Well, I wrote this article last year, but as it turns out, we have a new contender for the best Alien franchise installment since 1986. That would be Noah Hawley’s Alien: Earth show. Incidentally, the only actual TV show made in the Alien series, alongside nine total movies.
As it stands, Alien: Earth is the third best-reviewed Alien piece of media, behind only 1986’s Aliens and 1979’s Alien. Here’s how the new list breaks down with Alien: Earth’s Certified Fresh 90% critic score:
Aliens – 94%
Alien – 93%
Alien: Earth – 90%
Alien: Romulus – 80%
Prometheus – 73%
Alien: Covenant – 65%
Alien Resurrection – 55%
Alien 3 – 44%
Alien vs. Predator – 21%
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem – 12%
Of note, before Alien: Earth, the last Alien movie, Alien: Romulus, reviewed quite well in 2024, the Cailee Spaeny /Isabella Merced feature that mainly featured a truly standout performance from David Jonsson as a synth.
Alien Romulus
20th Century
This is the first TV show attempt for the franchise, and it will air on Hulu on August 12. Noah Hawley, you may recall, is the mind behind other FX/Hulu projects Legion and Fargo, both rather iconic in their own ways. Now, given a storied franchise, it appears he’s done great work here. A sampling of reviews:
FandomWire: “Hawley has done it again, delivering an Alien show that’s scary, fun, and thoughtful — often all at once.”
Paste: “Nearly 50 years after Ridley Scott introduced the xenomorph, Alien has rarely felt this alive.”
London Evening Standard: “Alien: Earth is the big win, managing to finally deliver on the promise the franchise has always had.”
I don’t know how much more praise you can get, and this is definitely more than we saw for Alien: Romulus, despite its reviews. There has been a recent surge in interested in the combined Alien and Predator franchises. Predator just got an amazing animated Hulu film, Killer of Killers, and is about to get a new movie, Predator: Badlands, which will star Elle Fanning as a Weyland-Yutani android and is out this November. Yes, Alien’s Weyland-Yutani. Is this all leading up to more Alien vs. Predator? If so, hopefully it can improve its quality by about 500%.
Here’s the synopsis of Alien: Earth if you’re curious where things are going this time:
“When a mysterious space vessel crash-lands on Earth, Wendy and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat.”
It feels like these series are now both being taken more seriously than they’ve been in the past with thoughtful projects that don’t come off as cash-ins. I believe that Alien: Earth will do well on Hulu, and I don’t want to wait a week to watch it.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.