And which country are you king of, again?

Continuing my trip up Empire's top 20 TV shows of 2025

#3 : Alien: Earth

2025 has very much been the year for rejuvenating beloved (but long in the tooth) IPs. Tony Gilroy worked his magic on Star Wars, Dan Trachtenberg put Predator firmly back on the hunt, but only Noah Hawley could have pulled off a reinvigoration of all things Alien with this perfectly crafted prequel series. After all, who else would have thought to filter Giger’s biomechanical horror through a Peter Pan fable meditating on the nature of self, while simultaneously introducing a menagerie of other extra-terrestrials somehow just as horrifying as the Xenomorph itself? The MVP of this show is doubtless The Eye (Eyelene to her friends), and the malevolent sheep it takes up residence in, but while there are monstrous new pieces on the board, the alien itself also gets a new lease of life, a deepening of its lore (they speak?) and a near perfect fifth episode (‘In Space, No One…’) that so perfectly captures the aesthetic and mood of Ridley Scott’s original film, it serves as a powerful reminder of why we loved this franchise in the first place. Plus Michael Smiley. Biting an Alien. Genius.

I'm very much not into this sort of thing, but for some unclear reason I've watched most of the films and enjoyed them (not Alien 3, obviously). I have to admit to being completely nonplussed as to why they bothered making Covenant, but Romulus was a bit of a return to form so I was interested to see what Noah Hawley (who did a great job on both Fargo and Legion) would do with this.

And the answer is that he does a very good job indeed - on several fronts, so where to start? Let's start with the general writing - obviously the plot is a load of old hokum, but it's a believable (within the existing frame of reference) and well thought out pile of old hokum. It hangs together, features likeable and not so likeable characters and things happen which result in situations changing on a regular basis (and pretty much always in a suspenseful manner) - it's amazing how often people forget to make this happen (I'm looking at you, Foundation). But I don't feel the need to give you any actual details about what happens because that would spoil things for you (there's definitely going to be a season 2 though, so get a move on if you've not seen it).

On a more specific writing note, this has some of the most fantastic monsters I've seen in ages - yes, the xenomorph appears (it would be illegal for it not to) but it's used sparingly and isn't even close to being the most interesting lifeform here. As Empire says, The Eye (or to use its proper name, Trypanohyncha Ocellus) is the star of the show, even though it spends an awful lot of its screen time doing absolutely nothing. But there are also some other proper nasty little things which pop up throughout the season and, because they're new, you don't know exactly how they're going to be unpleasant. But don't worry, there's always going to be a scientist around who's just stupid enough to decide they really need to find out.

It's all very well acted with a great cast. Sydney Chandler takes the central role as someone who you struggle to work out and she does a great job - I'd not seen her in anything beforehand, but I've since seen her in Sugar, although you might know her from Don't Worry Darling. Everyone does a good job really, so it's hard to call specific people out but I'm going to go for Alex Lawther (The End Of The F***king World), Samuel Blenkin (not an awful lot), Babou Sessay (loads, but I don't know any of it!), Adrian Edmondsen (cast very much against type) and Timothy Olyphant (with some most peculiar hair). For reasons that become clear as you watch it, a certain section of the actors have to adopt child-like personalities and they do a very good job with this - and it's interesting to watch them all lose their innocence in various different ways.

So it's written well and acted well - what does it look like? Do you REALLY need me to answer that question?!? We have spaceships, futuristic cities and countryside - what more do you want?!? It also sounds fantastic as well - I turned it up louder than I'm generally allowed to (particularly when others were out!).

This is just very good in all areas - I really enjoyed it, would have been happy to have another couple of episodes at least and think it was one of the best things I saw all year. If you've not seen it and you like a good sci-fi kinda then it's on Disney+ - one of the few things worth watching on there imho. Season 2 is coming next year and is going to add some interesting new names to the cast including Peter Dinklage, Tracey Ullman and Jerome Flynn (don't mock - he was really good in Game Of Thrones).

#4 - Nope, not for me