Alien: Earth 1x04 Full Reaction!
Added 2025-09-29 18:39:39 +0000 UTC
Comments
The low viewing numbers have been surprising to me as well. Not clicked on other reactions, so I don’t know if that’s across the board with this show. Would hope it’s nothing against Hawley as that would probably mean Fargo reactions wouldn’t do too well, and the thought saddens me. Forgot to mention about the noise. It is a bit much. Boy Kavalier just dismissively referring to Joe as “the brother” does increase the desire to punch him in the face, just as his complete disrespect toward Kirsh does, though that at least balances out with Timothy selling Kirsh’s complete disdain for Boy Kavalier. That is perhaps the best part of the misattribution of Clarke’s third law to Asimov: how it gets zero reaction, implying everyone is really that done with him. I get the feeling that he has said at least once that it wasn’t over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor. The violence toward animals, it’s the bigger trigger when it’s completely gratuitous/played up for shock value. Here, though it makes sense why they bring the animal in, and it works to show how callous Boy Kavalier is, yeah, it’s a bad one here, albeit with shaky cgi at spots that my brain latched onto. Can get through most of Saw of what I’ve seen. I can NOT get through that one scene in the second one. Neat little touch of T. Ocellus adjusting to the four legs. You almost expect it to yell, “Damn your eyes!” to which, you say, “Too late.” The discovery of its high intelligence does raise the game some. Good question on the audition process for Nibs. Lily is doing great work. Kumi with Aurush has the massive stranger danger vibe, just as Boy Kavalier had the grooming subtext with Curly, and yeah, the show knows what it’s doing. It is refreshing that much though he is a nuanced villain, Kumi is still a villain, or at least is very much acting like one, and certainly crosses the line with going after Arush’s mom. and they do achieve the great balance of you really can’t hold it against Arush for what it looks like he’s going to do, much though what he’s manipulated into doing is horrible. Silly though the original chestburster’s little scoot has always looked, there always has been a certain charm to it. If nothing else, it helps one breathe some after finding out that Kane had the special. There is some strong Ellison in the subtext of this, and knowing Hawley, you knew that such an outcome similar to the story mentioned would be plausible. (Curious how much of a popularity boost did Fallout give to the film of that after the poster was featured prominently.)
Thomas Corp
2025-09-30 02:00:48 +0000 UTCAfter finishing the Best Director Oscars, my favorite moment talking about them was when I got to Life of Pi, and said it was about an Indian boy, and someone replied "You know, they prefer to be called Native Americans." On the Adapted Screenplay, I just finished Elmer Gantry and I really wish I'd seen it when we were talking about The Drumhead, since it's easily the film performance by Jean Simmons closest to that role. The sheep scene certainly has one over on the equivalent scene from Ant-Man, where I was just confused at why a lamb was supposed to be so much worse than a mouse.
Ryan
2025-09-30 01:11:58 +0000 UTCVery surprised to hear the views are struggling, since this is a really popular show. But I'm happy we can at least get the next episode, which is the one I was most looking forward to. Oh good, I'm not the only one who was physically freaked out when the noise was turned up. Some real Morty Seinfeld and velcro shit there. Samuel Blenkin just keeps turning up the smarminess every second he's onscreen, and now that he has someone he can derisively call "the brother" that just increases exponentially. They absolutely knew what everyone's gut reaction to this guy would be and are doing everything they can to play right into it. And a killer joke with him misattributing Clarke's Third Law, which the show doesn't explain at all and just leaves there for you to get if you get it. Plus the implication that this is a regular thing with him considering everyone's lack of reaction. Violence against animals is a big trigger for me, so I had a very hard time with the sheep scene despite getting through the whole Saw series without ever looking away. We can only hope this process involves killing it rather than being stuck feeling the T. Ocellus controlling it now, and quite an incredible unexpected button with it first standing on two legs before realizing it's in a quadruped. Brings up the question of just what kind of things it's used to getting into, while I fight the expectation that it'll say "What the hell are you doing in the bathroom day and night? Why don't you get out of there and give someone else a chance?" Though the scene also has one tidbit that actually got me to root for it on some level, as it turns out it has very high intelligence but was still scooped up with a bunch of animals due to not being able to communicate. It probably just wants to tell them "I was happy, floating, staring at the stars." I'm curious just how much the actresses for Nibs knew about what the role would be giving them to play during auditions, and Lily is very much making a full meal of it. As Dave Barry once put it, they've put a Sherman tank under the brainpower of a Labrador retriever, and anyone who's seen Oz knows how bad that can go. And we're still just halfway through the season so you have to wonder how much worse this can get. Hopefully there's a cat with different-colored eyes that can freak her out enough to get back under control. It's probably not at all an accident that Morrow's talks with Slightly feel so much like a groomer, and after his more humanizing moments last week it's actually kind of comforting to see that he really is that bad a guy alongside it. Plenty more dramatic irony as the show knows we know exactly what Morrow is talking about, and how badly he's misleading Slightly about it, so we truly can't blame him that much even when it seems a guy as loveable as Joe will be on the wrong end of it. That's some quality writing. And we end with probably the best looking chestburster yet seen in the entire franchise (as amazing as the original scene is, let's face it, its racing down the table looked silly even back then). Plus the possibility that it could go full A Boy and His Dog with Wendy, and all the implications if you know that story's ending. Would you really put it past anyone on the show at this point?
Ryan
2025-09-30 01:03:45 +0000 UTCOh, ok. Looking forward to sharing the rest of the season with you. Hoping the views pick up. Plenty to say. More slow burn, yet done very well. Start by addressing your one comment. You say, “When the edible hits too hard. You know what I mean?” Er, well, no, actually. Everyone all has their attention on Wendy. Kirsh keeps showing how he’s the man in charge and is BARELY restraining the urge to kill Boy Kavalier. Ah, the dismal perils of presumably being three laws compliant. Speaking of that, we already knew how stupid Boy Kavalier is. And he further demonstrates what a know nothing little shit he is by saying that it was Asimov’s third law that, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”, to which the instinctual response is to say, “That’s Clarke, you ignoramus.” with the pure Alan Rickman level of withering disdain. Shit on his chances for survival all you want, Jess. To his limited credit, he is not ENTIRELY ignorant of the danger of the xenomorph. Rather nicely shown by him asking Eins his honest opinion, and Eins is on the side of maybe think about how BAD an idea all of it is, and ask a few pertinent questions. Eins, by the way, increases the interest in him in that quick shot when he catches the ball faster than Stellan Skarsgård catches falling coffee cups, and you observe that and say, “...Good reflexes.” He also gets the good scene with Joe. Some good old corporate extortion, as you call it. I respect the game, if I’m being honest. Says something where he’s nowhere near as hateful as Boy Kavalier in his scene with Wendy and the pinky promise. You also yell at Boy Kavalier about his fundamental misunderstanding of Peter Pan, “It was Captain Hook that fought the crocodile, or more accurately, ran from the crocodile! The lost boys did not- Also, Boy, “Indian” is not the preferred nomenclature. Native American, please.” The big highlight of Eins’s big scene is that I love how he expresses some questions about the effectiveness of of the hybrid set up and poses the existential questions. Namely, did they successfully transfer the kids into the artificial bodies. A question that Arthur is even pondering: the possibility of they could have just created very a convincing AI for each of the kids, and more horrifyingly, they could have killed a bunch of kids. Speaking of Arthur, concerning his name: Well, I still keep instinctively calling him Wayne, though his name is Arthur here, so it’s cool on not catching the name. Knowing how he was a complete sweetheart as Wayne, I figured you’d like him here. Nibs raised his and Dame Sylvia’s blood pressure in her scene of the surprise pregnancy, she thinks. That scene is a terror. People do tend to forget that some of the scariest shit in the original Alien had nothing to do with gore, so the scene with Nibs being one of the more terrifying scenes to you, that tracks. I was a bit of a wiseass when she gets insistent on names if the baby is a boy or a girl, my response being, “Now, I think it’s a bit early to start imposing roles, don’t you?” Love the one lost boy insisting on being named Isaac, and Kirsh runs with it with minimal question. Love how he’s keeping tabs on the conversations between Kumi and Arush, whom you still call him Slightly. His mama named him Arush, I’m going to call him Arush. The stranger danger is real. Kumi trying to play the friend card. Friends do NOT threaten to kill a guy’s mom. Just ask Kingpin or Invincible. Makes a man yell, “Leave the mothers out of this!!” Loved all your responses to those scenes. Great moment when he snaps about Joe being there, and Joe agrees, saying it is unfair. Then there were the parts you especially hated. Much though I am sympathetic to how you would obviously hate the sheep scene, there was some amusement how you knew the score with the sheep, sort of like how you knew about the horse in The Godfather, and you have the “Oh, fuck.” sort of response. Seeing it myself, I had the, “Ah, dang.” response, knowing what your reaction would be. Thankfully, the cgi becomes more obvious at that part, as if Hawley anticipated you hating the imagery, and keeps it somewhat fake looking. Good call on the lack of picture-in-picture on youtube, though I’m watching the full reaction with no picture-in-picture, so it’s rendered somewhat irrelevant. Good call all the same. Then there’s the slithery of it all that I KNEW you would be as averse to it as you were, particularly as the original xenomorph did that scoot move rather than be slithery. As expected, you do not like the slithery. And since your phobia, which about matches the phobia of my grandma and both have rubbed off on me, I’m with you on not liking the slithery. And yet we are both Slytherins. ...Ironic. This also begs the question of what would the slithery’s dance moves be when singing Hello! Ma Baby! in it’s downtime. All in all, great reaction. One half of the series down. Looking forward to sharing the second half with you. Especially interested to hear who emerges as your favorite character. Eins, Kirsh, and Kumi are the ones duking it out for favorite of the show for me, so I await your pick. Thanks for the great reaction, Jess.
Thomas Corp
2025-09-29 20:29:47 +0000 UTC
