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Before last year’s Aliens: Romulus release I would have said the Alien franchise was fine or just okay. However, in preparation for Aliens: Romulus, I watched all the Alien movies, and I became an admirer of the franchise and their dark, shiny xenomorphs. Sure, the entire franchise is not gold, but most of the movies are entertaining in their own rights.
I love Ripley and her evolution, the comedically terrible Alien vs Predator, a setting in a universe that seems much like our own, where corporate greed takes over and the best humans can do is to survive, and, of course, Jonesy.
Aliens: Romulus was one of my favorite movies of last year and second only to Alien in the Aliens franchise for me, so to say I was pumped for an Aliens television series is an understatement. Which means it hurt even more when I watched the first two episodes of Alien: Earth and it felt wrong.
So very wrong.
Mild Spoilers Ahead
It felt like someone took all the past Alien movie screenplays, fed them into an AI, and asked it to write a television series with cyborg children based on these screenplays. It has all the parts and pieces to make it an Alien television series, but it ain’t got no soul.
I was hurt and I felt personally attacked. I just started to love this crazy universe, why is it being taken away from me?
There were not a lot of specific gripes, but an overall sense of: WTF is this? It’s easier to list the good aspects rather than the terrible, so here’s what was good about episode 1 and 2:
(1) Xenomorphs
(2) New types of aliens
Yep. That’s it.
Despite the terrible AI-reminiscent writing of the first two episodes, I pushed forward and watched episodes 3 and 4. After all, I watched Aliens vs Predator: Requiem, so surely I could watch more of this series that so many others claim to appreciate.
In episode 3, the plot began to pick up and some of the awful aspects of the first two episodes seemed less abhorrent to not terrible at all. The brother and sister duo (Wendy/Marcy and Joe) were starting to find their footing and their relationship became more believable. Sometimes characters take a bit of time to grow into for the acting, writing, and viewership, so I was willing to believe it took a couple of episodes for them to hit their stride, which still wasn’t a great stride, but it was something for me to cling to.
In addition, in episode 3, the Lost Boys start to feel more like children in adult bodies. In the first two episodes, the children don’t feel or act like children, which made the whole storyline unbelievable. However, in episode 3 the children are a bit sillier and childish. My favorite line of the whole first half of the series was when Curly mentions that having a synthetic body means “no more pooping”. Wow. Sign me up for that cyborg life!
To say I “enjoyed” episode 3 would be an overstatement, but it did give me hope that the series would pick up.
Then came episode 4, and my hopes were dashed, yet again. Nibs thinks she’s pregnant? Morrow is somehow talking to Slightly with something he implanted into him? The Boy Genius shows us again how he is definitely not smart? Two of the scientists think they can have a secret conversation on this tiny island and then have a home cooked meal of dumplings to calm down after these events? At least there was a grossly charming scene with the eyeball alien and a sheep. (Spoiler: Don’t watch if you love sheep.)
The biggest problem is now that I am half way through the series, so I might as well finish the whole thing, right? If I don’t it will feel like getting up and leaving a movie in the theater halfway through the movie.
Since Alien: Earth happens two years before Alien, maybe Ripley and Jonesy can show up and save the day? Nope. They would be taking a cryo nap aboard the Nostromo, and, unfortunately, cannot save this doomed series. Do the AI writers know this?
NerdScore
5.5/10
Alien Earth (2025) Review
A sci-fi series shaped by artificial intelligence ambition, Alien Earth blends futuristic spectacle with sharp commentary—though its execution proves divisive.
A bold new science fiction drama imagining a world reshaped by AI and alien contact, challenging humanity’s place in the cosmos.
IMDb
7.6/10
Metacritic
85/100
Rotten Tomatoes
95%