'Alien: Earth' One of the Best TV Series of the Year... Perfectly Inherits the DNA of the Original

FX's new series 'Alien: Earth' has been praised as one of the best TV programs of the year, perfectly inheriting the DNA of the sci-fi horror masterpiece.

This work, with Noah Hawley, who successfully adapted the 'Fargo' TV series as showrunner, is set in the year 2120, two years before Ridley Scott's classic 'Alien' from 1979.

Spiritual Successor to the Original Film

The series begins with the familiar scene of the crew of the USCSS Nostromo waking up from long-term hibernation. They are workers employed by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, just like in the original film.

The space where the Nostromo crew gathers is designed very similarly to the restaurant where the xenomorph burst out of John Hurt's chest in the first film. The worn and futuristic appearance of the spaceship perfectly blends with the vision of the future that director Scott depicted in the 1970s.

Complex Storyline

The Nostromo crew has been on a mission for Weyland-Yutani, capturing dangerous alien life forms in the depths of space for 65 years. However, when the spaceship malfunctions and crashes into a region owned by another corporation, Prodigy, the alien life forms escape and terror begins.

All corporations are competing to provide life extension services through different technologies. It is a world where cyborgs with artificial parts and completely artificial synths coexist.

The Ambition of a Young Billionaire

Prodigy is controlled by a young billionaire named Boy Cavaliere (Samuel Blenkin). He is a character that seems to combine a barefoot Mark Zuckerberg with Dr. Frankenstein.

His company has developed hybrid technology that implants human consciousness into superior synthetic bodies. Starting with placing sick children into adult bodies - as younger minds can endure the transition better - they create physically superior hybrid characters with the minds of inexperienced youths.

A Metaphor for the Age of Artificial Intelligence

The core idea of the Alien franchise is about humanity's downfall due to its own arrogance and ambition. It is the concept that while believing they can control the forces of nature, they are ultimately annihilated by a power that destroys everything. This is remarkably similar to the conversations we have about artificial intelligence in reality.

Hawley has combined these ideas in an interesting way. As the Nostromo crashes into the Prodigy-controlled area, hybrid children are deployed to subdue the life forms originally captured by the crew. The natural alien life forms and the creations of human technology meet in an explosive situation.

Timothy Olyphant's Chilling Performance

Leading the children is a synthetic human named Kershi, played by Timothy Olyphant with chilling precision. In the Alien franchise, artificial humans often show a creepy disdain for their human masters, which Olyphant perfectly embodies.

"You were originally prey... You made tools to conquer nature. You told yourself you were no longer prey. But in the animal kingdom, there is always someone bigger or smaller, and if given the chance, they will eat you alive. That is what it means to be an animal."

The Best TV Series of the Year

All these elements combine to create one of the best TV programs of the year. Hawley evokes the suspense and tension built by Scott and Cameron in eight explosive episodes.

Classic themes of the franchise are recreated: the exploitation of ordinary people in a modern world corrupted by corporations, the question of whether technological advancement is meant to serve humanity or replace it, and how deadly threats reveal the essence of humanity.

'Alien: Earth' achieves a wonderful feat by providing a fresh story while being based on the past and presenting numerous tantalizing possibilities for the future.