Drama
Alien: Earth
FX’s ‘Alien: Earth’ is just the latest graphically violent entry in the already graphically violent ‘Alien’ franchise.
It’s not easy being a dad. And don’t think for a second that getting paid $300 a week to impersonate somebody’s pops changes things all that much.
Ron Snuffkin is a sporting-goods clerk/do-nothing slacker who’s used to living out of his car, frying bacon in tinfoil on his dashboard and telling tales as tall as his backseat junk pile. Usually his fibs are designed to help him avoid paying a debt or a serious beat-down by one of a dozen people he’s lied to lately. When they’re not, he’s just trying to get out of work. And that makes him, for the three Gunderson boys, a perfect fake father.
His job? Sleep in the tool shed and stay out of the way unless one brother happens to impale another one with a crossbow bolt—or the neighbors start wondering where all the adults are.
The Gunderson brothers consist of teenage sensitive guy Brandon, tweenish pragmatic leader Gary and maniacal youngster Robby. Where’s their Mom? “Out of the picture.” Dad? Cooling his heels in jail for perpetrating a Ponzi scheme. Not that the kids mind too much. They’ve got a bundle of cash stashed by their dad before he, um, departed. And since they don’t want to be separated and sent to foster homes, it seems like moving to Tucson and starting a new life is the right thing to do. All they need is a liar willing to sign the right forms and convince the right authorities that he’s the adult in charge.
Tyler Labine, as Ron, delivers comic energy as he plays the same disheveled slug he’s perfected on other TV outings (primarily on Reaper). But the jokes he’s given are little more than retreads. Adults are buffoons. Booze and bad words flow freely. It’s the same old shtick we’ve seen time after time after time. So much so that it’s barely even noteworthy anymore that parents are deemed an unnecessary appendage. Or that the situations that create the sit part of this sitcom are both immoral and crass.
If that all sounds to you like a live-action version of some Family Guy/American Dad/The Simpsons/The Cleveland Show mash-up, you’re in the right neighborhood. Created with the help of some of the minds behind Malcolm in the Middle, Sons of Tucson is merely Fox’s latest stab at trying to drum up bored brains during prime time.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
Ron is still an “outside Dad” living in the backyard. But an Arizona heat wave is turning his metal tool shed into a bake oven and frying his brain. So this faux father tries to convince the kids to welcome him into the house.
How does he do that? He stumbles upon an old knock-about pal at a garage sale and convinces the guy to rob the kids’ house so Ron can swoop in and save the day. It all seems to be going well at first. The kids are terrorized and Ron gets his AC fix. But Ron’s pal’s fancy for petty larceny is rekindled in the process, and he begins robbing houses every night. Ron takes action (mostly concocting new lies) to get his bud to quit stealing and, hopefully, save the guy’s marriage in the process.
Ribaldry revolves around such subjects as sperm count, “slutty lingerie,” a meth-addict mom and Ron’s sexual hookup with his friend’s mother-in-law. Robbie arms himself with a crossbow and a sock full of marbles, putting arrows into walls and conking somebody with the marbles. A handful of misuses of God’s name share dialogue space with “a‑‑,” “h‑‑‑,” “d‑‑n” and “b‑‑ching.”
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
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