This post contains spoilers for the two-episode premiere of "Alien: Earth."

"In space, no one can hear you scream," as the classic tagline goes, but in the new FX prequel series "Alien: Earth," no one is screaming much in the first place. Noah Hawley's contemplative new spin on the Ridley Scott franchise has delivered plenty of enjoyably gross and eerie moments in its first two hours, including one of the gnarlier cat deaths in sci-fi history. Still, even if viewers find the show's events scary, its characters don't; Hawley's focus on synthetic humanoids is already leading to a strangely flat emotional experience that's almost entirely devoid of on-screen fear.

The notable absence no doubt comes from the narrative choices "Alien: Earth" intentionally makes from the jump, grounding our

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