Alien: Earth review – Noah Hawley rewrites the 46-year-old franchise in fresh, exciting, horrific fashion

It's also notable that the series arrives hot on the heels of the latest big screen outing for the franchise, 2024's Alien: Romulus.

That film was popular with fans and critics alike and proved to be a box office success - however, there were some complaints that it hued to closely to the franchise's past, mashing up the best elements of each instalment to create something which was entertaining, but not particularly innovative or challenging.

That is a critique that could work in Alien: Earth's favour - if you're looking for some novel and creative, then oh boy, does Disney+ have the series for you.

Describing the plot of Alien: Earth to those who are unaware of its premise has provided great entertainment over the past few weeks.

Those who know the films have a certain level of expectation - they think it will feature a group of people (most of them alien fodder) fending off against an attack by one or more Xenomorphs. Throw in some facehuggers (and, if we're going the Prometheus route, some philosophical musings on the nature of God) and you've got the show.

That's not the case. The creator of Alien: Earth, Fargo and Legion's Noah Hawley, is aware that he has to sustain a full series, one designed to come back time and again for multiple seasons. You therefore have to do something different, something where the characters are less disposable and there's more going on than a simple survival story.

Sydney Chandler leads the series as Wendy, the first ever human-synthetic hybrid. At the start of the series we meet her as a 12-year-old child with a different name. She is dying, so is a perfect choice for the experimental process developed by Boy Kavalier, a young genius and entrepreneur played by Samuel Blenkin.

Wendy's procedure is a success - her mind is uploaded into the body of a synthetic, adult woman. Five more hybrids are subsequently produced, with dying children transplanted into adult bodies. They are all given the names of the Lost Boys from Peter Pan, and forbidden from ever speaking their real names again.

Of course, it isn't long until they encounter a Xenomorph and, in fact, four other brand-new alien creatures, designed specifically for the series. They arrive on Earth after a ship owned by one of the five companies that rules over the planet, Weyland-Yutani, crash lands into the compound of another - Boy Kavalier's own company, Prodigy.

Much has been made of the fact that this is the first Alien project to take place predominantly on Earth. For one thing, it's literally in the show's title.

In truth, this is, so far at least, a bit of a mislead. Of the scenes taking place on Earth, the bulk of them across the six episodes that have been made for review take place in Prodigy City, thus feeling pretty cut off from the wider society. So far, the series could just as easily take place on a colony planet like Alien: Romulus and, for the most part, have the same impact.

If that was all the series had to offer, it may be a bit of a disappointment. However, the real meat of this story is the hybrid storyline, which is seriously compelling.

This is in large part due to the concept itself, which is equal parts intriguing, beautiful yet also horrific. There's something so uncanny and uneasy about the idea of children in adult bodies that it works perfectly alongside the alien-infected, capitalist nightmare that is this version of the future.

It's also, of course, helped by the cast, who are unreservedly phenomenal. Chandler is a fantastic lead as Wendy, a character whose complexities carry the show.

Is she really the same person anymore? What is she capable of? Is she still a child or an adult? And can she ever return to any sort of normal life, despite now being a part of scientific history and, ostensibly, a valuable piece of intellectual property?

Other stand-out cast members include Babou Ceesay as the mysterious and chillingly practical Morrow, Alex Lawther as Wendy's brother Hermit, who is unsure what to make of his sister in this new form, and Adarsh Gourav as Slightly, one of the Lost Boys who goes on a particularly harrowing journey.

Then there's Blenkin as Boy Kavalier, who rivals Chandler to be Alien: Earth's MVP. It's a character which could so easily verge on parody or cross the line into caricature, but Blenkin always toes the line perfectly.

He's, in many ways, an utterly monstrous character, but one who is completely believable. Were his out-of-control ego put in check, he could be a force for significant good, but in his eyes everyone else is a background character in his story, his hero's journey.

His quirks can feel somewhat affected, but that's part of the point - everything about his life is affected, as he searches for meaning in a world where he has already achieved more than most do in a lifetime at such a young age.

This cast of characters feels somewhat reminiscent of the ensemble at the centre of Hawley's Legion. Both shows are ostensibly built around one central figure, but fill their casts out with such a variety of characters, who not only have unique purposes within the story, but also add to the show's vibe and are individually fleshed out, with their own internal arcs.

Alien: Earth is also similar to that series in that its franchise affiliation feels like something of a Trojan horse for Hawley to create something truly unique, something desperately weird, with a big budget and in-built audience. Where Legion used the Marvel brand, this series uses Alien, but in many ways that's no bad thing.

Some creatives working in an established sandbox have a tendency to forget that audiences still want something new, not just the same again. Hawley never does.

None of this is to say that there isn't an obvious, deep love for the history of the franchise here, or that the Xenomorph doesn't feature much - it's actually across the show far more than I anticipated, and is utilised in some terrific ways, often appearing as the "final boss" type figure for the characters to face.

However, it's actually the other alien creatures that will likely leave the biggest impression, with one that resembles an eyeball being particularly memorable and gnarly.

Tonally, there are episodes of this that feel more like they are in keeping with the Alien franchise than others, but admittedly that franchise itself is a bit of a hodge-podge on that front.

This follows Romulus in dedicating part of its runtime (in this case the earlier episodes) to hewing closer to the action-heavy style of James Cameron's Aliens.

It then skews more towards a horror bent, leaning into the gore and tension of Ridley Scott's Aliens, in the back half (although it's currently unknown where it will go in episodes 7 and 8).

The horror elements are the most effective, but that isn't to say the action isn't well-staged and pulse-racing too. Perhaps the biggest lull comes in the middle, when some minor pacing issues take effect, but they are just that - minor.

For the most part, this is a pretty propulsive series, and even the episodes of 'downtime' are filled with engaging drama and compelling philosophical musings. It's also helped by the fact that all of this takes place alongside a hugely impressive mix of practical and digital effects, as well as with some stunning production design.

It's been widely reported that the series has been given a mammoth budget, and it certainly looks it on screen. Here's hoping that FX can sustain that level of investment long-term, or that if it can't it will still remain committed to the series, even at a lower price point.

Alien: Earth has been designed as an ongoing series which could come back not just for a second season, but for a third, fourth and however many after that. Based on these first six episodes, it's unclear where everything's heading, but these characters could certainly sustain interest long-term, and Hawley's previous work proves that he knows how to power a story engine across a sizeable run.

Some Alien fans may not be looking for that. They may come to this and take against it, finding it to be too different from that which came before and too disinterested in sticking to the film series's canon.

To them, I would say that a sequel to Alien: Romulus is already in development, and I personally am already excited to see it. There is room in this universe for both, and fans can certainly enjoy one, the other, or both.

For my part, Alien: Earth is really exciting and something I would love to see more of. It's a series that has a lot on its mind, a host of compelling characters, and a willingness to down some offbeat avenues, all while delivering the chills and thrills that Alien fans expect.

Alien: Earth will premiere on Disney+ on Wednesday 13th August, with the first two episodes available to stream. A new episode will premiere each following Wednesday. You can sign up to Disney+ for £4.99 a month or £89.90 a year now.

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