I’m a fan of the Alien franchise. Sure, it’s been a bit repetitive since the first sequel, but the second and third movies still added a lot to the lore. I also appreciated Prometheus as an ambitious attempt to provide a deeper backstory as well.

When they announced a show as the next installment, I was a little excited to watch it — though it took me months to finally find the time. But here we are.

Alien: Earth sticks to the dirty, realistic future style established by James Cameron, and it gives us another xenomorph running amok. But that’s basically where the similarities end. Narratively, the show goes in a completely new direction.

As much as you could criticize the repetitiveness of, for example, Alien: Romulus, you could now also criticize Earth for straying so far from its origins. It’s tricky to critique Earth for trying something new while also criticizing Romulus for not doing anything new at all.

But halfway through, I found myself asking: would I enjoy watching this if it wasn’t part of the Alien franchise? The answer I came up with was… maybe not.

The production quality is excellent. The xenomorph and other monster animations are fantastic, and I appreciated that the show didn’t tone down the horror or gore to make it more family-friendly.

But the storyline sidelines the alien in favor of a group of synthetic kids turning against humanity. Again, I can’t fault the show for trying something new while criticizing Alien: Romulus for sticking too closely to old ideas. Still, it sometimes feels like someone wrote a story that had little to do with the original Alien, then realized it might not attract viewers without the franchise name attached.

I’d still rate it 6 out of 10. I enjoy sci-fi and robot stories, and there’s at least one episode that feels like classic Alien. But for a show called Alien, I expected more.