Drama
Alien: Earth
FX’s ‘Alien: Earth’ is just the latest graphically violent entry in the already graphically violent ‘Alien’ franchise.
The planet of Farzar was totally peaceful and wonderful before evil aliens led by Bazarack began attacking, murdering the people of the human city who had settled there. Thankfully, Farzar’s Czar Renzo saved the day, pushing the alien assault back, building a protective energy dome around the city and marrying Queen Flammy (but definitely not for political gain). According to legend, one day, Renzo will finally slay Bazarack and ensure his people’s safety for good.
That’s all according to Farzar’s history books, written by the gallant Renzo himself. Except, as Renzo’s clumsy and disappointing son, Prince Fichael, soon discovers, that’s most definitely not the history the aliens remember. No, they recall a different series of events: one where Renzo and the humans arrived at the already-occupied planet, slaughtered and subjugated the aliens and did unspeakable horrors to them for their own amusement.
To Prince Fichael, this is all a terrible revelation. You see, Fichael may be a clumsy disappointment to most—well, to all. But Fichael has wanted to battle evil his whole life, and he’s finally ready to get started. But who could’ve guessed that the true evil he needs to defeat would be his own father?
Adult cartoons. We increasingly shudder at those words with each new release. These days, it’s a genre that almost guarantees a show with humor that relies entirely on gory violence and enough sex jokes to make a middle school boys locker room long for new comedic material.
Netflix’s newly released Farzar is no different, which takes the violence and nihilism of Rick & Morty and combines it with the lewd suggestive jokes of Human Resources. Viewers see animated male and female genitalia, various sexual acts and plenty of children dying. Characters swear more often than they breathe. An alien race is killed because members’ bodies can be used to get others high; other baby aliens are eaten alive because they taste good. We also hear references to child sexual abuse played off as jokes. One character is even just a living perineum.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, Farzar simmers in a morally depraved stew of wickedness. The planet is a place where morality is entirely subjective, and so there’s no such thing as right or wrong. And as the viewer, we’ve fallen right into the middle of it.
“Is this gonna be more like Futurama or Rick & Morty?” A child asks Renzo in the first episode as he systematically smashes the fourth wall with a brick.
“Well, actually,” Renzo replies, “it’s gonna be more like shut the f— up!” as he runs the children over with his hovering jet ski.
Unfortunately, that interaction, comparatively tame by the rest of the show’s standards, tells us exactly what we should expect to see: a show bursting with unoriginal, crass and over-the-top violence.
Put simply, there’s nothing redeemable in this show.
Prince Fichael’s father, Czar Renzo, believes his son is a joke, causing Fichael to seek out the head of the evil Bazarack alien race to prove himself. However, his quest leads him to discover a shocking truth about the stories his father tells about himself.
Sex and violence are the status quo in this show—there’s little other content to be found, and most of the plot is really just filler for another quip about sexual content. We’ll start by pointing out the sexual content.
A pop-up book displays male genitalia, and Renzo imitates shoving a clothes hanger up the genitals onscreen. Renzo’s wife, Flammy, caresses Renzo’s chest and makes crude sexual comments. Renzo laments the poor sex he has been having. He and Flammy have sex offscreen, and we see him run from the bed in his underwear with his genitals on fire. Flammy is seen in underwear, too. Renzo bounces his pectoral muscles and makes a reference to his genitals.
Prince Fichael accidentally lights his genitals on fire twice. Fichael and another character talk about sex and their genitals. Fichael’s cyborg friend, Scootie, references his “six-year-old nephew” who Scootie is trying to “get laid.” Scootie talks about his anatomy often, and he carries a drawing of breasts with him. Eventually, we see Scootie’s genitals cut off. Mal, a woman working for Fichael, asks an elementary school girl about her sex life. Bazarack references male arousal, and he mispronounces an alien’s name as a sexual body part. Another character masturbates onscreen twice.
Graffiti depicts a sex act. We hear a reference to another sexual act, and we see an alien provide oral sex to another alien. A watch opens a wormhole that only leads to a character’s mother’s shower, exposing her nude rear. An alien tries to have sex with a helpless Fichael. A species of aliens has a rear on its head. A monster is called a “c-cktopus” and has eyes on its nipples. A male alien’s genitals are fully shown tied in a knot. We hear a reference to pubic hair, and we see armor which has fake nipples with tassels.
In terms of violence, the show doesn’t do any better. Renzo runs over orcish-looking aliens, leaving lots of blood in his wake. He detonates the rest of their heads with music in gory fashion. Renzo also runs over children. We see Renzo using an alien head as a volleyball. He also snowboards on an alien corpse, eats alien babies and crucifies alien pets.
Scootie kills a creature and snorts its body to get high. A montage of Scootie shows him losing his limbs and eventually being crushed in a giant’s rectum. Mal explains that she had to eat her entire platoon. Mal punches Fichael. Mal kills two thousand aliens with poisoned Gatorade.
The eyeballs of Mal’s conjoined twin, Val, are visible as they hang limply outside her skull. Val’s elementary school class gets digested inside an alien’s stomach. Aliens bite Fichael. Fichael blows up an alien from the inside, and he cuts off Bazarack’s head. Fichael is hit in the face with spikes. A scientist makes a “sui-slide whistle,” which kills the user if played. A group of aliens all unintentionally commit suicide with it. Another six characters are also shown committing suicide, blowing off nearly half their heads with their laser firearms. A “gold-plated puppy” and “gold-plated girlfriend” are seen obviously killed from the experience.
Characters discuss the tastiness of alien babies, which are apparently eaten while alive. Aliens burn buildings and kill a family (including a child). Aliens and humans alike are frequently killed for comedic sake.
Renzo’s strength is compared to that of a god. Fichael is excreted upon, and the excrement comes to life and dances on his head. A character flatulates green goo onto Scootie.
The f-word is heard 16 times (once preceded by “mother”), and the s-word is used nearly 20 times. We hear multiple instances of crude words for male and female genitalia, including “d-ck,” “c-ck,” “tw-t” and “c-nt.” “A–,” “b–ch,” “h—” and “d–n” are also used at varying frequencies. “B—tard,” “p-ss,” “t-ts” and “pr-ck” are also all used. God’s name is misused nine times, and seven of those times are in the form of “g-dd–n.” A team’s acronym is intentionally spelled into a crude word. Scootie makes a reference to the n-word (though he does not use it).
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He’s also an avid cook. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
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