TITLE: Alien: Earth
EPISODES: “Neverland” and “Mr. October”
DIRECTOR: Noah Hawley
NETWORK: FX & Hulu ($9.99 (USD) per month)
RELEASE DATE: August 12, 2025

The following review contains SPOILERS for episodes 1 and 2. If you wish to see a spoiler-free review of episode 1, click here. If you haven’t watched Alien: Earth yet, we encourage you to bookmark this review and return after viewing.

It’s no secret that Boss Rush Network has its fair share of Alien fans; I’ll be reviewing this season as someone who enjoys the franchise, with a particular appreciation for the films. The fact that there is a brand new television series caught my attention, especially after I enjoyed the relatively recent Alien: Romulus. Now we get the first long-form Alien story in a visual medium. It’s exciting, to say the least. This review will contain spoilers! Though that’s not saying much. These first two episodes lay a lot of information out quite plainly. And the trailer showcased more than we’ve seen so far in the two episodes that are out now.

Synopsis: Episode 1, “Neverland”:

The show begins with a black screen detailing the types of immortality humanity has chased: Synthetics, Cyborgs and the newly revealed Hybrids. Synthetics (or Synths) are full automatons, artificially intelligent highly capable but programmed computers that often look and act like people. Cyborgs are humans who have augmented their bodies with technology in some way, shape, or form. Hybrids are the new kids on the block, the distinction being that they are human consciousness transferred into a synthetic body.

After the introduction we see the crew of the USCSS Maginot waking up from cryo-sleep and sharing a meal. They consult with a Synth crew member and hear that their ship should be back on Earth in roughly four months. We also see that they are a deep space research vessel, and they’ve collected quite a few curious specimens. Some are familiar, like the Facehuggers, while others are new creatures we’ve never seen before.

After we spend some time in space, the show cuts back to Earth where we see a sick young girl, Marcy. We learn that Marcy is going to be the first person to ever undergo the procedure to become a Hybrid. Marcy dubs her new body “Wendy” and the transfer takes place. Wendy wakes up, a success that sets the precedent for future experiments. Along the way, we learn about the newest corporation on Earth: Prodigy. Prodigy is run by the worlds youngest trillionaire, Boy Kavalier. After Wendy’s success, Prodigy announces that she will no longer be alone, and they have other children who will join her as Hybrids.

Back in space, the USCSS Maginot is in disarray as the ship’s alarms are sounding. Morrow, the Cyborg who seemed to be the captain of the mission is in the computer room running diagnostics with the Mother computer. A crew-mate runs into the door that seals the room and begs for entry, but Morrow doesn’t respond and, in fact, uses an enhanced arm structure to weld the door shut. His crew-mate is then slaughtered by the first major reveal of a Xenomorph. Morrow works to secure some information and locks himself in the “impact room” as the Xenomorph breaks its way into the quarters. Alerts chime “Collision imminent,” and the ship careens toward the Earth.

We’re then introduced to Joe Hermit, thanks to Wendy’s voice-over. We learn through her exposition that he is her brother, and he serves as a military medic and is currently stationed in Prodigy City, New Siam. Shortly after his introduction, we meet some of his team members on the roof of a military building. While they exercise and chat, the USCSS Maginot drops along the horizon and collides into the city’s center. Joe is part of the Search and Rescue team that’s immediately on site to help any injured in the crash.

Morrow busts out of the impact room and finds the ship in shambles, spotting the incoming Search and Rescue team. Morrow asks Mother to contact Weyland-Yutani headquarters for backup. Meanwhile, Wendy sees the crash on the news and volunteers to take some of the other Hybrids to rescue and clean up. Boy Kavalier wants to keep the ship since it’s on Prodigy’s land. He also wants to see how “The Lost Boys” can handle the situation. Wendy suits up with a broken paper cutter she wields as a sword and readies the team of Hybrids for a mission.

The Search and Rescue team make their way through the destroyed building and onto the crashed ship, looking for survivors. Morrow manages to isolate two of the team and locks them up unintentionally with one of the freed specimens. The bug-like creature gives us another gruesome death by piercing Hoyt’s jugular and engorging itself on his blood. The rest of the Search and Rescue squad finds a cryo-sleep chamber with a dead body, its chest erupted in the center and broken glass from the pod. As they exit the room, we see the corpse of a Facehugger in another separate cryo-sleep pod. The episode ends shortly after we see an exchange between some of “The Lost Boys” and Kirsh as they fly to their destination.

Synopsis: Episode 2, “Mr. October”

The opening credits function as a quick “Last time on…” scene setter. This episode begins back with Joe Hermit and the Search and Rescue squad discovering even more crew of the USCSS Maginot dead in a med-bay. Joe notes the code on a display, and the last entry being a scan for foreign bodies in the deceased’s GI tract. The Search and Rescue team make their way to a stairwell of the building the ship crashed into and leap to a lower level. Joe is the last to make the jump and is pursued by a Xenomorph, falling to a lower level than his comrades. Joe gets chased, but is able to escape into an elevator and seal himself off from the alien.

We see a flashback of Joe trying to resign from his position the day prior to the current events. His resignation was to attempt to go off-world to Mars and study to become a doctor, honoring his father’s wishes. Wendy is watching him through Prodigy’s video feeds, and even modifies the response of the HR robot Joe is talking to, something no one at Prodigy expected her to be able to do.

Back in the current events, The Lost Boys and Kirsh arrive on scene and start looking for ways to assist. Kirsh is on a mission for asset retrieval and containment. Wendy starts using her ability to do wireless interfacing to scan all camera for her brother, locating him while he’s in the elevator. The team from Neverland head into the wreck, dividing into two smaller teams. Wendy and Slightly make their way toward Joe, and Kirsh takes the others to find out what the ship was transporting. Along the way Smee, Nibs, and Curly find the two men who were bound to the pipes by Morrow, drained dry by the bug-like creatures. They also find the crew’s cat, which is deformed and has a massive eye as well as broken back legs. The enlarged eyeball (our first look at the alien life-form T. Ocellus) crawls out of the cat, leaving its corpse behind and attacks Nibs. Smee and Nibs are able to fend it off and catch it under a bin.

Joe, who is deeper into the building’s lower levels, runs into another Search and Rescue member and they try to evacuate some folks who are throwing a Victorian themed party. The upper class folks don’t take them seriously and shut the two out. A Xenomorph reveals it was hiding by blending in with a statue behind them and kills Joe’s teammate, who fires off his weapon while dying. The party-goers open the door to see the commotion and unwittingly invite the Xenomorph in where it immediately kills everyone. Joe grabs a gun and tries to follow it, but is ambushed. Just before the Xenomorph can kill Joe, Morrow appears with a weapon that electrocutes and stuns the Xenomorph. Morrow also turns this weapon on Joe, before encasing the Xenomorph in a sticky cocoon and dragging it away.

While Morrow is attempting to exit the area he’s apprehended by a much larger Search and Rescue squad. They take too much time and the Xenomorph wakes up and breaks out of its containment and slaughters everyone, aside from Morrow. Joe wakes up from being stunned and explores the rich folks house, discovering a 1977 World Series baseball thrown by Reggie Johnson. Wendy and Slightly discover Joe and recruit him to join their search. Kirsh interfaces with the ship’s computer and gathers intel, as well as locating a set of six eggs. Kirsh instructs all of The Lost Boys to make their way to that location.

As Joe journeys with Wendy, Slightly lets it slip that they are synthetic bodies. Slightly goes on to say that they were children, one named Marcy, who were put into these forms. Joe says his sister’s name was Marcy, and Slightly immediately confirms that Wendy is Joe’s sister. Joe states that his sister died, but they exchange information, and he comes to believe that Wendy is indeed his sister. The three arrive at the room with the six eggs ahead of the other Lost Boys. The episode ends on a cliffhanger as a Xenomorph reveals itself and yanks Joe through a large gap in the room further into the interior of the destruction.

Analysis: Episodes 1 and 2

Delicious Design and Details

This show has a wonderful blend of practical effects and digital effects. It’s clear that the folks who were working on this cared about making things look and feel right. Details blend so well. From the grimy uniforms the crew wears on the USCSS Maginot to the Facehugger and its creepy friends. The Xenomorph is the stand-out star in this department, and that’s no surprise. But it’s so clear that there was a shared vision of getting the tone right, and it has been executed on very well this far.

Another stellar example of blending the physical and digital goes to Morrow. His cyborg hand has a wide array of tricks, which I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of. The way his skin is partially clear and how you can see the structure beneath it gave me chills. The first time he extruded his in-built torch, you could see his finger “bones” move out of the way, a gross and wonderful detail. I hope going forward that we see other cyborgs with enhancements that make the most of the setting.

There are a few details I’m keen to know more about, and in particular I want to know more about the three faces on Boy Kavalier’s wall. There’s a moment in the first episode where a scene transitions from Boy Kavalier reading Peter Pan to those faces and they fade overlayed onto a statue of three monkeys. The monkeys in question portray the classic phrase “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil”, and the framing and editing make it seem like there may be more going on with Boy Kavalier than we’re aware of.

Tonal Problems

This series is very well set up to be a dark science-fiction story. The moral and ethical dilemma of putting a child into an adult-like body that can never age and potentially never die is just the tip of the iceberg. People in-universe are already off-put by Synths, and these new Hybrids are even more uncanny. The way this comes through is by the portrayal of these adult looking people acting like their 10-12 year-old brains are used to. The viscerally upsetting nature of seeing these children inhabiting these bodies is fantastic, and so far the actors have showcased the ability to play in that space very well.

One of the stumbling blocks for my viewing was seeing the rest of the cast, because they seemed almost entirely detached from what’s happening. The upper class victorian themed party was maybe a clever juxtaposition–in the way that rich people don’t seem to think anything that isn’t clear and present danger will effect them–a scathing indictment of the wealthy. However, moments like Joe reading out the medical code and staring at a body that was ripped open without even flinching and saying roughly “that means it’s aliens” was about as bad as Marvel’s wink and nod jokes playing directly to the audience. There are other cases of stiff dialogue that I’d like to write off as accurate for the character, but they just didn’t land well enough for me. Another example is at the end of the first episode when Wendy is talking about rescuing her brother. She says, “No, he’s not gonna die, I’m gonna save him”. It’s delivered so plainly that I want to give it grace as a line from a 12 year-old trying to say something cool, but it’s so bland and flat.

Oddly there are standouts, like Morrow. He is so terrifyingly rigid and intimidating, which makes him seem like a Synth, but his humanity comes through a few times. His mission may be unclear at the moment, but he’s easily the most interesting character to try and figure out. The only time he ever breaks from stoicism is after the Xenomorph takes out a whole squadron of armed para-military. The Xenomorph lurks behind him, and we do see Morrow sweating under the pressure. The tension in moments like that were wonderful, and the consistency of Morrow’s characterization helped to really sell it.

In this same vein, I have to talk about the elephant in the room. Wendy’s Sword. Before being sent out to rescue her brother Wendy is the only one of the kids who is seen in any way preparing for the mission. In what could have been a cute scene in any other franchise, she grabs a paper cutter and breaks the blade off as well as a little plush from her collection. She slaps this weapon on to her back, where it remained for the whole second episode. I assume in the future she’s going to have a badass moment, which I will look forward to. But she made it past Boy Kavalier, Kirsh, and an entire platoon of para-military grunts with this blade magnetically dangling on her back. No one mentioned it, no one tried to stop her. It feels like the most pointless and obvious contrived tool that will magically come into play in a critical moment. If I wanted to watch an alien get sliced in half hot-dog style I’d re-watch AVP!

Final Score

I want to be clear, I enjoyed the time I spent watching this show. There are other details like the soundtrack and some of the way the show is shot that I appreciated. I think there is promise in what is here, and I’m excited to see more of the wacky creatures that Noah Hawley cooked up. I am hopeful that my current expectations will be met or exceeded going forward, considering the scope of the show is much greater than anything we’ve seen so far. I also think that these first two episodes had a two-hour total runtime, and the first hour was much stronger than the second. The second episode felt like it was dragging its feet on several occasions, which took the wind out of the sails from the first episode’s superior pacing. There are editing choices like layering footage on top of other scenes that I hope is unique to these first episodes.

Tell us what you think! How did you feel about the premiere episodes of Alien: Earth? Share your reactions in the comments below or join the conversation on Boss Rush Network’s Discord, Facebook, and Twitter.

Featured Image: FX Networks