Alien Earth Episode 3 titled Metamorphosis dropped last week, Im keeping up with the series but with so much content Im a bit behind on posting about it and Im a bit confuse with the show descions or north, trying to figure out what the hell is happening with this show, where we started with this promising concept about xenomorphs threatening our planet and now we got all this unnecessary drama thats slowly killing the vibe. This episode feels like they took the Alien franchise and decided to throw in a bunch of soap opera elements that nobody asked for, making the actual aliens feel like side characters in their own show. The opening scene has Wendy still chasing after her brother Joe who got dragged away by the xenomorph at the end of last episode, but instead of focusing on this tense situation we get sidetracked by all these other Lost Boys who are more interested in collecting specimens than actually rescuing anyone. Boy Cavaliere makes it clear that forget about saving people, its time to grab all the valuable alien creatures because apparently they are worth trillions of dollars, which completely shifts the focus from survival horror to corporate greed. The theater setting with old band posters really drives home how much civilization has been lost, but then the show undermines this atmosphere by having characters argue about their fake names and identity crisis instead of dealing with the immediate threat. Wendy finally finds Joe tied up in a container and hes screaming at her not to come closer because its obviously a trap but she goes anyway because thats what the script needs her to do. The whole rescue sequence should be terrifying but it turns into this weird action movie where Wendy basically becomes a superhero with a paper cutter blade, which is just ridiculous when you think about it, that wont do shit to an armored 8 feet tall Xenomorph.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13623632/
- Platform: HULU
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The xenomorph was supposed to be this perfect killing machine gets taken down way too easily by Wendy actually feels disrespectful to Ripley who fought hard on the 79 movie cmon and now there is Wendy who apparently has superpowers now and can decapitate aliens without breaking a sweat, on top of discovering the weak point of a Xenomorph thats his second mounth, so many movies and nobody though of that??. This completely destroys everything that made the xenomorphs scary through all this years, they were supposed to be these unstoppable creatures that required incredible effort and sacrifice to defeat but here Wendy just chops ones head and when we look at the images latter on, its a clean cut, katana style. At this point sadly I have to admit this is exactly the opposite of what an Alien franchise should be doing, then after killing the xenomorph Wendy collapses and starts bleeding that white synthetic blood, which leads to more drama about her being different and special instead of focusing on the horror of what just happened. On the other side of the group there are the other Lost Boys, having conversations about why they couldn't choose their own names and what it means to be trapped in synthetic bodies, which feels like dialogue from a completely different show about teenage angst rather than alien horror. There is this scene where one of the girls is complaining about not getting to pick a normal name like Wendy and Im thinking why are we having this conversation when there are literal monsters running around trying to kill everyone, I get how this could be trying to expand the drama and turn this kids into actual monsters too so there are more threads on the series and not only Aliens anymore, but I also get this feeling the show keeps cutting between these pointless character moments and the actual alien threat, which kills all the tension and makes everything feel disjointed and unfocused. Morrow shows up again and starts questioning the Lost Boys about their nature, trying to figure out if they are really synthetics or something else, but even this potentially interesting storyline gets bogged down in unnecessary exposition.
The whole specimens collecting subplot takes over way too much of the episode, with Kirsh and the team grabbing five different alien species including the xenomorph eggs that should be treated with way more caution than they are showing. Boy Cavaliere is practically drooling over all these creatures like hes won the lottery, which makes sense from a corporate perspective but completely undermines the horror elements that should be driving this show. When they bring all the specimens back to Neverland its treated more like a science fair than a dangerous situation involving deadly alien life forms, the characters are way too casual about handling creatures that could potentially wipe out humanity. The scene where Boy Cavaliere almost gets face hugged because he puts his face right up to an egg is supposed to be tense but it just makes him look stupid, and Kirsh has to pull him away while explaining how the aliens work like hes giving a nature documentary. The whole dynamic between the different factions is getting more complex with Utani trying to recover the specimens from Prodigy, but this corporate warfare angle feels like it belongs in a different show entirely. Morrow calling his boss and refusing to come back until he gets the specimens creates this subplot about corporate loyalty versus personal obsession, which might be interesting in another context but here it just adds more unnecessary complications to what should be a straightforward survival story. The introduction of all these different alien species beyond the xenomorphs feels like the show is trying to create this expanded universe instead of focusing on what made the original Alien movies so effective.
Nibs is having an identity crisis about being trapped in a synthetic body she doesnt want, spoiler alert it gets WAY more wild on episode 4, but her trauma leads to this philosophical discussions about what makes someone human that feel completely out of place in an Alien story. She spends most of her screen time staring in mirrors and questioning her existence, which might work in a drama about artificial intelligence but here it just slows down the pacing when we should be dealing with the Alien threat, they really seem like trying to tame down the Xenomorph presence, yeah there is yet not a full grown one with them but Im sure its about to pop from Joe old lung. Curly is trying to compete with Wendy for Boy Cavalieres attention creating this weird love triangle that has nothing to do with the core concept of aliens threatening Earth and I wonder if that bubble is going to explode at some point creating friction between her and Wendy although been Wendy I doubt she comes back at Curly. The way they handle these character relationships feels more like a teen drama than a horror series, with characters arguing about favoritism and jealousy while literal monsters are running around. Slightly gets manipulated by Morrow through some kind of remote communication system that Im 1000% sure they going to catch and will be prepare for when Morrow arrive to Neverland, setting up this subplot about infiltration and espionage that again distracts from the main alien storyline. Now the really interested part of the episode is Wendy hearing the alien communications at the end, should be a terrifying revelation the reason for this is that you now have the potential to have one of your super hybrids be friend with a Xenomorph, thats fkn epic, imagine Wendy turning on the Xenomorph side and ends up they come in peace? well we know they dont.
Looking back at this episode I really feel like the show is losing its way by trying to develop too many different side stories instead of focusing on what should be its core, Wendy and the Xenomorph. The Xenomorphs that were supposed to be the main attraction are getting reduced to plain backdrop and instead they decide to talk about corporate politics, identity issues and teenage drama that doesn't fit in this Alien universe. When Wendy easily kills the alien it destroys the migthy presence of the Xenomorph on the show overall, I feel now this sence that they can do as they please with the Xenomorph instead be the other way, making these creatures feel less threatening than they should be in a franchise built around their lethality. The pacing feels all over the place with important alien discoveries getting rushed while we spend way too much time on conversations about synthetic bodies and corporate hierarchies, one thing I would be more interested is the powers and skills of all this aliens but I guess its just too much to bite. They have to shift gears at some point and hopefully is on the next episodes, if not the show is going to become just another generic science fiction drama that happens to have aliens in it, rather than a proper entry in the Alien franchise that understands what makes these creatures so terrifying. The whole concept of having children minds in adult synthetic bodies creates this weird dynamic where characters act immature during life threatening situations, which undermines the tension and makes everything feel less serious than it should be. Im hoping next episodes will refocus on the alien threat, they kinda does but make them stop getting distracted by all these side plots that belong in different shows, because right now it feels like we are watching multiple series that got mixed together by accident. The Alien franchise works best when it focuses on survival horror and the unstoppable nature of the xenomorphs, not when it gets bogged down in corporate intrigue and synthetic philosophy that dilutes the core experience.
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