Alien Earth and series creator Noah Hawley will return for season 2
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Absolutely not. This show made me re-evaluate Ressurection... I suspect Hawley had an idea but was forced to put in an 'Alien' setting but had zero interest in that. The show cherry picks some stuff from the first two movies but disregards the established canon in way too many things. Which could be fine if the story told is good but it isn't. What makes this more annoying is that it seems there is zero reason to do so besides laziness / 'ignorance with regard to the established universe' from the writers. I had some nitpicks with Romulus (callbacks / plot) but Alvarez certainly did his homework and knew the universe he was working in.
Motivations of characters don't make sense, they make extremely dumb decisions to the extend that it completely destroyed my 'suspension of disbelief'. Lots of things are 'hinted at' or setup but without any payoff (reminded me of the later seasons of Lost). Some high drama without reason (the 'pregnancy' or 'WHAT DID YOU DO'). The xenomorph is not scary at all, it is just an 'attack dog' that when plot requires kills but nothing more. The other alien species besides the T Ocellus (the eye) barely get screen time and even the T Ocellus is used very unimaginatively.
And to top it of: Zero resolution at the end. The finale felt like it was a mid-season episode.
What mystifies me is
1: how this could happen on the budget that this show got and with the names involved: I really liked his 'Legion' and 'Fargo' shows (at least the first few seasons),
2: how can viewers say the writing is smart. It really is not. Even the supposedly 'grand' themes feel extremely cliche (yes, I am comparing to great ones like Blade Runner, Alien, Aliens and Alien 3).
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I lost interest in episode 2, and only watched episode 3 to confirm it had indeed noseplanted itself after a great setup.. And then Disney bowed to fascism and it was time to cancel the account anyway.
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UltimateWatson
Seniorius Lurkius
Very good news in my opinion, I really liked alien earth but it would be a mess if that was the actual end. Plus yhe more opportunities that Hawley gets the better; with the disney deal amd big payout I hope to see him expand beyond Fargo.
Also some season 2 speculation: with Prodigy obviously on the back foot, I wonder if the filming location change is because we'll see Threshold, the company that runs Europe and the UK. Seems he enjoyed shooting on location for the first season.
Also some season 2 speculation: with Prodigy obviously on the back foot, I wonder if the filming location change is because we'll see Threshold, the company that runs Europe and the UK. Seems he enjoyed shooting on location for the first season.
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i liked the tense atmosphere, the fuzzy origin/function of the species. i didnt like the overly pushed out childish behavior of some of the characters. the end was...easy road. i hope the second season will be more focused on aliens and their interaction with humans and of coarse sinthetics
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I thought it was really bad and more or less hatewatched the thing. One of the biggest issues for me was how horrible the alien looked. For some reason they decided to show it running around in broad daylight and it totally looked like a guy in an Alien suit, it was really bad. I don't get the praise for the production values at all, the only time the show looked good was when they copied the Nostromo/Sulaco but the rest was just generic and bland. And of course the rampant stupidity of every single person in the show.
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this was the one single thing that kept all of it glued together.
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I was the opposite; I thought I was taking crazy pills because it was getting such rave reviews but I thought the first two episodes were incredibly mediocre. But once they moved back to the island it got substantially better. Still a massive anticlimax of an ending though.
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Umph.
I made it all the way through, and I'll say this: the actors did a fine job with what they were given. The production design was awesome, blending the original feel of Alient's 40-year-old tech with more up-to-date materials and technology; someone should win an award for that. There were occasional bright patches of dialogue. The world-building is not bad, providing some insight into the corporatised Earth of the future.
Spoilers follow:-
Not a fan of the end-credit music choices, either, but that's just me. I do like the music that follows them; should have had more of that.
Gaping logical holes and stupid decision-making by the characters make one think that, whatever they spent a quarter of a billion dollars on, it wasn't the screenplay. Sadly, I'm in no hurry for the second series to arrive at this point. Maybe I'll watch, maybe I won't; that's not what I thought I would feel when I started this one, but it's certainly how I feel now. Meh.
I made it all the way through, and I'll say this: the actors did a fine job with what they were given. The production design was awesome, blending the original feel of Alient's 40-year-old tech with more up-to-date materials and technology; someone should win an award for that. There were occasional bright patches of dialogue. The world-building is not bad, providing some insight into the corporatised Earth of the future.
Spoilers follow:-
But, overall, it's a disappointment. The logical and dramatic flaws in the series are so great as to render it ridiculous. There's the totally unbelievable crash of the ship and the way in which biological specimens were stored and studied. There's the willingness to despatch very expensive, prototype devices (the Lost Boys) to a dangerous, potentially lethal environment for which they have no training. The decision to show the xenomorph in daylight, file its teeth down, and render it subservient to Wendy (a) undermines everything we know about the xenomorphs and their behaviour and (b) robs it of its terror and mystery by making it the size and colour of a large brown Labrador instead of a dark, seven-foot, heart-stopping demon. Also, these guys know about the xenomorphs and their lifecycle; how is it they don't have weaponry and containment systems adequate to control it or destroy it? How does the eyeball creature animate a corpse (Arthur) whose internal organs have been Cuisinarted through its chest? Even assuming the brain has remained somewhat intact and connected to the central nervous system, what's keeping the thing going?
Not a fan of the end-credit music choices, either, but that's just me. I do like the music that follows them; should have had more of that.
Gaping logical holes and stupid decision-making by the characters make one think that, whatever they spent a quarter of a billion dollars on, it wasn't the screenplay. Sadly, I'm in no hurry for the second series to arrive at this point. Maybe I'll watch, maybe I won't; that's not what I thought I would feel when I started this one, but it's certainly how I feel now. Meh.
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I really liked this first season. I've also enjoyed reading this comments thread, both the positive and negative views.
To those that didn't like it, could you suggest something you do like as counterpoint? It'll help us understand your perspective rather than just react to you like humans seem to most of the time.
To those that didn't like it, could you suggest something you do like as counterpoint? It'll help us understand your perspective rather than just react to you like humans seem to most of the time.
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tbh that was actually my number one complaint. The metal choices were all pretty jarring to me.
I loved the acting and the setting and challenging the genre expectations. The sets and effects were fantastic. All in all it was just really well done.
But the songs at the end of every episode felt so strangely out of place.
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It's not bad so far! Definitely feels like it's using a lot of the vocabulary of Slow Horses. Similar types of plots and settings, same bloody gallows humor. I'll put it this way: if Jackson Lamb were to make an cameo, it would not stick out as totally incongruous. I would also recommend Bad Sisters, by the way.
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MilanKraft
Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
Agree for the most part. I will credit them with a truly novel approach, with including some new interesting species (especially the opto-pus thing), and with generally making the story interesting enough to watch through one season. However the shark-jumpyness had already begun near the end of season one, and it's fairly clear where things are headed though I'm sure there will be some plot twists.
For my part, I told Hulu / Disney to get fucked a while back so I won't be watching season two. Certainly I won't be purchasing it as a stand-alone thing. I do this occasionally when a show I like is not on the streaming service I have, but I don't consider it to be "pay for seasons x, y, and z" levels of good.... though I get there are legions of die-hards out there who will find more than enough novelty and interesting new characters here to continue on by any means necesary. Give it a solid B overall.
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Focus less on the stupidity of the corporate wunderkid and more on the scientist on board his spaceship run by idiots.
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My girlfriend is a chemist and was watching this with me. Her comment is "So many horror movies just wouldn't happen if scientists would only follow standard lab protocols."
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I'm happy it's getting a second season. It's different, ambitious, and creative, and I like that in my sci fi. The premise is intriguing, the world building is fascinating, and I really like the actors who play Wendy, Joe and Kirsch.
However, there are some major problems they need to address with the writing. The first season had far too many contrivances, characters being stupid for the convenience of the plot, and plot holes you could fly the Nostromo through.
When they establish rules, they need to remember them and stick to them. If the synths are super-strong, why did that one kid need help carrying the scientist down to the rendezvous point on the beach? If Kirsch knows what the xeno-flies eat (metal, not flesh), then why not sequester them in a separate lab, where they are fed by only humans and synths are banned? How did Boy Kavalier ever build a kajillion-dollar empire without being a nepo-baby, considering that he shows all the intelligence of a rutabaga?
The writing was just sloppy in so many ways. And Wendy is over-powered, which may be a convenience for writing since she can control both computers and xeno-critters, but it gives the other characters nothing to do but do stupid things or stand around with a pained expression like Joe does.
They really need to give Joe a stronger role in the story and a lot of the characters just need to be killed off because they serve no real purpose at all. Wendy, Joe, Kirsch, the xeno-critters and especially Oculus (who now has a human host and can be a "real" character with dialogue) would form a good core to build around.
I have no idea why Boy Kavalier survived the finale. Talk about a character who needs to die horribly and soon.
However, there are some major problems they need to address with the writing. The first season had far too many contrivances, characters being stupid for the convenience of the plot, and plot holes you could fly the Nostromo through.
When they establish rules, they need to remember them and stick to them. If the synths are super-strong, why did that one kid need help carrying the scientist down to the rendezvous point on the beach? If Kirsch knows what the xeno-flies eat (metal, not flesh), then why not sequester them in a separate lab, where they are fed by only humans and synths are banned? How did Boy Kavalier ever build a kajillion-dollar empire without being a nepo-baby, considering that he shows all the intelligence of a rutabaga?
The writing was just sloppy in so many ways. And Wendy is over-powered, which may be a convenience for writing since she can control both computers and xeno-critters, but it gives the other characters nothing to do but do stupid things or stand around with a pained expression like Joe does.
They really need to give Joe a stronger role in the story and a lot of the characters just need to be killed off because they serve no real purpose at all. Wendy, Joe, Kirsch, the xeno-critters and especially Oculus (who now has a human host and can be a "real" character with dialogue) would form a good core to build around.
I have no idea why Boy Kavalier survived the finale. Talk about a character who needs to die horribly and soon.
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Thank god, I thought it was just me. I couldn't give 2 shits about the android/hybrid/human philosophical discussion. And unfortunately, that's a big part of the first season. So much so that I gave up on it. That's not why I like or want to watch Aliens.
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Partial yes. The premise takes three of the main elements of Alien - powerful, evil corporations; xeno-lifeforms; and synths - and weaves them into an interesting story.
But if you just think of Alien as "xenomorph runs around and eats people's faces," then you are going to hate this show because it expands on the Alien universe way beyond that, and the writing is often sloppy and aggravating.
I have no particular emotional investment in the Alien universe, so if they want to expand wildly and sloppily on it, I'm fine with that.
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Another show that would be interesting but is sadly exclusive to a streaming service I don't have. One day maybe they'll share it with Netflix, until then 
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I assumed he was like Musk: a nepobaby. But then they introduced a backstory that implied he had to build his way up from nothing. Nope, not buying it. Someone that stupid, lacking in any discernible talent or people skills, is not going to be building a kajillion-dollar empire out of nothing. And they didn't need the backstory! Why not just let us assume he had a rich daddy like Musk?
To have great pitching ability requires people skills. And good writing is not based on "luck," aka contrivance. This show leaned far too much on all sorts of convenient luck. The best writing dispenses with luck entirely and focuses on smart plotting that makes sense. In writing, the only luck you should give your characters is bad luck. You should not pave their way in a lazy manner.
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I don't think we were told that. I think the characters in the show were told that, and we get to see (on purpose! the writer wanted us to see) that it's bullshit.
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jonbob_newcastle
Ars Praetorian
Because the theme that runs all the way through the Alien franchise is hubris.
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I paused my watch of S1...lost track of exactly which episode. I will get back to it, but I found the boy genius too annoying to continue without a break,
The production is great and there are some pretty cool points to explore (gotta agree that the "Eyeball" creature needs more screen time), but the writing is just too predictable and cliche to take in large doses. Here's hoping that the 2nd half of S1 shows some improvement, and either way I will definitely look forward to S2.
The production is great and there are some pretty cool points to explore (gotta agree that the "Eyeball" creature needs more screen time), but the writing is just too predictable and cliche to take in large doses. Here's hoping that the 2nd half of S1 shows some improvement, and either way I will definitely look forward to S2.
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If he's supposed to represent Elon Musk, then he's probably good at self-promotion and taking credit for other people's ideas.
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Out of the various complaints people have about aspects which they consider ridiculous, this is the only one which caused me to suspend my disbelief. Completely ridiculous, basically magic. That said, I just shrugged and figured that the writers got too attached to the idea to give it up, and I'll still be excited for season 2.
I love how the shows start and the musical choices. (IMO) the show demonstrates a real flair for story-telling and dramatic moments. I like all of the casting decisions, and the acting, even Boy Kavalier.
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I wish I liked any of these Noah Hawley shows. They always sound so great and up my alley, then the reality is so bland and derivative of things I've seen before. I've tried many times with all of them, I think I just have to admit he's not for me and that's A-OK.
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Boy Kavalier is as much of a manchild as the hybrids in his stead. They're kindred spirits and that was pretty obvious out of the gate given how
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I have the bundle. Wish was yearly so can’t raise price so often. Love Hulu lots of adult anime. Plus they live stream music festivals every year Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and sometimes ACL on two channels. Plus they live streamed Fire Aid all 5 hours. Is worth it in my book.Too bad this is on Hulu, for which I won't pay.
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The hybrid synths and the "Eyeball" are certainly the stars of the show everybody wants to see do something interesting with the xenomorph playing a side role. About the only things I can really see happening and preserve canon would be for the two to leave Earth on some other mission while re-igniting Weylan-Yutani's desire for more aliens. That would probably make for a more interesting Alien universe, without needing to change the name as all the main interest will eventually be aliens, as even if Prometheus and Covenant universe backstory is true, there is a lot of other stuff going on that doesn't need to be based on it.
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Definitely a dropoff as the series went on - mainly because all the characters became intensely annoying
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