I hate to say it but I’m super disappointed by Alien: Earth. The dialogue is so clunky. Especially noticeable with the brother character. All the dramatic scenes are very explain-y and hamfisted. It feels like fan fiction. For example, in the first episode before the main sick girl gets put into her new body – her maternal figure is talking to her and (I’m paraphrasing here) saying “Are you ready?” and the sick girl responds, “For the procedure?” in dramatic fashion – and as an audience member, I feel like I’m supposed to nod my head and say, “Ahh, the procedure. See, she’s about to go through a procedure,” even though they immediately show the girl getting on the table in her medical gown, getting wires attached to her, surrounded by doctors, etc. The show seems to treat me like I’m very dumb and need it spelled out – and y’know, that is sometimes the case, but here it completely breaks the immersion. Sometimes you need to sacrifice realistic dialogue to explain the plot, but in this case there isn’t really anything complicated about “girl undergoing risky procedure.”
Moving on, the whole “kids in adult bodies” just doesn’t really work – it sounds like the writers keep forgetting that they’re kids, and when they do remember, they just insert a couple juvenile lines to reinforce the point. But it ends up not being what kids actually sound and act like? And again, it totally breaks my immersion. Ugh.
I had high hopes – I had never seen anything Alien before, so I watched the original (WOW!) and Aliens (meehhh, I liked the first better) and I’m just sad. The production design is great and some of the action and horror is good, but at this point I’m kinda just hate watching it and trying my best to ignore that clunky dialogue and story.
I need to rant.
I hate to say it but I’m super disappointed by Alien: Earth. The dialogue is so clunky. Especially noticeable with the brother character. All the dramatic scenes are very explain-y and hamfisted. It feels like fan fiction. For example, in the first episode before the main sick girl gets put into her new body – her maternal figure is talking to her and (I’m paraphrasing here) saying “Are you ready?” and the sick girl responds, “For the procedure?” in dramatic fashion – and as an audience member, I feel like I’m supposed to nod my head and say, “Ahh, the procedure. See, she’s about to go through a procedure,” even though they immediately show the girl getting on the table in her medical gown, getting wires attached to her, surrounded by doctors, etc. The show seems to treat me like I’m very dumb and need it spelled out – and y’know, that is sometimes the case, but here it completely breaks the immersion. Sometimes you need to sacrifice realistic dialogue to explain the plot, but in this case there isn’t really anything complicated about “girl undergoing risky procedure.”
Moving on, the whole “kids in adult bodies” just doesn’t really work – it sounds like the writers keep forgetting that they’re kids, and when they do remember, they just insert a couple juvenile lines to reinforce the point. But it ends up not being what kids actually sound and act like? And again, it totally breaks my immersion. Ugh.
I had high hopes – I had never seen anything Alien before, so I watched the original (WOW!) and Aliens (meehhh, I liked the first better) and I’m just sad. The production design is great and some of the action and horror is good, but at this point I’m kinda just hate watching it and trying my best to ignore that clunky dialogue and story.