Drama
Alien: Earth
FX’s ‘Alien: Earth’ is just the latest graphically violent entry in the already graphically violent ‘Alien’ franchise.
When you’re a woman, having strong female relationships is important. You need other women around you to build you up, give advice, support your decisions and perhaps, catch you if you fail.
But Jules Wiley doesn’t have any girlfriends. She neglected them the past five years while in a relationship with Jeremy.
And now that Jeremy dumped her, she’s all alone.
Luckily, not for long.
Jules reaches out to her former best friends, Madison and Stella, and tries to reconnect.
The ladies welcome their gal pal back to the pack. But it won’t be easy to re-integrate. Five years is still a long time. And if Jules really wants to earn their trust back, she’ll have to go out of her way to learn how to simply be a friend again.
The whole premise of Dollface is women supporting women.
Even before she started dating Jeremy, Jules wasn’t the best friend in the past. Whenever things got too emotional or too annoying or too much, she’d bail. In short, she was selfish.
But she’s really trying to break that habit now. And she’s learning that being a good friend doesn’t just mean hanging out with women of similar attractiveness until they each find a man.
In fact, being a good girlfriend is about caring for each other through bad breakups (or perhaps, encouraging healthy relationships with good guys), pushing each other toward their dreams (and subsequently helping them back up if it doesn’t pan out), and most importantly, reassuring your girls in their own individuality—because the things that make you unique are the things that make you you.
I love the aforementioned premise of Dollface. It’s the sort of messaging I wish I’d seen on TV when I was in my early 20s—which, of course, is part of the show’s target audience.
You don’t need a man to complete you. And even if you’re in a relationship, be sure to make time for your girlfriends. Femininity looks different on every woman. And, as Season 2 opens up, it reminds women not to try to measure their success by the progress of other women. Because no matter what challenge you’re facing, you’re not alone. There are people to walk you through it and people on the same path as you.
Unfortunately, I can’t recommend it.
F-bombs are frequent, as is crude talk about sex (including same-sex interactions). The physical act of sex is also present. We don’t see any critical anatomy, but there are several post-coital scenes with characters covered by sheets.
And sadly, for every empowering message, there’s also a negative one. Abortion and sleeping around are both OK things to do. The show doesn’t paint all men as pigs, but it also hasn’t shown a truly positive portrayal of one yet. And when all else fails, getting drunk seems like the best solution for these ladies.
So, if you’re a Christian woman looking for healthy female relationships, go to church and join a small group. Don’t watch this show. Because honestly, all the positive elements I found here I got from my girlfriends long ago.
After Jules gets dumped by her long-term boyfriend, she tries to reconnect with the girlfriends she abandoned long ago.
A photographer takes pictures of multiple nude men (with their critical bits cleverly covered by props and camera angles) posing as furniture as a “reverse engineering concept of women being part of the home.” Characters talk about sex often (sometimes in detail). Someone says Jules’ ex-boyfriend must be a “gay psycho” for dumping her. Another character wishes a gay man would turn straight for her. People attend a launch party for a sex toy. Female characters wear revealing outfits. Marriage is portrayed as a sort of prison sentence.
Jules’ whole life revolved around her boyfriend. She lived in his house, hung out with his friends and even participated in his hobbies rather than find her own. So when he leaves her, she has difficulty figuring out what she actually enjoys. (And we see some other female characters facing similar difficulties.)
A group of female soldiers talk about getting shot and watching a friend die in war. There are jokes about suicide, race and menstruation. We learn a woman has lied about her name for the past several years in an attempt to fit in. Throughout the show, Jules hallucinates an “old cat lady” (literally a woman with a cat head) giving her advice.
Characters drink and talk about getting drunk throughout. We hear multiple uses of the f-word and s-word, as well as “h—.” God’s and Christ’s names are also frequently abused.
Worried that they haven’t accomplished all the things they wanted to by the time they turned 30, Jules and her friends wonder what to do with their futures.
People talk about sex. Couples live together (and we don’t see it, but several girls accidentally see their friend’s naked boyfriend during a video chat). We hear about infidelity in marriage and other relationships. Several showgirls dance in bikini tops. Characters wear revealing outfits. There’s a joke about child brides. We see a picture of several hand-drawn penises.
There are jokes about COVID-19 and suicide. Some women insult Izzy, one of Jules’ friends, because her boyfriend is better looking than her. A woman seek advice from a fortune teller (though the woman admits to being a fraud).
Characters drink and become inebriated. A woman talks about the illegal purchase of marijuana. We hear multiples uses of the f-word and s-word, as well as “d–n,” “d–k,” “h—” and “t-ts.” God’s and Christ’s names are also abused, the former paired with “d–n” once. Someone makes a crude hand gesture.
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
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