{"id":1991105,"date":"2025-09-01T12:04:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T12:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=1991105"},"modified":"2025-09-01T12:04:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T12:04:09","slug":"ai-anxiety-is-plaguing-our-tv-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/ai-anxiety-is-plaguing-our-tv-shows\/","title":{"rendered":"AI Anxiety Is Plaguing Our TV Shows"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A version of this story appeared in Esquire\u2019s entertainment newsletter, t<\/em>he Cliff-Hanger<\/em>. Sign up here<\/a> to receive weekly criticism of the movie or television show of the moment shipped directly to your in-box.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Greetings from Copenhagen! I\u2019m currently visiting my sister, who moved out here a little over two years ago\u2014right around when The Bear <\/em>sent Marcus the pastry chef (Lionel Boyce) to travel around the city and learn about fancy pastries. After I interviewed Boyce that season<\/a>, he pointed me to a hole-in-the-wall fried chicken joint called Poulette that he filmed a scene in for the show\u2014and it\u2019s somehow still a hidden gem in the city. (I visited for myself. True to his word, it\u2019s game over if Poulette brings these sandwiches stateside.)<\/p>\n

One thing I\u2019ve learned during my time here is that Denmark spends a lot less hours watching TV than we do in America. Maybe that\u2019s why Copenhagen is often rated as the happiest city in the world. The struggles of managing streaming services and accidentally forgetting to cancel a subscription at the end of a free trial period isn’t a daily frustration to the Danes. But if you\u2019re as unhealthily obsessed with TV as I am, then you\u2019ve come to the right place.<\/p>\n

Right now, I\u2019m completely focused on Alien: Earth<\/em>. According to Variety<\/em><\/a>, the FX sci-fi drama based on Ridley Scott\u2019s iconic monster film franchise garnered over 9.2 million streaming views in its first week across Hulu and Disney+ alone, which doesn\u2019t even account for how many more viewers watched on FX\u2019s linear cable channel. Sheesh! To put that number into perspective, that places Alien: Earth<\/em>\u2019s popularity in between strong Emmy contenders such as The White Lotus <\/em>(6.2 million viewers tuned in<\/a> for the season 3 finale) and The Pitt <\/em>(which averaged<\/a> over 10 million viewers per episode).<\/p>\n

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Now four episodes in, Alien: Earth <\/em>is still killing it in the monster department. The Xenomorphs are zooming all around and ripping people to shreds. It\u2019s as entertaining and messy as any theatrical Alien <\/em>experience before it. There\u2019s also a thrill to the new monsters that showrunner Noah Hawley added to the fray\u2014especially the sentient eyeball.<\/a> And even though it\u2019s the year 2120, Earth and its divided corporation states<\/a> seem delightfully no more capable at stopping a global threat of any kind than we do right now. <\/p>\n

Speaking of threats to humanity, there\u2019s nothing scarier right now than AI. Alien: Earth <\/em>hits at this emerging technology as well\u2014though it isn\u2019t exactly skewering the sycophantic chat bots as much as the hilarious new South Park <\/em>episode did last week.<\/a> Instead, Alien: Earth <\/em>jumps ahead to depict AI as an entirely new state of being.<\/p>\n

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