Having not read any of the books, I am baffled by the Laconia business.
As well as you should be. These references were nowhere in the original books 1-6, and really don't belong in this Season 6 storyline. Given how tight the screen time budget is within the six episodes, dedicating good chunks of it to Laconia and "strange dogs" diversions is downright wasteful.
Unless, someone really wanted to lay the bridges to expanding on what is happening in Laconia ... in books 7-9.
It does seem like they are laying groundwork for future seasons, but that still doesn't guarantee there will be future seasons.
True.
And by the looks of it, not on Amazon (who did not even fully fund Season 6).
I'm having a hard time figuring out how they can resolve everything in the last episode, at least not without rushing it like crazy. I'm enjoying it as always, but I agree the whole thing does feel rushed.
They will resolve one key plot line exactly the same way it was handled in chapter 51 of book 6 / "Babylon's Ashes" (one key character will buy the farm, PM me if you have to know more, otherwise, no spoilers).
The rest will remain hanging to be addressed in the next batch of content (with couple more characters getting killed off). In video format - at some future date; in book form (paper or audio) - available now.
Could be where the movie comes in - finishing up the storylines from S6 [...] they continue the story with new characters, done by the same production team, at the same level of production values…well, not ideal but better than no more Expanse on TV.
Could be, but this is a fairly complicated storyline. It took I forgot how many episodes for me to get on top of multiple plot lines and characters in Season 1. I really don't see how that can translate into a simple long-form movie format without 3/4 of the audience walking out.
Plus, without setting up what all the concepts are and how they came to be, the movie will be way too weird: Laconia, ring-gates, protomolecule, etc. It's just way to much to explain in a short intro to a movie without becoming ridiculous.
But if S6 is the end that’s ok I’m really not going get too wound up since as good as the series has been the books and stories are still better
Books are definitely richer.
I did love the visual treat of the first few seasons (on SyFy budget). Then Amazon budget kicked in, and things got tighter.
Perhaps, Netflix will step in and fund the next few seasons?
And the show-runners already know this, and are setting up the hooks for the new payday?
HTH,
a