Drama
Alien: Earth
FX’s ‘Alien: Earth’ is just the latest graphically violent entry in the already graphically violent ‘Alien’ franchise.
Alex, Nico, Karolina, Chase, Gert and Molly were once as close as a bunch of teens could get. But when Nico’s sister died suddenly two years ago, the tragedy and its aftermath tore the friends apart. However, after Alex convinces them all to hang out during a meeting for a charity that all their parents run—giving them a chance to make fun of their moms and dads, just like like the good ol’ days, they discover something much more sinister.
The charity isn’t all it seems. The teens stumble across their parents wearing robes as they’re in the middle of a ritualistic sacrifice. The teens flee in fear, but their parents—and the teens themselves—soon realize that these Runaways aren’t all they appear to be either.
As they soon discover, Molly has super-human strength. Karolina is a part-human, part-alien hybrid whose body lights up like the night sky and can fly. Nico, like her mother, is a dark sorceress. Gert is psychically linked to a genetically engineered dinosaur that her parents created. And Chase and Alex … well, they haven’t displayed any superpowers yet, but both guys are highly intellectual, and Chase wields a pair of mechanical gauntlets called the Fistigons which shoot out beams of energy.
Needless to say, their parents really have some explaining to do—and not just regarding their children’s newfound superpowers. The teens find out that the sacrifice they witnessed wasn’t the first one. There have been 17—a ritual to keep their leader (and Karolina’s alien biological father), Jonah, alive for his knowledge in advanced technology and biochemistry.
And that’s not even the half of it.
Jonah is known as the Magistrate—royalty in his race. In addition to tricking people into sacrificing innocent teens to keep him alive, he and his alien family have the ability to possess other people.
The Runaways’ parents want them to come home and band together to defeat Jonah once and for all. However, after all the death and destruction they’ve witnessed at the hands of their parents (including the not-so-accidental deaths of Molly’s parents and Amy), the Runaways decide to remain as they are: runaway children.
Much like the characters in the show, Marvel’s Runaways is not what it seems.
Attempted rape, dark magic, ritualistic sacrifice and human possession are only a few of the topics explored. Some other issues include underage drinking, drug use, extra-marital affairs, premarital sex and same-sex couplings. While you won’t hear the f-bomb dropped, you’ll hear just about every other foul word once or twice per episode. And then there’s the deeply problematic Church of Gibborim, a cult run by Karolina’s mom with deep ties to the alien race that Karolina descends from.
Viewers hoping for a more teen-centric Marvel experience will find themselves deeply disappointed since this series feels more like a toned-down version of Amazon’s The Boys than the family-friendly superhero fun that Marvel is usually known for.
Jonah (currently possessing Chase’s dad) and his family (currently possessing Gert’s mom and Nico’s mom). Alex, Nico, Molly and an alien soldier named Xavin search for a way to rescue them while Gert’s dad teaches her how to control her psychic link to Old Lace, her pet dinosaur.
A teenager wakes up after an explosion to find himself and his friends bleeding and dying. He fights against their attackers, using his hands, feet and mechanical gauntlets that fire bolts of energy. Two people are crushed beneath a falling chandelier. Several people fire guns at a teenager. A girl is forced inside a cocoon-like box used to sacrifice people.
A Wiccan with the ability to do real magic discovers that she killed several people with her powers and suspects that she might be possessed by an alien. A woman who is actually possessed attacks and tries to kill a teen girl. Alien-possessed people discuss killing and eating humans.
In a dream sequence, a girl enters a “dark” dimension and meets Morgan le Fay, the famed sorceress, who turns herself into a murder of crows. A sonogram reveals an alien-possessed baby with glowing skin and eyes.
A teenage boy and girl kiss. Two young women get married and kiss. Several women and teenage girls wear outfits bearing cleavage. A man tells his daughter how she was conceived. Three people are held in a lab wearing form-fitting tank tops and shorts.
A woman explains how she became an orphan when her father was imprisoned and her mother gave her up for adoption. “A–,” “a–hole,” “b–tard” and “d–n” are all heard a few times. There are also a few misuses of God’s and Christ’s names.
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.
FX’s ‘Alien: Earth’ is just the latest graphically violent entry in the already graphically violent ‘Alien’ franchise.
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