“A Thought-Provoking, Tense Ride”
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What You Need To Know:
The episode boasts a high production value, an engaging story, and a main character you can genuinely root for. It presents an intriguing mystery and thought-provoking questions about the consequences of humans becoming hybrids and their place in a world with advanced technological developments. This episode contains a light moral worldview, with the main character striving to do the right thing, particularly to save her brother. It also features a strong, humanist perspective, where characters’ consciousnesses are transferred to synthetic bodies to enhance and prolong life. Some bloody violence occurs, and characters utter 20 profanities and one blasphemy. MOVIEGUIDE® recommends extreme caution for older teenagers and adults.
Content:
A light moral worldview where the main character strives to do the right thing, wanting to use her new abilities to save her brother. It also has a strong, humanist worldview where characters’ consciousness gets transferred to synthetic bodies to improve and live forever. The title card even says “…the race for immortality will come…” Since this is the first episode, it is too soon to tell whether the filmmakers are for or against transhumanism.;
Strong foul language with 13 instances of “f’ word, 2 instances of sh word, 1 WTH, 1 taking Jesus’ name in vein, 1 “a” word;
Alien attacks human, some blood. Spaceship crashes, people wounded and burning, but nothing graphic. 2 instances of bloody corpses with certain character’s chest opened up with blood trail around cryochambers, one person cut in half with blood everywhere, a character’s face sucked dry and without coloration. An alien bug bites a character on the neck with blood coming out;
None. A mention of a female character’s breasts being too big. A conversation of a certain character’s sperm count and a question about a sperm getting attached to a woman’s egg.;
No alcohol use;
Two instances of smoking; and,
A cyborg lets the crew of his ship die at the hands of aliens and forces two men at gunpoint to tie themselves to posts. This cyborg does not have good intentions. The show establishes the basic difference between right and wrong when it comes to a certain group helping the wounded, but corporations use their resources to create synthetics and hybrids (when a human consciousness gets placed in a synthetic body) doing for the purposes of money and not thinking about the consequences of their actions or how this might affect the humans-turned-hybrids.
More Detail:
The opening episode of season 1 of ALIEN: EARTH begins with title cards that establish humanity’s focus on immortality with three groups: cyborgs (humans with cybernetic enhancements), synthetics (artificial intelligence that looks human), and hybrids (when someone transfers a human’s consciousness into a synthetic body). In 2120, two years before the events of Ridley Scott’s ALIEN, a ship called the USCSS Maginot travels in space with a captain and a crew who wake up from cryosleep. The characters discuss five new corporations operating on Earth, including Prodigy, a new entity run by trillionaire Boy Kavalier, who specializes in working with synthetics and hybrids. With 850 miles left before they arrive on Earth, they eat and go back into their cryochambers.
As the ship crash-lands on Earth, Wendy decides to go with her group of friends, known as the “Lost Boys,” to the crash to rescue her brother. They have no idea what awaits them when they arrive. However, Wendy knows that with her new body and the Lost Boys, she has a chance to reunite with her brother and save him.
This TV show boasts high production value, from its sets and special effects to its alien creature design and features an engaging story and a main character you can get behind. Sydney Chandler does a terrific job as Wendy, switching back and forth from her naivete and newfound confidence in herself seamlessly. She asks many questions because, as a child in an adult body, she naturally wants to learn more about the world around her. Her new synthetic body saved her from cancer, but she still expresses the human side of her in a touching scene where she misses doing an everyday, normal human task she does not need to do anymore.
ALIEN: EARTH has an intriguing mystery to it, where you don’t know what Morrow the cyborg’s intentions are. His questionable actions will make the audience dislike him, as it should be for any antagonist. It will be interesting to see what he does in the next episode. Babou Ceesay does a tremendous job with his serious delivery amidst the different personalities he interacts with. Despite his brief appearances here and there, Timothy Olyphant gives a remarkable performance as a synthetic who watches over Wendy. Not much can be said about Alex Lauther as Wendy’s brother, but he does decent work after his memorable performance in season 1 of ANDOR.
The show presents interesting, thought-provoking questions about the consequences of humans becoming hybrids and their place in a world with advanced technological developments. Negative consequences could follow on the journey to achieve immortality. Other standouts include the tense atmosphere with the occasional, roll-your-eyes, fake out jump scares. With Wendy and her friends, the Lost Boys, the Peter Pan metaphor of these kids never growing up pervades throughout in a borderline annoyingly obvious way, which includes a scene where a character reads from the book Peter Pan. Nevertheless, the positives outweigh the negatives and hook right from the get-go. It reminds one of James Cameron’s ALIENS, because of the emphasis on character development and action, though the horror elements exist.
This series presents a light moral worldview, with the main character striving to do the right thing and utilizing her new abilities to save her brother. It also has a strong, humanist worldview where characters’ consciousness gets transferred to synthetic bodies to improve and live forever. The title card even says “…the race for immortality will come…” Since this is the first episode, it is too soon to tell whether the filmmakers are for or against transhumanism. MOVIEGUIDE® recommends extreme caution for older teenagers and sensitive adults.
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