Noah Hawley recently said about his plan for “Alien: Earth”, the first television series, The one is based on the iconic science fiction/action horror film series: “Imagine that there are five films about the White Walkers, and then I do ‘Game of Thrones’.”
Hawley is a creator who never lacked confidence in his own work. He was still shy in expressing this self -confidence. Nevertheless, he was already confronted with a very high bar when he created an “alien” television series, since the first two films of the franchise are loved universally and provide convincing arguments as the best horror or action films ever. Compare to invite with “Game of Thrones” in addition to the work of Ridley Scott and James Cameron should be complete nonsense on paper. In particular, since the relentless, almost indestructible nature of the famous Xenomorph from the films does not seem to be predestined to function in an ongoing television series that cannot kill most of its characters every week.
“Alien: Earth”: A risky concept with astonishing result
But as he has already done with “Fargo”-a classic and popular film that he turned into a long-time, award-winning anthology series-Hawley has taken a concept that does not actually seem to be suitable for television. And turned it into something exciting, strange and surprising. “Alien: Earth” has its weaknesses. Especially with regard to the Xenomorph problem. But the series succeeds in conjuring up the original film without orientating itself slavishly. In addition, she finds fascinating opportunities to develop concepts that were only mentioned in the background in the films. Concepts that did not get a narrative time during Sigourney Weaver’s escape.
“Alien: Earth” plays two years before the events of the first film in the series. It is 2120. Governments belong to the distant past. Controlling over the earth is now divided among five mega concentrations. One of them is Weyland-Yutani, a central element of the films, which in this series has commissioned the crew of the Maginot spaceship to collect dangerous aliens-including an Xenomorph-and bring back to earth for further research. (The second film, “Aliens”, introduced the idea that Weyland-Yutani wants to use the Xenomorphs as an unstoppable bioweahen.) But the Maginot crashes instead in part of Southeast Asia, which is part of Prodigy. A group, founded by Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin), an oversized child owned by Peter Pan and strut barefoot in Pyjama through his research facility.
Childlike immortality meets fatal biology
At the time of the Maginot crash, Kavalier created his own immortal version of the “Lost Boys” by transplanting the thoughts of a group of terminally ill children into old-fashioned synthetic bodies-similar to Ash, Bishop or here Kirsh (Timothy Olyphant), but with memories of their childhood and personalities that do not yet fit their adult phenomena. The first and most impressive of this group is called Wendy (Sydney Chandler). When she realizes that her older brother Hermit (Alex Lawther) is part of the search and rescue team that examines the crash site, she convinces Kavalier to send her, the other “Lost Boys” and Kirsh for examination.
There are almost immediately logical problems that continue over several episodes. How could a non-military crew be able to capture and capture an Xenomorph at all? Why would Boy Kavalier risen his billion-dollar prototypes-beta tests for a plan that is supposed to enable the richest people in the world for eternal life in bodies such as Wendys-risk for such a dangerous mission? Why does Hermit simply continue his search for survivors after a first encounter with an Xenomorph instead of informing someone about the monstrous being with several pines that he has just seen? And how does several people succeed in escaping such a being or – in a mostly shown sequence shown in a largely offscreen – even killing it? In addition, various events and knowledge about the creatures mean that large parts of “aliens” suddenly make significantly less meaning.
Old horror, new ideas
To stay fair: The original authors Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett made the Xenomorph a threat to such a potent and versatile threat that later narrators often troubled not simply letting all people die within the first 15-20 minutes of a film. Within self -employed films, which usually cover very limited periods, this mostly worked – even if the films, such as “Alien: Resurrection”, had different problems. For a series with eight episodes in the first season – and possibly more upcoming seasons – this is more noticeable.
But Hawley provides the well -known film monster a variety of new creatures, which are released when the maginot is crashed. Each of them is disgusting in its own way (with subtitles, the movement of a being is, for example, as “[leises Quietschen]“Described – apt) and has your own macabre method of attacking the human body. An eye -related alien is so scary and creative that you could easily imagine your own film in which it terrorized the crew of a mountain building ship.
Social criticism in the Xenomorphian robe
Hawley follows the tradition of later films of the series – including Ridley Scott’s own “Prometheus” – the legacy of the Xenomorphic and the entire franchise as a Trojan horse to put greater ideas into history. In this case, “Alien: Earth” deals with many of the problems that we are currently discussing on our earth: the dehuman effects of late capitalism, the dangers of artificial intelligence, penetrating tech broses without security mechanisms and the extreme means, with which super-rich try to extend their lives beyond the limits of human biology.
Some parts of this criticism become more elegant than others – such as one scene, in which Hermit comes across an excessive party inspired by Louis XIV, whose billions of billions of guests refuse to evacuate a building in which a spaceship has just fallen. This scene is so obvious that it is almost too obvious – but the series remains well thought out, even if it otherwise wants to scare the viewer afraid (which she usually succeeds).
The “Lost Boys” in general – and Wendy in particular – prove to be so fascinating that other weaknesses are hardly significant, especially after the first few episodes. The idea that children’s brains operate in overwhelming adults should work silly, such as a body exchange comedy that was crossed with a monster film.
But it works, which is particularly thanks to Sydney Chandler. It was the best part of FXS largely forgotten mini series about the sex pistols, and it is an extremely captivating central figure here – at the same time childish and grown, human and inhumane. Sometimes she is the vulnerable heroine of history, sometimes she looks like an even greater threat than the Xenomorphs or the eye creatures.
Past, nostalgia and dangerous hybris
Timothy Olyphant, who works with Hawley again with Hawley after his supporting role in season 4 of “Fargo”, plays the calmly self -confident Kirsh. The other star of the cast is the British actor Babou Ceesay as Morrow, a cyborg who survived the maginot crash and pursues his own goals.
He is the central figure of the fifth episode of the season – a review that shows what led to the crash of the Maginot. This is entitled “In Space, No One …”, an allusion to the famous advertising slogan of the first alien film: “Nobody hears you in space.” Between this title and the fact that the design of the Maginot is strongly reminiscent of the 1979 Nostromo, Hawley invites you to be compared. But Ceaesay makes Morrow so complex – especially in contrast to his behavior in the presence of the series – and Hawley’s script and director find enough new nuances in well -known patterns that everything remains captivating. Even if the episode saves the delicate question again how exactly this group of amateurs could lock up a perfect killing machine.
In several places in this episode, Morrow hears the ballad “We’ll Meet Again” by Vera Lynn, which is played unforgettable over the final scene by Stanley Kubrick’s cold war classic “Dr. Strangelove”. Hawley invites two seemingly impossible, less flattering comparisons in an hour. There is a border where self -confidence is dangerous to hybris. Within the story of “Alien: Earth” there is a lot of hybris – especially when Boy Kavalier risks his groundbreaking scientific achievement again and again because the dangerous freight that crashed in his back yard fascinates him. But as with Fargo, Hawley ultimately finds a way to let “Alien: Earth” act like a legitimate part of this fictional universe.