< 'Alien: Earth' is one of the best shows so far this year

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

The TV series "Alien: Earth" debuts today on Hulu and the FX cable channel, telling a new story set in the world of the classic science fiction movie franchise. NPR TV critic Eric Deggans has our review.

ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE: "Alien: Earth" begins with a scene fans of the first "Alien" movie will recognize in a heartbeat.

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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Fair enough.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) No. No, you're right.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Yeah, I was. Different opinion.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Not supposed to have a heavy meal before cryo (ph).

DEGGANS: A group of dysfunctional working-class crew members joke around as they wake from an extended hibernation in a sprawling spaceship. This time, it's the year 2120 - two years before the time of the first "Alien" movie. And as one crew member explains to another, they're all working for Weyland-Yutani, the corporation featured in earlier "Alien" movies.

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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) And they control...

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Headed for what?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) ...North and South America.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) And the moon, right?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) We're talking about the Earth. Who rules what?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) There's four companies. They govern the entire globe.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #5: (As character) Don't forget the new one, Prodigy.

DEGGANS: Prodigy, that fifth company, is controlled by a young tech genius who acts like a barefoot combination of Mark Zuckerberg and Dr. Frankenstein. Director, writer and showrunner Noah Hawley, who masterminded FX's TV series "Fargo," unspools a story littered with just enough references to the first two "Alien" movies that fans feel engaged. Turns out, this crew's returning from a deep space mission where they collected a horde of nasty aliens. So when the ship crashes into an area on Earth controlled by Prodigy...

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AUTOMATED VOICE: Collision imminent. Collision imminent.

DEGGANS: ...The creepy crawlers escape, and the screaming begins.

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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #6: (As character, screaming).

DEGGANS: But Hawley isn't content to just turn a new crop of deadly aliens loose on Earth. He's added another twist. Prodigy is developing technology to place human consciousness inside superior synthetic bodies. They started by putting sickly children into adult bodies, which confuses some of the children.

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SYDNEY CHANDLER: (As Wendy) These are weird.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #7: (As character) Your breasts.

CHANDLER: (As Wendy) They're weird. They move around when I run.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #7: (As character) Well, you are in an adult body now.

CHANDLER: (As Wendy) Why?

TIMOTHY OLYPHANT: (As Kirsh) Because synthetic bodies don't grow. The human body manufactures hormones - dopamine, serotonin, estrogen, testosterone - that create moods. You don't have those anymore.

DEGGANS: So what happens when a child with advanced strength and a supercomputer mind is sent after a ship full of escaped aliens, including the deadly Xenomorph from the original "Alien" movies? One of the best TV shows of the year, that's what. I saw the first two "Alien" movies in theaters decades ago and was enthralled by the suspense and tension that directors Ridley Scott and James Cameron cultivated. Hawley evokes those same feelings stretched over eight episodes, as the characters and viewers learn more about these aliens and all their terrible ways of taking down humans. Timothy Olyphant turns in another great performance as Kirsh, a fully synthetic android who serves Prodigy and has some particularly creepy thoughts on what it means to be human.

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OLYPHANT: (As Kirsh) Your lives were short, then your brains grew. You built tools and used them to conquer nature. You told yourself you weren't food anymore. But in the animal kingdom, there is always someone bigger or smaller who would eat you alive if they had the chance. That's what it is to be an animal.

DEGGANS: The "Alien" franchise often turns on the idea that humanity's combination of arrogance, greed and ambition leads us all to create the things which eventually annihilate us. "Alien: Earth" expands that concept to TV series-level proportions, offering a spellbinding thrill ride in the process. I'm Eric Deggans.

(SOUNDBITE OF OLIVER TREE SONG, "ALIEN BOY")

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