Alien: Earth – a 'bold' prequel to the space horror classic

This small-screen prequel to "Alien" "should not be as good as it is", said Rebecca Nicholson in the FT. Ridley Scott's 1979 classic spawned "a sprawling franchise" of sequels and spin-offs, mostly offering "diminishing returns". But "Alien: Earth" (shown on Disney+) is a genuinely "bold and imaginative" effort that ranks among "the most enjoyable TV series of recent years".

Set two years before the original, it pays "homage" early on, when the cargo of alien life runs amok on a space vessel – which crash lands in a futuristic Bangkok. Thereafter, though, the series enters new territory. It imagines an Earth divided between rival tech corporations. The boss of one, Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin), a magnate obsessed with eternal life, seizes the aliens for research purposes.

The nightmarish monsters from the original are just one of several deadly species on board, said Ed Power in The Daily Telegraph. There are also "horrific interstellar spiders" and "a sociopathic eyeball with tentacles". But Kavalier has been creating "spooky lifeforms" of his own: powerful androids implanted with the consciousnesses of sick children used as his guinea pigs.

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The series "both fleshes out the story while, like any reboot, offering all the familiarities", said James Jackson in The Times. It also comes freighted with existential questions about AI, runaway technological development and humanity's future. But it doesn't stint on the action, and the extraterrestrial creatures remain as "horrifying" as ever. The result is scary, "nasty" and "frequently terrific".