Episode Details

Rick London came for Alien: Earth — Noah Hawley's reportedly quarter-billion-dollar fever dream about corporations, immortality, and dying children installed in adult bodies — and he came prepared to defend every last drop of the show's frankly staggering liquid output. (There is a lot of liquid. Mandy counted. It was her first note, and the most consistent theme of her entire viewing experience.) What Rick did not anticipate was that Mandy would arrive with a theory about Willy Wonka.Somewhere between the dot-matrix screens and the dead bodies nobody reacts to, there is a scientist who genuinely cared but can still be complicit about what kids understand about death and when they understand it, and about which of the show's creatures is the one that will actually keep you up at night. (Rick has a pick. It is not the one you're thinking of.) There is also a werewolf novel, an eyeball, and a slug that Mandy would like formally stricken from the record. Press play.Guest SpotlightRick London is a Bay Area–raised author of supernatural fiction, and a lifelong devotee of the seventies sci-fi and horror that shaped his taste — a fact he cheerfully cops to somewhere around the point where he realizes he's the nerd in the room. His debut novel, The Dancing Wolfeman, Volume I, follows Titus Wolfe, a high school music teacher and weekend DJ whose life takes a decidedly lupine turn on the road home from a gig in Sonoma County. It's a werewolf story with romantasy in its bones, and music as the thing standing between a man and the beast inside him.

• Website & book: dancingwolfeman.com
• The Dancing Wolfeman on Amazon: Buy the book
• About the book: dancingwolfeman.com/about-the-book
• Instagram: @ricklondon26
• Facebook: Rick London
• X: @RickLondon1964

If you read it, leave a review. Wherever you bought it. He and Mandy are in violent agreement on this point.Links & NotesThe Show

• Alien: Earth — Wikipedia
• "The Real Monsters" — Season 1, Episode 8, the finale Mandy declares her favorite
• Meet the characters — FX's official character guide, useful for untangling cyborg vs. synthetic vs. hybrid
• Alien: Earth — The Official Podcast — the companion show Mandy tells Rick about, hosted by Adam Rogers with Noah Hawley and cast

The Franchise

• Alien (1979) — Letterboxd. The one Rick insists Mandy watch next.
• Aliens (1986) — Letterboxd

The Cast

• Sydney Chandler — Wendy
• Alex Lawther — Hermit

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