hated about the last movie ie the thrall of Alien is so monolithic it sucks any originality out of what they’re doing & it becomes pure zombified fanservice

BUT i love Hawley & I guess I trust him enough as a writer that he’ll get that out of his system

The story elements interest me enough already so I’m keen to see more

Stray thoughts
-Olyphant has some very funny line deliveries. The tone is odd for him but I like the weirdness of it
- The brother (Nemik from Andor) is great, I love him & I like the story between him & Wendy
- ADE EDMONSON HOORAY
- Morrow the keeper of thr specimens is cool as hell, i enjoy him a lot

Could really do without everyone standing around NOT SHOOTING THEIR WEAPONS AT THE ALIUMS. Point AND Shoot? Maybe? Lotta dumbness driving the action which annoys me.

That cat in ep2 was on some Carpenter-Thing-wtfery. Very nope. Cool tho!

Also I enjoy the grossout parts. Very fun so far

Anyway I’m all the way in I just hope this isn’t dumb lol

even in the first good sci-fi pilot episode in ages there’s some distractingly shit CGI

Wendy jumping off the cliff, the whole crash sequence

yeah agreed

the first appearance of the titular Alien it just looked like a grip crouched underneath the camera waving it back and forth … like do we have to light it ~that~ much? arent shadows kind of the point?

anyway as you can see this franchise absolutely brings out my worst Simpsons Comic Book Guy instincts lol

Bad FX I noticed in the first ep (haven't seen the second yet) were Wendy jumping and the leech bug crawling. Otherwise, first ep was great. I didn't have any problems with (most of the) callbacks, esp. to the first movie, because this one takes place a couple of years before that one, so they're kind of setting up the connection. Got to admit, even having seen the first movie a bunch, I never once wondered what things were like back on Earth. Now we know!

Some of the more specific callbacks (computer text reflecting on screen, the vibe/crew composition when they're having their wake-up meal, the references to the Goldsmith score), they made me roll my eyes a bit, but they were cute. Anyway, it's, like, the millionth iteration of the "Alien" franchise, seems pointless to complain about callbacks. What I really *do* appreciate are the echoes of "Prometheus" and "Covenant," neither of which I liked at all and both of which were sooooo dumb. In this, though, they are more successful (so far) at expanding the world, and not dumb (yet). And so efficient at doing it! Right off the bat we're more or less in the deep end of both monster movie and Hard Sci-Fi (TM).

I did not have a problem with the (primary) Disney IP integration, per se, because it's not just that movie it's the whole broader IP, from the book to the nickname for all the hybrid "kids" (and the lead kid's name).

Anyway, Hawley has had a great run with "Fargo," and he seems to have a good grasp of this world, too. I have high hopes that will hopefully not be dashed.

It was less Peter Pan and more Peter Pan AND Ice Age, the more so for the emotional leveraging.

Ice Age I thought was a weird choice, but the first thing that came to mind is the random assortment of media one finds in rental properties. "What do we have here, Ice Age? I guess we're watching that one again!"

I mean maybe but it is a Disney property now, so etc

There's maybe some unintentional satire there, a show where the world is divided up into rival corporations that itself is enthusiastically embracing a contemporary corporation that is buying up the (creative) world.

OK, glad I'm not gonna pop in and shit up a thread full of unqualified raves. I watched the first episode with mild interest, was disappointed right off the bat that one of my favorite recently discovered actresses, Richa Moorjani (from Fargo season 5), was basically a cameo, and after that... meh. The whole Peter Pan thing doesn't do it for me as a theme/nod, but I'm mildly intrigued by Olyphant's character... I don't know yet. Will see if I make it through episode 2 tonight.

Hope this is good, I'm a Hawley fan but don't have Hulu at the moment, and we're watching all of Taskmaster for the foreseeable future.

I half wonder if we're going to get more of the Maginot crew's deal through flashbacks during the season, as well as wondering if this is going to turn into a 24/The Pitt real time scenario in the main story.

(Also, LOL at Maginot, which Weyland-Yutani exec thought that was a good idea. "Sorry, boss, Dien Bien Phu was already taken.")

I do assume we're going to get flashbacks.

Despite the tone of my post last nighy I am overall optimistic about the show & enjoyed the first 2 episodes — Josh is otm in that the throwback elements do fit in with this series since it’s placed a mere 2 years prior to Alien

and it does all add a bit of excitement to re-enter this world again, not gonna lie

i still have kneejerk eyeroll at the constant simpsonsesque DO THE THING / THEY DID THE THING - really hard for me to shake that with these spinoffs these days, we have endured so much lol

i did find myself wondering over my morning coffe though, like just how much “earth” we’re really going to get in all of this if we’re ultimately still exploring a spaceship… that’s stuck in a building. lol

and yes we loled over Maginot too! behold our fleet: Agincourt,
Trafalgar…

I thought this was great. I do have concerns that stretching the basic framework of Alien over a multi-episode show has the potential to become very tiring if it really is just jump scare after jump scare in various dimly lit rooms. But I feel like Hawley is laying enough groundwork here to avoid that. I like the idea that there are multiple aliens, multiple corporations, multiple android types, whereas we know that in terms of the greater mythology of the franchise, there is only one of each. I like that there are layers of Darwinism here... and that most of the characters we are invested in (e.g. Wendy, Kavalier, leechy blood bags and eyeball monsters) are on the losing side of that determination.

I'm definitely having fun with 'oh right it's that actor' with the cast, like in checking just now I see Dame Sylvia is Miss Fisher as in the Australian mystery series.

i didnt realize one of the bloodslug soldiers was our guy Gaitok from White Lotus!

xpost i knew i recognized her from something!

oh also our nostalgic childhood bonding property is (checks notes) Ice Age 4?
surprised they didnt go for Land Before Time XIV

Anyway here's one of those 'look ahead at the season' trailers so probably general semi-spoilers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRfFIQP598c

Could've sworn that was our Lord Percy as the Restoration Cosplay guy : )

Really cool first two episodes. Lots of fun.

Tyres!! I'm only 3 mins in, ha

I'm saving ep2 for tomorrow.
when Morrow is sealed into the room and the alien slowly slides past the window, just cracked me up.
otherwise i like it and will continue to enjoy being in the Alien universe

In the future, the race for immortality will come in 3 guises:

Cybernetically enhanced humans: Cyborgs
Artificially intelligent beings: Synths

and
Synthetic beings downloaded with human consciousness: Hybrids

uploaded with human consciousness. not a great start.

Tyres!! I'm only 3 mins in, ha

he dead now, sad face. (ok I haven't seen ep 2 yet, I don't see him coming back though!

have to say the effort at carbon copying the all time classic "show don't tell" opening of alien was a dismal failure, tyres' part in it especially. ("hey idiot who apparently doesn't know anything about the world he lives in, let me tell you some key backstory facts!")

he hasn't done his social studies tho

It's Alien enough for me to breeze past the bad CGI and the neon sign reading WHAT THE FUCK hanging over the trillionaire who owns Neverland RanchIsland and throwing in some retcon exposition... but I fear just a little that this is going to lead to an actual melding of the Blade Runner and Alien universes and in give years we're going to have a movie with CGI Roy Batty fighting a xenomorph near the Tannhauser Gate.

five years

ledge otm

as soon as the computer terminal in the empty room whirred to life Mr Veg said “man, don’t do that…”

it’s that thing where everyone who picks up the mantle feels the pull to recreate those moments & as a fan you want to yell “but we’ve seen THAT movie! we’ve seen THAT moment. show us your movie. show us your moment!”

For better or worse, more than any other franchise I think Alien *insists* that you make specific callbacks to various past movies. So I didn't mind the repetition in these first few episodes, but I do hope it shakes that off and moves into more of its own thing now that it's established its world and characters.

yeah otm

looking forward to getting into this. i swear i thought i started a thread about "every alien movie ever".

- "you bitch"
- a woman's face turning away from a closeup of a drooling alien
- facehugger
- chestburster
- whatever plan the humans had goes out the window when it becomes clear that escape is the only option
- a crew that's been kept in the dark
- an android with white stuff for blood

Could've sworn that was our Lord Percy as the Restoration Cosplay guy : )

As soon as that door opened I said "oh, and now we're in High Rise." And I thought "Michelle Visage is not going to like this."

It seems fine, but the xenomorph is very person-in-a-suit, the Willy Wonka trillionaire guy is too whimsical, and I don't care about anyone really except Timothy Olyphant, for the reason that he is Timothy Olyphant. Good to see Adarsh Gourav, I hope he gets a bit of something to do.

looking forward to getting into this. i swear i thought i started a thread about "every alien movie ever".

- "you bitch"
- a woman's face turning away from a closeup of a drooling alien
- facehugger
- chestburster
- whatever plan the humans had goes out the window when it becomes clear that escape is the only option
- a crew that's been kept in the dark
- an android with white stuff for blood

I did like the part in e2 when the brother looks close up to the facehugger eggs and then just stands up and says “we should call this in.”

ok i rewatched the first 2 episodes and I am way more locked now

*locked IN now

winced a little at the scene in ep1 in the army transporter "okay by the book".

Made it to the end of episode 2 and I'm done. It's mostly pretty well done but just not my thing, and the characters' obsession with literal century-old popular culture is infuriating to me. (I would absolutely love an SF series — book, movie, TV show, whatever — that got really deep into imagining future pop culture instead of pretending that as we're colonizing the universe, we're also gonna all be listening to the same old records from Earth.)

I expanded on this thought elsewhere, so I'll just leave it here:

I have given up on ALIEN: EARTH after two episodes, and I'm gonna explain why, because it's an issue bigger than this one show.

I can no longer put up with stories set in the future where the characters are fixated on 20th century American pop culture. It's lazy and frankly infuriating. ALIEN: EARTH is set in 2120, and we have a character talking about a Reggie Jackson baseball game from 1977.

Another character is obsessed with PETER PAN, a movie from 1953. Over the end credits we have heard songs from Black Sabbath (1981) and Tool (1996). Raise your hand if your primary sources of entertainment, in 2025, are from 150 years ago.

Why are SF writers incapable of imagining future pop culture, or even that there could be pop culture in the future at all? (Not all, mind you; William Gibson has thrown in passing references to future trends, particularly in his Bridge Trilogy of novels.)

Music and art evolve CONSTANTLY. One of the primary purposes of young people is to come up with sounds that make old people (like me) say "Jesus, you listen to that shit for pleasure? Why, in my day..." But in ALIEN: EARTH, it's all sonic/visual nostalgia.

(See also THE LAST OF US, in which a queer teenage girl has the musical taste of a straight middle-aged man.)

I'm no longer going to put up with this dearth of imagination from SF writers. Think harder about what people a hundred years from now — a thousand years from now — on far distant planets — would be listening to for pleasure. And if your answer is "the Beatles," fuck off forever.

in the LoU world the pop culture references are so old because society has fallen apart and those references signify a lost golden age

i suspect the golden oldies references in Alien have a similar function - to signify that everything's gone downhill and the pop ephemera that today we regard as worthless have become tokens of a a better, purer more innocent time

This was something Tony Gilroy thought about for Andor - recycling and remixing a song at various points in the show because, as he said in an interview somewhere, he imagined the song was a galaxy-wide hit.

lol what a weird reason to bounce off a show. That's like complaining everybody in the future speaks English.

That's like complaining everybody in the future speaks English.

Well, why does everyone in "New Siam" speak English? I guess we should be happy that people still have accents in the future...

yeah that was great

the brother Hermit keeps reminding me of sadsack Kevin in Motherland

Hoping they get out of the spaceship set, I want EARTH! Aliens wrestling with goats and bears

gotta say the whole sending children into a disaster zone scheme is one of the more disturbing aspects of this and one of the dumbest decisions ever taken by a member of alien's illustrious pantheon of dumb billionaires but it is weirdly compelling and def works on a horror level

Yeah, I feel like putting kids in danger in order to prove your technology works is exactly what a trillionaire would do. It made me think of the current business with Meta's chatbot.

He doesn't see them as children at all. I mean, he's a child himself, and as he more or less says in E2, they are basically his playthings. Dame whomever is all, "we should consider the ethical implications of literal potential vs. becoming, we want more than to create immortal consumers," and his response is essentially "who cares about that, I just want a smart toy I can talk to." I'd like to think this is by design. Boy Genius puts all his energy into creating beings to superficially stem his boredom, but the first super being he creates spends much of her time reestablishing a strong "human" emotional connection to her brother. Some loose similarities to "A.I." (the movie) in here, so far. Plus aliens.

Somewhat related, I do wonder what any of the creatures would care about the cyborgs or synths, who do not have blood, per se.

(Funny connection, but in "A.I." the overriding semi-Disney public domain property motif is "Pinocchio.")

re what the creatures make of the synths there is one xenomorph that seems particularly keen on filleting the surviving Weyland-Yutani synth (Morrow) from the research vessel. he only barely locks himself in Mother’s panic room in time. this happens in the first 20 minutes of the show. later, in the building, Morrow is on the verge of getting got, sweat beading down his face, his fist transforming into a blade (T2, anybody??) but the alien gets distracted at the last second

The cyborg thing is interesting. Have they ever been in any previous Alien stories? The expo-text at the beginning says they are enhanced humans. This sets up an interesting parallel between Morrow (human body, but seemingly* a soulless, perfectly loyal W-Y drone) and Wendy (synth body with a human soul, has her own agenda unrelated to her corporate overlord).

*I suspect we'll find out there's more going on with him than meets the eye

If I recall correctly, Ash in the first movie has no real interaction with the alien. In the second, Bishop gets torn up mostly because he is in the way. I think the aliens are pretty indiscriminate in who they target - even a cyborg probably doesn't want to be torn apart - but of course they can't lay eggs in or I guess eat synthetic people (assuming the aliens eat).

But I was also thinking of the leech and eye creatures and the like, you would think that they would be attracted to blood, if that's what they eat. Maybe, like the aliens, they are just mean and violent.

can't believe Tracer didn't catch that Morrow's a cyborg even though a half dozen characters say "You're a cyborg!" especially after seeing his hand throughout both episodes smdh

lol you’re right i kind of confused cyborgs and synths in my brain despite the explicit text at the beginning smdh

i can't believe we have to wait until Tuesday for the next episode it feels like an actual crime

I agree but I don't think Kavalier sees them as kids. They were test subjects who successfully transferred into their adult bodies. But those bodies are also very strong/superhuman so I think he's more than happy to see what they can do. If they die, at least he knows he can transfer new candidates down the line.

Also thought his whole vibe - Wendy repeatedly calls him “the Boy Genius” is a little childish too, but cruel in the way children can be cruel, like pulling the wings off insects or destroying things just because. Per convo with Dame whatever, he pretty clearly sees most normal people as barely conscious compared to him, synths are likely even more removed and more comparable to experiments than people.

Oh man, that episode one needle drop at the end…

they hooked me good with that!

And based on the latest episode, their knack for immediately recognizable/appropriate opening riffs and notes for the end credits continues.

Starting to settle more into its own thing as it goes, which is good. Definitely appreciate how the sheer chill-but-never-cold/dead flow of everything in general goes, it's a hell of a tension winder. But that early faceoff in the butcher truck, that was pretty sharp.

okay i feel like we’re starting to cook now

if Prodigy’s magic lost boy hybrids can be hacked from outside like goddamn Ring cameras then no wonder they didnt outlast Weyand Yutani … that sequence was v unnerving

Nibs better start doing something other than “thousand-yard-stare-amateur-drama-class” or I will personally push her out an airlock

Olyphant still top-tier great work. Dorky to say maybeI am so thrilled to see him doing something in this unusual new gear this far into his career. So fun to watch.

Yup, it’s amazing to see.

I wonder if they're deliberately leaving the other megacorps unnamed so as not to un-canonize alien 4's throwaway line about walmart being the winner

They’re named: Lynch, Dynamic and Threshold. The first is obviously AI David L creating nightmares for profit.

Threshold is the Target home brand lol

I absolutely love the kid dynamic between Adarsh Gourav and Jonathan Ajayi. I want to see those outtakes, especially if they caused Babou Cessay to lose his shit.

yeah me too. i’ve been a little skeptical of the kid-vibe but those interactions really showed where it has the potential to go

I’m all in on the child synths. I think they’re hilarious and pure and fresh. I don’t care that it’s conceptually wild/stupid, I just love the characters and I want them all to be ok.

It's the physical acting that puts it over the top -- either that crazy immediate quirky energy or that still 'are we in trouble?' vibe.

Alien series:
More compelling Synth performances than in Villeneuve's Blade Runner? Check!
More compelling synth performances? Maybe they'll end an ep with blue monday or something.

Ceesay is doing incredible work here. This is the first thing I've seen him in but he is bringing so many shades of sadness and menace and desperation to Morrow, who is growing into the most compelling character IMO

He's like, what if the T-1000 was just some regular guy. I can't get over it

yeah i’m really enjoying him

So much top tier acting in this thing. Olyphant fantastic in this episode. Switching from quiet menace to disdain/exasperation when one of the kids says something stupid.

And echoing the love for the Smee/Slightly dynamic. Not sure my heart will cope when one of them inevitably meets an untimely end at the hands or claws of Morrow/Xenomorph

Also was that Joe's fucking lung they took out for baby Xeno to infest?!?

yes

and D:

Well imagine that will have repercussions down the line when/if Wendy finds out.

And good that they've moved off the ship although an isolated, secure facility still seems very much on brand

I did love, BTW, the implication at the end of the episode that Wendy made into the lab and collapsed while the other three were all working and then they just left her there when Kirsh went off to do the lung test.

Important information (and a spoiler for a future song):

https://decider.com/2025/08/12/what-song-is-playing-at-the-end-of-alien-earth-noah-hawley-explains-those-black-sabbath-tool-needle-drops/

Separately, that "Maggot Brain" drop.

Albino Timothy Olyphant face and hair disturb me.

Apologies if this has been mentioned before but I really appreciate how they are almost blurring the lines between the Alien and Blade Runner universes.

great work Decider / the AI that writes your articles: "Black Sabbath, of course, is also famously Ozzy Osbourne’s band. The beloved rocker passed away recently at the age of 76. DECIDER can confirm that the song was chosen before his death, but it still feels like a great homage to the Prince of Darkness."

THANKS FOR CONFIRMING THAT FACT JOURNALISTS

The whiff of AI taint

Broken synth. (The link was for the Hawley quotes, not the waffle.)

Separately, that "Maggot Brain" drop.

Following up on this: I am vaguely bemused at the unknown-to-me person elsewhere (seriously, I don't recognize them) who complained about "the Lethal Weapon inspired blues soloing" ie that song sync in question. I noted in response what the actual song was via a link and some info, along with noting among other things that this was released a decade and a half before said movie. The response: "Thanks for setting me straight. Nothing funky or fun about that song and I now know who is responsible for inspiring Sanborn, Clapton, and Kamen. Yuck to all of three of them." I will take this under advisement.

Apologies if this has been mentioned before but I really appreciate how they are almost blurring the lines between the Alien and Blade Runner universes.

The thing that's interesting to me in all this is that the Predator universe is being even more specifically tied in now; the upcoming Predator: Badlands has Elle Fanning specifically playing a Weyland-Yutani synth. Obviously this all happened with the 2000s crossover movies already but I'm more intrigued by the current retcon as such, though I have no sense of any of these individual projects (counting Alvarez's Romulus followup as well) specifically tying together more beyond that.

Specifically specifically. I must like that word.

It wasn't actual Eddie Hazel/Funkadelic Maggot Brain. I shazamed it during the show because I the soloing sounded off. Shazam returned the title "Procession" by Jeff Russo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeHjm5cvUHM

Checking the Alien subreddit (/r/LV426), there has been some discussion:

https://www.reddit.com/r/LV426/comments/1mvtqxw/did_anyone_else_clock_this_song_in_the_latest/
https://www.reddit.com/r/LV426/comments/1mwjka5/audio_clip_backtoback_30sec_of_maggot_brain_and/

Added here: "Maggot Brain" -- What next?

big Vietnam war vibes during that song, the "choppers" swinging through the jungle to Boy K's lair, shell-shocked hybrid kids, the casualties on stretchers.

I disagree about the Blade Runner parallels - pretty much everybody is mentally, spiritually, actually a human eg the kids, Morrow.. Kirsch is the only full-on synth we see, right? and he does not seem to have any yearnings or self-doubt or reflections on himself, his past etc. He seems quite at home with himself.

On the other hand, the eyeball with legs is straight out of The Thing and of course Morrow's hybrid skills are straight out of T2 - and I love it all, it's like they've just decided all 80s scifi thrillers take place in the same universe

Oh and uh random note: There's a Prodigy scientist with a.... lion's head!?

Also I love that apparently in the future instead of Internet cafes they have Internet S&M clubs

What, you don't?

Is Kirsch full synth?

Yup.