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The Expanse

JohnC

By JohnC,
in Film, TV & Radio

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Alex W.

Alex W.

Posted
Posted

Yeah, and it was available on Amazon because Syfy decided they didn't want the streaming rights when they bought the show. I don't blame Syfy for concluding that they couldn't keep the show going, but deciding in the year of our lord 2015 that you're happy for someone else to have the streaming revenue for a show you're financing is monumentally stupid and the fault lies entirely with them.

 

Edit - Not even the DVD rights!

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Alan Stock

Alan Stock

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Finally got around to watching the last season. I have mixed feelings about The Expanse. I didn't buy into the whole Marco/Filip plotlines at all over the last few seasons but I do still enjoy the politics, space battles and 'realism' of the world building. I feel like the main cast are mostly great actors but have limited material to work with. I felt in the first few seasons there were some genuinely exciting, shocking and tense bits but that gradually went away over time. Its definitely a very competent show overall but for me its always had this B-tier sci-fi trapping to it with the characters and plotlines, and that got worse in some ways as it went on. Although I found the last 3 seasons entertaining I thought the first 3 were better, I guess the stakes felt higher and there were more twists and turns - and there weren't crap characters like Marco and Amos's murderer lady.

 

But even saying that, I greatly admire The Expanse for its grounding in science, politics, its portrayal of believable societies, its cast, visuals and some great characters like Avasalara, Drummer and Amos. I do hope they revisit it. This last season was mostly a big anti-climax for me, I was expecting a non-stop ride of action, hard decisions and existential threat, but by episode 4 I knew only a few threads would be pulled on. The inclusion of the protomolecule subplot in this series is completely redundant if they don't continue the show. 

 

Although I wouldn't say The Expanse is essential viewing any longer (except the first few seasons), I am very glad we had it and showed there's still a market for intelligent hard sci-fi TV out there. I hope it inspires more politics and realism inspired sci-fi shows in future. 

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Stig

Stig

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Posted

Finally caught up on this. That's it? :blink:

 

Spoiler

To end with "I guess we'll finally find out what happened to that protomolecule sample sooner or later" as the closing thoughts but not actuslly give the audience that resolve is a fucking piss take. Is that side story with the family, the girl and the creatures all we're getting?

 

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Spacehost

Spacehost

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4 hours ago, Stigweard said:

Finally caught up on this. That's it? :blink:

 

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To end with "I guess we'll finally find out what happened to that protomolecule sample sooner or later" as the closing thoughts but not actuslly give the audience that resolve is a fucking piss take. Is that side story with the family, the girl and the creatures all we're getting?

 

It's essentially the setup for (not a book spoiler)

Spoiler

a trilogy of tightly interlinked books, so yeah, not much else they could do except greenlight another three seasons, which JeffyBee won't do. The showrunner and writers didn't want to shortcut to the end of the story so they've got some room to do it properly down the road.

 

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Stig

Stig

Posted
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2 hours ago, Spacehost said:

It's essentially the setup for (not a book spoiler)

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a trilogy of tightly interlinked books, so yeah, not much else they could do except greenlight another three seasons, which JeffyBee won't do. The showrunner and writers didn't want to shortcut to the end of the story so they've got some room to do it properly down the road.

 

 

Still pretty shit that's what we get though.

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Barnard

Barnard

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Posted
3 hours ago, Spacehost said:

It's essentially the setup for (not a book spoiler)

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a trilogy of tightly interlinked books, so yeah, not much else they could do except greenlight another three seasons, which JeffyBee won't do. The showrunner and writers didn't want to shortcut to the end of the story so they've got some room to do it properly down the road.

 

Spoiler

It's set when they're a lot older in the books anyways. Saving money on the ageing makeup maybe?

 

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Spacehost

Spacehost

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1 minute ago, Barnard said:
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It's set when they're a lot older in the books anyways. Saving money on the ageing makeup maybe?

 

Or until (book spoiler)

Spoiler

The technology to do aging makeup or do it digitally improves.

 

Saying that, in a series where the rich can live well into their 150s, everyone being 60 and looking like they’re 45 isn’t impossible.

 

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Festoon

Festoon

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Posted
On 14/06/2022 at 11:47, Alan Stock said:

Finally got around to watching the last season. I have mixed feelings about The Expanse. I didn't buy into the whole Marco/Filip plotlines at all over the last few seasons but I do still enjoy the politics, space battles and 'realism' of the world building. I feel like the main cast are mostly great actors but have limited material to work with. I felt in the first few seasons there were some genuinely exciting, shocking and tense bits but that gradually went away over time. Its definitely a very competent show overall but for me its always had this B-tier sci-fi trapping to it with the characters and plotlines, and that got worse in some ways as it went on. Although I found the last 3 seasons entertaining I thought the first 3 were better, I guess the stakes felt higher and there were more twists and turns - and there weren't crap characters like Marco and Amos's murderer lady.

 

But even saying that, I greatly admire The Expanse for its grounding in science, politics, its portrayal of believable societies, its cast, visuals and some great characters like Avasalara, Drummer and Amos. I do hope they revisit it. This last season was mostly a big anti-climax for me, I was expecting a non-stop ride of action, hard decisions and existential threat, but by episode 4 I knew only a few threads would be pulled on. The inclusion of the protomolecule subplot in this series is completely redundant if they don't continue the show. 

 

Although I wouldn't say The Expanse is essential viewing any longer (except the first few seasons), I am very glad we had it and showed there's still a market for intelligent hard sci-fi TV out there. I hope it inspires more politics and realism inspired sci-fi shows in future. 

 

In fairness, the Marco/Filip stuff in the books was shit too. The last three books really improved things, imo. Those are set after the series though.

 

Although *major MAJOR BOOK series spoiler* the books 

Spoiler

don't resolve the Naomi/Filip stuff, oddly.

 

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Alex W.

Alex W.

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Book spoiler:

 

Spoiler

That's kind of the point, at least according to (IIRC) the authors' notes on the connected short story. Sometimes when you do the right thing, you don't get to see if it worked. Naomi doesn't get to find out that she made her son a better person.

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Mallet

Mallet

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Posted

It makes me hesitant to start any TV series now, it seems most of them get cancelled before they run the course. I have lost count of the number of times I have seen an interesting looking show on Netflix only to google it and find out it was cancelled after 1 or 2 series.

 

At least with the Expanse the books are finished I believe.

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Spacehost

Spacehost

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Posted

I think the show had an inevitable hiatus added into it by the huge time jump they chose to do between books 6 and 7. That hadn't been decided when the show was greenlit.

 

I'd rather they waited to be honest. They could probably get away with a bit of grey hair dye and make-up wrinkles on Steven Strait in ten years' time to make him look like he's in his magic-future-healthcare 70s but it'd be fairly ridiculous rolling into S7 right now claiming that Dominique Tipper's character was the same age as Helen Mirren.

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Alex W.

Alex W.

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Posted

Bezos proposed putting them in one of those “rapid aging” facilities for batteries and electronics where things are blasted with rapid thermal and mechanical shocks for weeks to simulate years of wear, but the union shut it down.

 

Alternative joke:

 

Spoiler

Rumour has it they’re all on an intensive program of crack, junk food and unprotected sun exposure led by Mickey Rourke.

 

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PK

PK

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Spacehost said:

I'd rather they waited to be honest. 

 

It seemed odd that they showed the two Laconian children in the last season given that they're meant to

 

Spoiler

stop ageing as soon as they both become protomolecule necrokids.

 

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mushashi

mushashi

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Posted
On 08/11/2022 at 13:21, Mallet said:

I'm halfway through the third series, this is really good. Some of the best TV I have watched in years.

 

It kind of peaks at that point and then arguably coasts for 3 more years, S1 to S3 are a nice complete story arc that builds in intensity, I can't say the same for S4 to S6. Blame the protomolecule for taking a backseat I suppose, but then again, that supposedly wasn't actually meant to be the focus of this series anyway.

 

I glanced at the summary for the last 3 books, meh, whatever.

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