The one thing streaming services have tried to do since their inception is offer blockbuster-level quality at an affordable price – and on a regular basis. No easy task then. Yet this latest show has done exactly that, in perhaps the best example I've seen to date.
Alien: Earth, now on one of the best streaming services in the form of Disney+, is utterly fantastic. You have the high-quality production, acting, writing and special effects of a movie, yet in a series format that you can enjoy night after night. Presuming you can resist binge watching the lot in one once it's all out, of course.
The show really feels like an event and I've genuinely looked forward to settling into this for an evening, then getting up and feeling truly moved – like I've just been to the cinema, but in my front room.
Alien: Earth trailer
What's Alien: Earth about?
The show is set in 2120, two years before the original Alien movie is set, but not in deep space, as the title reveals. This time the Xenomorphs are coming to Earth.
Created by the brilliant Noah Hawley, of Fargo and Legion fame, Earth takes the Alien universe in a new direction and expands the tension and action out beyond the confines of spaceship hallways and onto our home planet.
Featuring humans, cyborgs and first-of-their-kind "hybrids", Alien: Earth pits the ultimate alien killing machine against humanity at its pinnacle of developmental abilities. But is that enough to prioritise each other over greed and gain? These deep messages and more get tackled in this fantastically shot, beautifully acted sci-fi horror.
Look out for great performances from Timothy Olyphant (Justified and The Mandalorian), Alex Lawther (End of the F*ing World) and Essie Davis (The Babadook).
What are Alien: Earth's ratings like?
The series has been met with critical acclaim, with an ability to hold true to the original classic movies' style, while also feeling entirely fresh and new. Its Rotten Tomatoes score is a stonking 95% right now – a rare thing indeed.
Ridley Scott, the creator of the 1979 original movie, is on board as an executive producer – lending serious fan excitement, that's actually well placed.
The Aliens 3 tagline was "In 1979, we discovered in space, no one can hear you scream. In 1992, we will discover, on Earth, everyone can hear you scream." It famously did not deliver on that and now, finally, we have a series that does.
Alien: Earth is available on Disney+, where new episodes are released on a weekly basis. There are eight episodes in total, with the finale due to land on Tuesday 23 September
