The Expanse

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And as it moved to Amazon (seasons 4 and 5), the language use is more frequent.

I actually find some of the language distracting - having UN Secretary General Avasarala constantly swearing up a storm gets old. I’ve even resorted to the mute/closed captioning button if it’s her in the scene without any of the Roci’s crew. It is a very good show, maybe as good as the books which isn’t easy to do. Lately, space opera has been my “go to” thing to read and The Expanse book series is very good space opera - being relatively grounded in reality with minimal need for “hand wavium” to make the story work (having interstellar travel happen via inscrutable alien technology is a solid plot device) though the fictional fusion based “Epstein Drive” and the (mostly ignored in later seasons) anti-gee “juice” let the otherwise - except for the constant use of thrusters! - realistic looking spacecraft do some very unrealistic maneuvers. At least they don’t fly spaceships around like atmospheric fighter planes!
 
Watched the first two episodes yesterday, and three more today. It didn't take four episodes to catch us, but understanding the dialog has us going back to the first episode with subtitles engaged. The more you watch, the more you want to watch....
 
Honestly, I don’t understand the people who say it’s a slow burn. The first episode has a lot of intense stuff happen. It hooked my wife and me right in. But, whatever it takes to get more viewers!
 
Honestly, I don’t understand the people who say it’s a slow burn.

Agreed, there's a lot happening. It's just going to take more investment to find out if I care about those things that are happening, and I still am not hungering for more.

Maybe some day
 
Watched the first two episodes yesterday, and three more today. It didn't take four episodes to catch us, but understanding the dialog has us going back to the first episode with subtitles engaged. The more you watch, the more you want to watch....

Mi pensa no sasa belta? :)

In the books it takes a few encounters with Belter creole to pick it up, but once you get it, it's pretty intuitive.
 
Agreed, there's a lot happening. It's just going to take more investment to find out if I care about those things that are happening, and I still am not hungering for more.
In the beginning, you don't know who everyone is, or how everything relates. In my case, I think that's why it took a few episodes to really get its hooks into me, when I started knowing what the heck was going on and caring about the characters.

But I agree about the "slow burn"... I find each episode to be pretty intense and action-packed, all the way through mid-3rd season where I am right now.
 
I really like the ensemble cast and the character development.
Amos, for example. My first impression was that he's a damaged psychotic killer.
But through the seasons you see that he's actually much deeper than that.
Much more complex than what you see on the surface.
 
I really like the ensemble cast and the character development.
Amos, for example. My first impression was that he's a damaged psychotic killer.
But through the seasons you see that he's actually much deeper than that.
Much more complex than what you see on the surface.
There are some novellas on audio book that are really good. The one called "The Churn" covers some of Amos's background and its good reading.
I wish they would put them in print format, but they haven't bothere to do that, unfortunately. I previously had found an audiobook version on Youtube, but it seems to be gone now.

Amos is definitely a broken person, but he is smart enough to recognize it and try to follow those whom he considers righteous.
 
There are some novellas on audio book that are really good. The one called "The Churn" covers some of Amos's background and its good reading.
I wish they would put them in print format, but they haven't bothere to do that, unfortunately. I previously had found an audiobook version on Youtube, but it seems to be gone now.

Amos is definitely a broken person, but he is smart enough to recognize it and try to follow those whom he considers righteous.
“The Churn” - along with the other Expanse novellas and short stories - are readily available in ebook form - my library has copies and it’s on Amazon for $2.99. They aren’t essential reading but they do give you some great insight into what’s going on with some characters and why - especially “The Butcher of Andersonville Station” which tells you a lot of why Fred Johnson is who he is.
 
Spoiler Alert!
Isn't the actress who played the little Belter that attacked Fred Johnson the same one who played Ensign Tilly's friend in Star Trek Discovery?
 
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I really like the ensemble cast and the character development.
Amos, for example. My first impression was that he's a damaged psychotic killer.
But through the seasons you see that he's actually much deeper than that.
Much more complex than what you see on the surface.
Amos has become one of my favorite characters.

Most telegraphed and yet still incredibly satisfying one-liner of the whole show so far: "I am that guy". :)
 
I edited my post with a spoiler alert.

Also very bummed out at finding out that Season 6 will be the final season.
Which means all the arcs in the books probably won't be covered.
 
Minor Spoiler Alert!
I edited my post with a spoiler alert.

Also very bummed out at finding out that Season 6 will be the final season.
Which means all the arcs in the books probably won't be covered.
The 9 books in the series lineup as three, 3 book sets. There’s a time jump in the storyline coming up after book 6 “Babylon’s Ashes” that just won’t fit into the structure of an episodic TV show.
 
Amazon releasing episodes of season 5 weekly is going to make me lose my mind. What is this, 1991? Maybe we should go back to living in caves, too.

/rant

If you haven’t yet, you should watch it. IMO, best sci-fi show ever made.
Don>t. Worry, this will probably be it’s last season.....it seems to be shopped around which means it has grown weary. They canned AWAY after it’s first season and the last ratings were not that great for the Expanse...probably why they are doing the “stretch it out” trick.... Yes it’s a hassle when you can’t bing watch shows.
 
Don>t. Worry, this will probably be it’s last season.....it seems to be shopped around which means it has grown weary. They canned AWAY after it’s first season and the last ratings were not that great for the Expanse...probably why they are doing the “stretch it out” trick.... Yes it’s a hassle when you can’t bing watch shows.
Amazon has already announced season 6.

The episode a week model has worked well for Disney+ with The Mandalorian so that’s probably a factor.
 
I just finished season 3. I wonder if that was originally intended to be the series finale, it kind of feels like it.

I have to say they do a good job at resolving the various mysteries, while introducing new ones. They're not just stringing along one central mystery out to infinity (X-Files I'm looking at you).

Think I'm gonna take a bit of a break before resuming my binge.
 
I just finished season 3. I wonder if that was originally intended to be the series finale, it kind of feels like it.

I have to say they do a good job at resolving the various mysteries, while introducing new ones. They're not just stringing along one central mystery out to infinity (X-Files I'm looking at you).

Think I'm gonna take a bit of a break before resuming my binge.
Season 3 was the final one on the SyFy channel so I think they wanted to make sure they tied up the major storylines from the first three books.
 
The 9 books in the series lineup as three, 3 book sets.
I ordered the collection, there are only eight books in the series.
1. Leviathan Wakes
2. Caliban's War
3. Abaddon's Gate
4. Cibola Burn
5. Nemesis Games
6. Babylon's Ashes
7. Persepolis Rising
8. Tiamat's Wrath
What's missing?
 
I ordered the collection, there are only eight books in the series.
1. Leviathan Wakes
2. Caliban's War
3. Abaddon's Gate
4. Cibola Burn
5. Nemesis Games
6. Babylon's Ashes
7. Persepolis Rising
8. Tiamat's Wrath
What's missing?
There is a short story "The Butcher Of Anderson Station" that has Fred's back story.
 
There’s 8 novellas and short stories along with the 9 novels:

Drive - Before Leviathan Wakes
The Churn - Before Leviathan Wakes
The Butcher of Anderson Station - Before Leviathan Wakes
The Last Flight of the Cassandra - During Leviathan Wakes

Gods of Risk - Between Caliban's War and Abaddon's Gate
The Vital Abyss - From before Leviathan Wakes to Cibola Burn
Strange Dogs - Between Babylon's Ashes and Persepolis Rising
Auberon - Between Persepolis Rising and Tiamat’s Wrath

Fortunately for me our library system has most of the short works in digital format. They aren’t essential to reading the series, almost everything that happens in the short works is referred to or included in exposition. But they’re great reads on there own merit.

Leviathan Falls is scheduled for an October 2021 release.
 
I ordered the collection, there are only eight books in the series.
1. Leviathan Wakes
2. Caliban's War
3. Abaddon's Gate
4. Cibola Burn
5. Nemesis Games
6. Babylon's Ashes
7. Persepolis Rising
8. Tiamat's Wrath
What's missing?

You should really join Audible and be able to listen to the books. Jefferson Mays does an excellent job at bringing the books to life.
 
I've got the first five or six books. What I really hate is that they decided to go jumbo with the paperbacks. They're as wide as a normal paperback is tall. That's just beyond the focusing distance of my eyes with my glasses off. Big fail.
 
I've got the first five or six books. What I really hate is that they decided to go jumbo with the paperbacks. They're as wide as a normal paperback is tall. That's just beyond the focusing distance of my eyes with my glasses off. Big fail.
Seems like a lot of publishers are deciding to do this instead of hardback/paperback, then several years later they do come out with the paperback. Supremely frustrating as I like to be able to stuff a trilogy in my backpack. ( and yes I know about eBooks -- go ahead and refer to three pages at once using multiple fingers, I'll wait ).
 
The jumbo books also don't fit on shelves spaced for normal trade paperbacks. I have a library of several thousand paperback books. Now I have to have a special shelf for "misfits".
 
I'm working my way through season 4. Not enjoying quite as much the fact that it is mostly planet-bound, but still great.

For the most part I really like the technology depictions in the show. I do kind of chuckle at the "terminals" (aka smartphones).... the transparent screens would be such a hilariously bad idea in the real world (um, privacy? security?) although they are good cinematically, since you don't just see people staring down at featureless black slabs. Also (as is typical for TV or movies), the user interfaces shown on the terminals are an awful cluttered mess.

On the other hand, I like the holographic displays, the gesture control, and the seamless transfer between displays.

Overall, for the purposes of the show, it all works well. I continue to be amazed at the sheer quantity of high-quality CG and set work that is done for each episode.
 
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