Long Form Xenomorphs

Well, "Terrifying Sheep" was not on my bingo card for this year in entertainment, yet here we are.

I've mentioned a few times in writing too much about the Yautja, that while I find them to be far more interesting than the Xenomorphs, the Alien franchise has much better world building than the Predator franchise.

The folks behind Alien: Earth must have realized that too, because they leaned heavily into the other aspects of that universe besides the face huggers, chest bursters and Xenomorphs the franchise is famous for. 

Granted, those were still around, because they are awesome. We also learn more about them too, finally getting answers to: 

"Can Xenomorphs be controlled?" (answer- Sorta)

and

"Can Xenomorphs be grown without sacrificing a host?" (answer- Also, sorta)

The show really focused on the highlights of that world building the franchise has stuck with since the beginning. Yes, the continuity doesn't mesh with some of the later films. I don't care. It uses the important themes and imagery consistently. I think of these franchises more like the original Conan the Barbarian tales than a straight linear universe. They are out of order, they reference things from other entries, but it doesn't all need to line up perfectly to tell a good story. Also I'm a bigger fan of the Xenomorphs as "terrifying natural occurrence" than "created by creepy robot using weird alien goo." (Although both have merit.)

The first part of that world building the show used was the overpowered corporations that really are running the earth, owned by the ultra rich who control others by tying basic necessities like health care into their jobs.

(Science Fiction, am I right? So crazy.)

The second word building thing they used that universe specializes in is the nature of artificial intelligence and what constitutes sentience. The show handles this not only with the androids (called "synthetics" ) that were in the previous entries, but also in other ways. There are cyborgs- people who have had parts replaced- are they still human? However, the core of this story is the individuals who have undergone total body replacement. There are terminally ill children who have been "uploaded" into synthetic bodies. The adult actors do an amazing job with their performances as the children. 

Both questions of:

Are the synthetic individuals human?

and 

Are they really the kids, or were the kids killed and these are new individuals?

are addressed. 

It is also clear that the answers to those questions are independent.

Marcy, renamed Wendy as the first of these newly adult, super powered children, continues the Alien Franchise's history of strong, complex and intelligent women in the lead role initiated with Ripley. Her brother, Joe, brings a human point of view for audience connection to the story, in a world filled with aliens and robots. 

Meanwhile, Kirsch provides the opposite point of view, as an android who perfectly understands why he is superior to organics. He is juxtaposed with Morrow the cyborg, who makes a strong case that a combination of the two may be the way to go.

There's another aspect of the franchise the show hit on, that more usually happens in the background (or deleted scenes) of the Alien films. The fact that the people who do go into cryosleep on those long space voyages aren't aging while the family and friends they left at home do. 

Disney synergy comes into play as well. The trillionaire Boy Cavalier is the young genius who runs the company behind "saving" the children (Named "Prodigy" naturally, a competitor with Weyland Yutani) He is obsessed with Peter Pan, and Disney owning both allows direct references to (and images from) the animated feature in this Alien story. It is used well for two reasons: 

A) Peter Pan is pretty creepy on his own, especially in the original play.

B) It shows that Boy doesn't understand the story or the characters at all, highlighting one of his many flaws, specifically that he is not as smart as he thinks he is.

The show has a bunch of new and interesting characters, that both utilize where the franchise has been before, but also build on that for new (and terrifying) ideas. 

For traditional fans, Episode 5 provides a flashback to a very typical "Xenomorph on a space ship" story. However, this crew is FAR less talented and intelligent than the ones in the films, assuring their tragedies fit into the shorter run time. 

Additionally, to keep the variety of the horror at a highly diverse and entertaining level, that ship, which crashes in a city in the opener, not only contains various stage Xenomorphs, but also metal eating giant flies, a deceptively stationary ginormous plant bulb, economy size and strength space ticks...

And the creepiest (and likely the most intelligent) of all: that eyeball parasite thing.

*SHUDDER*

This group of characters...

Yes and things...

Can bring the story line in so many wild directions. 

Bring on Season Two!

I apologize for this being all over the place. I am torn between gushing over all the cool stuff because this series was amazingly good and kept my full attention through all eight episodes, but also not wanting to spoil anything because this series was a cascade of wild surprises.

Final thought- 

In a franchise noted for people having a bad day, Arthur, probably the most compassionate character in this outing, set the record for the ABSOLUTE WORST DAY of anyone in these stories. 

Oh that poor, poor man.

Predator (and Alien, now) Index