The most important decisions on Earth make sense

WARNING: This article contains spoil For the first two episodes of “Alien: Earth”.

In an adequate development for this particular franchise, the idea of individuality remains at the forefront of “Alien: Earth” during its first two episodes. The FX series of Creator Noah Hawley stands out as the first instance of the property that migrates from the big screen to television transmission, but it is also the last instance of an “author” (due to lack of a better word) that tries its material and injects its own sense of style … mostly, at least. As Chris Evangelista de /Film wrote in his review, almost all the previous films brought something fresh and new to the image. The first six films could not be more different from each other, boldly holding the line against the mentality of great modern success that prioritize the self -referential stories and aesthetics above all.

That is what makes it even more disappointing that, for an IP always about innovation on imitation, “Alien: Earth” falls into that trap with one of its most important decisions at the beginning. When the premiere begins, we are treated for a new version of the opening of the classic “Alien” of 1979 by Ridley Scott. A spacecraft that slides through the vacuum next to a ringed planet would only have been sufficient, relieveing us in a new story about the xenomorph (and other creatures) that lands on earth through the use of a little nostalgia. But then there are several establishments of family-looking rooms completely devoid of humans, an exact replica of the crio-waring camera with the crew waking up as they did in the original, and (most of the recreational ones of the breakfast scene of the same superimposed croveta.

However, as exhausting as this is from an inherited sequel perspective, he adds insult to the injury that the entire structure of this sequence makes little logical sense.

When reverence for a classic turn in servile devotion? “Alien: Earth” proves the limits of that limit from the beginning, launching to the head viewers this series of prequel by default to the most famous and familiar images of the entire franchise. We quickly approach the interior of the USCSS Maginot, described as a Weyland-Yutani container that we soon learn that it is intended for research in deep space. The crew complement is made up of blue -neck workers (together with a quite acting synthetic) and all are eager to list their complaints with the company. All this makes sense for a program made by a staunch fan of the first film, not very different from an avid fan of “Star Wars” like JJ Abrams more or less convert “The Force Awakens” into a long -term tribute for “a new hope.”

However, where this falls apart is in the real narrative logic of what “Alien: Earth” is trying to achieve compared to “Alien”. The nostromo spacecraft that provides the 1979 film stage was a mining ship, of course, owned by Weyland-Yutani but explicitly designed for cargo transport. The fact that his greasy and sandy staff ends entangled with the terrifying plot of Xenomorph is completely circumstantial (in terms of the plot): in an ideal version of the film, they would never have finished crossing the roads with the planetoid LV-426 and, instead, they would have gone to their cheerful shape in the spatial space. So why the hell (or outside the earth, rather) a ship like the Maginot, made for exploration and research in deep space, would also share the same exact aesthetics as the nostromo?

There is nothing inherently bad in nostalgia, in itself, but it certainly becomes a major problem when it begins to distract, or worse, directly contradict the greatest story that is told.

Being fair with “alien: Earth”, it makes a certain sense that this The production of any other simulated the style and tone of “alien.” It is established only two years before the “Alien” events, and certainly there is a thematic argument that a corporation as cold and without soul like Weyland-Yutani would produce its spacecraft, regardless of its real purpose. After all, what better way to emphasize the traditional idea of the franchise of capitalism that moves humanity to the bone until there is nothing left to apply a unique approach to its vast cosmic empire? In another, a better version of this program, the writing team could have been making this exact comment. However, according to the first two episodes of the series, there is little evidence of support that this is actually the case.

The most frustrating thing is that Ridley Scott, of all people, already showed us the way to continue with his prequels “Prometheus” and “Alien: Covenant”. The two films attracted a lot of Fandom to diverge the tone and the established images of the originals so blatantly, if you remember, but that was completely the point. Scott decided to use the safety of the great success franchise to tell a very different story about ideas of high mentality of the origins of our species, the human ego and the devastating consequences of the unofficial ambition. To reflect that, he populated these films (but especially “Prometheus”) with very specific characters, not the equivalent of space waiters, since “alien” focuses so memorably, but excessive scientific minds in brilliant technology and the comforts of the rich. Gone are the wet halls and Lovecraftian of Nostromo and LV-426, replaced by artificially clean and sterile confines of the latest generation spacecraft.

Scott understood that different functional needs require a different formalistic approach, but the same cannot be said of “alien: Earth”, at least in the first episodes. There is still a lot of time for the rest of the season to change hearts and minds, even winning the greatest skeptics. New episodes of “Alien: Earth” stream in FX and Hulu every Tuesday.