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ALIEN: EARTH: Episode 1.1

“A Thought-Provoking, Tense Ride”

Family Content: -2 Extreme caution for older teenagers and adults.

Entertainment Quality:

None Light Moderate Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

Credits →

What You Need To Know:

ALIEN:  EARTH is a science fiction horror series on Hulu about a girl who transfers her mind to a synthetic body due to cancer. Marcy changes her name to Wendy and must save her brother from an unknown threat. When a spaceship with alien lifeforms crash lands on Earth, Wendy’s brother and a tactical team go to the crash site to help. Wendy and her friends set out to save them. The opening episode of ALIEN:  EARTH begins with title cards that establish humanity’s lust for immortality by enhancing humans with cybernetics and creating artificial androids or hybrids where humans transfer their consciousness into synthetic bodies. 

  The first episode of ALIEN:  EARTH boasts high production values, an engaging story and an appealing main character. It asks thought-provoking questions about the consequences of humans becoming hybrids and their place in a world with advanced technology. This episode has a light moral worldview The main character strives to do the right thing, for example. Some bloody violence occurs, however. Also, the first episode of ALIEN:  EARTH has some strong foul language. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution. 

Content:

(B, HH, LL, VVV, S, D, MM): 

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

  Light moral worldview where the main character strives to do the right thing and wants to use her new abilities to save her brother, but this is mixed with humanist elements where humans can transfer their consciousness into synthetic bodies and ostensibly live forever, a title card even says, “The race for immortality will come,“ but it’s too early to tell whether the series will endorse such transhumanism or not;

Foul Language:

  17 obscenities (including 13 “f” words), and one strong profanity using the name of Jesus;

Violence:

  Very strong and strong violence incudes one person is cut in half with blood everywhere, an alien attacks a human with some blood, spaceship crashes, people are wounded and on fire, two instances of bloody corpses with certain character’s chest opened up with blood trail around cryochambers, a character’s face has been sucked dry and has no coloration, and alien bug bites a character on the neck with blood coming out;

Sex:

  No depicted or implied sex, but some sexual talk includes 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;

Alcohol Use:

  No alcohol use;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

  Two instances of smoking, but no drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

  A cyborg with bad intentions lets the crew of his ship die at the hands of aliens and forces two men at gunpoint to tie themselves to posts, episode 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) 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:

ALIEN:  EARTH is a science fiction, horror series on Hulu about a girl named Marcy who transfers to a synthetic body due to cancer, changes her name to Wendy, and must save her brother from an unknown threat. A spaceship containing alien life-forms crashes on Earth, and Wendy’s brother and a tactical team go to the crash site to help. She and her friends set out to save them. 

 The opening episode of ALIEN:  EARTH begins with title cards that establish humanity’s focus on immortality with three groups. They include 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 1979 movie 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. Kavalier 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 and his team. 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 save her brother and reunite with him. 

 As evidenced by the first episode, this TV series boasts high production values, from its sets and special effects to its alien creature design. It also features an engaging story and a main character viewers can get behind and support. Sydney Chandler does a terrific job as Wendy, switching seamlessly back and forth from her naivete to her newfound confidence in herself. 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. However, she still expresses the human side of her in a touching scene where she misses doing an everyday, normal human task she doesn’t need to do anymore.  

 ALIEN:  EARTH has an intriguing mystery to it, where viewers don’t know what a cyborg’s intentions are. Morrow’s 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 amid the different personalities with whom he interacts. Despite his brief appearances here and there, Timothy Olyphant gives a remarkable performance as a synthetic character 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 STAR WARS series.  

 Episode 1 of ALIEN:  EARTH 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, which comes with the occasional, roll-your-eyes, fake out jump scares. With Wendy and her friends, the Lost Boys, the Peter Pan metaphor of these youths never growing up pervades throughout in a borderline, annoyingly obvious way. This subplot even includes a trite scene where a character reads from the book PETER PAN. 

 Nevertheless, the positives outweigh the negatives and hook the viewer right from the get-go. It may remind viewers of the 1986 sequel, ALIENS, because of the emphasis on character development and action, though the horror elements still exist. 

 Episode 1 of ALIEN:  EARTH presents a light moral worldview, with the main character striving to do the right thing and using her new abilities to save her brother. It also has strong, humanist elements where people can transfer their consciousness to synthetic bodies to enhance their physical attributes and possibly live forever. The opening title card even says, “The race for immortality will come.“ Since this is the first episode, it’s too soon to tell whether the filmmakers are for or against such transhumanism. 

 Episode 1 of ALIEN:  EARTH has strong foul language and some very strong violence. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.