FX Alien: Earth

[Big s]

15 hours ago, Thom said:

Found this on Reddit...

So, basically the world of Blade Runner...

 

 

 

 

I can’t remember if it was Prometheus or covenant that brought up the company from blade runner. 

[Big s]

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Who do you root for when absolutely everyone is a maximally sh*tty person? 

I’m rooting for eye guy. I like how he counts with 💩. I don’t know the numerical value of 💩, but it was the best part of the episode. 
personally, I’m just watching this as a flawed comedy and I feel much better about that decision. I can’t take anything seriously in this show, so I’ll just enjoy it for the laughs.

 

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

My money is on her being killed by Hermit at the end, because she'll want to make the rest of Humanity suffer for what happened to her.

I kinda get the feeling that she’s either gonna sacrifice herself to save her bro or be the only one left after everyone gets killed off. 
But I don’t know if they’re planning a second season of this silliness. 
 

I just remembered, 💩is the universal symbol for pie

Edited September 17 by Big s

[Hikuro]

It was a slightly better episode, but now we're gonna be in this rush mode with episode 8 being the finale and that kind of pisses me off a bit. There hasn't been any suspense, thrill, or chills this entire season. I mean if I were to compare this series to Romulus, Romulus was oscar performing in comparison. 

[Big s]

22 minutes ago, Hikuro said:

It was a slightly better episode, but now we're gonna be in this rush mode with episode 8 being the finale and that kind of pisses me off a bit. There hasn't been any suspense, thrill, or chills this entire season. I mean if I were to compare this series to Romulus, Romulus was oscar performing in comparison. 

Thrills and chills don’t exist in this show. That’s why I started viewing it as a comedy instead. If you try watching it that way it’s far more tolerable and kinda enjoyable with all the Scooby Doo style scenes. It’s literally a bunch of stuff goes wild, some one hides things pop out of unrealistic places and then people hide again while the next group passes by not noticing the first group while things happen and pop out unexpectedly.  I’d almost think it might be even more enjoyable if you replace the background music with the Benny Hill theme.

It is tough to like the “children” mainly because they seem to want to help people, but don’t really seem to care much for people.

the Aliens are far too invincible and the soldiers are far too  useless. Aliens had the problem where the soldiers were extremely effective and the aliens were only a problem due to numbers, but here we have soldiers that are seemingly super ninjas or something with bullets that can’t even injure the Aliens. Nobody that takes over an Alien project is on the same page and everything just kinda feels a bit like a jumble.

I do actually like the Eye Guy and I am having fun with the show, even if it’s not for the intended reason. And poop jokes should never be used in something trying to be serious, but it works great for a comedy.  Pi or pie? This show makes me laugh

[Seto Kaiba]

3 hours ago, Hikuro said:

There hasn't been any suspense, thrill, or chills this entire season. I mean if I were to compare this series to Romulus, Romulus was oscar performing in comparison. 

Yeah, Alien: Earth's showrunners and writers did not understand the assignment.

Xenomorph XX121 has never been less scary.

The mature one spends the first three episodes mugging for the camera before being killed with the cutting arm from an office paper cutter by a girl/synth with no combat experience or training, and the second one is...

Spoiler

... essentially demoted to being Wendy's guard dog that attacks people on command.

The other four groups of critters really don't seem to be engaged in the story to any significant degree.  The main source of menace seems to be the obligatory Horror Movie Stupidity that most of the cast contracts at one point or another, and that's not exactly scary because you can see it coming a light year away.

[renegadeleader1]

2 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Yeah, Alien: Earth's showrunners and writers did not understand the assignment.

Xenomorph XX121 has never been less scary.

The mature one spends the first three episodes mugging for the camera before being killed with the cutting arm from an office paper cutter by a girl/synth with no combat experience or training, and the second one is...

  Reveal hidden contents

... essentially demoted to being Wendy's guard dog that attacks people on command.

The other four groups of critters really don't seem to be engaged in the story to any significant degree.  The main source of menace seems to be the obligatory Horror Movie Stupidity that most of the cast contracts at one point or another, and that's not exactly scary because you can see it coming a light year away.

I called this weeks ago. Now allow me a new prediction...

 

Spoiler

It's pretty obvious at this point Boy Crapateer is going to have a close encounter with Senor Eyeball, the question is will it be an accident that's going to happen when the two xenomorphs start kung fu fighting, or is this show going to do something stupid like have him download himself into a synth body and give his original body over to the eyeball?

 

Then again the xenomorphs might not even fight and just turn on Wendy and the lost morons killing them all.

 

I still say the island gets nuked.

 

[Seto Kaiba]

2 minutes ago, renegadeleader1 said:

I called this weeks ago. Now allow me a new prediction...

You did indeed call it... three weeks ago on August 27th, to be precise. 👍

 

3 minutes ago, renegadeleader1 said:

Spoiler

It's pretty obvious at this point Boy Crapateer is going to have a close encounter with Senor Eyeball, the question is will it be an accident that's going to happen when the two xenomorphs start kung fu fighting, or is this show going to do something stupid like have him download himself into a synth body and give his original body over to the eyeball?

 

Spoiler

I dunno... I kind of suspect he's going to show up at the last minute and attempt to reclaim/stop Wendy and get got by the XX121 or get killed by Wendy herself.

 

3 minutes ago, renegadeleader1 said:

Spoiler

Then again the xenomorphs might not even fight and just turn on Wendy and the lost morons killing them all.

Spoiler

I'm betting against that.  Wendy's control over her pet XX121 seems to be a product of her ability to talk to it in its own language.  That should theoretically work on ANY XX121 specimen.

It seems unlikely that the second XX121 specimen that Arthur gave birth to will mature fast enough to become a threat in time for the climax, given that it only just emerged from Arthur like an hour ago.

My suspicion is that Wendy is going to sic her pet XX121 on the Prodigy security forces and it's either going to get shot up or it'll prompt Hermit to turn on his sister and gun her down because she's clearly bonkers at this point.

 

3 minutes ago, renegadeleader1 said:

Spoiler

I still say the island gets nuked.

That, IMO, is the sucker bet.  Practically guaranteed to happen to prevent an outbreak.

[Big s]

Spoiler

51 minutes ago, renegadeleader1 said:

It's pretty obvious at this point Boy Crapateer is going to have a close encounter with Senor Eyeball, the question is will it be an accident that's going to happen when the two xenomorphs start kung fu fighting, or is this show going to do something stupid like have him download himself into a synth body and give his original body over to the eyeball?

 

Spoiler

Yeah, pretty sure some more shenanigans will happen with Eye Guy. Maybe he’ll just put on some sunglasses and keep running the company for himself or something silly.

 

[pengbuzz]

4 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

  Hide contents

It seems unlikely that the second XX121 specimen that Arthur gave birth to will mature fast enough to become a threat in time for the climax, given that it only just emerged from Arthur like an hour ago.

 

At the rate things are going in this series:

Spoiler

 

Edited September 18 by pengbuzz

[Seto Kaiba]

All right, let's stick a fork in this space turkey.

Season finale: "The Real Monsters".

Spoiler

Still doing "Strange Brew" by Cream, I see.

I've heard it said that Noah Hawley confessed to using ChatGPT to write this series, as a way of explaining Boy Cavalier's incorrect attribution of Clarke's Third Law.  I think he might've used it to try to understand how tides work too.

Spoiler

Because Arthur's chestbursted arse somehow went from "sinking in the water just offshore" to laying on a completely different stretch of beach like 5-6' from the waterline in the space of what can only be an hour or so... conveniently with a crab sitting on him to hide most of the practical effects chestburster wound.  A Xenomorph shows up to hiss at the body and seemingly show its contempt for the concept of carcinization.

Some random footage of the Xenomorph wandering around and screeching.

And our next contestant on the galaxy's favorite show Play Stupid Games is...

Spoiler

Dame Sylvia!  Come on down!  It doesn't matter that an unknown number of Weyland-Yutani soldiers are invading the island or that two murderously violent Synths and one XX121 Xenomorph are running around loose killing people.  Now is the perfect time to go ALONE to put flowers on the graves of the children you insist aren't dead!  After all, what's the worst that could happen?  

Unfortunately, she only wins the consolation prize of getting jumpscared by XX121 which gets scared off by a rifle round to the face.  Hermit's team wisely observes that it's not safe out here.

XX121's been a busy boy/girl/thing... redecorating the courtyards and walls in a fetching shade of human viscera.  It even conveniently uses the footpath to get around rather than going anywhere less observable.  It may be a murderous parasitic extraterrestrial horror, but it's polite enough to keep off the grass.🙃

We get a sitrep from Eins to show how screwed they all are.

Spoiler

Neverland is completely cut off.  Weyland-Yutani's assault team cut the undersea cables and are jamming satellite comms.  Why this doesn't prompt a response from any of Prodigy's assets in the 1/4 of the world that the corporation runs is a mystery for another time.  Nonessential personnel have all been evacuated.  (If you could do that, why don't you have backup comms?)  The hybrids are confined in a holding cell... but not one made to contain super-strong, super-fast, super-agile synthetic murder machines.

That seems like a rather glaring oversight, doesn't it?

Spoiler

I mean, it was established early on that the reason that they're using children for the Hybrid experiments is because their more malleable minds are able to adapt to their new reality where adult minds break.  Plus you have some candidates you knew from the outset were mentally unstable before they were made into machines.  So they're working with a clearly nonzero chance of accidentally creating a violently unstable ghost-in-the machine that can shrug off bullets and tear people apart like wet paper bags and they DON'T HAVE ANY FACILITY TO CONTAIN THEM?

"We have zero containment on the adult Xenomorph".  No sh*t sherlock, it's running around the island and almost ate your android groomer.  Prodigy forces are sweeping the island ("They ain't found sh*t!") but they're short of manpower after, y'know, a bunch of them got killed and it's killing more of them on a regular basis.  

Rather than listen to this dire statement of condition, Boy Cavalier would rather watch archival footage of Wendy's transition on a grainy TV and mumbling about how he'd much rather talk to the sheep.

Wendy decides now is a great time to tell the already none-too-stable synths that she found their graves.  That goes... poorly.  Curly is upset that she's locked up because she sees herself as the favorite, and Wendy corrects her that in the book Wendy is Peter Pan's favorite.  Nibs concludes that they're all ghosts, and this causes Wendy to start with ominous statements like "I think they should be afraid of us".  

More of Noah Hawley's oral fetish.  

Spoiler

Why the security staff don't immediately gun her down when she starts trying to call the Xenomorph is anyone's guess.  Especially since anyone watching can clearly see she's doing it.  Enough so that Boy Cavalier can tell from the grainy security camera footage.  Then all the cameras start shutting down.  Somehow, this is treated as a minor IT issue and not a cause for legitimate panic due to Wendy tampering with security systems and summoning an alien killbeast to murder them all.

This is why this series is not scary.

Nobody in this series behaves like they want to survive this.  There's no fear or tension built by the monster if everyone is a Maximum Idiot who seemingly craves annihilation by the monster.  

Spoiler

Rather than, y'know, think things through suddenly Mr. Smarter-Than-You is keen to just throw hands with Weyland-Yutani despite being at a huge disadvantage on a small, badly understaffed island with a monster containment problem and a double handful of murderous robots.  

Kirsh straight-up tells us that Boy Cavalier is severely ADHD and seems to be trying to tell him to take his medication.  Then the radio conveniently cuts out, leaving Cavalier staring at and then ranting at the sheep.  

OK, almost nobody.  Credit where credit is due, Hermit's old unit actually seem like they want to live.

Spoiler

They escort Dame Sylvia back to her room in the compound, and to their credit they do not assume that the room is safe because it's indoors and do not lower their weapons until they've assessed the room's lack of 7 foot 2 horrors from the beyond.  The reason I say "almost" is that they didn't check the entire room, they just stood in the entryway and shouted "CLEAR!" before lowering weapons and leaving.

So apparently Wendy can see through TV screens now, even though that's not how TV screens work?  She seems to be trying to creep Sylvia out by playing archival footage at her.

Apparently the way to restrain a cyborg with an arm full of murder tools is... to slap a five gallon steel milk can over the end of his arm?  Morrow tries to tell Hermit that there's always a price for the company's help... like Hermit doesn't already know that.  

Hermit's old team are scouting the building interior and get jumpscared by random wall sprayer dude.  They plan to make for the armory and "get the big guns" when they get jumpscared by the elevator.  The elevator gets stuck, and then...

... what?

Spoiler

Why does the elevator of all things have a self-destruct feature?

Like a full-on Star Trek auto-destruct with a spoken 30 second countdown.  WHY IS THAT A FEATURE?  What mad elevator maker thought that was an appropriate addition to the functions of an elevator?  The kids are literally watching the guards get terrified by this, with Wendy apparently being responsible.  Wendy is extremely OK with murder at this point.

We get a flashback to Hermit's career in the Prodigy forces reading old letters from his sister.  

Apparently this place is so badly secured that Wendy can remotely unlock cell doors?  Hermit and Morrow break out because of this, with Hermit going to save the Synths and Morrow vowing to burn Neverland to the ground.  

Kirsh is doing... something... in the lab when Morrow sneaks up on him.  They fight.  Kirsh loses the first round, until a containment cell grazed by a bullet breaks and he's able to get the drop on Morrow and seemingly choke him out.

Boy Cavalier very stupidly decides to go talk to the Hybrids with a single unarmed guard?  He seemingly forgot Wendy can just do tech-magic.  He decides to try to tell them a story about his youth.  He claims that his father was an alcoholic, that he built his first synth when he was just six years old (HOW?!) and had it murder his father so it could be the figurehead of his business empire.  Seems pretty dubious.  He very unwisely decides to inform the Lost Boys that he owns them, that they're floor models for his new line of products, and gets very angry with them about how they're hindering his plan.  This immediately leads to Nibs brutally beating his guard to death.  She sics the murderous Nibs on Dame Sylvia and decides to go hunt Cavalier herself while sending the boys to get Kirsch and Morrow and Curly to get the soldiers. 

Surprising lack of main character deaths so far... let's see if we can't bump those numbers up.

Spoiler

The Xenomorph is now inside the building doing stock horror movie jump scares like dragging bodies around corners and killing people offscreen.

Nibs sneaks up on Dame Sylvia and gives us a slasher smile.  Kirsh is apparently feeling well enough that, despite being paralyzed, he grumbles "Where were you ten minutes ago?" when he notices Slightly and Smee.  The boys very stupidly decide to tie Kirsh up.  Slightly gets some catharsis by knocking Morrow out with a sample canister.  Hermit is being buttered up in preparation for being a sacrifice to the eye-ctopus, with Eins apparently pretending they're going to just let Hermit and his sister walk right out.  He's let into the office to see the empty sheep box and does the extremely sensible thing of locking himself INSIDE the sheep box to avoid getting got, before the eye-ctopus can get inside.  He's saved in the nick of time by Wendy.

Oh ho... I guess that's one we didn't see coming.

Spoiler

Atom Eins isn't a human with an unconventional name.  He's a Synth and he almost effortlessly defeats Wendy... until Wendy's bullsh*t Mary Sue tech-magic suddenly allows her to freeze him in place like a statue.  

Gettin' real tired of your Mary Sue BS, Wendy...

Spoiler

Hermit tries to apologize for having to tase a psychotically violent Nibs, and Wendy instead decides to twist his words to make it about her being a synth.

Wendy likes the XX121 Xenomorphs because they're honest.  Yes Hermit, your sister is dead and there's an insane robot pretending to be her who wants to murder humanity and apparently has the Xenomorph actively hunting Boy Cavalier.  Cavalier is headed to the evac zone, offering a million bucks to the first man to find him.  He merrily skips right past Wendy's Xenomorph.  Wendy sets it on the security team that tries to save him.  

Hermit's team have somehow walked directly into the Secure Lab... the lab which is supposed to be locked down.  One member of the team gets eaten by the plant thingy, seemingly accidentally gunning down all but one other in the process, and Curly knocks his ass out with a propane canister.

Back to the beach?

Spoiler

Arthur's still on the beach, and the Eye-ctopus has somehow gotten all the way out there almost immediately and found him despite this being a walk that took the rest of the cast the better part of an afternoon.  So Arthur's corpse gets up under Eye-ctopus power as Weyland-Yutani aircraft approach Neverland.  

Wendy's got Kirsh, Boy Cavalier, Dame Sylvia, Atom Eins, and Morrow locked up in the cell.  She tells Boy Cavalier that he's not Peter Pan and gives him a very clumsily written, badly delivered The Reason You Suck speech.  Apparently the Xenomorph's been hanging around the outside of the cage with its little bro this entire time.  

Wendy has gone so profoundly insane she's now decided on world domination?

 

First... ugh.

Second... UGH!

I can't even call that hot garbage.  It's more like a retaining pond of room temperature untreated sewage.

They are clearly banking on getting a second season, and I don't think that's going to happen.  So there's this non-ending with no significant plot progress, no closure, nothing in terms of interesting scares or even impressive practical effects.  Just a bunch of PG-13 stock jump scares and pretentious nonsense.  

They clearly want this to be a big thing, like a huge threat to the planet or something, but we know nothing comes of it because Aliens is set 59 years after this and, y'know, Carter Burke and all don't mention half of Earth being destroyed by a horde of rampaging killbeasts and murderous synths.

I'd say I look forward to Alien: Earth II: the Wholly Preventable Consequences of Idiocy... but I'd be lying.

Edited September 24 by Seto Kaiba

[anime52k8]

Solid 9/10 season, I'm looking forward to season 2. The baby Xeno is cute. 

only thing that kind of bugs me is

Spoiler

what's the deal with the power-washing guy?

 

[Bolt]

53 minutes ago, anime52k8 said:

only thing that kind of bugs me is

  Reveal hidden contents

what's the deal with the power-washing guy?

 

Totally  
I enjoyed the visuals and world building. Definitely edges closer to Blade Runner. 
The actions of most of the main characters were an ongoing head scratcher. And the big bet on a second season is so obvious it hurts .

 

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

I've heard it said that Noah Hawley confessed to using ChatGPT to write this series.                        

If that's true, it might explain a lot. But doesn't anyone review the writing? 

[Seto Kaiba]

Just now, Bolt said:

If that's true, it might explain a lot. But doesn't anyone review the writing? 

A couple months back, James Gunn made some rather enlightening and illustrative remarks on that point in an interview with Rolling Stone.

In his view, the number one reason the film industry is struggling (or "dying", in his words) is that studios are shooting shows and movies without a finished screenplay in hand.  The problem is potentially more severe than having nobody review the writing.  Studios are moving projects into production with incomplete screenplays and then literally attempting to make up the rest as they go.  

Which would explain an awful lot of Alien: Earth's problems like wildly inconsistent pacing, a lack of meaningful character development for almost the entire cast, the underutilization of most of the monsters from the Maginot, the way characters and monsters seem to engage in offscreen teleportation, the inconsistent security of the "secure lab" that requires door codes only and is supposed to be Synths only when it's dramatic but otherwise lets any rando walk right in and out, or the hilariously forced Peter Pan motif that doesn't actually fit in the story thematically after the first episode or two.

[tekering]

7 hours ago, anime52k8 said:

Solid 9/10 season, I'm looking forward to season 2.

With a 95% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, it would seem many agree with you...  It's fresh and exciting. 🤨

8 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

I'd say I look forward to Alien: Earth II: the Wholly Preventable Consequences of Idiocy... but I'd be lying.

Most of the YouTube critics I've seen agree with you.  It's a dumpster fire.

This is the most polarizing sci-fi I've seen since The Last Jedi. 😲

[Test_Pilot_2]

I enjoyed this show. I get the cheesy tropes and stupidity, but I give the show grace and call it campiness.

I don't know that aside from Alien: Isolation (putting the player in the hot seat), we'll be able to invoke the level of horror that Alien did - and I don't know that I'd want that to begin with. Alien is one of the greats and I doubt you can ever re-create the theater feel of that subject matter breaking for the first time.

Aliens... Again, one of the greats for me. It's hard for me to imagine topping this movie - the Alien with ALL the 80's over-the-topness.

Remember, the only one in the movies that really understood how screwed everyone was all along was the cat. I do not agree with Alien: Earth sitting above these two on Rotten Tomatoes... That's a travesty... but for a TV "show" I think it has been great.

Looking forward to next season where I hope the success of the first gives them a bigger budget for the effects and they use it wisely.

[Seto Kaiba]

6 hours ago, tekering said:

With a 95% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, it would seem many agree with you...  It's fresh and exciting. 🤨

Most of the YouTube critics I've seen agree with you.  It's a dumpster fire.

This is the most polarizing sci-fi I've seen since The Last Jedi. 😲

I'd put more faith in the amateur reviewers and general audiences than the professional critics, mainly because the latter group are often indirectly in the employ of the studios via the media companies that own the papers and websites and seem to be afraid to give negative reviews unless the film or series is borderline unwatchable.  40+ point disparities between critic and audience scores are pretty common now.

The audience scores are trending downward, but still well on the positive side of neutral... which is fair.  Alien: Earth isn't unwatchably bad like The Acolyte or Star Trek: Discovery, both of which have 50+ point disparities between their glowing critical praise and scathing audience reviews.  It's a clumsy effort that feels like it needed a bit more time in the oven, but it has spirit and in the flashback episode there's some sense that the showrunners do understand the assignment... or are at least copying the homework of someone who does.  With a little work, Alien: Earth as a whole could've gone from iffy to good or even great, and the flashback episode could've gone from good to amazing with a bit more polish.

 

[tekering]

59 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

I'd put more faith in the amateur reviewers and general audiences than the professional critics, mainly because the latter group are often indirectly in the employ of the studios via the media companies that own the papers and websites and seem to be afraid to give negative reviews unless the film or series is borderline unwatchable.

It was difficult for me to come to terms with this... but when Discovery, Rings of Power, and even Star Trek Into Darkness claim 84% of critics recommend them, I guess the shills have taken over. 🫣

Still, if grading on a curve, I have to admit Alien: Earth wasn't nearly as disappointing as Alien 3... or Alien vs. Predator... or Prometheus, even. 😒

And if the show had come to television 30 years ago, amidst the RoboCop, Highlander, and Police Academy TV series, we'd have hailed it as a masterpiece. 😅

 

[Hikuro]

Okay wait, that was it? .........serious? that's season 1? 

 

Spoiler

I mean I did like that the lost boys suddenly grew a pair and decided to rise up. It was pretty obvious though I think this entire season the butler was a synth, I always had that impression and with Kavalier's lil story in this episode of killing his father it was pretty obvious at that point. 
I do gotta say I'm very disappointed that we got like 2 minutes of Xenomorph attention. The series should have been labeled SYNTH: An Uprising or something along those lines like Prometheus having very little to do with the ALIEN itself and more of the setup. 
The only characters I felt some kind of connection with were Jobes squad mates, that gal shouldn't had died, that bummed me out. 
Well, with Disney+ uping their subscription rate now by another $2, I guess this is a series where I'll either just wait until the next season or even series is done before I resub and binge. It's not work the ticket of admission to wait every week.

 

[M'Kyuun]

I'll say this; the show is entertaining, but it's as much to see where they're going with the story as it is for the extraordinary comedy of errors and obscene buffoonery by, more often than not, trained professionals disregarding said training and paying heavily for their negligence. This show is positively rife with improper actions and poor decisions that are just blatantly made to serve the story. Every time somebody makes a huge oopsy, they should just give a wink or a nod at the camera b/c it's like having sex in an 80s slasher film- it's all a gratuitous precursor to the ensuing chaos and death.

Spoiler

I was hoping that Kirsch would end up being the true mastermind; of all the characters, I think he's the most interesting of them all and I'd hoped, maybe foolishly, that there was a larger game afoot where Kirsch was manipulating things to his own agenda. Guess not.

So, mind-controlling parasitic fungi exist, but their hosts need to be alive and kicking for them to be effective to the parasite. Unless it can restore dead tissues, the Eye-ctopus' occupying Arthur's corpse and walking away with it raises an eyebrow. Clearly, neither physics nor bio-chemistry are real in this show. Nor good judgment or adherence to protocols for that matter.

Wendy is definitely overpowered, inexplicably so, since none of her fellow hybrids have any of her additional 'magical' abilities. Mary Sue indeed.

Not sure I like the idea of the Xenomorph being her on-command pet just b/c she learned to replicate some of its sounds. We've domesticated dogs for thousands of years and yet when they bark at each other, we still have no idea what they're saying to each other or if there's actually language there at all. The idea that in such a short period of time she could learn the language of this rather complex and extremely aggressive predator and that that alone, along with a tender caress in the lab, would endear it to her slavishly is, even for a sci-fi show, stretching the suspension of doubt to its breaking point. I can buy, perhaps by some fault or by some hidden hardware (this would have been a good Kirsch angle) her ability to control some electronics, but the whole "How to Train Your XX121 Xenomorph" story element only erodes the random and terrifyingly homicidal nature of the beast. Heck, if this was a known factor, why weren't all synths in the future programmed to be Xenomorph whisperers? That'd save a lot of lives and ammo.

So, there's not really a satisfying conclusion and an obvious expectation for a season 2 greenlight. Wendy's become a homicidal warden with the most questionable of watchdogs at her command. Any remaining menace the eponymous species may have held is dissipated by this turn of events. The Eye-ctopus/Arthur zombie is shambling about somewhere on the island, Joe's in a precarious position and probably wishing he'd never met Wendy, Kavalier's probably not long for this world (they really were setting him up to be a host for the Eye-ctopus), Yutani's coming with a huge invasion force of soldiers that will end up being more gratuitous gorefests for the sake of it (unless her forces are made up of a contingent of artificial persons), more than a few people are aware of the Xenomorph's existence which throws the future developments from Alien forward into question- did the company really know or have reason to expect that the downed ship on LV426 contained XX121 eggs? After all, the Maginot crew got them from somewhere, and more than likely had notations of these things in their science logs. With all the chaos that ensued on Neverland Island, it's understandable why Yutani would compartmentalize that and all other info pertaining to the Alien so that only a very select few top execs knew anything about them. Too, they wouldn't want the other three major corporations learning about them and trying to score some Xenos for themselves, as it seems that Prodigy's future is precarious. Unless Wendy takes Boy Kavalier's place as the ethically challenged synthetic girl genius and self-appointed CEO. I guess we'll see where that leads. 

 

[Bolt]

12 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

I'll say this; the show is entertaining, but it's as much to see where they're going with the story as it is for the extraordinary comedy of errors and obscene buffoonery by, more often than not, trained professionals disregarding said training and paying heavily for their negligence. This show is positively rife with improper actions and poor decisions that are just blatantly made to serve the story. Every time somebody makes a huge oopsy, they should just give a wink or a nod at the camera b/c it's like having sex in an 80s slasher film- it's all a gratuitous precursor to the ensuing chaos and death.

  Reveal hidden contents

I was hoping that Kirsch would end up being the true mastermind; of all the characters, I think he's the most interesting of them all and I'd hoped, maybe foolishly, that there was a larger game afoot where Kirsch was manipulating things to his own agenda. Guess not.

So, mind-controlling parasitic fungi exist, but their hosts need to be alive and kicking for them to be effective to the parasite. Unless it can restore dead tissues, the Eye-ctopus' occupying Arthur's corpse and walking away with it raises an eyebrow. Clearly, neither physics nor bio-chemistry are real in this show. Nor good judgment or adherence to protocols for that matter.

Wendy is definitely overpowered, inexplicably so, since none of her fellow hybrids have any of her additional 'magical' abilities. Mary Sue indeed.

Not sure I like the idea of the Xenomorph being her on-command pet just b/c she learned to replicate some of its sounds. We've domesticated dogs for thousands of years and yet when they bark at each other, we still have no idea what they're saying to each other or if there's actually language there at all. The idea that in such a short period of time she could learn the language of this rather complex and extremely aggressive predator and that that alone, along with a tender caress in the lab, would endear it to her slavishly is, even for a sci-fi show, stretching the suspension of doubt to its breaking point. I can buy, perhaps by some fault or by some hidden hardware (this would have been a good Kirsch angle) her ability to control some electronics, but the whole "How to Train Your XX121 Xenomorph" story element only erodes the random and terrifyingly homicidal nature of the beast. Heck, if this was a known factor, why weren't all synths in the future programmed to be Xenomorph whisperers? That'd save a lot of lives and ammo.

So, there's not really a satisfying conclusion and an obvious expectation for a season 2 greenlight. Wendy's become a homicidal warden with the most questionable of watchdogs at her command. Any remaining menace the eponymous species may have held is dissipated by this turn of events. The Eye-ctopus/Arthur zombie is shambling about somewhere on the island, Joe's in a precarious position and probably wishing he'd never met Wendy, Kavalier's probably not long for this world (they really were setting him up to be a host for the Eye-ctopus), Yutani's coming with a huge invasion force of soldiers that will end up being more gratuitous gorefests for the sake of it (unless her forces are made up of a contingent of artificial persons), more than a few people are aware of the Xenomorph's existence which throws the future developments from Alien forward into question- did the company really know or have reason to expect that the downed ship on LV426 contained XX121 eggs? After all, the Maginot crew got them from somewhere, and more than likely had notations of these things in their science logs. With all the chaos that ensued on Neverland Island, it's understandable why Yutani would compartmentalize that and all other info pertaining to the Alien so that only a very select few top execs knew anything about them. Too, they wouldn't want the other three major corporations learning about them and trying to score some Xenos for themselves, as it seems that Prodigy's future is precarious. Unless Wendy takes Boy Kavalier's place as the ethically challenged synthetic girl genius and self-appointed CEO. I guess we'll see where that leads. 

 

Agreed..!

[Seto Kaiba]

20 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

I'll say this; the show is entertaining, but it's as much to see where they're going with the story as it is for the extraordinary comedy of errors and obscene buffoonery by, more often than not, trained professionals disregarding said training and paying heavily for their negligence. This show is positively rife with improper actions and poor decisions that are just blatantly made to serve the story. Every time somebody makes a huge oopsy, they should just give a wink or a nod at the camera b/c it's like having sex in an 80s slasher film- it's all a gratuitous precursor to the ensuing chaos and death.

🤔 Yeah, it would work better as a farce or a parody wouldn't it?

Literally all that's missing is the self-awareness that comes with a farce or parody and some canned laughter.

Maybe the Xenomorph can end season two by whipping out a straw boater hat and cane and belting out a cover of "Hello, Ma Baby" like in Spaceballs...

 

 

[Big s]

Was a little behind this week and finally got to the final episode of the season. It’s a pretty lame one since I kinda feel that we didn’t get much further than the episode before. We basically left off where we left off, but slightly worse.

I till like the eye guy best. But I kinda hoped for more.

Spoiler

He gets to inhabit a corpse that shouldn’t even be able to function anymore due to damage and rigor mortis.

 

On 9/24/2025 at 5:29 AM, Test_Pilot_2 said:

I enjoyed this show. I get the cheesy tropes and stupidity, but I give the show grace and call it campiness.

I just watch it as a comedy and it really does help.

 

On 9/24/2025 at 11:57 AM, tekering said:

It was difficult for me to come to terms with this... but when Discovery, Rings of Power, and even Star Trek Into Darkness claim 84% of critics recommend them, I guess the shills have taken over. 🫣

Definitely can’t trust RT these days, but I at least enjoyed this show far more than Into Darkness and I really hate Rings of Power. 

 

On 9/23/2025 at 7:24 PM, anime52k8 said:

only thing that kind of bugs me is

  Reveal hidden contents

what's the deal with the power-washing guy?

 

He’s kinda the oddball character that doesn’t care what’s going on or is completely ignorant to all the horrors around him. He probably won’t even know the difference when the island gets taken over by Yutani and gets a new boss. He’ll just keep washing away 

 

On 9/23/2025 at 7:05 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

They are clearly banking on getting a second season, and I don't think that's going to happen.

I think they already announced it a few episodes back, like after the second or third episode, since I guess it has a pretty big audience. Not sure if that audience is loving the show or hate watching it or like me and just finding entertaining enough to want to see where things go

[Seto Kaiba]

27 minutes ago, Big s said:

I think they already announced it a few episodes back, like after the second or third episode, since I guess it has a pretty big audience. Not sure if that audience is loving the show or hate watching it or like me and just finding entertaining enough to want to see where things go

Nope, they haven't.  I checked.  Checked again before writing this too just to see if there'd been any updates.

Forbes, RottenTomatoes, Esquire, Entertainment Weekly, etc. all confirm that there has been no announcement or confirmation that a second season is in the works as recently as two days ago.  Moreover, Noah Hawley himself has apparently indicated in several interviews (incl. Entertainment Weekly) that he is "in talks" with FX about the possibility of a second season but that there hasn't been any commitment from FX's side.

Edited September 27 by Seto Kaiba

[Big s]

55 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Nope, they haven't.  I checked.  Checked again before writing this too just to see if there'd been any updates.

Forbes, RottenTomatoes, Esquire, Entertainment Weekly, etc. all confirm that there has been no announcement or confirmation that a second season is in the works as recently as two days ago.  Moreover, Noah Hawley himself has apparently indicated in several interviews (incl. Entertainment Weekly) that he is "in talks" with FX about the possibility of a second season but that there hasn't been any commitment from FX's side.

I probably heard about him talking possibilities and misremembered it.

[Hikuro]

I just double checked news outlets and pop culture related sites, there's still no announcement by FX if they'll produce a 2nd season. I'd say this is really up in the air. This series was more divisive than Romulus was. Hell I'd say the majority of us here on this thread have not necessarily a distain but very much a cringe for this series as it kept going....at first showing some promise then quickly dropping down to a frustrated level of dislike for it. The story just couldn't gain any decent pacing shifting to many different plot points that dealt more with weak drama and character development to possibly save money over visual effects and horror. 

If this series got a season 2, I would be some what surprised due to this being a Hulu tied in series, and that being discontinued here shortly leaving FX's future I think a lil uncertain.  

[Big s]

42 minutes ago, Hikuro said:

I just double checked news outlets and pop culture related sites, there's still no announcement by FX if they'll produce a 2nd season. I'd say this is really up in the air. This series was more divisive than Romulus was. Hell I'd say the majority of us here on this thread have not necessarily a distain but very much a cringe for this series as it kept going....at first showing some promise then quickly dropping down to a frustrated level of dislike for it. The story just couldn't gain any decent pacing shifting to many different plot points that dealt more with weak drama and character development to possibly save money over visual effects and horror. 

If this series got a season 2, I would be some what surprised due to this being a Hulu tied in series, and that being discontinued here shortly leaving FX's future I think a lil uncertain.  

I’m pretty sure there will be a second season more due to viewership than positive or negative feedback. I think it will end up like how all the hate watching got rings of power renewed. People really hated the show, but even though it wasn’t the best as far as viewership, that still was enough for them to keep it going despite the hate.

I’m not saying they should try for another open ending, because I don’t think season two will have as many people watching 

[Seto Kaiba]

2 hours ago, Big s said:

I’m pretty sure there will be a second season more due to viewership than positive or negative feedback. I think it will end up like how all the hate watching got rings of power renewed. People really hated the show, but even though it wasn’t the best as far as viewership, that still was enough for them to keep it going despite the hate.

I’m not saying they should try for another open ending, because I don’t think season two will have as many people watching 

Well, that begs the question... what metric (if any) is FX using to assess the show's "success"?

Are they looking at total minutes watched, average viewership, the trendline for average viewership episode-to-episode, social media engagement, review aggregator score, etc.  Have they set realistic and achievable targets for whatever metrics they're using?  Is the budget and/or licensing going to be caught up in the rampdown of Hulu as it is slowly absorbed into the Disney+ service?  If Jimmy cracks corn and nobody cares, why does he keep doing it?

These questions are examples of how it's much harder to judge if a streaming original series is a success or not since it's not dependent on publicly-accessible performance records like the Nielsen ratings.

FX is obviously going to accentuate the positive for the press because the show wasn't a complete disaster, but it's anyone's guess if they'll actually renew the series for a second season and Noah Hawley could very easily end up with (ironically) egg all over his face having crafted one of the worst and most obnoxious cliffhangers in television history only to not get renewed.

[TangledThorns]

Half-way through the series and probably the most sci-fi'ey ALIEN story yet. Best since ISOLATION imho and I'm hoping for a second season too. 

On a side note this series reminds me of the TERMINATOR series where it expanded on the movies, deservedly loved by fans but was cancelled prematurely too.  

Edited September 29 by TangledThorns