‘Alien: Earth’ on FX Review: A Big, Fun, Scary Sci-Fi Triumph Anchored By a Star-Making Turn from Sydney Chandler

I went into Noah Hawley‘s audacious new series Alien: Earth expecting to be completely terrified by facehuggers and captivated by brilliant actors like Timothy Olyphant, Sydney Chandler, and Alex Lawther, but what I could never have predicted that the FX drama would be so gosh darn fun.

As I made my way through all eight episodes of Alien: Earth‘s first season, which makes its two episode debut on Tuesday, August 12, I began cackling more and more. I grinned like a doofus whenever one of the show’s new aliens did something gross and eagerly looked forward to each episode’s rousing rock ‘n roll end credits needle drop.

In Alien: Earth, Noah Hawley has not just captured the thrills and chills of original bangers Alien and Aliens, but the childlike glee I viscerally remember experiencing while watching those classics for the first time. Instead of infusing his take on Alien with super serious formality or slavishly referential beats, Hawley has overlaid Alien: Earth with the mischief and wonder of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. It’s a creative choice that I expect will have some purists scratching their head, but I loved it and every second of this mad adventure.

Alien: Earth takes place in 2120, a time where the world is ruled by five big tech corporations. One of these entities, Weyland-Yutani, has commissioned the USCSS Maginot to undertake a 65-year-long deep space research mission to bring back five extraterrestrial “samples” back to Earth. One of these aliens is the familiar Xenomorph, a terrifying predator with acid for blood and a parasitic birth cycle that involves bursting out of unsuspecting hosts’ chests. The other four are brand new creatures with their own unique horrors to inflict upon Alien: Earth‘s characters.

Unfortunately, the USCSS Maginot crash lands on Earth, right into territory ruled by one of Weyland-Yutani’s chief rivals, Prodigy. The upstart business run by the mercurial genius Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin) has their own top secret scientific plan for world domination. While the world already has humanlike robots known as “synthetics” and augmented humans called “cyborgs,” Boy Kavalier has figured out how to transfer a person’s consciousness into a synthetic body. His first six subjects are all children dying of cancer, starting with his beloved “Wendy” (Sydney Chandler).

It’s not just that Boy Kavalier has managed to put these children’s minds into immortal bodies, but superhuman ones. After her “transition,” Wendy has super strength, super speed, and some nifty new abilities. Even though each subject is given a new Neverland-themed name along with their new bodies, there’s still the rub that the kids lived in the real world when they were still alive. Wendy, for instance, longs to reconnect with her older brother Hermit (Alex Lawther). She spends her days following his life working as a medic via security cameras. So when she sees that her beloved brother is in trouble at the Maginot crash site, she pitches Boy Kavalier on letting his lost boys and girls embark on a rescue mission of their own.

If you’re struggling to see the logic in a super smart trillionaire sending his most prized possessions into danger — or why there’s just so much Peter Pan in this show — you simply might not vibe with Alien: Earth. Hawley is not attempting to make “big idea” science fiction like Apple TV+’s brilliant Isaac Asimov adaptation Foundation or even Ridley Scott’s gloriously weird (and canceled too soon) Raised By Wolves. Alien: Earth is “big fun” sci-fi, full of gory sight gags, metal music cues, and literal child’s play. As Hawley has shown in his other FX projects, Fargo and Legion, he excels at taking existing IP and contorting it in new ways to reveal what really sets those universes apart. He does that once more in Alien: Earth.

I very much dug the incredible performances of Alien: Earth‘s ensemble cast. Timothy Olyphant perfectly parlays his inhuman beauty and louche energy into the unsettling new synth character Kirsh. Samuel Blenkin and Babou Ceesay both give breakout performances as two imposing characters with totally opposite energies: the capricious Kid Cavalier and menacing cyborg Morrow. Alex Lawther brings the same wide-eyed humanity that made him the heart and soul of Andor to Alien: Earth, but all hype will be on Sydney Chandler. Chandler’s Wendy, along with the rest of the lost kids, steal every scene they’re in with their sense of wonder. Chandler, specifically, makes for a naturally magnetic leader of the group. She should have already been a massive star after FX’s under-watched Pistol, but Alien: Earth should do the trick.

Alien: Earth eschews complex lore in exchange for what the kids call “vibes.” Everything about this show is freaking cool, from the trippy new aliens to the Maginot‘s design being a picture perfect homage to the original film’s aesthetics. The cinematography is lush, the production design sumptuous, and the kills are horrifying. Alien: Earth remembers that the best scares are always followed up by an uproarious gasp of laughter.

The first two episodes of Alien: Earth premiere on FX and Hulu on August 12 at 8 PM.