Is anybody else watching The Expanse?

amos and the UN lady are both super compelling actors, look forward to more of this show

One small nitpick - the action sequence towards the end (of the second to last episode) was a little choppy. I rewound it a few times and still had to just make some assumptions about how a couple things happened / who did what. Even then - how did that grenade not go off?

3. Hard sci-fi space combat that resembles submarine warfare but with lots of slug weapons! Ship "gravity" entirely dependent on constant acceleration! People surviving limited exposure to vacuum! People with sort-of-visible deformation* and musculoskeletal issues due to growing up in low-G!

also a pleasingly hard sci fi plausible-ish near future involving asteroid mining and no (at least so far) fanciful alien species or completely out there tech. like it seems like space travel actually involves orbital mechanics in this

finale 2-parter was great

xp yeah one of the things i like most about this show is that it really gives a sense of how fragile humanity in space is

Just binged. Its been such a desert for good space sci-fi that I didn't look too closely for seams. The gumshoe with the dodgy haircut was the comic relief, some good character actors in the bit roles, the sets are appropriately gritty and/or antiseptic, the effects crew clearly communicate the lonely peril of deep space, and the show runners are clearly love their hard sci-fi. And I want the actress playing Avasarala to purr in my ear.

Glad to have some episodic sci-fi to look forward to, now that Continuum has wrapped its loose ends.

Winchell Chung, creator of the terrific hard sci-fi resource Atomic Rockets, gives The Expanse his Seal of Approval. I agree with every word.

can't believe we have to wait 9 months to find out what the hell is going on

if only there was like a whole bunch of books based on the tv show but like that actually ran ahead of the tv show that we could read

wait did continuum turn out to be good? the pilot was kinda rough and i never saw more

It was better than any time-travelling cop series had a right to be, and while the budgets shranked, the writing became more interesting. I'll be frank, though: My initial attraction was Rachel Nichols in a cat suit.

guys i watched the first episode and.... really?

"UN BLACK OPS SITE"

space sex

COOL FEDORA GUY

it was like every crap 90s 'graphic novel' cliche throwd into one

only thing i liked apart from the awesome opening exposition title cards was the tense horror movie stuff p much

ok i've actually read the thread now and

People with sort-of-visible deformation* and musculoskeletal issues due to growing up in low-G!

made-up accent that no one has - it's supposed to be a kind of 'third world' Belter accent, right? to hammer home the allegory of the exploited other-class?

'flip n burn' was pretty good

GAH I DON'T KNOW

I've read (and really) enjoyed all the pulpy popcorn books & novellas and thought the first episode was pretty ropey. However, it gets much better and by the end is easily one of the best sci-fi shows in years and probably the best thing SyFy have done since BG.

space sex only happens in the first episode because there's an unwritten rule now that all tv pilots need sexual content regardless of the tone of the show

By ep 4 it starts getting really good afaict

It has been distracting seeing my doppelganger the medic

I couldn't get past the first ep of this, might give it another shot.

the other recent new SyFy show The Magicians (which is imo better than The Expanse) ALSO had gravity-defying midair sex in the pilot

I like both shows a lot, nice to see SyFy step it up

I've read all the Magicians books too and whilst I'm enjoying the show, I think The Expanse is much better.

Do they go out at different times in the States? It's noticeable that whilst Avasarala is very foul mouthed in the books, on the show she's not whereas The Magicians seems to have no problems dropping in the f-word several times each episode.

There's been a recent trend towards series that air on non-sweary networks to throw in curses they can't actually air and just blank them out. (This is especially glaring on American Crime, where - I assume as a deliberate aesthetic choice - every "fuck" is announced with a few frames of completely blacked-out screen.)

I assume it's because they know/hope the unedited versions will be available on DVD

They announced to book fans that TV Avasarala would be very different in her first scene (water balloon assault punished by tickling). When combined with the 20 hour gravity torture she becomes a complex character in just two scenes. The comic relief has been redistributed to Alex & Amos. I expect Avasarala will provide profane fan service once removed from family and immediate superiors, and with her progressive exasperation.

Upon reading the books, there's some remarkably efficient screenwriting going on, particularly in episodes 1, 3, and 9. There's also so much background detail to catch in reviewings: the 90 second tracking shot at 4 minutes into the premiere encompasses 40 pages of descriptive text.

the pilot of the Canterbury / Rocinante is one of the worst actors I have ever seen in anything, pro or amateur - it is astonishing to watch the man work

I like how certain bits of the world-building they just sort of gave up on, like, yeah, everyone's basically got phones they look at all the time, and bars will probably be playing Basic Channel style techno, good enough

ugh hate the pilot sooooo much

Cas Anvar (who plays the Alex, pilot) has [a career of hamming it up](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKvSt69Whr8), but to be fair Alex in the books has the Texas drawl adopted by Indian and Chinese immigrants to the Mariner Valley, and in the books the accent disappears during stressful events (MCRN conditioning). The authors also view Alex as the dumb one who blurts what's on his surface.

When we have Oscar winners most notable for squinting meaningfully, its hard for me to kvetch about acting according to some weird marionette strings.

xp: A few have gone ahead and gotten the full cybernetic implants, but for baseline humans, the smartphone, or as they call it in the books, datacube, is a pretty optimal format. It also allowed them to shorthand the pathos of Miller with his perpetually cracked phone.

It's not his accent - most of the accents are weird in this show - and I don't think he's actually that hammy - Thomas Jane is way hammier. It's like he literally doesn't know what speech rhythms humans use to communicate with each other.

P sure he thinks he's in Firefly

Before/after reels from Spin VFX and Rocket Science VFX. Spoilers to Season 1, obv.

the guy who plays Amos is awesome, probably my favorite actor in the whole thing.

Yep. I'd rank em (Why? its ILX):

Wes Chatham - Amos Burton
Shohreh Aghdashloo - Chrisjen Avasarala
Thomas Jane - Joe Miller
Chad L. Coleman - Col. Frederick Lucius Johnson (shone in The Wire, utterly wasted in The Walking Dead)
Dominique Tipper - Naomi Nagata (sometimes a bit too inscrutable)
Florence Faivre - Julie Mao (impressive, considering she's a model with a few walkons)
Steven Strait - Jim Holden (too young, not enough gravitas for this role)
Shawn Doyle - Sadavir Errinwright (a Paul Reiser for our time)
Cas Anvar - Alex Kamal (I defended him above, but he's got the worst script)

Special mention:

Greg Bryk - Lopez (the Martian intel officer who went from creepy to heroic in 2 episodes)
Elias Toufexis - Kenzo (the stowaway spy. Stayed creepy, and convincingly played unconvincing)

how can you be forgetting Jared Harris as Anderson Dawes, leader of the OPA on Ceres?? He'd be #2 on my list. Despite having to say some of the most ludicrous lines in the series, which is saying something, and despite having to adopt this weirdo Belter Afrikaans/Carib patois

For all of Thomas Jane's quirks & corniness, when he finally finds the girl (spoilers etc) it was genuinely sad & v moving

Halfway through this, after recommendation on the Netflix thread. So fun!

I'm ashamed to say I only really started getting into it after the ((spoiler)) headsplodey incident in episode 4. But I'm totally hooked now. The characters are super blank, but the plot and FX are fun enough that it doesn't matter. They've done an amazing job of making it look expensive, even though you know it's really cheap. I don't think I've ever seen a TV show shot in Toronto that looks expensive.

Jared Harris's accent though, bloody hell. He sounds like Adam Buxton doing a voice.

yeah it's kind of a slow burn at first, but it ramps up to be v enjoyable

Good grief that accent! Maybe JH is such a nice guy that nobody had the heart to tell him to stop doing it.

it's v upsetting

Was hoping that revival of thread might be a sign that there was a season 2 imminent. Was really getting into this when the series ended.

season 2 is slated for spring iirc?

Hope so. Would like some more

17 Jan!

boooooo

JAN not JUN!

Shame it ain't sooner nonetheless. It went over the winter last year according to IMDB. Started in November.
But great that there is a concrete date for its return. Looking forward to seeing it.

Yes. Almost as excited for this as I am for the new Nintendo

That finale was REALLY good. Some Caves of Androzani vibes. Definitely a "grim 80s Doctor Who" thing going on.

Has anyone read the books - could I pick up the 2nd book where this leaves off?

yeah otm re the dark Whovian vibe.

oh it’s definitely pulpy - that’s one thing i like about it, that it’s NOT prestige TV, or at least not as we know it

Yeah, I agree - it's kind of a relief for me to watch something that tells an extended story without worrying about multiple layers of meaning and feeling like "oh, I guess I need to read Immanuel Kant if I want to get everything I can out of this season..."

I think the dialog and plot are better than 90% of what is considered "prestige television". There are some moments of hard framing when they reset at the beginning of a season (like S3E1), but little of that GoT feeling that the characters are just chess pieces being maneuvered where the plot requires.

What was wrong with the CGI? I thought the show looked amazing for it's age and likely budget. They were relatively judicious with it which helped.

I also really liked how the crew of the Roci are fundamentally people trying to do good, but are confronted with terrible choices and make mistakes that change them without altering their goodness. It's an optimistic but realistic show.

I think the dialog and plot are better than 90% of what is considered "prestige television".

What was wrong with the CGI? I thought the show looked amazing for it's age and likely budget.

I also really liked how the crew of the Roci are fundamentally people trying to do good, but are confronted with terrible choices and make mistakes that change them without altering their goodness. It's an optimistic but realistic show.

i was honestly never really bothered by the dialogue. certainly i'm not tuning in expecting every conversation to be dripping with meaning, but as far as science fiction goes i think they do everything pretty well imho; even if most the dialogue is either people reacting to events or explaining how to not die in space (which i honestly love).
i read the books after the series wrapped up - and again, it's science fiction so my expectations are a little lower – the characters etc are obv better fleshed out and (i am currently rewatching the series) i think the job they do of cramming what's in the books into the show is a little clunky at times. Miller's relationship with the crew, for example, is more interesting and his fascination with Julie Mao is better explained. might even re-read the books after i'm done the series rewatch.

The dialogue is fine, the CGI never looked too ropey to me. It's one of those shows I'm looking forward to re-watching after awhile. Which is increasingly rare these days, so many TV shows for me are strictly one and done.

IIRC upthread we griped about a couple of the actors, the Belter accent, and Miller's hat but not really about the dialog (well with the exception of the Marco/Filip story). Having done a full rewatch recently, i love the show unreservedly. xpost, great point from PBKR that the Roci crew doing their best in the many difficult circumstances the show throws at them.

https://www.jamessacorey.com/introducing-the-expanding-universe/

As reported in Variety, the team behind The Expanse has announced a new multi-platform content company called Expanding Universe. The first project will be an adaptation of The Captive’s War by James S. A. Corey. Read on for the official press release!

ok, well

the expanse video game was trash fwiw

The Telltale game? Their first Walking Dead game was great and then it seemed like the half assed everything from then on.

I'd be more excited about a new book in a new universe. So tired of extended universe stuff.

If the Captive’s War and Expanse are in the same universe it’s a real stretch.

the writers definitively said they're completely unconnected.

“Expanding Universe is focused on developing sci-fi narratives with sweeping world-building and elevated storylines, geared toward multi-platform expressions in filmed entertainment, gaming, and publishing."

This makes me want to never pay attention to them ever again. At least they didn't use the word, "properties".

ew

I'm perfectly content to ignore all of this nonsense and move on.

I’m not going to immediately begrudge someone trying to get a paycheck but that smacks of “we are not trying to do another Expanse but want a better than Expanse paycheck”

so that probably means we get another expanse book in a few

First three (SyFy) seasons leaving Prime tomorrow apparently

Don't know if they'll then be available elsewhere?

They’re available on my hard drive

shit I recently started rescreening and I'm only 2/3 of the way through S2

I gotta get the Blu-ray set

Creating a fan edit of S5 that cuts out 80% of Marco's screen time and 90% of Filip's.

poor fiwwip