"The Expanse" by Amazon [Formerly by Syfy]

[Riggswolfe]

Felt really rushed. Sucks that budget it making them cram all this into six 45 minute episodes.

To me it felt like a really typical episode 1. "Let's catch up with the main characters and what they are doing and set a few events into motion."

I'm interested that they introduced

book spoiler


I have no idea how they plan to wrap up 3 books worth of content in six episodes.

[HaemishM]

They aren't going to try, from what I understand. There's talk they will revisit the later parts of the story as movies.

[Phildo]

Everyone's just come through an incredibly traumatic event and this episode was mostly about the characters coping with it and the next few months of fallout.  Moving on too quickly would probably be a disservice to that.

[Teleku]

Sort of.  I was kind of annoyed they are going back to the 'there is tension and the crew is at each others throat' line of plot.  Like, they've been with each other for years now and we've already been through internal drama for many seasons.  Kind of a lazy fallback by the writers.  It's the last season, can't we just lean in on everybody being back together again and having one final great space adventure together?  As a team of friends?  There is plenty of plot to cover with only 6 episodes, don't need to waste it on stuff that's already been doing repeatedly in previous seasons.

Anyways, wasn't bad.  Sets everything up and it's nice to see everybody back again.

[Khaldun]

It really comes down to where they're going to leave this and thus whether they're deliberately going to leave us ready for some form of follow-on or wrapping it all up.

[Tale]

I was kind of annoyed they are going back to the 'there is tension and the crew is at each others throat' line of plot.  Like, they've been with each other for years now and we've already been through internal drama for many seasons.

The text at the start said it was "Day 187" of their recon mission in the Belt. That's more than six months of tense work and combat in a tin can in space, with a surprise crew member who used to be trying to kill Holden, immediately after the sudden death of a close friend, and a total change to the balance of power in the Solar System (with the devastation of Holden's home planet and the takeover of the Belt by Naomi's ex, who has her son and recently tried to murder her).

They're kind of losing their minds under those circumstances.

[Abagadro]

After 2 eps I'm officially frustrated. There is no structure, rhythm or time for stuff to breathe. It's just this happens, then this happens, then this happens.  They are cramming so much stuff into brief dialogue that doesn't connect to anything else going on. Also, no idea why they are even including stuff from a novella that doesn't have any impact until books they aren't even covering when budget/screen time is so limited.  Really worried this is going to faceplant the landing.

[Tale]

It's lovely to inhabit for an hour each week, but it's not enough.

Consoling myself by diving straight from Expanse into Wheel of Time into The Witcher season 2, all out simultaneously.

[Setanta]

It's lovely to inhabit for an hour each week, but it's not enough.

Consoling myself by diving straight from Expanse into Wheel of Time into The Witcher season 2, all out simultaneously.

I seem to be doing Witcher -> Expanse -> Titans (Season 3) -> Hawkeye

I tried WoT but it just felt disjointed and confusing and I gave up. Hopefully there will be another season of Umbrella Academy.

[Tale]

A website says it knows there is an Expanse sequel series and a movie coming.

[Abagadro]

The creator (well the one half that runs the twitter account) says that article is complete bullshit.

[Abagadro]

Ok, I liked this episode much better. Episode 2 was written by the book authors so maybe they felt like they needed to cram a bunch of stuff in and no one would tell them they overstuffed it.

[Tale]

Yeah I could live with another 83 episodes along these lines.

[Abagadro]

The 360 no scope was a thing of beauty.

[lamaros]

I'm confused how they're going to end this season, given it's stated it's the last one.

They're obviously setting up a bunch of stuff they're not going to cover in the last two episodes, they're going to rush to just cover off the marcos stuff.

I have to assume they've got some assurances of future seasons or a movie or something.

Enjoying it enough, though it's not as tight and focused and directed as some seasons have been.

[Tale]

Latest episode felt like more setup, with little progress. Sure, there was a gunfight, but everything else was just about pissing off Marco and rabble-rousing against him. The scene playing Alex's music was just unnecessary at this point. We've said goodbye already.

[Salamok]

I'm confused how they're going to end this season, given it's stated it's the last one.

Their stated mission was to wrap up the Marcos plotline and introduce the Laconian expat Martians, it is not intended to cover the last 3 books.  IMO I think they are winding down nicely given that they wren't given the option to run 3 more seasons.

[Khaldun]

It's mostly a question of whether they'll finish in a completely open-ended way or with any sort of dangling plot/cliff-hanger. If the latter, they'd better already have a deal in the works or people are gonna be pissed. If the former, I think we'll all just be hoping they have something up their sleeves. I mean, there is a time jump necessary for the Laconia books, so a few years won't hurt in that sense.

[Tale]

Episode 5 got me in the tear ducts several times.

[Surlyboi]

I was playing The Ramones’ “Pet Semetary” for the wife at the opening of this one.

[Setanta]

I'm just not feeling it in Ep5. Maybe Naomi's character has paled into insignificance, but the acting felt wooden. Holden was flat, Amos was off getting laid, Bobby was wasted in the episode and only Drummer was truly convincing. I know where it's all going, but I found it tedious viewing.

[Tale]

I actually agree that Dominique Tipper's acting in the scene with Drummer was wooden. Her solo acting in the booby-trapped spaceship last season was outstanding, but this scene felt like Dominique was just reading lines, while Cara Gee was playing Drummer to perfection. It still got me, because of what happened to the #polyambelterfam as the actors call themselves on Twitter.

[Surlyboi]

I'd watch Cara Gee read the damn phone book.

[Miguel]

I'd watch Cara Gee read the damn phone book.

Can confirm.

[NowhereMan]

This season is meant to be longer than 6 episodes right? I see 0 way to tie up any of the plots beyond deus ex machina in episode 6. It is making me want to actually read the novels though, probably going to need to start from the beginning based on how much they've split from the books though.

[Tale]

meh

[Abagadro]

I thought it was good but rushed.  That was the case all season.

[satael]

It could've been better but if this is it for The Expanse then I'm happy to have watched it and I'm ok with how it ended.

[Fraeg]

ditto on the Cara Gee

This show has been a roller coaster for me.  Back in 20?? whatever I dismissed it out of hand after only one episode.  I remember smugly telling a co-worker that it was total bullshit and that they were lifting directly from this great book I read called Leviathan Awakens.  Only to have him tell me "duh, that is what it is based on"  flash forward however many years and it is probably my favorite sci-fi series of all time.

I stopped reading after book 2 so I really can't comment how far they have deviated with the show, but, as others have said if that was it, I can live with it.  I would like to see more, but I would rather that abrupt ending than watching Amos and Peaches jumping space sharks or something like that.

Note - my paternal grandmothers nickname was Peaches, so every time I heard Amos call her that it was a pretty odd set of emotions washing over me.

[Setanta]

Inaros defeat... WTF? He was set up as the big bad, but this season he was just mustache twirling and then... yup, dead. Laconia needed to cliffhang with their ships heading out of the gate, otherwise they should have just left the protomolecule story alone. It really did need a couple more episodes but I guess I can always read the books again.

[Khaldun]

It's kind of the way it is in the books too--Inaros is set up as the guy you most hate ever in the books and then he starts to unravel some even before the Earth-Mars fleet heads off to engage him because he's just not up to the task of actually ruling the Belt, particularly in terms of the Belt's inability to feed itself without Earth, and then pretty suddenly he's over and doesn't matter much any longer given how powerful Laconia is.

But I think everybody who has read the books got nervous when it was clear last season that they were going to at least introduce Laconia, because there's just no way to cram that story into anything less than a full season or more. It just keeps making me think they're hunting around for some way to make more Expanse in the near term.

[Setanta]

I think it was the lack of time to finish either arc. Usually the series did a great job of re-imaging the books, but the Inaros writing for the series was poor. Like other characters, all the effort in the previous season, just died away. If only every character had the writing investment that Drummer got.

[Teleku]

Yeah, they followed the books, but just didn't really have the screen time to do it justice.  I actually loved how they did the Inaros Arc in the books.  They basically make him to be a true pure Che Guevara character, but in the belt.  He's a passionate extremist with a lot of charisma who pulls off this audacious and insane plan that works, and gains the love and support of everybody in the belt for it (that would be book 5/season 5).  Now he's in charge, and it turns out he is actually super incompetent and is so caught up in himself he just does one stupid thing after another which hurts his own people more than the enemy.  Just keeps failing upward.  I loved how that worked out in the books rather than making him some stupid over top Machiavellian character who's always grinning and saying 'just as planned'.

[Abagadro]

I think it was the lack of time to finish either arc. Usually the series did a great job of re-imaging the books, but the Inaros writing for the series was poor. Like other characters, all the effort in the previous season, just died away. If only every character had the writing investment that Drummer got.

Well, they combined about 4 different characters into her so there was a lot to work with.

[Teleku]

Yeah, the Drummer in the TV series is the most hilarious non existent book character of everybody.