For me, the dandified party scene in episode 2 of Alien:World channeled that vibe too much - I just don't believe that an entire spaceship can cut a building in two and a whole room of people, metres away, just keep partying without a clue. I understand the point the writer is trying to make about society, but it's a weird fit with the Alien franchise. It's like we suddenly got a scene from Brazil.
Huh. So, I didn't read that scene as magical realism. IIRC, they had already established that the spaceship crashed into the base, and that this was taking place at the top (Hermit took the elevator, Wendy went up a bunch of stairs, etc.). It's been "a while" (not sure how long, but at least a few hours) since the impact, and there is no damage there. If you were partying in your own deluxe room, it probably measured as a brief tremor or something.
I've dealt with evacuations. And while I've admittedly never seen a French-themed party like that (which was certainly chosen for a reason!), I've seen equally weird, if not weirder things- and this includes people that refuse to evacuate, have no idea that there's an emergency going on, and are totally in their own world.
IOW, when I think of magical realism ... well, to avoid Fargo (
@Older Beholder ) .... I think of ... oh, let's say Pan's Labyrinth. Or Love Lies Bleeding. Where the supernatural elements are blended into the realism without comment. On the other hand, the use of jarring elements that are not, in themselves, fantastical are usually things that I think are used as world expanders.
By world expanders, I mean this- typically, when we watch fiction, we have expectations in that fiction. Those expectations can either be met, or if there are established conventions that we expect to be met, they can be subverted. In either case, they are consistent with the fiction's world.
To use two examples from A:E.
We are shown Hermit. We are shown Wendy. We are told that they are (or were) siblings. We shown the spaceship crash into the building. We have an expectation that, following fiction norms, they will both be sent to that building, and they are.
We are shown the Maginot at the beginning. We are introduced to the crew. We are given the signifiers of the original Alien movie. We have an expectation that we will be with that crew (and what will happen) that is almost immediately subverted to bring us to the primary narrative.
On the other hand, world expanders are narrative devices that try to break the mold of these expectations that we have for fiction. To say, "Hey, there is a world out there that isn't just what is going on in the story."
One common example of this is the "dangling plot point." This was used masterfully, and repeatedly, in Mad Men. Fiction and fictional characters are fake, but by repeatedly leaving things unresolved (like in life) it tries to more closely mimic reality, not fiction.
Another one is the jarring encounter. In a traditional horror narrative, of course you wouldn't have that encounter! You wouldn't open that door and expect ... WTF? It's the dystopian future. And yet, it happened. It reminds you that there is a world not beholden to the needs of the narrative.*
*Even though it does advance a thematic element, and it ends up mattering, the employment of it is a deliberate device.
