With the dust finally beginning to settle after season one’s finale of Alien: Earth, it’s time to reflect back on Noah Hawley’s acclaimed sci-fi horror TV series. Admittedly, while I did enjoy many aspects of the show — which I’ll cover in a follow-up soon — there were some uneven elements that left me feeling a bit deflated and a little disappointed.
So, without further delay, fetch your pulse rifles, smart guns, and motion trackers, as we dive into everything wrong with Alien: Earth season one. Let’s get into it!
1.) Wendy Is Way Too Overpowered
Okay, let’s start with the protagonist at the heart of the entire show: Wendy, who is brought to life onscreen by the charming and charismatic Sydney Chandler. Wendy is way too overpowered.
I know, I know: she’s “special” as Boy Kavalier repeatedly says in the first episode of the show, but what actually makes her so special compared to the other Hybrids? By the end of the first season, we don’t really have a satisfying answer to that burning question. Yes, she’s the first Hybrid, which means that she’s the first human consciousness to ever be transferred into a synthetic body. But why would that, specifically, gift her all these special powers.
Not only can Wendy manipulate and hack technology with the power of her mind alone, but she also has the superhuman strength to take on a Xenomorph singlehandedly with only a makeshift meat hook and a machete. In addition, she can also communicate and control the Xenomorphs, which is honestly a bit of a bridge too far for me, personally.
While it may serve as an interesting through-line and a unique character arc — she initially represents slave-like exploitation and develops and evolves into more of a ruler and a leader by the end of the first season, after all — her overpowered nature does end up feeling a little trite.
In essence, Wendy is essentially an overpowered superhero Mary Sue, which is something that I don’t feel is super authentic to the spirit of the Alien franchise. Maybe we’ll get some sort of explanation in the second season as to why she’s so powerful, but it’s something that has irked me throughout the series.
2.) Intelligent Characters Behave in Incredibly Dumb Ways to Push the Plot Forward
While this isn’t a first for the Alien franchise — Prometheus and Alien: Covenant also have their fair share of dumb characters — it’s an issue that rears its ugly head in Alien: Earth as well.
Possibly the most egregious instance of this happens in Episode 5. Specifically: Why would a highly trained scientist eat her lunch in a laboratory filled with killer space monsters? Anyone with a working brain would know that that’s a terrible idea that could pose a fatal health risk. Sure, Chibuzo does say that she only eats her lunch in the lab because of all the smokers in the dining area of The Maginot, but that still seems like the writer is just attempting to paper over the cracks of a weakness in the plot.
Another example is the fact that Wendy has proven time and time again that she can manipulate and hack technology with her mind. So, why on earth is Boy Kavalier and his cronies allowing Wendy to just waltz around the Neverland research facility without any escort or security watching her every move? Maybe we can chalk this up to the hubris of man, which is admittedly an ongoing theme in the Alien franchise, but it’s still hard to square. I mean, isn’t Boy Kavalier supposed to be a genius and a prodigy? It’s just a bit off.
Honestly, I could go on and on about these dumb characters in Alien: Earth, but I’ll try and keep it brief: Why is there such a lack of security on Neverland island when the crap finally hits the fan? It’s not like Boy Kavalier can’t afford more synths, cyborgs, or security personnel. He’s a literal trillionaire, after all.
And when Nibs has her memory wiped to hide the trauma that she experienced earlier in the season, why doesn’t anyone give Wendy and the other Hybrids a heads up about what’s going on with her. Instead, she wakes up and is just re-traumatised again by Wendy, which just seems like a massive oversight.
Needless to say, many of the characters in Alien: Earth do some really dumb things, and it really pulls me out of the immersion when incidents like this occur.
3.) There’s a Distinct Absence of Atmosphere and Dread in Many Scenes
While I understand that Alien: Earth is a fresh take on the Alien formula, one aspect that I found lacking was its overall horror atmosphere in many of its scenes. See, one of the core pillars of Ridley Scott’s iconic sci-fi property is its eerie sense of dread and how well it evokes this otherworldly isolation and claustrophobic horror atmosphere.
In contrast to this, the majority of Alien: Earth’s set design feels a bit too bright, clinical, and clean. For the most part, gone are the nightmarish biomechanical and grotesque designs from H. R. Giger’s noggin. Instead, it’s replaced with a more teen-centric Young Adult tone that feels more in line with something like Stranger Things than it does an Alien project.
Adding to this is the fact that the Xenomorph feels largely sidelined in much of Alien: Earth’s overarching plot, especially when the show neuters the fearsome killer predator that we know and love and reduces it down to a domesticated pet critter that Wendy can control and command with such efficacy.
While it does deal with some mature themes, and does boast some gory scenes, the teen drama sometimes gets in the way of the real horror and terror that is so synonymous with the Alien series.
4.) The Heavy Rock Songs at the End of the Episodes Feel Out of Place
This may not be a deal-breaker for many fans, as this is quite a subjective criticism, but the heavy metal rock songs at the end of each episode didn’t jive too well with me, personally.
Not only did they feel very out of place and extremely incongruent with the sci-fi horror theme, but the timing and placement often undercut the intensity and tension that had been built up in the final scene.
This clash of tones is particularly noticeable if you’re familiar with all the films in the Alien series — which all have these fantastic orchestral scores that are both haunting and quite unsettling in their own ways. In short, the heavy metal songs felt a bit lazy, and often left a sour taste in my mouth at the end of each episode.
5.) The Xenomorphs Never Kill Off Any Key Characters, But Only Dispatch No-Name Grunts
Outside of what occurs on The Maginot in the lead-up to the events of Alien: Earth, by the end of the first season, only one named character is killed off by a Xenomorph, and it’s not really a direct kill. Instead, it’s essentially a side character who gets unknowingly impregnated by a facehugger. More specifically, it’s Arthur Sylvia, Prodigy’s lead technician, who is lured into the lab by Slightly and betrayed because Morrow blackmails him into doing so.
As a result, many of the Xenomorph kills in Alien: Earth lack that horrific gut punch, and unfold in a way than feels more routine than truly terrifying and shocking. There were very few moments where I felt genuine fear or tension, largely due to how thick the the plot armor is on many of the characters. Frankly, all the characters that were killed off by the Xenomorph felt like “Red Shirt” no-name cannon fodder, which is a shame, as it almost felt like the writers were too scared to actually kill off a key character to help amp up the stakes.
Nevertheless, when all is said and done, despite this myriad of missteps, I actually quite enjoyed lots of things about Noah Hawley’s Alien: Earth, and I’ll be doing a follow-up video on those more positive elements soon. So, make sure to follow The Nerd Stash for more Alien content going forward.
But in the meantime, tell us: what did you think of the first season of Alien: Earth? Were you impressed? Or you disappointed? Or were you somewhere in the middle? Let us know in the usual place down below.
