Alien: Earth

Hey everybody, and welcome. Today, we will be talking about the show Alien: Earth. Fun Fact: Xenomorphs were first used in Aliens to describe the main alien in the Alien franchise. The word Xenomorph uses the prefix Xeno, which is Greek for strange or foreign, and the suffix morph, which means shape or form, so it translates to strange form, which is similar to extraterrestrial or alien, which is a foreign creature with a strange form. This show came out in 2025 and stars Sydney Chandler, Timothy Olyphant, Alex Lawther, and Samuel Blenkin and was created by Noah Hawley. So without further ado, let's get right into it.

Alien: Earth follows Prodigy corporation, which has a spaceship crash into their city, filled with Alien specimens from a Weyland-Yutani research vessel. Prodigy takes these aliens to examine them and slowly realizes they are in over their heads.

Alien Earth is a sci-fi horror show. It has similar vibes to Alien, Prometheus, or Tron: Legacy.

Alien: Earth caught my eye because I love the Alien franchise and was interested to see a story that takes place on Earth. I love that the film mixes the horror from the first film, the action from the second, and the deeper exploration of the Xenomorphs and other aliens like we saw in Prometheus and Covenant. I went to a special showing of the first episode at El Capitan, and watching that episode on the big screen was such a cool experience. The show expands on the lore and really had me on the edge of my seat.

The show explains to us that Cyborgs are cybernetically enhanced humans, Synths are artificially intelligent beings, and Hybrids are synthetic beings with human consciousness. Then we also have humans, of course, who are just as messy as ever. We are introduced to 4 alien species as well, Ticks which are like normal ticks except they will suck out all the blood, Flies that digest on the outside so they spit up acid that can erode metal, this plant pod that will wrap you in its embrace and eat you, and a octopus eye which is a parasite type eye that will replace its victims eye and control them. Xenomorphs are obviously in the show as well, just being a killing machine. We see the return of Weyland-Yutani but also learn that there are 5 companies that split the solar system: Prodigy, which we focus on, Dynamic, lynch, and Threshold. I love how we get so much new knowledge in this show about different things, but also see so many familiar things as well that have made their mark in this franchise.

The hybrids in this show are all dying kids whose consciousness was put into these bodies. It is stated early on that they have to use kids because their consciousness is less rigid than that of adults. Wendy, named after the Peter Pan character,  is the first played by Sydney Chandler, and she did so well in her role as this hybrid who is happy to be alive but misses her brother and feels a bit alone. She becomes sort of a big sister to the other Hybrids since she has a bit more experience dealing with their situation. After her run-in with the Xenomorph, her systems have a glitch that lets her communicate with the Xenomorphs. When she moved into her hybrid body, she became a supercomputer and was able to tap into cameras and control stuff that's tied to the network from her room. I felt that this could be scary, and it ends up being horrible when she decides to rebel in the end with the other hybrids and her pet aliens, and even though she's in a cage, she is able to open the door herself. In the beginning, Wendy is grateful to be alive, but she starts to learn that the Boy Kavalier and the other humans didn't do this out of the kindness of their hearts. While she is not dead, she isn't free since he pretty much locks them up.

The other hybrids are called the lost boys, named after the group in Peter Pan. Adarsh Gourav plays Slightly, Erana James as Curly, Lily Newmark as Nibs, Jonathan Ajayi as Smee, and Kit Youn as Tootles or Isaac. They all did such a good job embodying kids who look like adults, have an immense amount of power, and are immature. It's scary to see these kids with so much power, but one that really had me worried was Nibs, because she would often let her emotions get the best of her, which led her to kill people. Most of them seemed pretty harmless, but you start to see how scary they can be with how Slightly killed the doctor and how Wendy mobilized them in the end. I thought this was a cool group to focus on because you can't put them in a category of good or bad because they've done both, and some of the bad stuff is because of the adults in the show.

We are introduced to our first cyborg in this show, Kumi Morrrow, played by Babou Ceesay. He works for Weyland Yutani and is fiercely loyal, even though he is part human; that doesn't stop him from sacrificing the other members on his ship. His character was so interesting to watch because he was so smart in how he moved and risked everyone else's lives to get the job done. He seems to like this feeling of seeing his mission through and proving he's the best. He blackmails Slightly after he secretly implants a communication device on him so that he can smuggle the aliens out. I thought we had seen cyborgs before, but I was thinking of synths, so their leaving people behind to die seemed understandable because that's what they were programmed to do, but for him, it's shocking cause he is not and just lacks empathy and morals. It was cool to see how strong he is and how he was able to outsmart so many. I would never root for Weyland-Yutani, but his story was so interesting to see and so well acted.

There are 2 sythetics we meet, Atom played by Adrian Edmondson and Kirsh played by Timothy Olyphant. It was hinted that Atom wasn't human with all the faces on the wall, but I honestly thought he was just a human who observed a lot and made sure Boy Kavelier explored all his options before making decisions. I was shocked to see him throw Wendy in the last episode, which let me know he wasn't human. He did warn Boy early on that it would be awful if any creature escaped, which was a bit of foreshadowing. Kirsh has a bigger role on the show as the one who mostly monitors the kids and gives them tasks to do. He was one of my favorite characters because he was always focusing on the details and was very patient when handling situations. He knew when things needed to be handled immediately, but also knew when some things needed to be handled discreetly and slowly to ensure he did what he needed to do. I loved Timothy's slight but noticeable reaction to things, and if they made someone question him, it wasn't expressive enough for them to get any hint of what he was doing or thinking. The perfect example of how smart and analytical he was is shown when he was dealing with Morrow and how he knew he was talking to Slightly, and instead of being rash, he slowly monitored the situation, and at the perfect time, when Morrow thought he had the upper hand, he caught him in a trap. It was a great way to show that he was playing the long game, and even though, after seeing how he handled the kids carrying Arthur, we might have thought he was turning on Prodigy, but really, he knew it was too late for Arthur and knew it wasn't the time to spring his trap. He was such a fun character to watch, and I was always wondering what was going on in his head.

Of course, there are humans who might be the worst group of people because they created all these problems. Dame Silva, played by Essie Davis, is a doctor who also seems to be a therapist for the kids and presents herself as a mother figure. She is under the impression that what she is doing is good, but fails to realize these kids are property of Prodigy, she's not their mother, and this situation is very unique, and she's not equipped for it. When her husband objects to doing the memory wipe, she agrees to do it and says she can do it alone, which further proves that she sees this as an experiment and these kids are lab rats that she is helping control, not to live a normal life. David Rysdahl plays Arthur, Dames' husband, who is the one human who seems to have some morals, which ultimately makes him a target, and he becomes a victim of a facehugger. He was trying to help the kids and realized Prodigy was bad and died doing it. Octopus eyes inhabit his dead body, so I'm interested to see how that goes. Sandra Yi SenCindiver plays Yutani, the CEO of Weyland-Yutani, who wants her aliens back. She is pulling the strings with Morrow and has kept up her family legacy of choosing science advancements and money over human life. She doesn't want the Aliens in Boy Kavalier's hands and will cause havoc to ensure they don't stay in his hands long, which to me seems dumb considering she doesn't know much about these creatures, including how they breed, how dangerous they are, and if they can escape that island. CJ is the brother of Wendy, who gets thrown into this mess when Wendy goes to save him. He is a nice guy who sees the bad stuff Boy Kavelier is doing, but also questions Wendy's actions. He brings up such a valid question, which is, can you trust the Xenomorph to not turn on you, and she's like, I think. He loves her, and she loves him, but all of this gets dumped on him, and he's trying so hard to be a big brother, but also deal with all the other stuff they're dealing with. He seems like the moral compass in the show because he understands this great discovery, but sees how it's dangerous and thinks the aliens should be destroyed; he sees how his sister is becoming numb to killing, and tries to make her realize this isn't right and he also sees how unfair it is to keep the hybrids locked up away from their families. All these humans are very different in how they approach the situation and their ideas of what they think is right.

Boy Kavalier, the Prodigy CEO, played by Samuel Blenkin, is the youngest trillionaire. He is super smart, walks around barefoot, and has an enormous ego. He thinks he is the Peter Pan of the story, which explains the name, being barefoot, wearing flowy clothes, and trying to be more playful compared to how you would see most CEO’s. He has this self-righteousness because of his status in society, but he doesn't actually understand what he's getting into. Weyland-Yutani has come up in most, if not all, Alien installments, and I know they are awful, and with him and Prodigy, we see how he is also awful because he is doing the same thing by putting people in danger for the sake of being first to make some scientific discovery. You really get to see this in episode 5 when he sabotages the ship that eventually crashes into his city. I will say one of the best scenes with him was him and Yutani meeting, because up until that point, they mostly had talked about the other, but it was interesting to see two very smart and very rich people go head to head to try to come to an agreement to satisfy them. They throw numbers around about money, and then they finally agree, which you may think is Boy throwing in the towel, but then he mentions there is a mandatory quarantine period, so he will give them back after that, which she objects to initially, but realizes that objection will cause more problems. When stuff starts going sideways, we see him slowly starting to get nervous because he's losing control of the aliens and the hybrids at the same time, which was an interesting shift because, for the most part, he had been very laid-back. While the aliens seem like his biggest potential issue because of how dangerous they are, the biggest threat ends up being the Hybrids he created, who realize they are stronger than their creator, and they don't need to be taking orders from him. Boy Kavalier was such a cool addition to the universe, and I was happy to see more about his company and how they would mess up.

Alien: Earth introduces us to old aliens but also some new ones. One of the creepiest things about all the aliens is how smart they are, which is also part of the humans' problem because they fail to factor in that these aren't just dumb creatures.  There is this giant plant pod, also known as D. Plumbicare, that seems very docile because it just hangs there when we first see it, but it does have a tentacle-like vine that comes out. It seems like once it's hungry, then it will attack because in the last episode, it takes a soldier, and we see the inside is a plant with teeth, and it eats her. It's so creepy because, unlike most of the other aliens, it doesn't move around a lot. Then there are these flies, which are huge, so their size mixed with flying is already horrifying. I didn't know what they could do, but when Isaac comes face-to-face with one, it spits acid on him, disintegrating his body. Kirch mentions they eat non-organic materials and minerals and digest on the outside, which is obviously some strong stuff. They live in this nest that resembles a wasp nest. The ticks, also called species 19, are the first non-Xenomorphs we come across, and they look like a large roach. They're pretty straightforward; they live off blood, but the difference with these ticks is that they will drain all of your blood and leave you a withered corpse. In episode 5, when one guy ingests its babies, which have now grown in his arteries, the doctors try to remove them, and the bug releases a gas that acts almost immediately and suffocates the doctors. One of my favorites that was introduced was T. Ocellus, which is the octopus eye, that's basically a parasite that will remove a creature's eye and implant itself in it and control it. It is small but very powerful, as we see with all the encounters with it. This thing is weird because obviously it kills its host, which is scary, but it tries to help the doctor in episode 5 and knows how to break itself out to try and do so. It controls one of the crew to also fight the Xenomorph, and when in the prodigy lab, it keeps an eye out on it cause it knows what it's capable of. Boy Kavelier is able to communicate with he alien when it's in a sheep, but feels it needs a human host, but doesn't get the opportunity to do so, but it finds a host itself. Last but certainly not least is a Xenomorph, which is the icon of the Alien franchise, making its return in this film. It does its normal stalking and killing, but we also see how Wendy treats it like a pet. We see how the Facehugger works when Kirsh dissects it and shows a tadpole-like creature that basically burrows into the body, awaiting a time to erupt. They are scary because of their size, how they stalk and hunt prey, how their skin is pretty durable, and how even if you can slice and dice one, the blood will burn right through you. Xenomorphs were scary enough, but mixing in all these other ones really just upped the potential for death. One of the creepiest things about all the aliens is how smart they are, which is also part of the humans’ problem because they fail to factor in that these aren't just dumb creatures. Also known as D. Plumbicare, but it does have a tentacle-like vine that comes out. It seems like once it's hungry, then it will attack because in the last episode, it takes a soldier, and we see the inside is a plant with teeth, and it eats her. It's so creepy because, unlike most of the other aliens, it doesn't move around a lot. Then there are these flies, which are huge, so their size mixed with flying is already horrifying. I didn't know what they could do, but when Isaac comes face-to-face with one, it spits acid on him, disengaging his body. Kirch mentions they eat non-organic materials and minerals and digest on the outside, which is obviously some strong stuff. They live in this nest that resembles a wasp nest. The ticks, also called species 19, are the first non-xenomorphs we come across, and they look like a large roach. They're pretty straightforward; they live off blood, but the difference with these ticks is that they will drain all of your blood and leave you a withered corpse. In episode 5, when one guy ingests its babies that have grown and are in his arteries, the doctors try to remove them, and the bug releases a gas that acts almost immediately and suffocates the doctors. One of my favorites that was introduced was T. Ocellus, which is the octopus eye, that's basically a parasite that will remove a creature's eye and implant itself in it and control it. It is small but very powerful, as we see with all the encounters with it. This thing is weird because obviously it kills its host, which is scary, but it tries to help the doctor in episode 5 and knows how to break itself out to try and do so. It controls one of the crew to also fight the xenomorph, and when in the prodigy lab, it keeps an eye out on it cause it knows what it's capable of. Boy Kavelier is able to communicate with he alien when it's in a sheep, but feels it needs a human host, but doesn't get the opportunity to do so, but it finds a host itself. Last but certainly not least is a xenomorph, which is the icon of the Alien franchise, making its return in this film. It does its normal stalking and killing, but we also see how Wendy treats it like a pet. We see how the facehugger works when Kirsh dissects it and shows a tadpole-like creature that basically burrows in the body, awaiting a time to erupt.  They are scary because of their size, how they stalk and hunt prey, how their skin is pretty durable, and how even if you can slice and dice one, the blood will burn right through you. Xenomorphs were scary enough, but mixing in all these other ones really just upped the potential for death.

One thing I have taken away from all the Alien movies is that Capitalism is bad, and this show further shows how unchecked, unregulated capitalism leads to disaster. I mentioned Weyland Yutani has been in most Alien projects, but this film gives us 4 more Prodigy, who we focus on: Dynamic, Lynch, and Threshold. At first, I was like Oh, cool, we can see the downfall of Prodigy but then I was thinking, and no one ever said in the films I've seen that Weyland was the only company, so who's to say that other ones don't exist during this time? From what we saw, Prodigy has its issues dealing with AI, animal or alien cruelty, and, of course, choosing science over life. No one becomes that rich with their hands clean, which is something that is reiterated in each film, even if you don't see much of the company on screen, but Alien Earth shows us how leadership at a similar company is doing the same thing, even though they would prefer not to admit it. With CJ, they take his lung and then say he can go, but that he is in debt to them because they saved his life, but they really just wanted him so they could try to appease Wendy. Come to find out, they use his lung to host a Xenomorph, which shows you how inhumane they are because they want to examine this foreign life form. When I found out Boy had sabotaged the Weyland-Yutani ship, I was shocked but not surprised. He caused the entire crew to be killed, and so many more when that ship crashed into his city. Boy even discusses using a human so the eye creature can plant itself in one, so he can talk about it because he's so interested in learning about it. Prodigy is the first to make hybrids, which really feel like big corps using technology to control us, because the situation is framed like look at these sick kids and how I saved them by giving them a new body, but he won't let them leave and has the ability to erase their memories, so it's all about control.  Kids are impressionable, so they may see what they're doing as honorable because they're making their parental figure proud, but in Prodigy’s case, it backfires because the kids realize they're being used. Prodigy is no better than Weyland-Yutani or many big corporations in the real world that put their goals and money ahead of human life and freedom.

The show had some cool cinematography, which really helped immerse you in this world. When done right, the cinematography helps the viewer to feel something about the scene. When we are on the ship, we are stressed and horrified when we see such confined spaces, but also so many blind spots. In the room with the creatures, it looks sterile and secure, so you understand that they aren't only keeping the creatures in the boxes but also examining them and learning more. Some of the scenes had these fade transitions, which feel very nostalgic and add a bit of drama to the show. They had these split diopter shots, which let you focus on something in the foreground and background at the same time, which was cool in some scenes, like the eye attempting ot get in CJ, which had me stressed, or Slightly and Smee trying to get Arthur out, which had me on edge, seeing if they would get caught. I love the use of shadows with the Xenomorph sometimes by having a light behind it, and we see its silhouette, and then pan back to the future victim who is now horrified, which isn't new for this franchise, but it's cool to see. It was just so many great cinematic choices made that really highlighted the uncertainty of dealing with an alien species.

My favorite part of this season of Alien: Earth was the 5th episode about what actually happened on the ship before it crashed, which felt like an hour-long alien movie. We see a bit of the story told in the 1st episode, which shows the crew on this ship eating together, but then shows Morrow locking out everyone and not attempting to save the captain, Zoya, played by Richa Moorjani. Episode 5 looks and feels like Alien because of the ship's design, what the characters are wearing, and, of course, Mother. In the episode, we see how the crew didn't realize how smart these creatures were, how dangerous these creatures were, and that they had a spy on their ship that was sabotaging them. You see how they have people with Facehuggers on them, they try to put them in cryosleep, which doesn't work, and then the other aliens cause more havoc. We see how Zoya wanted to focus on the crew, and Morrow wanted to focus on the cargo, and they clashed over who was right. It's a scary episode because you never know which alien would kill someone and how many are let out. This episode did make me kinda love the octo eye because while it is a parasite, it tried to protect the scientist whose water was contaminated by the ticks, which lets us know that it's actually very smart. This was the perfect episode to show how there's not much to do in this situation, that they truly don't understand what they are dealing with, because contrary to popular belief, you aren't always the smartest, and that Weyland and Prodigy are bad because they wanted the cargo above all else. It was really crazy to see that the crash in Prodigy City was a bit planned and how one person or one mistake could cause so many problems. This episode had me on the edge of my seat and felt very reminiscent of the 70s movie, and I just loved everything about it, the ship's design, what the characters are wearing, and, of course, Mother.

Alien: Earth is a great addition to the franchise, which really will keep you on your toes. They introduce so much, but it all works, and while Xenomorphs are iconic, they leave room to explore other aliens who are equally scary. The cast was amazing as well, making us see a wide range of emotions and helping immerse us in a different version of Earth that will soon be overrun. I hope we get a season 2, and I'm looking forward to the future of the franchise.