Cold Open And Bowie Bits

Craig 0:03

You're listening to Basket Traffic. I just got editing to do, man. That's it's just trying to make I'm trying to make it a little easy for me.

Shawn 0:14

I understand, but I was we were just having a conversation there. And you're like, you need to get the f you're gonna he's gonna have me roll. Just roll.

Susie 0:21

Strap. Strap in.

Craig 0:29

We're rolling.

Shawn 0:31

You're gonna have me in a goddamn harness, dude, attached to this table that's way too loud. Don't I mean what kind of moron doesn't know that they can't be thin at the end? I just learned that right now. Yeah.

Susie 0:49

That's an audience. God, it's good to see you guys.

Craig 0:52

Fuck yeah.

Shawn 0:58

I have been so depressed, and this is not helping at all. It's just been so dark and miserable about it. We made it past Halloween and now it's all downhill. Barely.

Susie 1:12

Yeah. Dark, dreary.

Shawn 1:14

And what a what a Halloween it was. We had Craig singing David Bowie all night. That was really Halloween. The kids came to the door and he's got his guitar in his hand, and I'm like, I'm like, you know, they're like trigger treat. And he's like, I don't have any candy for you, but do you know Space Oddity? Because I'm gonna play it 60 times.

Susie 1:36

Just part of it.

Shawn 1:37

Part of it. The whole thing. Just ground control to Major Tom. It was great. Oh. But good for you. You're learning, and I I respect that. Yeah. You know, we've been singing. But just can you learn another song?

Susie 1:52

We've been singing a lot of first verses over and over.

Shawn 1:56

This is Major Tom to Ground Control.

Craig 2:00

Well, don't stop now.

Shawn 2:01

No, I I we'll wait till you learn the whole song and then we'll sing it live.

Craig 2:06

Sean, before we begin, I I'd like to communicate.

Shawn 2:08

Oh, we've already begun. Yeah. Oh, okay. This is our cold open. Hi, everybody. Welcome. Welcome back.

Craig 2:14

Uh well, I'd like to communicate something to you.

Shawn 2:17

Yeah, so I'm right here. Okay. And yeah, communicate. So this is the alien language that you are communicating to me. Translating. And you know what? You would be one of the people that could communicate with them. Yeah.

Craig 2:37

Yeah. All I said is don't look now. Is that yeah? But something's behind you.

Shawn 2:43

Don't turn around because they won't be able to hear me on the microphone. This is a new mic that Craig bought.

Susie 2:50

I know. Yeah. I got yours.

Shawn 2:53

Oh, you got the second the hand me downs. That's right. Well, it looks real good on you, Mom.

Craig 3:00

Oh boy.

Susie 3:01

Kind of used to it, but it's all good.

Shawn 3:03

Yeah. So I see that you have some of the Christmas decorations in the uh hallway there about to go up. You're going to string some Christmas lights up.

Susie 3:10

We did the outside lights on Sunday. Very early for us, actually. We aren't normally quite this early, but…

Shawn 3:16

great thing is, Craig doesn't need a ladder. He just right there. So uh just string them right up.

Susie 3:22

Yep.

Shawn 3:22

That's uh

Susie 3:23

You betcha. That's why I married him.

Shawn 3:25

I was gonna say you gotta have some use.

Craig 3:27

Tall jobs. Yeah, tall jobs all around. Yeah, a lot of training.

Shawn 3:31

Christmas is coming.

Craig 3:32

So a little alien. That's what we're gonna do here.

Shawn 3:36

Loving the alien. That's a Bowie song.

Susie 3:39

Negative.

Shawn 3:39

That's a bowie song.

Susie 3:41

Not loving the alien.

Shawn 3:43

Whoa! I'm an alien. I'm a legal alien. I'm an Englishman in New York. You know that one, Craig?

Craig 3:53

I do.

Shawn 3:53

Do you know that one?

Craig 3:54

It's an awesome one. Oh, you mean can I play it? No, I can't. I wish I could. I'm still on Space Oddity.

Shawn 3:59

Yeah, we know. We watched the Blue Jays game, the first five innings. He was playing the first fucking verse over and over and over. Round control to me. I'm like, enough.

Susie 4:12

Shawn, every day.

Craig 4:13

Is that why you left halfway through the game?

Shawn 4:15

Yeah, I'm like, yeah, I'll see it next time. Yeah. No, it's game seven. I'll see it next time. Oh, we're good. I'm recording it.

Susie 4:25

Nice to have music in the house where just expands. We just need some it's it's expanding. It's you're doing a great job.

Craig 4:32

Oh, well, thanks for that.

Shawn 4:33

I'm surprised you didn't take up the xylophone.

Craig 4:36

Yeah.

Shawn 4:36

You like the xylophone?

Craig 4:38

I do love the xylophone.

Shawn 4:39

Yeah. Well, there is one you could play Space Odyssey on the xylophone.

Craig 4:42

Hey. Who doesn't like the xylophone?

Shawn 4:46

I don't. This just always reminds me of Fraser.

Craig 4:51

Uh yeah, fair enough. Ah, well.

Why Talk About Alien Earth

Susie 4:56

Guess that's not a bad thing to be reminded of.

Craig 4:58

So we want to talk about Alien Earth, the latest iteration of the Alien franchise. There's a number of movies out there. There's sequels, there's prequels, there's mid-quills, there's side quills, and on and on it goes with the Alien franchise. And if I'm going to sleep tonight, I'm going to need to take my night quill.

Shawn 5:16

Where's the rim shot? So you gotta have those things queued up, man. Oh, I'm still gonna- He's got the xylophone going with the Crackets and the Who's running this thing, man?

Craig 5:30

This is a this is not a professional operation here.

Shawn 5:32

Yeah, we uh really fell off the face of the earth after that last uh episode.

Craig 5:36

Yes, okay, for those people who are listening, and I bet there are people listening right now who've never ever really have seen much of the aliens franchise beak for whatever reason. Maybe they don't like horror, and we're gonna get into that bit. But I think this episode is worthwhile listening to because we're gonna get I I would like to get a little bit philosophical on this one. Shocking. Yeah. Because and I want to bring a little bit of history in. I when you're like, what the fuck? How can you bring in history with this kind of this franchise? But uh Alien Earth is a TV series that's came out recently. Season one. Uh from as of this airing, there's still no confirmation that there is a season two.

Susie 6:19

I doubt it. Whoa! No, you didn't. For the many of us. There's I don't know if it'll have enough supporters, but go on. I think it was the It's like you slapped him in the face.

Craig 6:33

This is like he's really taking this personally. This is like the highest streaming series ever. Behind The Bachelor.

Shawn 6:42

Those are the people watching.

Craig 6:44

Oh. Boy, I don't feel cavalier about this new series at all.

Shawn 6:48

Oh, are you working in the Cavalier thing?

Craig 6:52

Boy, Cavalier, yeah. That's I apologize for that.

Shawn 6:55

Very good. No, no, I I I'm I'm just pointing it out so people follow you.

Loved It Versus Hated It

Craig 6:59

I'm gonna say it right off the top. I liked it. I liked it a lot. Okay, there's lots of things you can pick apart, but all in all, if I'm gonna judge a series by how I feel and how it resonates with me, like days later and it's still stinking and lingering in my brain, uh that to me is it says something good. And that's how I felt without getting into the details. Right.

Shawn 7:23

Overall, what you Well, there it's gonna be spoiler alert here for for people listening, of course. If you haven't seen the the series, then you should probably not listen to this. So we're just gonna go home. Bye. Um I thought it was a big steaming pile of alien dung. Do they do they do they crap those aliens? I don't know. Is it acid?

Susie 7:49

Yellow acid secretions.

Shawn 7:52

I actually went back to watch it again because I hated it so much the first time I watched it. And I thought so I went online and I was reading a lot of the um reviews and a lot of the got into one of these chat rooms and I got into trouble because I said I didn't like it. And all these sort of younger people, I guess, were like, oh, you guys all just want the old alien and la da. And they were kind of giving me a hard time. And uh so um I went back to watch it again and I did watch, I didn't watch all of it, but it there's a lot of shit going on in that show. Yeah, there is it's confusing as hell. I mean, there's like uh hybrids and and synths and uh and all this, all these things.

Craig 8:32

Cyborgs

Shawn 8:33

cyborgs, and I'm like, my head was gonna explode. Um, but the main thing is there's a lot of stupid people in this show. There are some of the dumbest people in any show I've ever seen. And there are zero characters that I cared about in this show. They are so stupid. I'm just like, why would you do that? Why would you do now? Saying that, not gonna crap all over it. I'm just gonna say the set decoration, the cinematography uh was great. And the recreation of some of the original, like they they did a shot for shot recreation of the Ridley Scott 1979 opening with the this the ship. They recreated the Nostramo pretty much, even though it's not the Nostramo in the show. But I mean it looks just like the Nostramo.

Craig 9:22

That's right.

Shawn 9:22

They did a great job with that, and I was like, hey, I'm this is good, this is where I want to go. Then they go to fucking Neverland Ranch or wherever the hell this is on earth, and they got all these idiots uh running around making like these stupid decisions, and I there's so much I could get into about that. But my main, main problem with this show is that fucking Disney took my alien, my beloved alien franchise. First of all, they threw Peter Pan in there, which totally did not work for me.

Susie 9:52

Yeah, yeah.

Shawn 9:53

And then secondly, they took one of the most horrors horrifying, incredibly scary, dark creatures, and they fucking turned him into a house cat. I mean, they turned him into they did the same thing in Jurassic Park with the Raptors, they did the same thing with the xenomorph. They made him almost like, you know, like first of all, it's like seeing Batman in the day. You never see Batman in the day because he he looks ridiculous in the day. He's at night in the shadows, in the dark. And then they take this alien and they put him in a fucking tree in the daylight in the jungle, like Predator, jumping around from tree to tree, attacking people. I'm like, this is this is comedy. This is a joke. Yeah, it was so bad. All of it was nonsensical. None of the characters like kind of came through with any of their plot lines. Like it was uh, you know. Did you watch the whole thing? Yes. Okay. Yeah, no, I watched it. I I had to watch. I knew I needed ammunition to go up against this guy here. Who liked it? Who liked it? Hey, I liked it. I understand. I know there's people that like it.

Craig 10:58

No, okay. I I will respond to you in a second here. Uh yeah, uh Aliens in the Daytime, it's a little weird. It's a little bit of a adjustment. Uh are there stupid people in adjustment?

Shawn 11:10

Yeah.

Craig 11:12

Oh, okay. Right. Well, yeah, I mean, we're we're dealing with aliens now, not on a planet in in a dark setting. You're you're in a tropical environment in on in Neverland. So Earth is in the future, but this movie is or this TV series is set actually two years before the original alien.

Shawn 11:34

Yeah, which is another problem I have.

Craig 11:36

With Ripley, right?

Shawn 11:37

Yeah.

Craig 11:38

And yeah, there's a lot of talk about kind of understanding the timeline along this. They really messed that up. Here, here is a ship that crash lands purposely onto Earth into what is it, Prodigy?

Shawn 11:49

Yeah, and the ship, by the way, is completely fine, by the way. And did you see that crash? Yeah, and and it's completely fine. Like things are actually still on the tables and like it's ridiculous.

Craig 12:00

Yep, there were some questionable details like that. Yeah. Adjustments. Yeah, adjustments. Just think, just I'm a little bit surprised. I'm a little bit surprised by the I I had a feeling that you may not like it.

Shawn 12:16

No, I knew we were gonna get into this because you said, Oh, I can't wait to talk about this. I'm curious to know what you think. And I went, Oh, we're gonna.

Craig 12:22

But I don't realize the level of your frustration.

Shawn 12:26

Well, listen, I I went back to watching it a second time because I thought, hey, I'm holding the first one from 1979 and the second one from 1986. Wait, like, that's my holy grail. Yeah, yeah. So when I realized that, I go, okay, man, you're you're you need to let those go and give this new thing a shot.

Craig 12:46

Okay, can I ask you this then? But what are the things that you thought were done fairly well?

Shawn 12:49

Like I said, I love the set design and the decoration, and and I I thought the cinematography, like the sh the way it looked and everything was good. Yeah, I liked some of the the ideas with the new creatures, like the new species, even though they didn't really explore them. They had all these great things that they didn't really use. Maybe they're planning to use that.

Craig 13:08

That's what I feel. The set season.

Shawn 13:10

See if they get a second season. Yeah, I don't know if they'll get one.

Susie 13:13

But uh they don't get my vote.

Shawn 13:16

So I thought that the characters were ridiculously silly.

Craig 13:20

I mean okay, let's talk about that. Yeah, okay. What what characters? Like, let's let's ground.

Shawn 13:24

Okay, well, whenever you have adults playing children, it's very hard to do. Okay, and so they you know, now you want to get into that? Do you want to get into it? Yeah, let's talk about that.

Boy Cavalier And Hybrid Kids

Craig 13:33

Let's let's let's let's bring some background. So the the the premise to this series is there's this guy, boy Cavalier.

Shawn 13:42

I just hate that character and I hate that.

Craig 13:45

Yeah, and I agree. I I'm I'm not a fan of silly, yeah, and over the top and stupid, right?

Shawn 13:50

Half his crew gets killed, right, in the facility. It's all shut down, his crew's dying, no, and he's skipping down the hallways, you know, and I'm just going to like and I'm just going, okay, we get it. You're whoo, he's eccentric.

Craig 14:05

Yeah. So here's this genius guy. He, you know, we'll find out later that he is raised in a fairly troubled, whatever that means, environment. And he ends up he's clearly a psychopath. You know, he's I think he's supposed to take on the idea of like the present-day billion trillionaire kind of, you know, Elon Musk. Of course. Kind of the the the the savant kind of dude. And and and I understand where you know often you get shows reflecting kind of today's, you know, vibe and and economic issues, and I get that. And they they try to do that, and I think to a degree they did that.

Shawn 14:41

No, it's an interesting concept with the pharmaceutical companies ruling the earth. I get it. Yeah, there's four of them or five of them or whatever there are.

Craig 14:48

And the idea is interesting in the sense that in this current climate, you know, when you actually look at the world today where there are fewer democracies today than there were in the 1970s, apparently. And uh, we're seeing kind of erosion with that, potentially with you in the United States. And so there's these kind of like existential fears, and and so you get this feeling that this show show is playing off that. And and so I get that. The way they applied it, okay, you know, you're right. Boy Cavalier is this boy genius who is a psychopath, who he comes across as ludicrous, and and and he doesn't really add to the show, to the gravity, I think, other than a couple of points that I'd like to point out. But let's get to the main point where we said that this, what he creates, his creation, which I like that. Okay. So his dying kids. So these kids are how old would you say? They're 11 or 12. They're 11 or 12, 12. Yeah. So they're old enough to kind of understand the world, but they still got a childlike mindset.

Shawn 15:47

And so now they're but they're transferred there because adult minds can't handle the the transfer.

Craig 15:53

Yeah, too fixed. And boy cavalier wants a childlike mind because they're better to control.

Shawn 16:01

These are kids with terminal diseases, yeah.

Craig 16:02

Control, right? That's right. Right.

Susie 16:04

He can control them, control the minds a little more easily, no?

Craig 16:08

Well, that's the part that I'm not really sure if that's what his ultimate goal is. And I want to talk about that because the very last episode and the very last scene, he he gets almost giggly because they're in the they're in the cell, and these the lost boys, as they're as the Peter Penn reference is, is you have five, I can't remember five of them he created, five, six, you know, kids. Yeah, they were basically real children, but their consciousness, their essence, whatever you want to call their soul, was transferred into a synthetic body. And so, but they're not synthetic anymore. They're now a new category called hybrids. Uh, whereas before you get like Ash and Rook and Walter and David, who are all synthetics, true synthetics, right? And then, of course, you get the cyborg played by Morrow, and he has the ability to, you know, who's the uh the guy who Wolverine? Yeah, you know, he's able to bring it up.

Shawn 17:05

I had to tie in the superheroes, you knew that, right?

Craig 17:07

Yeah, somehow.

Susie 17:09

And um, you know, like transferring souls wasn't enough.

Craig 17:12

Yeah.

Susie 17:12

Essence.

Craig 17:13

So they they they successfully transferred these souls into or the consciousness into these adult bodies, and these actors are trying to act like 11, 12-year-olds, which is a I get it, it's a little bit jarring at first. Like you're like, okay, and some of them do it a better job than others, and some, you know, like nibs, the ginger, the redhead. I I I thought she was really good because she was a little bit crazy and never was able to really adjust. And I thought Wendy, the real protagonist here, who becomes the kind of the leader of the Lost Boys, Wendy, no surprise, Peter Pan.

Susie 17:49

Oh, yeah.

Craig 17:50

And and she I I thought she acted that really, really well. I mean, that's I just think that that's a very difficult thing to do. It wasn't done beautifully, but I thought it was done fairly well. Now, Boy Cavalier, he has these kids. The the plane, not the plane, it's not a plane, it's the ship crashes into basically the twin towers.

Shawn 18:12

Like the, you know, yeah, you know and and some guy's having a party up there, and he's like, Oh, hello, what's going on? That's right. We had no idea.

Craig 18:21

That's right, dressed in like 17th century, 17th century weird sex party going on up there. Dressed like Louis the Thirteenth, 14th, or whatever. Anyway, it that was kind of funny. Meanwhile, the Predator is out running amok and killing.

Shawn 18:37

Hey, send the kids to the crash site. That's a great idea. So and that was we spent a trillion dollars on these guys, send them out. So yeah.

Craig 18:46

So the crash site takes place. We find out later that Boy Cavalier had set up the whole thing to crash into his thing. So he knew exactly what he was doing.

Shawn 18:53

That was episode five, which was the best episode.

Craig 18:55

Yeah, and it was cool because it recreated your original concept. Back in space.

Shawn 19:01

Yeah, not at Neverland Ranch.

Craig 19:02

And I thought all that was done really well. Yeah. We found out that Boy Cavalier is this genius. He made it very clear that he wants to be surrounded by people who are more intelligent than him. Like basically, oh, what woe is me. I've got I'm surrounded by dullards. I mean, that was basically his frustration. Which to me, which part of when we go back to the very end part where he's caged, he looks like he's lost. But Wendy basically goes, We're we're doing this, we're taking, and he gleefully smiles. Like it was almost as if uh this was a message. This is what he wanted all along. Like he didn't lose. He actually, like, right, this was his intention that these things that he created are now going to kind of surpass him. And that's the whole kind of concept of this. Now, this guy who runs Prodigy, there's five dictatorships in a sense that exist on planet Earth. And of course, we know the most famous of them. Uh the Utani, the Whale and the Whale and Newtani group, and they have a guy called Morrow who interestingly looks a lot like the original guy in Alien in 79, I think it was. Yeah. And I really liked him. I actually really liked his character. I really liked Kersh's character by done by Timothy Olifant. I really liked what you know what it felt like after watching this? It felt like a a a White Lotus episode or a series. And I know exactly.

Shawn 20:25

What are you smoking over there, Dave? I know. I know we could not be farther away from that. What I what I mean you don't like the characters? Is that the thing?

Craig 20:33

Well, that's what I'm saying. No, that's Did you let me finish? Did you not notice that pretty much no character in the end had a likability? There was always this an element that about you you talked earlier about like you couldn't get into the any of the characters, you didn't feel for anything. And there's the writing was so bad.

Shawn 20:49

Yeah, well, okay the white lotus writing is fucking fantastic.

Craig 20:53

Totally agree with that.

Shawn 20:54

I'm just saying so stupid, Craig. There was no closure on any of the fucking plot lines. And it wasn't because they're going to a second season, it was bad. It was like, hey, we're just gonna let these guys walk around the island and do whatever they want. These these things that we've created. Did you notice there's no fucking security on the island, too? They got six guys walking around with machine guns. Hey, put up an electric fence for Christ's sakes, man.

Craig 21:26

You got Jurassic Park vibes uh when you were out in the, you know, outside like that. Didn't you get that feeling? Yeah. And and so there's a combination of like Blade Runner, you know, you got Kersh, who kind of looks like Roy and Blade Runner. Yeah, you know, and then you get Jurassic Park elements. Now you got these creatures out in the run, and it's like, okay.

Shawn 21:46

There were some great concepts. I wish they'd explored them more. Yeah, and they've kind of followed through with them more. I just, as soon as I saw that Wendy character jump off the cliff, I went, Oh, fucking Marvel superheroes, here we go. Yeah, they're all fucking super. Superheroes and then send them into the crash site, and then all this. I started going, Oh, this is so predictable. This is so, you know. I get so they made her fucking Neo from the Matrix. Hey, she can tap into any computer and alter it. And and then find her deadbeat brother, who, by the way, I had I wished he died in the fucking second episode. He was attacked like three times by the alien. Each time he saved right at the last one.

Craig 22:24

Again, though, then didn't you find that interesting?

Shawn 22:26

No, I wanted him to die. Adorable that character. He was so boring.

Craig 22:30

No, my point exactly. Because you're looking at him and like, I get it. Like maybe it was a writing issue.

Shawn 22:35

But I all I want to say is an acting or a casting or I don't know.

Craig 22:39

Because we you most movies, most alien movies, there's only one survivor.

Shawn 22:45

And well, he survived three times.

Craig 22:47

So everyone gets wasted, but and so far we haven't seen a lot of people getting wasted in this in this series. Now, I think it's because it's a TV series.

Shawn 22:56

So the whole whole And it reminded me that was my problem. Does the TV series serve the movies, or does it matter? And that's my problem, is that I went, oh, this is a TV series. I could it really feels like it.

Craig 23:09

Yeah. Although it had the the quality of it, the set design, the cinematography.

Shawn 23:15

It started off like that. Very, very, and then it all went to shit for me.

Is It Still Horror

Craig 23:19

Where when did when did it go to shit for me?

Shawn 23:21

Um halfway through the first episode. Oh, I was like, yeah, I was just like, oh, is that because of the moment dead by the second episode? So I just I just found it silly and and plausible. I wanted it to be yeah, um a little more. First of all, it's not scary at all. It's silly, it's not scary. It's alien is scary, man. It's it's horror. It's like there's nothing about this that is scary. It's laughable, a lot of the stuff in it.

Craig 23:48

Although Susie couldn't finish it.

Susie 23:50

I can't I couldn't, I just was the camera shaking always about no, no, it's the music, it's the lead up. It's like already expecting, and maybe it's I watch a lot of horror though. Yeah, and I don't like it. And it wasn't just me. Like I tried, I tried again, and then I just had to walk away.

Shawn 24:09

I am not here to fight you on everything. I'm just telling you, I wanted this. I my expectations went through the roof when I heard about this project, and I knew I was gonna be disappointed. And I said, Don't don't get your hopes up, don't get your hopes up.

Susie 24:23

So there's different levels for everybody. Like our middle walked in, middle daughter walked in and saw it and started crying. She's almost 24.

Shawn 24:33

Oh, you should see a doctor.

Susie 24:37

She was terrified of it, and I don't like any of really like I don't like any of those feelings for alien. I never have liked.

Shawn 24:46

You don't get all warm and fuzzy when something bursts out of your stomach?

Susie 24:50

No. No, no. Um, I've had that already. You guys don't know.

Craig 24:54

Oh, Jesus. I was just thinking.

Susie 24:56

You don't know what it's not.

Shawn 24:57

I was thinking that it was every guy's worst fucking nightmare because of the pregnancy thing. I know, I know.

Susie 25:02

You don't know.

Shawn 25:03

Listen, Craig, I wanted to be with you on all of this stuff. I understand the if this wasn't attached to alien, here's a here's an interesting concept. If this wasn't attached to alien, it was its own original um science fiction show that maybe didn't have the xenomorph and all that stuff in it, and was just about tra the consciousness stuff and like you know, and this never land and I might have been like, this is kind of cool. This is a unique and original thing. So maybe I'm stuck because I'm too attached to the past.

Craig 25:36

Okay, so I I have a question for you then. Uh I get everything what you're saying, I just didn't feel it's this same degree, but do you think that this is too much meddling by Disney?

Shawn 25:48

Absolutely, and this is what Disney does. And now the Andor is is fantastic, and I think maybe that's another reason that we're all like really excited about these things sometimes, because they hit they hit that one out of the park.

Craig 26:02

Maybe I came with different preconceived ideas, and uh what I also found myself uh intrigued by was you have uh this idea of these kids, and uh I there because there is a lot of philosophical components to this, I I found that really intriguing. So yeah, and I kind of did it make sense for boy cavalier to send these new beings into a crash site? No, and lots of people have panned that, you know, and but he knew exactly what the audience at the time didn't know it, but he knew exactly that there was these organisms on the ship that could be very dangerous. So maybe in that sense that you have these kind of expendable things. I mean, because he doesn't give a crap about life, and yet he ironically paradoxically cares about because he created life, and so but he probably knows he could just keep creating it, so he doesn't care about what he has.

Susie 26:55

He'll doesn't matter, he can get rid of that and he can just create more.

Craig 26:59

You know, was it whimsy that he sent them in? No, I I don't know. I think there is more of a kind of like darker kind of thinking going on by sending them in. It came a it I don't think it came across well, but nonetheless, um, yeah, you have Wendy who is drawn to her biological brother. He's quite uh frankly annoying and just uh too bad he wasn't you know murdered by a xenomorph.

Shawn 27:25

That would have been a second season, there's there's always that opportunity.

Craig 27:29

But again, I go back I go back to my White Lotus comment.

Shawn 27:32

With respect to the idea of the characters being unlikable, there's not anyone there's a difference though between unlikable and I don't give a fuck about the characters.

Craig 27:42

Oh, okay, fair enough. Okay, but but but I actually felt connected to some of the characters. Like, okay, I like I said earlier, Kirsch and Moro. I really like that. I thought Wendy did a pretty good job. I felt that um Boy Cavalier could have been somebody different. Uh who else did I like? Did I really care about the other kids? Maybe a little bit, you know, but not really. Maybe they could have spent more time developing those individual characters.

Shawn 28:09

Yeah, there's a lot of really weird, like, I mean, when that is it nibs, the yeah, and she she gets, you know, the brother shoots her or whatever he does. And by the way, with technology that we haven't seen in the other movie, that's right, right? That would have been great up on the Nostramo. That's right. That that gun that zaps the alien and or that thing that it puts it in a bag, and like that would have been great up on the Nostramo.

Craig 28:33

Yeah, yeah.

Shawn 28:34

But no. Um, but they they they kill her, and then it's like, and then Wendy goes, What did you do? That was her that was her Emmy moment. And and then we just cut to black, end of episode. Next episode starts, and and and nibs is just fine. She's fine, she's in the same fucking outfit. No, we got no resolution to that at all. It's just like, oh, she's back, she's laying there on the dock, like basically dead. And then, oh, she's fine. She's fine. We're good.

Craig 29:03

The element of these kids, though, being children in adult bodies, and because children can be volatile or unpredictable, unstable, I thought it also added to an element of that in the the show. You you're like, as the audience, you're going, Oh, God, a yeah, how's this gonna unfold, right? You know, like uh Slightly, who is one of the kids, uh, he's being basically pressured. He thinks his mother is going to be killed if he doesn't get a face hugger onto the face of somebody, and so it can plant an embryo and create another xenomorph. Um you you watch that, and I thought this this you can see that he's an adult, but he's a kid, and you I don't know, I felt like it added to to a little bit of like, where's this gonna go? And then and then you walk into the you know the research facility where they're storing all these creatures, and not only you do have a cage, and it's a top-notch research facility, they got him in like a fucking aquarium, dude.

Shawn 30:05

Right? They're they're like feeding these things with cafeteria trays. Yeah, like they're walking in, they've got a slot, and it's a fucking bug, dude. And he's he's serving it like with a cafeteria tray. I'm going, what what are you doing, dude? And then he goes right into the thing to put it down. Oh, I'm locked in. And that that was, but I'm not, I'm not, listen, I'm not going off on just the kids. The adults were stupid as hell, dude. How about that boring ass scientist and the doctor that are married that we know nothing about? Like they're they're in like until episode four. And and then basically it's like, uh, we need to wipe her memory, Nib's memory. Okay. Wife says, Okay, great. And then, oh, you're fired. Your husband's fired, by the way. And then we never get any follow-up on that at all. It's just like she never, we never see them together again.

Craig 30:56

No, they didn't execute that properly. And then it's like we're married, and yet he put it in. It was just fired, he has a pack up, get off the island.

Plot Holes And Missing Payoffs

Shawn 31:03

And he just hangs out for an extra day, though, right? Say his goodbyes. I'm just gonna hang out, clean out the old office, clean out the old aquarium, you know, and uh before I head before oh, and why don't I turn off all the tracking things uh before I go? That's true. Uh there's so many stupid things like that. I was just like, oh, are we like, can't we have it smarter kind of? Can we elevate this a little? I don't know. It's hard to write a TV show. I get it.

Susie 31:30

I okay well, and to to hold up to your vision of your of your favorite movie. I know that's the problem. I get it. I get it.

Shawn 31:39

What did you go through the whole thing?

Susie 31:41

No, I couldn't make it.

Shawn 31:42

How many what did you make it? An hour, 20 minutes?

Susie 31:45

Um I watched some of a few episodes. That's it. I just could I just can't. I can't do it. I don't I can't go to sleep at night, even though this wasn't as bad as the movies. I it wasn't as scary as the movies, but when it would start leading up, like I'm like, can you not watch that right now?

Shawn 32:05

Like, I have to go to bed tonight, and I can't so the last one you would have watched is Romulus. Is that right? Yeah, Alien Romulus, which which, yeah.

Susie 32:13

Fully, we watched that. Yeah, we did. Right.

Shawn 32:15

And then I watched I pan that one too? I can't remember.

Craig 32:20

Not as enthusiasm as enthusiastically as this one. You we we had some issue with Romulus, but we also nerded out on some of the stuff they brought back things that are quintessentially. We had an issue in the original, we had an issue with Romulus. We had the kind of the young kids and kind of doing things that seemed a little bit impractical. Right. Because most of the themes with Alien is you got a crew that's working class.

Shawn 32:46

They're like truck drivers. Yeah. Yeah.

Craig 32:48

And they're you know, that's but the okay, but this is the thing though. So I'm gonna I'm gonna push back a little bit. So if I I I because of the show, I decided to go back and re-watch like 70% of all the alien movies.

Shawn 33:00

Oh and I know um binge while he was singing uncontrolled a major time over and over again just the first burst.

Susie 33:09

Yeah.

Craig 33:11

I'm just adding to the whole horror.

Shawn 33:14

You he literally was playing that watching this show, Alien Earth. That's maybe why you liked it so much. He was playing playing his guitar, watching the episode when I walked in the last time. I know. And I'm going, how can you aren't you how are you watching? And maybe that's why you liked it so much. Hey, man, this is what we were listening to your song, going, Oh god, I sound great.

Craig 33:34

And if any song in a play, that one was quite appropriate. It is appropriate, you know.

Shawn 33:37

Yeah. So I'm an alien, I'm a legal alien.

Craig 33:43

Okay. So Maginot. That's the name of this ship, the USCSS Maginot. And it was not meant to crash into it, but it was hijacked by Boy Cavalier, as we find out later on. And uh what his intention was, yeah. Well, let's get back to your point about how they were, you know, stored in aquariums. Um, yeah, you got multiple creatures and they were put into these things.

Shawn 34:10

They put the eyeball up high too, so that it would fall over, which it did and crashed. I'm like, wow, a bunch of geniuses, man. And she's eaten a sandwich, too. She's eaten a sandwich, like none of them have got masks, like they're all like, you know, right right there with the I'm I'm willing to overlook that stuff, Craig. I'm willing to overlook it.

Disney Meddling And Franchise Expansion

Craig 34:31

But that's the thing. When you every crew in all shows have the jackasses, like alien aliens. Rewatching that was really interesting because they they're you've got basically classic James Cameron, like I mean military, yeah, you know, jacked, full of themselves, yeah, arrogant, and they're ready to kick some ass, but they get their ass kicked, right? And and and so okay, but you see in that every single thing, there's always some idiot who's a little bit arrogant and stupid. Oh whether it's an old movie or this series, so that theme just seems to be continued. So I I I kind of rolled with that a little bit. So you come to this TV series here and you've got these container units, but maybe it's because they just really don't know the extent to which uh how dangerous these things are. And I kind of liked these creatures. I I I actually felt so here's my they were cool. Here's my take on this. Here's my take on this. Uh we we have we have a problem in the aliens uh universe, right? You and I think uh Ridley Scott addressed some of that with Prometheus and Covenant, right? And the idea is that Prometheus was like, okay, Ridley Scott's like, okay, I gotta we gotta expand this because otherwise it's gonna be the same kind of read right retread of a horror flick. Stupid crew go in, see a creature, don't know what it's about, face hugger, xenomorph, death, one person survives. Like we gotta move on. Yeah, they already did that, and they did that brilliantly brilliantly. Yeah, so I'm I'm thinking that now what they're doing is is that they want to kind of expand this world. Now, maybe that's Disney's going, let's expand this world because money, money, money, money, right? That's what they're doing. Exactly.

Shawn 36:17

I get that that's why they bought the catalog.

Craig 36:19

That's right. I I get it, I get that. And if you did, if you if Disney didn't own Peter Pan and decided to weave it in intelligently, I I'm like, okay, I I can play with that. Uh, but it's just and Ice Age too.

Shawn 36:35

They they worked Ice Age in there too. You saw that, right?

Craig 36:38

Yeah, and that's where uh Disney's on the screens in the background all the time. And I'm like, Oh, yeah, and that's where Disney X execs need to be, you know, an intervention. A total intervention. So I I'm I'm deleting those things in my head about kind of those things. So I'm trying to take the good elements of it. So you have uh these kids led by Wendy, who becomes superpower, and you're like, you're right, she jumps off a cliff. And it's just hated that.

Shawn 37:06

It was it was like hated it.

Craig 37:09

And yet, and yet not totally um unrealistic, I guess. If you're a synthetic body that can handle that kind of level of impact, then so be it. It just didn't need to be done that way. That was a poor decision by the director, Hawley, right?

Shawn 37:25

And who's great? He he did uh Fargo, right? He's the showrunner for Fargo Creator. Fargo is great. I love that.

The Maginot Line Symbolism

Craig 37:33

Yeah, yeah. What are the things that stuck with me? Okay, the Maginot has an historical connection. Uh, they chose that for a reason. And the Maginot is actually a the Maginot line. It was a fortification that was built along the French border, along the border with Germany post-World War I. Uh, Germany invades in World War I and catches France off guard in a sense. And so France was the French were like, we're not gonna let this happen again. So we're gonna build this really impregnable fortification that goes all the way along from the south to the north along that border. Well, the meaning of this, the symbolism of this, of course, is that the Germans, when they invaded in World War II, uh just went around it. And just fucking went around it. And and through Belgium and through the Ardenne Forest. And so the the irony is that the meaning of this is that despite the efforts of human beings to kind of shore up and protect themselves, uh, that it's that kind of symbolism of the instability of of life. You just it's unpredictable. Right. And and and you know, best intentions sort of thing. So, okay, I I like I like that stuff. I like I like the fact that they've named these ships and they have kind of historical connections and they they gave it a go. And I think in this case it worked, and this is here you know, you know that's like that's what Alien does so well. It it's the dread, you know, when things start just a slight little fuck up, a little mistake, a little, you know, this is it. That's the moment when everything is gonna go to pot. It's just gonna unravel.

Susie 39:06

That's the moment I leave. Yeah, I gotta get out of here.

Craig 39:10

I gotta get out of here. Yeah, I get it. And that's the moment I turn the volume up a little bit more, a little I lean in a little bit more. I want to see where this is going. Um they probably took on too many things, but at the same time, too. I could imagine if you're doing eight episodes with this budget, with this level of expectation, it's gotta be difficult to kind of like m reach that, match that. I get it.

Susie 39:35

Of course, hoping for a second season to expand and explore further. You're you're kind of trying to build for that because you want your well, they will.

Craig 39:44

They will. Disney didn't spend you know the money on buying all this, the rights to it, just to go, oh, that that was a screw up. And I think they will. I think they will. Because they got a lot of questions to answer.

Shawn 39:53

I I think the thing though, like the guy in the xenomorph suit. Did you see that? Like when he's in the woods, and you're like, that's a guy in a suit. I've never never seen that before.

Craig 40:03

No, I'd miss that.

Shawn 40:04

Oh, you go back and watch it. It's a guy in the suit. You can totally tell. Yeah, no, and you couldn't. I mean, that's fine. Of course, you gotta like. I respect that they didn't want to CGI at all, and like they wanted to, but it was very, very obvious to me. I was like, oh, oh, that's a bad shot.

Craig 40:20

The show wasn't really about the xenomorph. I mean, like you said, my frustration is Wendy speaks the language, you know, and now it becomes a fucking pet. Here, buddy, earboy, here boy.

Shawn 40:33

You know, that she's controlling it and she's like and why why does she speak the language? Why, why has she got a mind link with with the ale? Why?

Susie 40:42

Yeah, how did that happen?

Shawn 40:43

How did that happen?

Craig 40:44

How how does she, yeah? They they imply through her stay tuned for season two, her, you know, and I'm shitting all over this show.

Shawn 40:51

Will I be watching season two? Fuck yeah. Because I've got nothing better to do, and I love sci-fi and horror. I guess I was just disappointed, Disney. Well, you can do better.

Craig 41:04

Okay. Kersh Morrow, their little rivalry. Did you did you not like Timothy Oliphant in his role as Kirsch?

Shawn 41:13

Uh he was his plays a uh a synthetic. I thought uh I loved from Prometheus. I loved David. David. I mean, that is a great performance. Yeah I found it I I love Timothy Oliphant. I I like his work and found him, like I said, I found all of these characters very unmemorable. I I nothing stood out, nothing. He's just standing around giving creepy looks and going, Oh, he's looking at everything happening on the cameras, which is odd, you know, because you're like, oh, he's in on it, I guess.

Craig 41:45

Well, that that was a thing that they never really explained. I mean, he's they're they're dragging this body with a face hugger, and they're and he sees them, he's like, Okay, uh, where do you where are you going? And they're like, Oh god, we got caught. But he's like, No, no, the elevator's that way.

Shawn 42:00

Yeah, that's right.

Craig 42:01

And you're like, What?

Shawn 42:02

So you you f I forgot Timothy Oliphant was in the show until you just said that. Oh shit, right. Yeah, he was.

Craig 42:08

He was that I uh I kind of liked what he did. I he, you know, yeah, you're right. Um, Fastbender is a remarkable actor. That that was uh and he did incredible did David beautifully.

Shawn 42:22

And you you saw the the synthetic trying to grasp the human thing, yeah, and and and very curious about it. This was just uh I don't know. This is a totally different style.

Craig 42:36

Yeah, and yeah, and Prometheus is and and Covenant are uh set a few decades earlier than than this series is supposed to be. And again, in the in the timeline nerds are get frustrated because they're like, well, how does this xenomorph actually be on Earth and then nobody knows about it? Nobody knows about it up in the Nostramo.

Shawn 42:56

How come they never heard of all of this?

Craig 42:59

You know what? I don't think that it's too far of a stretch, to be honest. Like they they quickly take these things, they don't show us, but and put them on never land, and who is to be the wiser? It it's contained quickly. I get what you're saying. Um I liked my my my favorite part, the stuff that re thing that resonated with me was the eye.

Shawn 43:20

Yeah, the eye was cool.

Craig 43:22

The eye that always seemed to get into the left eye socket of all things.

Shawn 43:27

I mean, half the season it was in a sheep, yeah, just staring at us.

Craig 43:32

But I thought that was awesome. I just could have moved it along a little quicker, though.

Shawn 43:36

Oh, I see that's funny. They they they blue balled us the whole time, dude. Like, oh, this is cool. They blue eyed us. You know?

Susie 43:48

Awesome.

Shawn 43:49

Like, move it along here.

Craig 43:51

I get it, but see, to me, that to me, they're setting up for season two. The eye is is key to this.

Predator Badlands And Making Villains Nice

Shawn 43:57

See, you know, you gotta finish season one before you get. season. Well yeah. The reason I think I'm so angry, and spoiler alert again for people out there, is that I just saw Predator Badlands, which is also Disney owns that. Okay. And and I enjoyed the movie. I actually enjoyed it, it was like great action and everything, but they did the same fucking thing. They made Predator and they gave him a family and they and they made him uh like the runt of the family and like and like made him have to go out and like and work with other people and like it it it's like that's what I'm pissed off about. Yeah. Yeah I haven't seen that. So I think that I'm I'm extra angry because of that. And maybe I'm kind of transferring that into the show a bit.

Susie 44:41

Well that's two shows that you've seen that come you know that come down from the original ones that you loved.

Shawn 44:49

Yeah.

Susie 44:49

And this is where they take it. And they do sound like they're disnifying.

Shawn 44:53

Well that's what they do.

Susie 44:54

Yeah.

Shawn 44:55

And so I guess that's the crux of it isn't it Craig is that's what I'm and I understand everything you're saying is valid and I agree with it. And I did find some of the concepts interesting. Yeah. And maybe I'm just angry they that it didn't quite deliver the way I wanted that dark ominous cinematic thing which they achieved in certain parts.

Craig 45:14

The symmetry makes me laugh though that here where you're talking about this this environment this world in alien earth where you have five massive corporations that run everything. That's cool. And yet here we are have Disney this monolith of an official prodigy Disney is prodigy. Yeah you called it when you you were over here and we watched the trailer of Predator Badlands and you went oh I got I hope they don't before you saw the movie I hope they don't do blah blah blah. What I think they're gonna do.

Shawn 45:45

And you nailed it and to me it's like yeah when you start when you saw the predator with his helmet off with his hair slicked back in a ponytail and they gave him eyes that are definitely a little more human than the original like now I've just heard that Arnold Schwarzenegger is signed on to do another predator now of course they all oh my god they all come back to the to the trough right so now like I said I actually enjoyed the film I saw it on IMAX and it it's like a big loud action movie. There's some great sequences and um Al Fanning is great and she plays a synthetic so there's an alien crossover. Weyland Utani is in the movie. And so she plays two synthetics that are identical what you know kind of good good good bad cop. And so it is you know I thought that was quite interesting but just the fact that they gotta make them likable. They gotta take these characters that were just dark and they were villains and they've got to make them so that they're good now.

Susie 46:47

And like is that that just wholesomeness that Disney's trying to replicate well I think that it's more about how can we spend more out of this and like we make this character pull different people in too like pull in the people like like they're trying to pull in the people like me sure who don't want to watch these horror movies by Disnifying and they're trying to get a bigger base and go, oh well now he's good.

Shawn 47:14

Now he's kind of a good guy and like we can all root for him.

Academia Reads Alien As Politics

Craig 47:17

Before I have to you know send you the hospital um let's let's maybe redirect and some deep breaths over there please some high blood pressure going on you know when uh a series like this starts hitting the big time is when academics start writing scarletly work around it. And so I looked into this too I was just curious. So we've got topics of feminism gender capitalism labor theology it just makes me laugh when I when I hear you know academics start talking about and breaking down things like this. I'll give you some examples. The alien mother and endlessly reproducing and birthing monstrosities dramatizes patriarchal horror at the generative power of the feminine stop I know I know we don't need to see the show now Ripley's strength is not a denial of femininity but a renegotiation of its cinematic boundaries and like you know I'm a smart guy but what the fuck does EFCB mean? Ripley inherits Frankenstein's role but in her hands the science of survival becomes an ethics of containment the true horror of alien is not the creature but the company a system so total that its violence seems natural and I'm like okay so that's like an anti-capitalist thing. I just I just had to laugh that this is the reality that we're dealing with.

Shawn 48:46

Like it's hitting academia and people have to talk about this not just us, you know, who just become fans of the alien franchise I get everything you're saying I'm not as obviously as enthusiastically down on it uh but um I loved it I well you're gonna watch it again tonight no yeah yeah no no we're not not tonight we watched every other night it's been on you know I was watching this going oh Craig's gonna love this show yeah seriously is yeah yeah okay no I'm serious because and I why why why why no but why did you because of all the themes the thematics the the corporate stuff just everything you're talking about I go Craig's gonna pick up on all this he's gonna like it because that's who you are and I picked I I you know and I'm too dumb and I'm like I don't get it I'm like I don't get it uh but and that's not right this doesn't look good and that doesn't look good this doesn't make sense and this is boring and this is so yeah we're different people and I'm like I don't want to get it because you don't want to get it I don't even want to listen because because it's gonna get scary and I need to sleep tonight. So I'm just gonna so desensitized like that that none of that is scary to me.

Craig 49:59

No that is so that's what the problem was for me that there wasn't enough yeah jumps there wasn't enough no the the xenomorph was reduced uh to a to a freaking trained dog but now we got the eye to contend with wait for the eye see season two bifocal on holy shit somebody put a contact in that thing dude well you know maybe they'll do a fucking turnaround season two will blow my mind probably not yeah I mean they're gonna throw in a few Lion King songs next season and it's gonna be great. Rousing sing-alongs I'm gonna sing that with a fucking xenomar it's all natural bitterness here folks comes right from the right from the heart right from the core so I wanted to say when we talked about the last episode about the impaler and Halloween themes and you know the movies poltergeist Exorcist and all the Halloween genre movies and how I can't stand clowns and I can't watch it but this is a different horror thing for me. Like so I I don't I don't react the same way that you do.

Susie 51:22

I think because it's science fiction based you like it.

Craig 51:25

Well that's right because for me because it's based in this concept of this future universe where we have humans traveling and that that there could be this possibility you know maybe very low but this possibility just then causes my imagination to run and then because it has an element of you know realism as opposed to a fucking clown that turns into you know a live thing that wants to kill you.

Shawn 51:48

Like so so to that would have made the show way better dude they fucking threw a clown on Neverland ranch there.

Final Takes And Closing Song

Craig 51:54

Yeah would have really really moved that plot along anywise versus um the Xenomorph there we go yeah there's Disney listen Disney there's your next fucking gold mine anyways yes a couple of dark weeks oh yeah can we lighten it up boys a little bit what are some of the kind of shows that you liked what would you let's yeah over to you dealer's choice what are we talking about next I prefer the 1700s oh brother okay need a little more than that no more horror for a couple weeks let's take a break of the horror it's all this is a fucking horror podcast isn't it wait a minute hey I didn't sign on for that I didn't my contract did not exclude we're doing Jack Texas chainsaw massacre that was the deal dude Craig's gonna get into the history of the chainsaw it's gonna be fucking fascinating well I'm gonna go uh into my pharmaceutical cupboard and get some drugs for Sean so he can recover from this are they from Whalen or Prodigy?

Shawn 52:59

Yeah Whalen alien good staff yeah nice die in buddy well Sean I'm I'm sorry uh that that's just how it was for you should be sorry yeah and I would like a full written apology from Alien Earth crew cast Disney yeah anybody involved with it I'll be emailing them tonight I'd like to play a song for Sean I don't pretend to be very good at the guitar but I am learning so this one goes out to Sean Ground control to major short ground control to major shiny take your protein pills in and put your helmet on ground control to major shine commencing countdown engines on check ignition and may