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Adventurous
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Nostalgic
‘Aliens Expanded’
Bill Simmons struck podcast gold when he launched The Rewatchables a decade or so ago, a nostalgia-soaked series focused on dissecting the movies that shaped Gen X. The series, which is headed to Netflix in 2026, proved that there is a rich market for looking backwards, but it also demonstrated that there is a white space in the market: What if someone took that same “whoa, that was awesome!” spirit but infused it with actual, you know, reporting?
First to fill that void was the 2024 docuseries RoboDoc, a tremendously satisfying five-hour deep dive into Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 sci-fi masterpiece RoboCop. And now we have Aliens Expanded, an equally satisfying five-hour deep dive into James Cameron’s 1986 sci-fi masterpiece Aliens. If you’re the type of person who long ago lost count of the number of times you have seen Aliens (theatrically, on VHS, on DVD, on cable), this documentary is tailor-made for you. The filmmakers get access to EVERYONE involved in the movie, including James Cameron and star Sigourney Weaver, and do an excellent job fully leaning into the “warts and all” approach to the process.
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