Alien: Covenant is back on the Prime Video top 10 and I genuinely cannot tell if people are rewatching it cause they love it or cause they wanna confirm it's still weird. maybe both. probably both.

According to Collider, Ridley Scott's most debated Alien entry has been climbing the streaming charts just weeks before his next sci-fi project, The Dog Stars, premieres. So either the algorithm is doing its thing or everyone suddenly got in the mood for Michael Fassbender playing two androids who have, like, the most uncomfortable scenes in sci-fi history. could be either.

If you forgot about Covenant (fair!), it's the 2017 follow-up to Prometheus where Scott tried to mash the philosophical prequel stuff together with classic Alien horror. You get facehuggers, you get body horror, you get Fassbender's David and Walter doing... whatever that flute scene was. The movie splits people down the middle and I think that's actually why it's having a moment right now. It's the kind of movie that lives in your group chat. Someone brings it up, someone else goes "wait I didn't finish that one," and then five people rewatch it just to argue.

And the timing isn't random. The Dog Stars is coming and people are clearly in a Ridley Scott sci-fi mood. He's been talking about returning to the Alien universe again, which, I don't know, he's been saying that for years. But the renewed attention on Covenant means people are going back through the whole timeline trying to figure out where things stand. Spoiler: it's a mess, but it's a fun mess.

Dante would probably tell me Covenant deserves a three-hour director's cut to "properly explore its themes" and I'd tell him the theatrical cut is already long enough but sure, put it on, I'll watch it. But even when you're making fun of this movie you're still watching it. Scott built something frustrating and gorgeous and sometimes ridiculous, and it sticks with you more than half the sci-fi that came out that year.

The streaming chart placement also says something I keep coming back to, which is that discovery on these platforms is completely broken. People aren't finding Covenant cause Prime Video recommended it. They're finding it cause TikTok or Reddit or a friend brought it up. The algorithm chases the conversation, it doesn't start it.

Anyway if you're revisiting Covenant this week, the Fassbender scenes still hit different. unsettling different. you'll know which ones.