According to Hawley, walking about barefoot is meant to communicate to the viewer that he feels at home. Given his trillionaire status and the result that he owns everything he touches, he's at home everywhere.
Alien TV series (Alien Earth) : 2025
- Thread starter something daft already!!
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Finally started watching this at the weekend, four episodes in and I think it is fantastic so far. Really enjoying the way they have built upon the 70's retro aesthetic for the sets and props and finding the pacing interesting and the overall story to be compelling.
Couple of confusing moments about certain elements, but nothing to really bother me. Timothy Olyphant absolutely stealing every scene he is in is the icing on the cake.
EDIT: I wish they had found a way to eschew the use of CGI for elements like the eyeball alien. I don't need to see it in as much detail as I have and the CGI isn't good enough to suspend my disbelief.
Couple of confusing moments about certain elements, but nothing to really bother me. Timothy Olyphant absolutely stealing every scene he is in is the icing on the cake.
EDIT: I wish they had found a way to eschew the use of CGI for elements like the eyeball alien. I don't need to see it in as much detail as I have and the CGI isn't good enough to suspend my disbelief.
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This is one of the reasons why I am enjoying it so much - it's a totally different take on the usual reaction to the Alien. We see these 'people' who are wary but intrigued by it and the other species' they have collected and are treating it like a careful scientific study, clearly with an underlying agenda to their actions.
Would have been very easy to make the classic Alien bloodbath and have people running about like headless chickens which would have got very boring, very fast. Carries a movie, but wouldn't sustain a series.
My main issue is the lack of any fear. Rational fear.
I have no issue with the billionaire being a jerk. Makes sense.
I don't like the kid/adult aspect of the hybrids. I just don't like it. But if it's by design it's by design.
I really don't like the true humans having no rational fear, yes, I'll spend 10 minutes in nostalgia with a terrorising alien hunting me down.
The alien is strange as well. Rips some people to shreds in a second. Then behaves totally differently to the main actors.
It would have killed everyone in that building by now if it is as deadly/fast as they portray.
Really, there's very little I like about it. I think the early immortalisation of the kids and most of the current cast takes a lot away from the fear.
I'm not sure if I'll give e3 a go. I just have a feeling it'll be like fallout where I just don't like this vibe of casualness. I was expecting suspense and horror. But I feel it's just another random Disney series.
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I don't have a problem with this 'lack of fear' that you describe as the reactions are consistent across the characters.
Wendy's brother is understandably bricking it every time he encounters the damn thing but also seems to have seen some serious **** in his role as a medic for Prodigy, so his actions seem to be rational towards the various life-forms he's encountered.
The hybrids all have different reactions to the various aliens they encounter, with various results ranging from being scared to full-on trauma and disassociation.
Wendy is very clearly shown to have some connection with the Alien and is very well aware of her new body's capabilities, plus has a strong desire to protect her brother as evidenced by the fact she picks up the blade/sword and carries it in a purpose-made holster.
As for the Alien, it seems to be consistent with its reactions as well. Anything that poses a threat is dealt with instantly, anything human is dispatched swiftly, anything else is a curiosity to it. Not really outside of the behaviour we have seen in other adaptations.
As for the synths/cyborgs, they are aware of their capabilities and seem to know the Alien isn't focused on them or actively hostile. Doesn't come across as odd to me, all very consistent in their behaviours.
Wendy's brother is understandably bricking it every time he encounters the damn thing but also seems to have seen some serious **** in his role as a medic for Prodigy, so his actions seem to be rational towards the various life-forms he's encountered.
The hybrids all have different reactions to the various aliens they encounter, with various results ranging from being scared to full-on trauma and disassociation.
Wendy is very clearly shown to have some connection with the Alien and is very well aware of her new body's capabilities, plus has a strong desire to protect her brother as evidenced by the fact she picks up the blade/sword and carries it in a purpose-made holster.
As for the Alien, it seems to be consistent with its reactions as well. Anything that poses a threat is dealt with instantly, anything human is dispatched swiftly, anything else is a curiosity to it. Not really outside of the behaviour we have seen in other adaptations.
Not sure what you are referring to here?
They aren't shown to be immortal, they are just spoken about as being immortal. We don't know what their bodies are capable of and to what extent their minds are susceptible to human emotions, outside of some well-placed lines during conversations about them.
As for the synths/cyborgs, they are aware of their capabilities and seem to know the Alien isn't focused on them or actively hostile. Doesn't come across as odd to me, all very consistent in their behaviours.
I don't think the medics reactions are realistic.
Surely if you've never seen this before you'd immediately try to get out to radio in there's some alien creature slaughtering everyone? Not spend time looking at a baseball.
Why is he even alive? He's avoided the alien 3 times when it's ripped everyone else to. Shreds.
The hybrids, to be honest I just find them irritating. I guess that's just a personal view. I don't like the acting of adults as children here. I'm not sure why they aren't totally subservient or randomly rebellious.
They are slightly rebellious, but not really, they do follow orders, a little. They are scared of some things.. But not others.
They act like they are immortal. But also not. They all went in to a scary/dangerous situation. No one said no.
Fine if they have no fear. But they also show fear. It just doesn't line up for me.
I do think the aliens behaviour is inconsistent. Sometimes it will not be able to catch someone wandering down a corridor. Other times it can wipe out 10 people in a second. It's not a big deal this one. Just find it a bit "making a show for the camera".
I had a look through some reviews from ordinary people and the gripes line up for most people who didn't like it. As in what I have written is basically same as for others.
Mostly people compliment the Sfx, the look and feel of Weyland kit.
Most people don't like the adilt/kid acting and the lack of perceived terror from anyone.
I guess it's just one of those polarising TV shows.
Edited to tidy up.
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It's been a couple of weeks since I watched it, but wasn't that just after he'd been swatted around by it? A situation that'll likely leave you disorientated/mildly out of it for a few seconds at least until your brain recovers a bit from what has just happened.
You see it an awful lot after car crashes and other events that either cause the brain some short term trauma or put you in a bit of shock, people don't instantly recover/get up and react "rationally" and whilst your brain is effectively doing a soft reset you can end up focusing on trivial things that bring back a memory or are "normal", especially if there is something to trigger that directly in front of you.
It's far more realistic than him instantly jumping back up, grabbing a gun and going full Terminator.
Even the alien's behaviour is fairly consistent with the previous films (including the first two), and the books, they kill the immediate threat, they'll try and kill food/incapacitate incubators quickly if they can but are also smart enough to be wary, especially if they are the only alien.
IIRC in the canon it's basically the Alien as a lone unit will tend to be a stealth hunter unless it's forced not to be (collecting resources is it's prime objective at that point), until it's either laid it's one egg or there is at least one other, and part of that "stealth" is not leaving witnesses behind if it can avoid it, so it's in a room with a bunch of unarmed people, it's probably going to try and kill them all as it's been seen and they're now aware if it and the threat.
It's basically aware enough of it's situation that it tries to maximise the return for it's risk now and in the near future.
Hence in the films sometimes the aliens even as a group will try to pick people off one at a time without suffering any losses, and sometimes they'll go in willing to suffer a lot of losses to eliminate a threat or gather a large amount of resources (food/hosts).
I quite liked how the portrayed the reactions of various people, they varied and almost all of them had some basis in the background of the character and circumstances so they varied both between characters and situations.
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It doesn't sit right with me. I either feel he should be full on traumatised. Rocking in a corner. Or gtfo of here and call for back up.
He doesn't even mention to his sister about the aliens. He looks at that egg in a rational way. Like he's analysing it. Like he's in control. Not like he's traumatised OR being sensible.
I dunno i can't get get past that character. And I don't really like the adult/child hybrid acting either.
I assume they are main protagonists.
So I'm thinking this show isn't really for me.
Fallout, I got similar vibe from main character in that. And couldn't watch it.
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Unless I am mis-remembering, Joe only starts to explore the apartment after the Alien has been subdued by Morrow and he was stunned. The scene felt like it played out with Joe kind of knowing he was out of harm's way, at least for the time being, and does an explore.
It has also been shown previously that his radio was either damaged or not picking up signal.
Nothing about EP2 felt weird or off-kilter to me, the Alien was shown to be utterly ruthless when it needed/wanted to be and somewhat calculating at other times. Made it really interesting to watch not knowing what was going to happen next.
To me it shows that this character has seen some serious **** in his job (which is hinted at throughout the episodes I have watched) and is able to focus on what he's good at.
He's a combat medic, he picks through blood and gore on a regular basis and deals with death as a matter of fact. We see all of this when he first approaches the crashed ship and his actions leading up to encountering the Alien for the first time.
My personal take on the series is it felt like the original script was completely unrelated to the Alien franchise. It was a separate sci-fi story set in the future where mankind were developing artificial humans, alien organisms crash-landed onto the planet causing the real humans loose control of everything and all hell breaks loose. Then the script didn't get picked-up and it sat on the shelf for a while until they were looking to bring the Alien franchise to TV. Then some executive thought "Hey, you know what's got humanoids AND alien creatures in it like this script....Alien!". So they just shoehorned the actual Alien monster into this script (along with the Weyland-Yutani company name) and said "Job done". Throughout every episode the Alien monster is petty much second fiddle to either the other creatures (especially the eyeball) and/or the synth kids. It just feels like an Alien tacked-on story.
But the series is called Alien EARTH. We would have been complaining if it was set in space and then final shot of the season was the crash onto Earth - the writers can't win!
For those not enjoying the show, just watch Ep5. This episode to me was more Alien than the rest of the show and was a fantastic episode.
I enjoyed it - I thought some of the ideas were new and interesting, and on the whole it was a decent enough watch.
I think perhaps it being called "Alien: Earth" is part of the problem - setting expectations too high and in line with a main movie style plot line. Had it been called "Prodigy: An Alien Story", or something along those lines, it might have been slightly better received.
I think perhaps it being called "Alien: Earth" is part of the problem - setting expectations too high and in line with a main movie style plot line. Had it been called "Prodigy: An Alien Story", or something along those lines, it might have been slightly better received.
That's my viewing for tonight and I am very excited to see what they do. Morrow intrigues me and he must have an interesting backstory with WY, plus the sets we've seen so far for the ship have been superbly done so more of that please.
On that note, has anyone read anything about the production aspect of the show? Are we seeing mostly physical sets or has there been a lot of CGI embellishment?
No spoilers please, but I'm going to guess we see something in EP5 about Prodigy being involved in the crash and the hybrids were created specifically for the purpose of retrieval and communication. Will also guess this is not WY's first rodeo and there have been other expeditions and Alien lifeforms already brought back to Earth. Morrow seems way too calm when dealing with the damn things not to be operating from some WY playbook.
There does seem to be quite a few like me who loved the first episode but slowly turned luke warm as the episodes went by.
The potential was there but never satisfied with how it played out.
Well, EP5 was very interesting. Didn't care too much for the final 10-minutes as I feel less is more when it comes to that aspect, but it was great to see what happened in the lead-up to said events. Pacing feels solid and there's enough background/world building info getting drip-fed to keep the suspense and intrigue high.
Overall set design and the little call-backs to Alien and Aliens were excellent, hopefully we get to see some more backstory to the Maginot (of which the name is making more and more sense) and the crew who were all in hyper-sleep.
Also, more Tyres please. Oi oi!
Overall set design and the little call-backs to Alien and Aliens were excellent, hopefully we get to see some more backstory to the Maginot (of which the name is making more and more sense) and the crew who were all in hyper-sleep.
Also, more Tyres please. Oi oi!
I guess you could spend hours dissecting all the stupid things the crew did to facilitate The Thing that Happened, but you have to wonder why these people decided to effectively give up the best years of their lives to go into deep space and what happened to the ones that were lost during the collection of these specimens. Alien has always had a thin line between being dumb and expendable and smart and surviving and the Maginot's crew are living up to that.
Only thing that really irked me was breakable glass containers. So many other ways to faciliate that moment that would have made more sense and still allowed the incomptence of Chibuzo to shine through, but eh, WY must be cutting back on costs everywhere.
Only thing that really irked me was breakable glass containers. So many other ways to faciliate that moment that would have made more sense and still allowed the incomptence of Chibuzo to shine through, but eh, WY must be cutting back on costs everywhere.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who saw him and thought that
Re going into space for decades.
It's going to be the same reason people join the army/went on expeditions or sea voyages where they were at best likely to be away for a year+, or die.
Desperation, money, the need to get away from something, or a wish to go and see something new.
The examples in human history are endless, IIRC Shackleton's artic expedition famously had an advert in one of the main papers calling for people to go, stating that wages would not be good, conditions terrible, likely to not survive. More commonly normal sea travel was risky enough up until about 100-200 years ago that statistically you had something like a 1 in 4 chance of not making it back from any one voyage along certain routes, but people still took those risks because the rewards for those that did make it back were (by the standards of the time) very good.
IIRC we know the reason for one of the crew members in Alien earth, loyalty, and the wish to provide for his daughter, we know why Ripley and co did it in Alien, a good paycheck for a few years max of being away from any family - the sort of thing that was at one time the norm for commercial seafarers. Remember sea travel being relatively fast and safe is relatively new, historically you were looking at months each way for some routes.
People giving up their years makes sense to me, I've already had the "best years of my life", but if you'd offered me the chance to go into deep space and visit other worlds I would have snapped your arm off to "give up" the best years of my life to do that.