Is anybody else watching The Expanse?

Also there's this: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/expanse-revived-season-4-at-amazon-1113803

!!! I hope that's true.

yeah im pumped. the last couple eps have been so good.

Looking down that list of continuing SyFy shows; the only one I’ve seen is Killjoys and that is a steaming turd (although presumably cheap to produce because they don’t appear to have spent anything on scripts, sets or acting talent)

Same story, more accurate headline. #TheExpanse https://t.co/cYvLEHaSQj

— Daniel Abraham (@AbrahamHanover) May 22, 2018

Also, forgot Amazon were doing Consider Phlebas

Not quite caught up yet but there was a line in the third (I think?) episode of this season referencing the Belter/Earth dynamic that mapped so neatly onto Israel/Palestine that my jaw dropped a bit

uh, reverse one of those to make the parallel actually work, obviously

Which line was that?

Avasarala (I think) was ranting about Belters relying on the OPA, I forget the specifics but it felt pretty pointed

this is the same Avsarala that tortured a belter in S1E1 iirc. weird how everyone forgets that. i still don't trust her.

Well, her stance in that ep was pretty odious.

This episode was weird, felt like the beginning of a new season but it wasn’t, so uh? Drummer and Amos clearly weren’t having any fun, or really accomplishing anything, and the novelty of Belter Strathairn wore off quick.

Completely unsure of what the stakes are re: dumbass flying through the ring. Also, mildly implausible that a dumbass is really capable of whipping slingshots around the outer solar system unless the sport really does just boil down to “let the autopilot calculate the fastest trajectory and then see if your physiology can hold up”

How does the belt just get to keep that Mormon mega-ship?

one thing this show has in common with GOT is it plays fast and loose with how far things are away from each other and how fast the respective ships can travel

that and the protoman from last week's ep looked an awful lot like the Night King

the stakes are pretty much the highest you can set for a ridiculous stunt? it'd be like base jumping off the statue of liberty, the day the statue of liberty opened. also, the statue of liberty here was mysteriously put in place by aliens and has a military presence observing it

Nice that they touched on Amos' backstory. One of the novellas is all about that and last night made we wonder if they're going to go there in a future episode.

https://i.imgur.com/6g7BiKH.jpg

Wow a lot happened. Kind of wish that had been two eps.

Reconciling in my head that the way I read Ashford in the book is totally different from the depiction in the show.

the stakes are pretty much the highest you can set for a ridiculous stunt? it'd be like base jumping off the statue of liberty, the day the statue of liberty opened. also, the statue of liberty here was mysteriously put in place by aliens and has a military presence observing it

So much love for this episode and this series. The deep purple belter slingshot racer was a great device for getting us through a lot of time and plot. (Which, quite frankly, is a bit tedious in the book).

I’m also loving the series structure of having a/the big crescendo mid series.

TEDIOUS BIT FROM THE BOOK BELOW DO NOT READ IF YOU DONT WANT TO KNOW OR CARE
———
The book goes into a whole bunch of stuff about the belter slingshot subculture. Engines bolted to space junk, crappy old navigation systems. The belter equivalent of a large bore silencer on a souped up Honda Civic. There’s a bunch of stuff about slingshotters having to be good at astral mechanics to compensate for their shitty systems, another example of belter’s evolved space survival skills. Doing all of that on TV would have taken 20mins and not added anything.
———
MESSAGE ENDS

All so we can find out the ring has a force field inside?

Uhhh, let’s not assume that.

https://www.engadget.com/2018/05/26/the-expanse-amazon/

Mild spoilers having inferred what book segment everyone's talking about (I'm waiting til the blu-rays to watch). It further establishes the key technologies of the protomolecule's creators, which to date in the broadcast series include 1) control over momentum, even at a distance (which nonetheless obeys conservation of energy), 2) infectious regenerative nano-tech, and 3) simultaneous/FTL communication through quantum entanglement. It's a finite bag of tricks, which we can presume plays roles through book 9.

Also:

https://i.redd.it/hx843749o5011.jpg

I was being earnest, Tom!

Agreed that everything in the show has ridiculously high stakes but that dude was a complete one-off and seemed like more of a civilian, as much as any belter could be. Ed, thanks for the background.

To spell it out: http://deadline.com/2018/05/the-expanse-amazon-picks-up-space-drama-series-season-4-syfy-cancellation-1202398511/

YAAAAAAAY

Woo, and indeed, hoo

Hope they yielded Amazon some merch rights. I already have a "Ubiquitous/Mendacious/Polyglottal/Donkey Balls" T-shirt produced by a fellow on another forum, but I could use some MCRN coffee mugs...

otm

Belter Strathain talked distractingly like Papa Lazarou:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qln5o6LlG84

OTM about it seeming like the first episode of a season. Ultlimately I didn't mind, and they did a good job on the exposition, but it was jarring at first - I had to scan a few recaps to check I hadn't missed one. Did one of the books finish at the same point as ep 6?

Yes, the second one, I refuse to commit the ridiculous names to memory.

Fuck me, that was intense

i'm about to go in on this latest one but can i just say: i think i was actually more thrilled to see JOHN KAPELOS show up on my screen than i was david straithairn (or thomas jane??). also i think the male clone from orphan black was his crewmate?? shit's gettin crowded in space and i love it. if jared harris came back my expanse life would be complete.

also i am super here for Naomi's code-switching

being in charge sucks the big felota

I laughed/groaned at that one both times I watched this episode

So Holden gets a psychic message from the protomolecule's reconstruction of Miller that the Roci can safely enter the Ring to escape from being fired on by both the Behemoth and the UN.. which they do, because Amos places his faith in Holden (even though he's just seen Holden talking to someone who's not there, and seen the log of Holden's frantic self-scans).. and the technique is to go REAL SLOW through The Ring instead of FAST like the slingshotter did. (And it appears to have... worked? And everything's in a weird state of suspended animation on the other side, i.e. the rocket that was fired is just.. frozen in space next to them? Can anyone else see them, i.e. are they just on the other side of The Ring, or are they "inside" something else and invisible to any who hasn't gone into The Ring? Guess we'll find out)

And it appears Holden has some kind of special psychic link to the protomolecule because it starts communicating with him at exactly the same moment that the slingshotter gutted himself

Freaky!

Oh and how much do we all HATE the film crew!? Wow talk about supervillains. Is Mr. blind-ESP cameraman responsible for the faux-Holden that appears on the comms? Is that what his 2001-ish memory card swapsies move was about? And if so what the hell is he up to?? GAH

Oh see, I haven’t been trying to make sense of stuff for at least 1.6 episodes

there’s some sort of glowing protomolecule residue they missed growing in the cargo part of the ship right? pretty sure it’s acting as an antenna to beam Miller into Holden’s head

doesn't look like is growing, so much as just chilling out.

I kind o wish that I hadn't read the books, because I did not get any suspense from this last episode.

there’s some sort of glowing protomolecule residue they missed growing in the cargo part of the ship right?

Yes, there was a shot some episodes back of a protomolecule glob in an inconspicuous part of the Roci.

I've read all the books and still got massive goosebumps watching it

Rolling so many danged eyes at Expanse dingbats lauding the show for not forcing diversity on its viewers.

smh, nerds are the worst fans.

Still not entirely enthused with this season, but I really liked Drummer's speech!

I've actually been enjoying the ring business more than the first half of the season, it's felt like a fresh direction. I'm partial to a Big Dumb Object in my sci-fi.

yeah it feels like proper old-skool SF now