So I only watched Episode 01; I wasn’t impressed at all, I am debating whether to watch episode 02.

I don’t at all mind writers/authors developing new directions/concepts based on an existing franchise base. I really enjoyed Aliens: Phalanx, even thought it had massive flaws, but the world building was engaging and the pace was good.

That being said E01 comes off as a somewhat generic, “made for streaming” series adaption of the Alien world. Alien: Romulus on the other hand combined “modern sensibilities” with the classical retro-futuristic canon of the alien universe.

Perhaps it’s too early to judge, but I feel there is going to be a large YA-focus to this series (kids in adult bodies). Aliens: Phalanx was also very heavy on YA tropes, but IMO it had other things going for it to compensate.

I didn’t feel any tension or dread in the first episode. Some stuff was happening I didn’t feel like caring.

I will probably watch E02 to see if it gets better, but I am not getting my hopes up.

EDIT: E01 is 7.8 on and E02 is 8.0 on IMDB; no wonder I always got the feeling that series rating are always heavily inflated.

  • J-Bone@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
    0·
    3 days ago

    I am a big fan of Fargo, but IMO the strengths of Fargo don’t really translate to a regular scifi series. And this is definitely a regular scifi series, it’s not like a very subtle parody of the concept or some sort of crazy attempt at deconstructing the concept.

    • shads@lemy.lolEnglish
      0·
      3 days ago

      I guess I am just the type of person who prefers to watch a show before forming an opinion on it. I have definitely been disappointed by genre shows of late, I ended up with severely elevated blood pressure from enduring Wheel of Time, but I am still willing to give things a chance.

      As a corollary to this, I have started avoiding as much pre-release chatter about shows as possible. Not worth all the opinions people form without giving anything a chance.

      • J-Bone@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
        0·
        3 days ago

        I never watch trailers or read preview articles. Going in I only knew that part of the story involved an alien infested ship crashing on earth and that Hawley was the showrunner (I didn’t necessarily think this was a good thing even though I like Fargo).

        You have a fair point regarding watching the whole thing before making up one’s opinion.

        My counter arguement would be that as per the first two episodes, this is the only Alien production where I just can’t seem to get interested in what’s going on. It’s not engaging.

        I can’t say that about any of the Alien movies, even the theatrical version of Alien3.

        • shads@lemy.lolEnglish
          0·
          3 days ago

          Hey, no argument needed, if it’s not reaching you that’s fine, I had people tell me Wheel of Time wasn’t an insult to the source material regularly and it didn’t move me at all.

          I have a different take and that’s also perfectly OK and not an argument that should move you at all. I see from your other posts that you are going to try to lower your expectations and just see where it goes, that’s more or less how I took WoT, can’t say it worked out well in that case, but I hope for your sake Alien:Earth turns out far better.

          I wonder if you would scoff that I find it more faithful to the setting so far than Alien:Resurrection?

          PS I count myself as one of the apparently very few people who really didn’t mind Alien³ so much, and simply saw it as a real world example of executive meddling that wouldn’t be out of place in universe.