Drama
Alien: Earth
FX’s ‘Alien: Earth’ is just the latest graphically violent entry in the already graphically violent ‘Alien’ franchise.
It’s not just pandas and humphead wrasses that are endangered these days. Certain livelihoods are, too. Newspaper journalists are as scarce as Javan rhinos. Mail carriers are vanishing as quickly as handwritten thank-you notes. And don’t even get me started on the dwindling number of Christian entertainment reviewers.
Another job that’s growing evermore scarce? That of the mythical stay-at-home mom.
Megan Anderson used to be one of them. While her husband, Greg, schlepped off to his ho-hum job that still requires ironed shirts (another rarity), she cared for their two kids, juggled chores and whipped up brownies for bake sales with skill and grace largely forgotten and rarely witnessed today.
Until, that is, she scored a job of her own—her dream job, in fact, with dreamy pay.
Up steps Greg. Now it’s his turn to watch the kids, he announces. He’ll just quit his job. He’ll learn how to cook (better), coach Hannah’s soccer team and clean up whatever messes Zack makes. He’s a capable adult. Really. He can do it, he promises.
Megan’s not so sure.
“I know you like everything to be perfect,” Greg tells her, “but things have a way of falling into place.”
“They do,” Megan says. “Because I put them there.”
If the concept for Mr. Mom—the first original show to air on Walmart’s new streaming outlet Vudu—feels a little dated, that’s with good reason. The original Mr. Mom movie starred a very young, pre-Batman Michael Keaton. And the show itself acknowledges its retrograde premise. “It is not 1983 anymore,” Megan’s sister Hannah tells Megan. “There’s like five dads in my building that stay home with their kids.”
The concept of a stay-at-home dad isn’t as unusual now as it is to have a stay-at-home anyone. And that makes Mr. Mom—what with its commitment to prioritize kids over career—paradoxically refreshing. Too bad the show itself stinks up the screen.
I don’t mean that as much in terms of the show’s quality (which is just OK). I mean it literally—or, I would mean it literally if modern screens came with smell-o-vision. The show has a greater ratio of bathroom gags to runtime than any other program I’ve seen recently. (And given that Mr. Mom’s episodes are a tidy 11 minutes long on average, that’s pretty impressive.) That malodourous content undermines the show’s family-friendly premise.
Add to that alcohol use, some “OMG” exclamations and allusions to homosexuality (courtesy Greg’s gay friend and co-soccer coach, Lawrence), and Mr. Mom looks more like a bunt single than a home run.
But let’s not end on a down note. Shows that feature committed parents who believe that kids do better with a stay-at-home someone are as rare as—well, Christian entertainment reviewers. And we should marvel at this endangered bit of entertainment before it scampers away for good.
In Mr. Mom’s first 11-minute episode, Megan snags an offer for her “dream job” while Greg deals with his son’s unexpected colonostic explosion. In the second, Greg volunteers to stay home so that Megan can accept the job offer.
Greg and Megan’s son, Zack, makes quite the mess in the restaurant they’re sitting in. Daughter Hannah notes beforehand that Zack’s making the face he typically does when he defecates (as Zack sits on Greg’s lap), and shortly thereafter Zack proudly announces what he’s done. Smeary feces gets all over Greg’s shirt (in addition to Zack’s clothes), necessitating a chaotic trip to the bathroom. Greg eventually leaves the restaurant shirtless, carrying a presumably naked Zack (wrapped in what looks like a towel).
Greg teaches Zack how to urinate on the side of the house (we see both of them doing the deed, from behind of course), and later Zack later seems to urinate in the kitchen. (Hannah tells her mom that he “spilled his pee.”) At work, Greg watches his boss talk to a human resources official: He and a coworker speculate about whether the boss is getting fired, being accused of embezzlement, or if he and the HR lady are breaking off an affair. We hear one of Greg’s friends briefly talk about his male partner. Another friend celebrates his divorce: Because it’s not his turn to watch the kids, he’s free to drink as much as he’d like.
Off camera, Zack apparently pushes another child off a jungle gym. “There was blood,” a daycare official solemnly tells his parents. (She tells Greg and Megan that Zack’s not a good fit, because the daycare is an “aggression-free zone.”) We hear a reference to brownnosing.
Characters drink beer and margaritas. There’s some talk about bad breath, goat yoga and the intelligence of pigs (and whether it’s moral or not to eat them). Someone calls Megan a “sexy MILF”. We also hear the word “h—” once. And over the course of the two episodes, we also hear about 10 misuses of God’s name.
Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.
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