The Expanse (SF TV series)TV 

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This cropped up on Netflix recently, apparently on SyFy before that but until now I'd not heard about it over here. based on a series of books, novellas and shorts by James SA Corey (apparently a pseudonym for two writers doing so in collaboration: Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck.)

According to many who have read the books, the series does the stories justice. I can say that it's thoroughly gripping with episodes that fly by before you know it.



As can be seen in the trailer, there are definitely a few nods to SF movie and TV creative powerhouses such as Blade Runner, Babylon 5 and Firefly, which works well. I also found echoes of the game Brink too - but that may just be me.

If you like hard SF that doesn't regurgitate all of the safe, old tropes, then I think you should give this a go - it certainly took me by surprise.
 
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I've already caught a couple of episodes. Writing quality is surprisingly okay for a SyFy series.
 
Well, I'm rather enjoying this series so far. It does away with a lot of the traditional science-fiction conveniences and shoves in quite a few inconveniences of life in space and low gravity environments. There is some flexion in how the harsher realities are applied (time between bodies, and how quickly various ships can reach them, seems to vary wildly) but otherwise it's reasonably consistent.

I'm not hugely convinced by some of the acting, with Thomas Jane (the one true Punisher) being a bit of a highlight - but I could watch the scenes with Shohreh Aghdashloo all day long. I want her to narrate my life. And the "protomolecule" is petrifying.
 
Second series is very worthwhile too. I just know I'm going to go back and play some Brink after watching a few episodes last night.
 
To be fair he didn't make it past the first book - and Venus - but there's another character who looks remarkably like him (but doesn't get the same first-person treatment in the books).
 
Huge fan of science-fiction but for some reason I couldnt get into this. Watched the first 2 episode but didnt really liked it.

Should I try to push a bit ?
 
Should I try to push a bit ?
Yes.

It follows the books quite closely, as far as I can tell, although the books are written as first person from the perspective of a handful of characters. There's several threads that the show introduces over the first two episodes and they're quite hard to get a handle on at first. You've got:
* Backstory of Earth settling other planets and planetoids
* Earth and Mars (the 'Inners') in conflict, but not open warfare; Earth has manpower and numbers, Mars has technology
* 'Belters' (colonists of planetoids) exploited by both sides; The Belt essentially consists of people who mine and haul ice from other asteroids
* OPA (Outer Planets Alliance) and its faction as a Belter interest group/militant action group
* James Holden, an Earther serving on a Belter ice hauler (Canterbury), and, later, his crew who are Belters, Earthers and Dusters (Martians)
* Josephus Miller, a 'dirty' Belter cop (or private cop - Star Helix) at Ceres Station who becomes obsessed with a missing person.
* Julie Mao, daughter of an Earth industrialist, who's the missing person. She's the first person you see, in the scene where some glowing blue stuff eats a man.
* The glowing blue stuff.
* An unknown group (is it Earth? Is it Mars? Is it the OPA? Is it someone else entirely?) using illegal stealth technology
* UN (Earth) undersecretary Chrisjen Avasarala*, who is trying to avoid a war with Mars, despite what seems to be a lot of provocation from all sides

The threads all intermingle to an extent, but also develop on their own paths - and you'll encounter new threads every so often (more people from Mars, Mao's parents, Avasarala's boss Sadavir Errinwright, more people from Ceres, Eros and Tycho, and later on in the second series [which broadly corresponds to the second book] a Martian marine called Bobbie Draper, Phoebe and Ganymede stations, botanist Praxidike Meng and his daughter Mei, and a scientist played by the guy who plays that dick journalist in Die Hard/Die Hard 2 and the dick EPA official in Ghostbusters, so you know he's a dick). There are times when it seems like some or all of them meet, and then they go off again into weird directions.

It's a bit dark. There's a lot of bystanders who die in quite awful ways (quite a few 'spacing' victims, a lot of nukes and the guy who gets eaten by the blue goo at the start is literally just the start of that thread), not many characters you should get too attached to (one of the books' writers is George Martin's assistant) and a near constant sensation of imminent danger. It reflects some decent hard realities of living in space too, like the effects of weightlessness, acceleration of ships, living in lower gravity, air, water, flying debris and so on.

Basically it's like a more realist serialisation of Alien/Aliens, only with the addition of a perpetually brimming war between two planets of humans. I won't spoil it by explaining the comparison, but anyone who's seen it up to even the end of season 1 will understand.

Knowing what happens in the third book, I can't wait for the third series.

*Played by the wonderful Shohreh Aghdashloo, who I could listen to all day long.
 
...Should I try to push a bit ?
Exactly what @Famine said. It's quite dark in the way Serenity side of the Firefly story could be and there are a lot of threads to introduce. So, definitely worth a longer look, especially if you are a big SF fan.
 
After finishing Firefly (amazing) I watched some YouTube videos about it and some people in the comments recommended to watch The Expanse. Well, I'm really happy I decided to follow the advice.
For me this is a perfect serious SciFi. Great interesting characters and story, which made my "one episode per day" rule really hard to follow sometimes. Can't wait for season 4.

I'm especialy pleased there was nothing that made me (a regular viewer without a lot of aknowledgments in physics) think "Hey, that's not how this is suppose to work!". This is bothering me really hard now because of last Doctor Who seasons, full of complete nonsense.
 
As it's now got a more permanent home, I've been catching up with S4...

... and is it just me or is Cara Gee, in character as Camina Drummer and talking with Belter Creole accent, absolutely smoking hot?


Interestingly, or not, I showed my wife some of the Anderson Dawes scenes and, despite being addicted to Chernobyl, she couldn't pick him out as Legasov from that show. The accent really chucks you.
 
As it's now got a more permanent home, I've been catching up with S4...

... and is it just me or is Cara Gee, in character as Camina Drummer and talking with Belter Creole accent, absolutely smoking hot?
Indeed she is.
 
I really enjoyed series 1 to 3, however, series 4 I found rather meh by comparison.
 
As it's now got a more permanent home, I've been catching up with S4...

... and is it just me or is Cara Gee, in character as Camina Drummer and talking with Belter Creole accent, absolutely smoking hot?


Interestingly, or not, I showed my wife some of the Anderson Dawes scenes and, despite being addicted to Chernobyl, she couldn't pick him out as Legasov from that show. The accent really chucks you.
That's where I knew him from! It's been bothering me mildly.


And yeah, belter creole is beautiful. It's this weird, lovely mix of Cajun and Jamaican (imo) and I savor it. Season 3 was woefully devoid until Episode 7 when it returned en force.

Speaking of episode 7. The red jello and a special return is where I left off. I'm getting shades of Star Trek DS9 with this ring gate and it'll be interesting to see the comparisons and contrasts this show will have with Star Trek's vintage grit.
 
I'm getting shades of Star Trek DS9 with this ring gate
I'd say Stargate - and specifically Stargate Universe, because unlike the other Stargate series you're looking at worlds with no connection to Earth except the alien gate builders (thus no human [or humanoid] populations on other worlds) and a much harder approach to the realities of space travel (though Expanse ramps that up even compared to SU; the kid bursting because his ship stopped was just a moment of pure joy).


With the previous warnings aforethought, one popular character doesn't make the end of S4. Thankfully it's not the ridiculously hot Drummer, who has a generous amount of screentime.

Also they recast Avasarala's husband. WTAF?
 
I'd say Stargate - and specifically Stargate Universe, because unlike the other Stargate series you're looking at worlds with no connection to Earth except the alien gate builders (thus no human [or humanoid] populations on other worlds) and a much harder approach to the realities of space travel (though Expanse ramps that up even compared to SU; the kid bursting because his ship stopped was just a moment of pure joy).


With the previous warnings aforethought, one popular character doesn't make the end of S4. Thankfully it's not the ridiculously hot Drummer, who has a generous amount of screentime.

Also they recast Avasarala's husband. WTAF?
Yeah I finished Season 4 and the finale was a bummer. Great bit of action leading up to it, and it was nice to see that character go out on their own terms (as much as the situation allowed, anyways). I'm gonna miss them because they did a fantastic job.
 
I finished off 2020 by starting the 5th season. I think I need to watch a brief recap of the previous season.
 
Just finished watching all six seasons of this and...wow! What a breath of fresh air - finally a proper good space sci-fi! It's become one of my all time favorites now. Characters and story are deep and complex and brilliantly written. Certain other sci-fis (or TV-shows in general) could take a lesson or two from this.

It apparently ends at book six but there's the hope that the last three books will be filmed in a not too distant future.

Telltale are making and Expanse game, and I'm sure @Famine will be please to see who the lead character is.

Spot-on choice of lead character, possibly my favorite character from the show. Truly multi-dimensional - magnificently written and brilliantly acted.
 
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