Hermit Is Sci-Fi’s Ultimate Family Horror: Why You’ll Never Look at Siblings the Same Way Again
Hello everyone. Let’s talk about Hermit – the latest slab of Ridley Scott-flavored sci-fi, this time filtered through Noah Hawley’s “I’m going to make this weird whether you like it or not” lens. And hoo boy, he’s leaning heavy on the family trauma angle. But instead of awkward Thanksgiving dinners, we get an “OMG my sister is back” twist where the sister in question has been downloaded into a synthetic body. For reasons. And naturally, our main character, Joe/Hermit, has to process this in the middle of space goo chaos. Because what’s sci-fi if you’re not juggling emotional collapse and alien slime at the same time?
The first two episodes essentially work as your painfully slow but necessary tutorial mission. You know, the ones where the game insists on telling you how to walk and open doors when you just want to get to the action? Here, those mechanics are “introduce the characters” and “set the stage,” which means a fair bit of staring, sighing, and monologuing about backstory. It’s very on-brand for Hawley. But once you get to the sequence where Hermit meets Wendy (previously Marcy), things finally start clicking – in that creepy “the raid boss is actually your sister” kind of way.
Now, the body-swap gimmick isn’t new, but Hawley plays it like a psychic sucker punch. As Alex Lawther reveals, the whole scene for him wasn’t inspiring awe or joy. No, it was pure horror. And honestly… he’s right. Imagine grinding your way through an alien-infested hellscape, only to bump into your dead sibling reincarnated into a robot body, grinning at you like everything’s fine. That’s less “heartwarming reunion” and more “cutscene that gives you nightmares.” Even Lawther admits it freaked him out so hard that the director had to dial him back down. That’s a good sign. I’d rather have a performance that feels raw and weird than another cardboard “welcome back” moment.
And here’s where it gets interesting – much like the original Alien films, the most unsettling terror isn’t always the acid-drooling beastie in the corner. Sometimes it’s the human stuff – or in this case, the disturbingly unhuman stuff wearing your sister’s memories like a well-tailored suit. That’s the sort of psychological horror we don’t get enough of in genre TV. It’s one thing to throw a Xenomorph at the screen. Easy jump scare, collect your dopamine hit, move on. But Hawley slips in that “existential dread” debuff so you’re still thinking about it hours later.
Of course, fear not – the show still serves up its share of goopy alien nonsense. There’s enough ooze and squelch to keep it firmly in the Alien brand. But it’s the combo – the psychological and the physical – that makes it feel less like a paint-by-numbers prequel and more like, dare I say, an actual creative effort. At least for now. I’m a cautious optimist; I’ve been burned before by first episodes that promise deep character arcs only to dissolve into “pew pew, boom boom, finale cliffhanger.”
Still, Hermit had me intrigued – mostly because I’m a sucker for a narrative that allows family drama to hit RPG Final Boss levels of intensity. Joe isn’t just processing grief. He’s processing grief plus uncanny valley plus “was that thing trying to eat my face just now?” That’s a combo platter of misery you don’t see woven together particularly well in most shows. Whether Hawley sticks the landing is anyone’s guess, but if he can keep balancing the mind games with the monster mayhem, we might actually have something here worth watching weekly.
So, do I recommend it? For now, yes – but it’s the hesitant “let’s see if this dungeon has more than one interesting boss” kind of yes. If you can endure the opening setup grind, the world-building is promising, the performances are sharp, and the atmosphere is unsettling in all the right ways. Just don’t expect it to be a comfort watch unless you find joy in haunted android siblings and existential dread.
Verdict so far: Good start, high potential, danger of falling into generic sci-fi trap still looming. Proceed with curiosity and caution.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is entirely my opinion.
Article source: ‘Alien: Earth’ Star Alex Lawther on That Very Sci-Fi Sibling Reunion, https://gizmodo.com/alien-earth-spoilers-alex-lawther-wendy-hermit-reunion-2000642536
