Thanks for reminding me I need to watch this for the gazillionth time. 😀

It’s billed as a stand-alone horror story so likely no connections with Prometheus and Covenant.

I totally get what you are saying and that seems to be the general sentiment but personally I kinda liked this new angle. He used the alien franchise to bring a new story focused on the engineers, androids and synthetic life just to get studios to greenlight the budget but I can understand why many would feel it’s kind of con trick as the xenos are almost an afterthought in these flicks and are relegated to playing second fiddle.

The fact that the films are kind of flawed, definitely in the downright stupid decisions some of the “experts” make certainly doesn’t help (cartographer gets lost, the xenobiologist is the first to pet the hissing alien vagina snake, …) but as you say, the world he creates, the atmosphere he builds and especially David make up for a lot.

If you compare them to other franchise flicks like for example Jurassic World, which is an admittedly very low bar, these flawed sci-fi epics are a lot more daring and for that reason, imo, more interesting. Then again, people prolly wouldn’t appreciate a jurassic park flick without dinosaurs so I definitely get why an alien film without xenos might not have been the best idea.

Loved the first season too! This really intense creepy vibe permeates every second of it. I am now halfway through the second season and still loving it but for now they seem to only be adding to all the mystery and not really solving anything. I hope it doesn’t pull a lost on us and they have some idea where they are going. Hard to say if it’s got sci-fi elements to it. It will depend on how the plot evolves.

Still, definitely would recommend it too. One of the best horror series in a looong time.

Hard to pick just a few. I think I am going with authors to sort of cheat a bit. ;p

I love me some Arthur C Clarke and Asimov and other oldskool stuff but every age had their greats. Greg Bear left a pretty deep Impression with his Blood Music, written in the 80s, and these days I really love me some Alastair Reynolds. Blindsight by Peter Watts, from the early 2000s, is another standout for me but feels kind of unfair to single out specific books cuz there are so many great ones. Almost anything, old and new, released under the SF Masterworks label is great!