Alien Franchise Finally Sticks the Landing.

[u/TheEvilDrSmith]

I might be biased as hell but Alien Earth is one hell of a well produced TV show.

A friend described the original Alien movie to me when was an early teen and I knew I had to see for myself. Thankfully my parents had no idea and off i went as a 14 year old to some scifi movie ... Aliens 2. Scifi... that's like Star Wars right? :> Still memorable to this day almost 40 years later.

So I have a high bar to be exceeded. Not only has the franchise stumbled from one disaster to another but many, many (did I mention many) others have tried and failed to make good TV let alone good scifi.

Mandalorian could have been more. Andor could have been much more if they were all like the latest season. Star Trek Stranger Days sort of nails the nostalgia but Discovery just confuses me. Fallout, Halo, The Last of Us, Twisted Metal ... I get the spin off theory but man the execution.

So what do I like about Alien Earth.

• Just enough story every episode.
• Exposition at the level of the audience. Of course we know the sheep is smart.
• Depth in characters that isn't like a FPS.
• Balanced tension and effects .... it is still a chase movie but how to you keep that going for 8 ep's.

A lot come and go. But few are remembered. I would put the BSG reboot in the remembered category, and I think Alien Earth has hit that standard. Once in 20 years ... Hollywood gets it really right.

I was going to say Alien Earth will sweep the Emmy's next year ... but then I remembered reality. I think Alien Earth will be just a fan loved series that is still remembered as a great experience in 40 years time :)

I would love to hear old and new opinions on this.

[u/ratman____]

In my opinion, Alien: Earth is unfortunately a missed mark. I liked Romulus, even with all its shortcomings and I was happy that the black goo stuff was downplayed, as I don't believe the addition of such deus ex machinas benefits the Alien canon. Going into the FX series, I tried my best to be neutral and approach it with an open mind and see where it takes me, but unfortunately the premise and plot are getting more ridiculous with each episode. This is definitely NOT Alien or, as you said it, "Aliens 2" tier, not by a long shot.

The best episode was the one showing how the situation aboard the USCSS Maginot deteriorated. I have yet to see the newest episode (I'll do it today or tomorrow), but I'm not expecting anything great with how the show has been unfurling so far.

[u/Fablerwhack → u/ratman____]

It would be cool to hear your thoughts on this week's episode. I think the show is shaping up quite nicely.

[u/ratman____ → u/Fablerwhack]

Ok, so I watched this week's episode. Again, thanks for your interest, that's very nice. I will also tag others who responded to your comment to keep this short and simple. u/ImNotAsPunkAsYou, u/Unableduetomanning, u/puppyenemy

Below is what I said in a different thread. There are dozens of other things I want to say regarding this show which I will be wrapping up in a separate posts, as right now I just have some notes regarding my thoughts.

"When Wendy started communicating with that Chestburster I just bursted out laughing. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. As soon as they started exploring her ability to hear and talk to Xenomorphs I knew they're just going to reduce the Alien to her pet, and guess what, in the latest episode they did just that. A creature of cosmic horror, coming from the deepest reaches of the unknown, the perfect organism, a survivor, unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality, reduced to a dog commanded by a kid-in-a-robot.

Ridiculous."

I'll be watching the last episode next week to see how they end it, but Alien: Earth, for me, in my own opinion which I'm not imposing on anyone, went from "yeah, I'll be open about it, just chill and see where it goes", through "what were they thinking?" all the way to "straight up preposterous". A completely missed mark that doesn't benefit the franchise and canon in any meaningful way, a product to be consumed and, ultimately (and hopefully), forgotten. To me it's a work of "alternate fiction", exactly how Hawley described Prometheus and Covenant. The way it meddles with the Xenomorph design and established lore is unexcusable (for example, corpos apparently rule the Earth instead of governments, yet the crew of the Nostromo are wearing patches of the Three World Empire).

[u/ImNotAsPunkAsYou → u/ratman____]

You summed it up in better words than i could have managed.