ALIEN EARTH’s first season is one of the most frustrating TV experiences of 2025.
After the big-budget premiere that crash lands ALIEN: EARTH… well, on Earth (hey, it’s not a spoiler if it’s in the title!) I had hope that Noah Hawley’s beautifully produced series would continue the momentum. Then, after three just okay episodes, where the best parts were the eyeball (once you know, you know) and the technical aspects, I started to have my doubts. However, all of those concerns were erased as Hawley delivered the series’s best episode in the stand-alone E5, which rivals some of the sequences in ALIEN and ALIENS. It’s a perfectly executed and had me on the edge of my seat. Then… things “return to Earth” for the back half, where the creators decide to focus less on the aliens and more on the prospect of the technology created for Wendy and the children on the tech billionaire island. It’s all infuriating and adds insult to injury as the show concludes on one of the most uninspiring cliffhangers. 😩
Elsewhere, there are four top-tier performances in ALIEN: EARTH.
- Sydney Chandler turns in a star-making performance as Wendy.
- Alex Lawther is at home on the screen as her brother in a role that is almost as meaty as his breakout hit, THE END OF THE F***ING WORLD.
- Timothy Olyphant’s calm, cool demeanor as Kirsh the synth is fun to watch.
- Babou Ceesay as Morrow is the bad-ass cyborg that will have audiences rooting for him in E5.
And now for some of the worst parts:
- “Show it, don’t tell it.” – The end credits rock songs. Like WTH – storytelling is not cutting to black and having a song emotionally capture what you wanted audiences to feel in what they just watched. That’s just lazy.
- “Stupid is as stupid does” – Like really. Every. Single. Character. in ALIEN: EARTH is dumb. They perform monologues as aliens are around them, make dumb choices that get them killed, and debate things that don’t need to be discussed.
- Editing: I’ve never seen so many dissolves and fade-to-blacks used in horror. At times, there will be a fantastic shot, and rather than staying on it, the creators decide to dissolve into another shot. It’s jarring and sloppy post-production work that’s noticeable, rather than being invisible (like all good editing should be).
Final Thought: “In space no one can hear your boredom” should be the tagline for ALIEN: EARTH. Do yourself a favor and watch E5 as a stand-alone and skip everything else in this “waste of space” series.
The entire first season is available on FX.
