A Glimpse of What's To Come on Alien: Earth

Two episodes in (both dropped this morning on Disney Plus in the UK) and Alien: Earth is already looking like the best new show on the streamer since last year's Shōgun.

Horizon - An American Saga, Chapter One (2024)

This week I sat down to watch, in a single sitting, Kevin Costner's immersive three-hour long Horizon: An American Saga, Chapter One and it was an amazing viewing experience... except for the fact that it's not a complete story.

If I knew Chapter Two was just around the corner I wouldn't be so concerned - as this chapter ended with a tantalising montage of images of 'things to come'.

But, seemingly hoist by its own petard, this epic tale (which is eventually planned to consist of four similar-length movies) failed to draw the box office Warner Bros was hoping for (possibly because it wasn't a complete story), so Chapter Two was pulled from its original release date last August and has yet to be rescheduled.

Hopefully, it'll see the light of day sometime soon, as writer-director Costner is still pressing on with all four chapters and I, sincerely, want him to see them through to completion, so we can all share in his cinematic vision.

As it stands as a solo picture, there is no three-act structure in this first chapter's intricate web of  storylines, about disparate groups of people in the 19th Century trying to establish the frontier town of Horizon in Arizona, the heart of Apache territory.

We have a beginning, but it's clearly a long journey to the final act... which we may never actually see.

Which begs the question: why wasn't this produced as a high-quality HBO-style limited series instead?

With a season of 10 to 12 hour-(or so)-long episodes, the same ground could have been covered and we would have been guaranteed a satisfying conclusion (just look at last year's Shōgun). 

In many ways, Horizon reminded me of the 70's miniseries Centennial, which played a formative role in my developing love of the Western, despite me being a pasty greenhorn who rarely leaves his home.  

Like modern televisual sagas, in Horizon we are introduced to a multitude of characters, and seemingly disjointed storylines, and it takes a good hour, at least, until you begin to see how these will interweave. 

Personally, this didn't bother me, as I have faith in Costner and was simply enjoying the verisimilitude of his balanced portrayal of the Old West.

But, again, I can see why people expecting a 'complete story', even though the film is clearly labelled Chapter One, might have been frustrated.

I'm hoping that by supporting this first outing, even in my small way, and encouraging others to do the same, I can demonstrate to the bean counters and 'powers that be' that this kind of epic, sprawling Western still has a place, and an audience, in the 21st Century.

This was Costner's first directing gig since 2003's Open Range, which is one of my favourite Westerns, so I was definitely bringing my bias to this tale.
 
Even this early in 2025, Horizon - An American Saga, Chapter One could have been a strong contender for being one of my films of the year (let's be honest, it kept my bum in my seat for three hours, which is almost unheard of) if I was more confident that we would eventually see the whole story.

• Horizon - An American Saga, Chapter One is available for purchase in the UK on Sky Store (where I got it) and Prime Video.