By Juan Markos
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 08/13/2025 Alien Earth crash-landed tonight on FX and is also streaming on Hulu. The premiere episode is the first television series in the Alien franchise, set just two years before the original 1979 movie. The show opens with an oddly familiar sequence, featuring screens and a spaceship that evoke the aesthetics of the original film. While the movie takes place in space, we remain uncertain about the world below—specifically, Earth.
Our planet is now controlled by five corporations, which aligns eerily with current trends in our governments. One of these corporations, Prodigy, was founded by a child prodigy who became the youngest trillionaire. Prodigy has developed technology that creates hybrid human-android synthetic beings equipped with memories and potentially souls. These engineered androids are infused with the minds of former living people, specifically children.
The trillionaire CEO, Kavaleir, played by Samuel Blenkin, has selected terminally ill children for this unprecedented project, creating our protagonist, Wendy, portrayed by Sydney Chandler. She becomes the first of many children to pilot his “Lost Boys” initiative. Like Wendy, these children have their minds transplanted into adult synthetic bodies, granting them superhuman capabilities, although their ultimate objective remains unknown to Kavaleir.
These synthetic hybrids are engineered on one of Prodigy’s islands, aptly named Neverland, which bears a resemblance to Michael Jackson while also nodding to Peter Pan, another Disney-owned title. Wendy keeps a watchful eye on her living brother, who is no longer a boy—implying that time has passed. She monitors him through surveillance feeds.
Meanwhile, a Weyland ship is traveling to Earth, carrying a few alien specimens. The events aboard the vessel remain a mystery to viewers, but we learn that the synthetic captain is crash-landing the ship, Maginot, into Earth. The spacecraft crashes into a park, and in a tense scene, one crew member seeks help from the captain, who seals the door shut. A xenomorph then breaks loose, killing the entire crew.
A rescue team arrives at the crash site and encounters the hostile synthetic being, who is determined to ensure that things go awry. Wendy catches a glimpse of her brother aiding the crew and decides to offer her assistance to Kavaleir. He then sends her and the Lost Boys on a mission, keeping in mind that these are still children at heart who have lacked a real purpose until now.
The episode concludes, leaving me wanting more. Although the opening moments mirror Ridley Scott’s original film, much of the subsequent content evokes feelings reminiscent of other Disney films or TV shows. As a fan of Noah Hawley’s previous work, including “Legion” and “Fargo,” which are among the best programming Hulu has to offer, I have high hopes and expect nothing less than iconic storytelling from Hawley.
