I already miss the weekly episodes of Alien: Earth. The acting, story line, and overall energy far surpassed anything I expected going into this series. And while it was gory in the typical Alien way, it had more to say than some of the earlier movies. Fortunately, with a cliff-hanger like the last episode, we still have plenty more story to come in a second season.
[Spoiler Alert: Do not read any further if you have yet to complete the first season.]
Will there be a second season? I certainly hope so, though showrunner Noah Hawley did not specifically confirm it in a recent interview:
So for me, I never hedged my bets. This is not a closed-ended season. This chapter is closed, but Yutani troops are landing. The balance of power has shifted. These children have no idea what’s coming. The last line of, ‘Now we rule’ is triumphant and uplifting. But cut to 10 minutes later, what is going to be happening? So I like that it has that real-time urgency to it.”
The series could not have been more timely as the daily news discusses the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in our future. Fortunately, we have yet to face a battle between (1) Synths (fully artificial beings with AI), (2) Cyborgs (biological humans enhanced with technology), and (3) Hybrids (synthetic bodies containing uploaded human consciousness).
Even so, we have plenty of corporate weirdos (some role-playing with Roman fashions) who can still do plenty of damage. Our growing dependence on social media, crypto-currency, and other forms of electronic assets and infrastructure (slowly soaking up more and more of our energy supply) has primed us for some real and permanent damage in the wrong hands.
While the theme running through the series was Peter Pan, I think the larger theme was Frankenstein’s monster learning the truth about his creation and his future (or “her” in this case). It did not end well for the monster, and the new kid-monsters in Alien: Earth are unlikely to find a more receptive world.
We can only hope that AI holds off on its reform of the world as we know it until after the last season of Alien: Earth drops.
Our Awesome Universe 