As one of the most influential horror films of all time, there is a DNA to the Alien world, and Hawley’s production pays great homage to Scott’s original work. From the designs of the space ships that echo the Nostromo, outstanding creature effects to bring to life the xenomorphs in all their mortifying glory, and a musical score from Jeff Russo that creates a chilling soundscape that builds on the motifs of Jerry Goldsmith’s original musical themes, Alien: Earth feels like a glorious return to the franchise’s beginning. With staggering sets that capture the immense scope of the series, while still creating the claustrophobic tension that has defined the series, the production design of the entire series evokes the grandeur of cinema for the small screen. The storytelling itself has many callbacks to the original film, especially in the second, third and fifth episodes which play out the classic Alien storyline with the xenomorph hunting its down victims, while building to a terrifying new evolution for the season’s final two episodes which this reviewer cannot wait to see when they premiere in September.

While primarily a horror franchise, Alien has always been rich with ideas and compelling ideas that made the films a more compelling science fiction story beyond the fact that they took place in outer space and featured aliens. And even though Alien: Earth does not forget its horror roots and creates many terrifying set pieces that will have audiences shaking in fear at home, Hawley develops and evolves the ideas prevalent in the films unlike previously seen before in the franchise. The exploration of humanity has always been prominent with the synthetic characters like Bishop, David and Walter, but Hawley deepens this with the introduction of cyborgs and hybrids and playing the three different types of android against each other to create cautionary messaging about technology as well as posing the questions: what makes humans human? Combined with the corporate competition between the Prodigy Corporation, the central corporation in this series, and the Weyland-Yutani Corporation which enriches the corporate greed and indifference towards human life that was the instigating force behind the films, Hawley has a strong thematic base to build off of for the rest of this season, and future seasons should the series get renewed. The time given by the episodic nature allows a deeper exploration of these ideas, with the contrasting personalities and reactions of the hybrids to the introductions of alien life on Earth fuelling the rising tension of the story between alien attacks. It is compelling, rich storytelling that makes for great prestige television that will have audiences eagerly awaiting the next episode every week, while still maintaining that blood curdling, brutally gory terror that has made Alien a pillar of the horror genre.But most importantly, while the events of this series take place two years before the original film, Hawley is not rewriting Alien lore. Instead, he is supplementing it and providing suggestions as to the happenings within the Weyland-Yutani Corporation that led to the events on the Nostromo that led Ridley face to face with a xenomorph. In doing so, he fills in the gaps in the series’ mythology with logical answers that work with the stories of Scott and James Cameron in previous films, while not being bound by them and creating his own sinister new story within the beloved franchise. And with the introduction of new species of deadly aliens and their primal instinct to stalk and hunt their victims, high intelligence and the hierarchy within the food chain amongst the different species, this is a brave new world for the Alien franchise that is certain to delight, thrill and most importantly, makes viewers scream.