Alien: Earth just gets worse with each episode (possible spoiler–added warning).
The creator admitted he hates the prequels and doesn’t consider his show canon. Fine. But his team doesn’t seem to understand Alien. Here are my 3 biggest complaints since a few folks asked after my last post.
- Synths are white.
They represent a western or Aryan-esque idea of human “perfection” through eugenics and transhumanism. The elite models mostly speak in British accents while “labor units” tend to have Midwestern accents. This is in-line with O’Bannon et al.’s belief in working class representation and why pilots tend to be “Southerners.” It isn’t until the Synth Wars when they gain independence, began making hybrid units, and taking control of their physical appearances that we see any physical variations (think Call in A4.) The white supremacy metaphor and commentary on contemporary eugenics is lost if Synths are “diverse.” - Xenos don’t have feefees.
Can’t go into depth without spoilers on this one.
*POSSIBLE SPOILERS* - Blue deserves her/their own story, not to be turned into a white Mary Sue Peter Pan fanfic.
One of my favorite novels, period, not just sci-fi, is Alien: Cold Forge. The book gave us the bulk of xeno scientific lore and names for its gestational stages/forms, genetic reproductive material, and a few mutations. The protagonist is a disabled Black genderfluid, queer woman who is also the world’s top geneticist. A:E has taken from CF and Sea of Sorrows so far, but the hero is now a white Mary Sue. Blue deserves better.
And telepathy is an established phenomenon in the Alienverse, but humans do not communicate with xenos. Alan Decker does in SoS, but it’s due to generations of genetic splicing with Ripley DNA and it isn’t all of them. It makes sense. It’s grounded in the story and logic. I’m fine with adaptations and alternate timelines, but this show is either an extremely slow burn or the creative team do not understand the source material.
I hate A:E more than Romulus and I didn’t think that was possible.
What I do think works, and the best part of this series so far, is the young actors’ skills embodying their characters. They’re excellent. Except Wendy. The shots of her “speaking” to the xeno are so sexualized and the framing is basically a money shot.
Originally posted to Facebook: 27 August 2025