People who know me know that I enjoy the Alien franchise. I’m especially partial to the first, second — and I have the audacity of really enjoying Prometheus. When news came out about a television series, my interest was piqued.
Then, there is also the showrunner for Alien: Earth that furthered my anticipation; Noah Hawley of Legion, which I was a huge fan of. It was heavily character driven and it got weird. In a really fun way. Weird as in a psychic battle is portrayed as a song and dance with animations intertwining. So, it’s easy to see that I expected character driven stories for Alien: Earth and for things to get weird.
My expectations were quickly met in the first episode. It wasted no time throwing you into the story; about three corporations competing to attain immortality, with different ideals of how to get there. There are cyborgs, which are cybernetically enhanced humans; synths, which are artificially intelligent beings, and new to the franchise: hybrids, which are human consciousness downloaded into synthetic bodies.
Don’t worry, that isn’t a spoiler. It merely sets the tone for the rest of the show, and we didn’t even get into the aliens themselves.
The show has been gradually getting more weird as the story goes on, and I keep bringing it up because it reminds me of another show: Raised by Wolves. It was a show on HBO Max back in 2020 that quickly captivated me with the visuals and the odd characters and otherworldly setting. Raised by Wolves also centered around synths, namely Mother and Father, who look after human children on a planet far, far away from earth. And on occasion, Mother and Father have disagreements on how to raise the children. Their arguments were somehow interesting despite the mundane reasons for them; they used logic as machines but for some reason couldn’t help themselves from being catty. They were very, very quotable.
“Well, it seems my ability to amuse you has waned over the years.” -Father
“Like your propensity for human melodrama, which has increased exponentially.” -Mother
They never raised their voices at each other, but weren’t shy about arguing or insulting each other, and it made them captivating. And it made things even more odd when it started becoming clear that terrible things happening were traumatizing them too.
Don’t worry, that isn’t really a spoiler either. In fact, it barely even scratches the surface of Raised by Wolves. It gets weird. Really, really weird. And somehow it just works. It’s honestly the weirdest show that I have ever seen and it’s one of my favorites. Ever.
Also, there is one other connection between Alien: Earth and Raised by Wolves: Ridley Scott was involved in the creation of both. And they feel like a response to each other. A lot of the characters in Alien: Earth remind me of Mother and Father. The oddness. The way that no intelligent life can escape traumatic events that affect their behavior.
Much like Raised by Wolves, Alien: Earth is gradually getting more and more weird as things unfold. And I say that as a high compliment. We’re close to the season finale, and I hope for even more into season 2.
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