Alien: Earth 1x03 Full Reaction!
Added 2025-09-22 14:27:53 +0000 UTC
Comments
That is always the tricky thing of older franchises of how to convey the exposition in a healthy manner. And we can’t always have Ian Holm available. Still didn’t mind that one much, though I take your points that you raised on the retroactive plotholes. Here they are getting the information across well with the good excuse of they are kids. Similar Skeleton Crew energy of they are sheltered kids who are quite behind on such things like Alderaan. Good notes on Morrow and Kirsh being quite the sharp cookies. Did not think of that ajar answer, though reading it makes me sound like Joel when Ellie made the diarrhea dad joke, as I said, “...Jesus, that is so goddamn stupid.” Knowing how Hawley plays with arcs, there was the thought that the situation on the ship would conclude before the end. Bigger surprise is the one specific xenomorph dying early, poor Linda. First I’ve heard of a seasons long plan, looking forward to that as it does seem a foregone conclusion given the reviews and ratings. Mom has to look away at that part with LaBoeuf. Looking up Lily Newmark, I see she was in Solo, though I’m not recalling who she was in that. Maybe part of the gang led by Enfys Nest? Not seen her in anything outside of that or this. I’m behind on A Gentleman in Moscow, though it is on my list. Mom watches Morning Joe a lot, and Ewan was on there to help promote it, which I caught that, and the show sounds like it’d be right up my alley. And I’m sold with Mary Elizabeth Winstead being in it. The last twenty years now: Mary being in anything, I’m down. Mark me down. I am down. Nibs has the look that does stick with ya, and makes you commit to the decision to keep an eye on her. The knowing the foreknowledge thing: That’s been the case with the Star Wars shows, especially Clone Wars leading into Revenge of the Sith. Was interesting starting the rewatch of Bad Batch before even completing the first watch through, so I hear what you’re saying. Here’s to the new golden age of Alien.
Thomas Corp
2025-09-22 18:40:54 +0000 UTCReiterating the love for these reactions, Jess. Small sidenote: So, we already have Betty as the T-Rex of Jurassic Park, and any T-Rex. (Save for Rex in Toy Story.) And now you say that Linda is your name for the xenomorph. Ok. Good name. I await your decision to continue. Now to the episode. And yes, in addition to loving how this show is another entry in the series to recreate the original iconic title opening of the original film, there is the shared liking how the show handles the “Antecedently on Alien Earth...” segments of the show. The lost boys continue to do the good work under Kirsh’s supervision. Kirsh sounding kind of like a dad with the kids. Love your assessment of the myriad of ways we can explore the lost boys. Like the talk between Curly and Nibs where Nibs wonders why they couldn’t keep their names, to which Curly raises the fair thought of secrecy reasons. Nibs concedes the point, though raises the additional question of why they couldn’t choose their own names, and Curly admits that she has no answer to that, barring that maybe the people in charge were being cute. Real reason being that Kavalier is an asshole. This doesn’t even cover the question of the Smee of it all. Great Linda action with Joe and Wendy. “Here’s Linda!” as you say. Love your gasp when Joe sees the xenomorph’s head lopped off. And before he got the chance to yell, “Get away from her, you BITCH!!” Both siblings are then out for the episode. Morrow crossing paths with the boys and showing how perceptive he is was a hell of a scene, complete with the sass off between him and Kirsh. I think Morrow gives off fear. It’s why the eggs started to hatch in the one scene. Leaves an interesting enigma, for sure. Morrow and Kirsh are following the traditions of Malvo, Varga, a man. The characters that most prominently espouse Hawley’s more overtly philosophical dialogue. Love the praise you give to Kirsh trying to make things clear to Kavalier who blithely dismisses shit as Kavalier thinks it’s a simple hunting game. And under different circumstances, in a different franchise, maybe the hubris isn’t unwarranted. Kirsh is wise to what’s up. It really is a matter of perspective: You say “tiger”, that’s one situation. You say “xenomorph”, that’s a different situation. Cost you three times as much. Something Kirsh conveys through the stoic sass. Timothy does have the skill of stoic sass. It was well shown in Die Hard 4 where although not as delicious as Alan Rickman or Jeremy Irons as our dear beloved Gruber brothers, it did make him an effective villain against John McClane. You roll your eyes when Kavalier likens it all to an undiscovered country, and you snidely quip, “Easy there, Shaxberd.” Love Kirsh’s pure dad/grandpa moment of shooing the kid out of the garage move with Kavalier after verifying the one hypothesis. Him actually listening to Kirsh does finally establish that the moron IS in possession of a working brain, albeit completely problamatic with his scene with Curly sounding perilously close to sounding like he’s begging for Chris Hansen to give him a call. Love your assessment of that scene. He also really did not need to be mean to Wayne, er, sorry, Arthur is his name in this show. The praise for the silent acting extends to Adrian as Eins. Eins, as I said, is one of my picks for favorite of the show. Being played by Adrian helps. How he has that Mike Ehrmantraut and/or the Mark Hamill portrayal of Arthur Gordon Pym: Right hand man, who is loyal, yet has the indications that he’s not always in agreement with those he serves, shown here by the rather grim look he has on his face when the specimens are brought in. A look that says he knows the whole thing is a bad idea. Yet he still does his job, shown in the scene of him questioning the boys in the intimidating though not impolite manner. He strikes me as a man who adheres to the Joubert way of life of not much concerning himself with “Why?” and instead favors thinking more often in terms of “When?”. Sometimes “Where?”. Always “How much”. Love the further peeling back the layers of Morrow, which reveals him to be a very long-lived cyborg. You and I both did not strictly speaking think about that. Tracks though. We did see that David was born around the time when Weyland was middle aged going by how Guy Pearce was pushing fifty in that cameo. Stands to reason that Yutani would have someone also in long standing service to the family. He’s going stranger danger on poor Slightly who gets interrupted from spending his downtime watching Epic. (Never seen that one either, and I had to look that one up.) Whatever intended symbolism is in that one, if any, again, over my head, unlike the symbolism in the new Daryl and Carol episode where the film symbolism is instantly picked up. Love how you called out “Don’t let the bed bugs bite.” as being an awful thing to say to someone who went through Slightly’s experience. Also, the phrase is bullshit: there is no not letting the bed bugs bite. They’ll bite regardless of consent, and it’s a TREMENDOUS pain in the ass. (And everywhere else too.) Shared feeling bad for Joe and his lung. Which the latter now has the mini facehugger put in there by Kirsh. Complete with Kirsh having even more of a Colin Clive vibe to him with the goggles on. Mystery abounds with Wendy hearing the creatures. It seems to be the implication, yes, indicating a link of some kind. How that all works, not to mention how it’s established, that is the 64,000 dollar question. Thus leaving things off with this episode. I say again that I would love to continue to share this show with you, Jess. However, if that is not in the cards, I hope you enjoy the rest of the show. Just hope that you have the best of times with the show, and I wish you all the best of luck with the busy week. Thank you for the great reaction, take care, Jess.
Thomas Corp
2025-09-22 18:21:50 +0000 UTCOne of the more awkward parts of adding a new part to a franchise like this is how to bring the new characters up to speed on the rules without boring the audience who already know it all. And this certainly goes down easier than a lecture from the ghost of Ian Holm, helped a ton by Slightly and Smee being such believable kids in adult bodies, now getting to play off the previously implacable Morrow who's suddenly faced with something he never thought he'd have to deal with. And you fully buy that he and Kirsh are both smart enough to put the pieces together as quickly as they do so everyone can be on the same page and we can move on. It was also nice to read reviews of the episode and find I wasn't the only person who immediately thought the answer to "When is a machine not a machine" was "When it's ajar." The big shocking and exciting thing here is that halfway through the episode, we're already finished with what a lot of people probably assumed would be the whole season, and the question becomes what could be in store in the more than half of it left to go, plus the multi-season plan that Hawley's talked about (at the moment there's no official word on renewal, but the huge ratings and critical acclaim make it a pretty safe bet). Most of all, we already lost Gil, and I honestly felt bad for him going out so painfully with his tongue ripped out. Kind of weird that it's not in his Coen Brothers show that Hawley shows someone getting LaBoeuf'd. Lily Newmark really gets to be impressive here as we go deep into how badly Nibs is being affected by her transition. She really needs a thermometer in the mouth and all better. I don't know how they did the shot of her touching her eye and I don't really want to, because I have to look away however much it's clear it doesn't actually hurt her. The one thing I've seen her in before is A Gentleman in Moscow, where she showed a lot of promise, and I've seen she was also in Sex Education with Ncuti so that's more motivation to finally check it out. That haunted look on her face will seep into your soul, and already had me dreading how far this could be going. It's a bit odd to realize this is the last episode I'll be able to talk about here without foreknowledge of the ending. But I have total faith with how good the rest of the season has been that it'll nail this, and if the rest of the franchise can take the proper cues here we may be in for a new golden age of Alien.
Ryan
2025-09-22 17:56:47 +0000 UTC
