Is anybody else watching The Expanse?

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.

Weird how critical I was on this thread - in my memory this ruled unconditionally

Maybe a year of attempting to fill the void with garbage like Killjoys has done this

I've just started this. E2 was a bit slow but let's see what happens.

Yeah, the first three episodes are a slog, but it hits a groove with the 4th and keeps getting better.

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?

Just checked. Chapter 31 of the first book is basically the last one covered in season one.

Thanks! Think I'll read from the start. Seems readable enough from the excerpt.

@ Chuck

I've listened to all the audiobooks. Season 1 ended about 2/3 of the way through the first book Leviathan Wakes, while including elements of the novella The Butcher of Anderson Station. The rest are fairly good, with the exception of book 4 Cibola Burn, which is a chore one could skip, excepting a few moments of exposition about the makers of the protomolecule.

Just binge watched this, didn't realise it ended on a cliffhanger! Hope season 2 comes to netflix uk quickly. Agreed that episode 4 is where it got good, after that I was prepared to forgive its faults - such as the entire earth government apparently consisting of two people, or the fortunate existence of bulletproof sofas.

Hope season 2 comes to netflix uk quickly

I was about to bump this thread and complain that February can't come soon enough

In print, Avasarala doesn't appear until book 2 (which we might see covered mid-season 2). Having read the series, I think the screenwriters did a great job pulling an Earth perspective into the exposition.

I love Shohreh Aghdashloo's voice so much I want to d/l some of the handful of audiobooks she's narrated for sleepytime.

some of the accents in this show. it's really offputting.

Jared Harris especially.. what is going on?

red herring designed to throw you off - !stay the course!

Scuttlebutt on the subreddit earlier this year was that the 2nd season cuts way back on Belter language. Somewhat disappointing, as that added to the sense of place, but to be fair, they did a lousy job emphasizing that everyone on Ceres spoke the creole.

it's funny how many of the characters in Ep 1 I just assumed were going to be around for awhile!

lol @ hunkademus cap'n jim having such good zero-g sex he has to literally wipe away a tear after descending to full-g

"here comes the juice" indeed

also i, er, forgot that shohreh aghdashloo runs an earth-based torture camp where rubber-limbed belters wilt until they talk, or die

fuck! I can't wait for this.

Hint from Book 6: both are safe.

i got excited cos i thought it was back in Jan but then realized no, not til Feb :/

sooon

yeah parts of s1 were dodgy but I am hopeful for s2, it's doing things no other show is doing and it has the bonus of not being completely humorless about it

For those listening to the audio books, Cibola Burn will be re-recorded by Jefferson Mays (narrator of the rest of the series).

I'm through to the end of book 6. Like most sci-fi with eschatological aspirations, its a bit underwhelming, but here I suspect its because they wasted 3 books fleshing out a diaspora and its discontents.

Here's hoping for a more provocatie books 7-9.

Yeah, thought the latest book was fairly mediocre.

Imagine (hope) the final "trilogy" will be better though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ivej0OW7WZk

"Did you just say 'donkeyballs'?"

Is it weird to say the acting on this show is often bad but the casting is practically perfect? I can't think of anyone else I'd want playing those parts despite the cornball choices they make. Honorable exception made for Wes Chatham playing Amos obviously. He is such a hard diamond of nihilistic composure, so totally in sync with himself, he raises everyone else's game and makes up for any rough patches (AHEM PILOT GUY WHOSE NAME I REFUSE TO LOOK UP I'M LOOKING AT YOU). I saw an interview w/him last year where he said he was familiar with the books before he'd heard about the TV show, and his favorite character was Amos, so he got his agent to get him a reading specifically for that part. It shows.

yeah Amos is great

Pilot guy ... o pilot guy

lol Miller's hat is like the Millennium Falcon

the thomas jane cat is out of control

I'm about to go in

ITS HERE ITS HERE :D

What what what

I was not expecting this already. Sweeeeet

i saw a trailer where some news outlet had described it as "Battlestar Galactica meets Game of Thrones" & I was like "Are you sure you were watching THIS show?"

My pull quote would be "It's like if Farscape got rid of the puppets & was written by Raymond Chandler"

That is a good description of a show that I would watch! Did Farscape have hard scifi space station life like this though?

I just remember that one harlequin alien woman and the chewbacca-alike and the ship mom

i loved it more than almost any scifi show ever

hard space station lyfe not so much, i remember it being more congenial & spacious, not so oppressive as Expanse

however it's been over a decade since i watched

lots of aussie cameos in farscape, benefits of shooting in sydney

Farscape had some pretty terrific cast chemistry, perhaps the best I've seen in TV scifi. The planet of the week eps were done with enthusiasm, but the overarching plot careened downhill with soapy melodrama, as each season's nemesis somehow joined the crew, and a worse big bad was found.

yeah it did get kinda bogged down with scorpius etc

As for Expanse 201-202 (they're airing together on US SyFy): some improvements, particularly now that Avarasala is permited to curse almost as much as in the book, but the Thoth station stuff in 202 should have been given 2 episodes. Everything from exposition to action feels rushed, and budget limitations are more visible than in any prior episode..

dug it

didnt notice budget limitations myself. everything looked p good to me

glad theyve toned down annoying pilot guy a bit

belter accent = jamaican + boer? idk driving me crazy figuring it out

It's silly voice that Adam Buxton does, isn't it?

belter accent = jamaican + boer? idk driving me crazy figuring it out

https://arstechnica.com/the-multiverse/2016/02/nick-farmer-knows-dozens-of-languages-so-he-invented-one-for-the-expanse/

wow that's v cool

I loved this.

Anybody else notice that the haircuts were just a LEEEETLE bit different? Particularly Amos' - no longer just a buzzcut but with a slight soccer-player part in it now. And the pilot's (refuse to learn his name) (but yes he is slightly more tolerable this time around).

Loved the lasagna scene. So great. I doubt we'll see them this relaxed again. I like Miller's tentative steps to becoming a part of the group. None of them quite know how to deal with him. Or whether they can trust him. It might feel like that for the actors a little bit as well! They barely had any scenes with him at all last season. In any case the slightly stilted way he injects himself into their conversations feels totally real.

I'm confused at how the research base had such hair-trigger deadly defenses when their ship approached, but once inside security were only armed with paintguns?

Oh and BRING BACK THE HAT

this has started again very strongly. The scene where Fred Johnson effortlessly airlocks the big troublesome agitator/gobshite was cool as!