Episode Review: Alien: Earth Episode 1 - "Neverland"

Welcome back to the blog readers. As you know by now, I have had a contentious relationship with horror films, with this year being the best year for horror I have seen thus far. I have not yet had the distinction of watching a strictly horror series, but there is no better time to start than now, and no better place to start than the rejuvenated Alien (1979-) franchise. Would this premiere episode, titled "Neverland," and written and directed by Noah Hawley, be a worthy addition to the pantheon of 2025 horror? Let us find out.

NOTE: I will be using spoilers for my thoughts, so DO NOT read ahead if you have not seen the episode.

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Like I alluded to in the introductory paragraph, the Alien franchise has basically been dead to rights, but last year's brilliant Alien: Romulus (2024) definitely reignited the desire to see more of this world. I was initially unsure of what to make of this series, but the positive word of mouth definitely won out for me. And thank goodness I listened, because this is a solid premiere that sets the tone pretty quickly. And I found myself gravitating towards the performances of Sydney Chandler and Babou Ceesay.

I want to start by talking about the performance of Babou Ceesay. I want to preface my thoughts with the notation that I had no idea who this gentleman was before I put this episode on last night. And even though he has a small role in Rogue One (2016) (aka Disney's best Star Wars film), I was excited to see what he would bring to the table. As the cyborg Morrow, Ceesay delivers a coldness that truthfully is addicting to watch. I personally think it is on the same level of David Jonsson's performance in the aforementioned Romulus. We did not get to see a whole bunch of Ceesay in this episode, but I have a feeling this kind of performance is going to stick and we are going to have our next breakout star.

And to wrap up the performance side of this episode, I want to talk about Sydney Chandler. Fun fact: as I was preparing for this review, I learned Sydney is the daughter of one of my favorite guys in the business in Kyle Chandler (who will appear in next year's Lanterns (2026) as Hal Jordan)). She has appeared in such projects thus far as Don't Worry Darling (2022) and Sugar (2024). In this episode, as the hybrid Wendy, Chandler displays some of the same coldness that Ceesay does, but she also does an amazing job of giving off the emotions that a newborn hybrid in this world can give. I also appreciated what she was able to do with the arc she was given in the episode, and I definitely have someone to root for throughout the remainder of the season.

Now I want to talk about the story of this episode because I think we definitely have something special in the wings. The episode starts with a bit of text that explains that there are three ways for people to achieve immortality: through cyborgs, synths, or hybrids (human consciousness transferred into a synthetic body). As this happens, we are introduced to the crew of the USCSS Maginot. This ship is on a retrieval mission to bring specimens from all over the galaxy to Earth, led by their unnamed captain. We learn a bit about the crew and their backgrounds before we find out one of the specimens, also known as the Xenomorph (or as I will call him in this series, Big Ugly), escapes confinement and kills the whole crew minus cyborg Morrow, who is able to hide from Big Ugly.

Meanwhile, on an unspecified part of Earth designated as "Neverland Island," Marcy is an 11-year old girl with a terminal illness who has come to the island to get better. She meets Prodigy CEO Boy Kavalier (touted as the youngest trillionaire in history) and learns of what she is going to undergo: a process that will transfer her consciousness into a synthetic adult body. She wishes her brother could be there to comfort her, but her mother tells her he cannot know she is alive. She successfully undergoes the transformation and chooses the name Wendy after watching Peter Pan (1953). Wendy is shown the ropes of being a hybrid by her mother and synth Kirsh, and she is told she will be welcoming the newest children to undergo the hybrid process. As Kirsh and the rest of the Prodigy staff are debating what exactly they are doing, Wendy is able to supervise the other children successfully undergoing the process.

Wendy's brother CJ is seen going home after a shift at work, in which he works as a medic in Prodigy's private army in the city of New Siam (based in Thailand). He watches the film Ice Age (2002), which is a reminder of his sister Wendy (formally Marcy), and he is not aware she is still alive and in a synthetic body. However, she still watches him on surveillance cameras. The next day, while he is further getting to socialize with his squadmates, they spot the Maginot crash-land in the city's capital. CJ and his squad are sent to the crash to coordinate search and rescue, and they find themselves in the ship. Meanwhile, Wendy is alerted to this news as well, and she successfully petitions Boy Kavalier to send her and the other hybrids to the crash site so they can look for her brother (although she does not tell him that). Kirsh promises to look after the hybrids as he and Wendy discuss life and death, and she swears to him that she will save her brother.

Prodigy's crew makes it to the Maginot and are able to breach the ship. The squad splits up to try to cover ground in search for survivors. Two of the soldiers are roaming the halls when a leech-like creature is placed in the suit of one of them. They are then captured by a freed Morrow, who takes their weapons and ties them to a pipe. He leaves them there as the leech creature makes itself known by sucking out the blood of both of the soldiers. Meanwhile, the ship begins to collapse, leaving CJ and the remaining living soldiers stranded when the doors to the ship are sealed.

Even though the episode is an hour and three minutes, there is not really a lot of story being told. That is a good thing, because too much story will make the episode feel overstuffed, and one of the things I liked about this episode was the pacing. Nothing felt like it was rushed in any way, and nothing felt like it wasn't being given enough time. I thought the pacing of the episode was perfect, and having a great beginning story really helps in terms of the pacing.

And finally, I want to talk about the world that we have been plopped into with this premiere episode. Noah Hawley does a great job of inserting you into a familiar, yet strange, world in which anything is possible. There are themes of immortality with the cyborgs, synths, and hybrids. There is messaging on corporate greed in a real-world time where we are fraught with that in this country. There is a warning on the dangers of dealing with things we are not equipped to deal with when it comes to the unknown (like Big Ugly). And there are themes of guilt, regret, humanity, morality, and so much more that kept me oh so engaged in this series.

Alien: Earth starts us off with a bang, giving us a sociopolitical world that the viewer can relate to, all while populating it with intriguing characters. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.