Neverland

This time, it's on Earth.

There are so many references to the past. If you're a fan of the first two masterpieces and some of the later films, you'll enjoy the efforts.

I was a little concerned; you never know quite how shows like this will play out, but I thought it was a banging start. I thoroughly enjoyed this series opener, with plenty of tension, excitement, and some fine storytelling.

There is so much potential here. They've built up a fascinating future-a world of synths and cyborgs. We have the interest of what's really going on with the children. Are they simply being saved, or is there something more malevolent at play? Plus, we have the introduction of the alien threat.

We know what's coming; we just don't quite know when. My issue is: how on Earth (no pun intended) did no warning or alert get through? It made no sense, no radars, no alarms, no shouts of 'incoming ship!?' A little bit sloppy.

There are plenty of well-known faces from The States and the UK, with fine performances all around. Great set designs; they really took us back to the first movie, the visuals in general were terrific.

Great start, and yes it's very Disney.

9/10.

There's a lot to like-and some things to dislike-about this opening chapter of Alien: Earth. On the positive side, the characters and their backgrounds, as relevant to this story, are explained quite well. Along the way, the episode makes numerous nods to the iconic Alien films, even reusing entire lines of dialogue and recreating memorable scenes.

That said, there's an awful lot going on here: synths, other space creatures, a war between the big three corporations, the synths' own conflicts, and more. I've always enjoyed how simple and straightforward Alien stories tend to be, but this time that's not the case-probably too much is happening in this series. I hope the coming episodes will be more focused.

Overall, the acting is good, and the special effects are solid.

I'm sorry to say this, because I had high expectations, but the first episode feels like it was written and directed by kids.

Maybe it's a show for kids?

The initial and subsequent infodumps are over the top, and the information could have been spread throughout the episode to avoid soporific lengthiness.

The characters lack bite, except for Wendy, who redeems herself a bit in the finale. Disappointed.

The overall premise was sound enough... A research vessel crashes to Earth after some of its specimen got loose (by the way.. how did they got loose? They were confined during most of the trip back and they got loose close to Jupiter's orbit?).

Then, things start to get weird. The doctor of an emergency response team wasn't actually a doctor? One of the big corporations who runs the world sends a bunch of kids (albeit, in enhanced bodies) to a disaster area with an unknown spacecraft? Really? Nobody had any hint of an idea how to do anything in such an environment, yet they went anyway?... Besides, the director's job looks terrible. I am no formal expert on cinematography, but I have seen many, many movies and series and this one looks wrong. The spotty takes of the disaster aboard the ship when some aliens get loose are terrible. The whole chapter is terribly boring.

I hope future episodes will improve. Episode 2 isn't better than episode 1...

A ship can just crash on a city with no attempt to prevent or even prepare? We have space object tracking in real life right now. I know it's not a documentary, but it's hard to suspend disbelief for that.

Horror and retro aesthetic are really good though. And all the nods to the earlier films are nicely done.