"The Expanse" Topic

What do you guys think of SyFy's adapation of the James Corey novels?

I haven't read the books, but like the show so far. I thought it got off to a slow start, but everything was well written and built upon itself so that it became more interesting with each episode.

The spaceship scenes seem more realistic than most scifi television or even movie fare. Although, that admittedly is setting the bar pretty low.

Long time fan of the books, and I'm mixed about the show. They've broughy forward plot elements from the second book, basically all the politics. Not a biggie.

They've merged the Jules Mao character with Protogen it appears. Not a biggie.

They've delayed the Roci's crew becoming a tightly knot team, probably because in the book they come across as the crew of the Serenity. I rather liked the Fireflyesque crew dynamic from the book, but this way once the crew bonds and gels it will feel earnt.

But where it really sucks the gas from the story for me is with the character of Chrisjen Avasarala. She's a second book character and the UN undersecretary. They really missed the boat with her, and both the performance and the character "tweaks" just don't work for me. She should be swearing like a sailor, and she lacks the steely eyed "take no prisoners" brass balls mega bitch hard case operator nature she has in the book.

But otherwise, yeah its good. Not BSG good as some claim…well BSG season 1 good at any rate.

The battle in episode 4 reminded me of a firestorm armada game.

I've enjoyed the show thus far.

A pity the season was so short, but looking forward to next season.

I would have liked to have seen more than 10 episodes in a row. Seems like the studios/financial backers keep cutting these in number, in case their show tanks, so they can cut their losses, which really short-changes the viewing audience, and perhaps limits their show's appeal a bit too.

I agree about the short season. On top of that, the next season won't run for nearly an entire year. It comes back in January 2017. There have been many shows that I have not come back to after that long of a hiatus.

I'm not sure if the short seasons are related to any kind of risk management since several networks do the same thing even with proven franchises. Game of Thrones comes to mind as one such show.

I have read that the producers adopted this model to give the writers and directors more time to craft a polished product. I don't mind if it results in higher quality, but at least where SyFy is concerned, they seem to use it as an excuse to churn out cookie cutter versions of the same shows with different actors. Heck, they even reuse the same sets on different shows.

I nearly passed on The Expanse expecting it to be another rehashed space opera like the ones they've been running off their assembly lines lately. I'm glad I didn't skip it as I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the show.

Huge fan of the books and equally a fan of the show. The changes they are making for TV are a reflection of the medium. Many elements of the book were revealed via internal monologue. They've had to make things explicit via character interactions and moving things around. The elements from the second book were brought forward to give a stronger sense for the politics involved.

All in all, a great adaptation and one that I'm looking forward to watching for as long as they make new episodes.

I like the show but being visually challenged, some scenes are very hard to follow.
Im glad they explained the hat. .I thought it was there just to hide his goofy haircut.
where did the final scene take place? at the station or aboard ship?

How much IS space battles? BSG-Reimagined-level percentage of time?

I wasn't a big fan, and the cinéma vérité of the earliest battles put me off, but I would watch most again.

Doug

Keep with it, Doug. There are a fair mix of engagements and it gets really awesome moving forward.

The show ended with the main characters leaving Eros station aboard the Rocinante.

There weren't a lot of space battles in the first season. The destruction of the Cant at the beginning of the show and another battle an episode or two later that was more of a boarding action following a brief space battle quickly lost due to overconfidence on the part of one side.

Most of the show has taken place aboard stations in the asteroid belt.

Things seem to be building towards a potential three way war between Earth, Mars and the Belters. However, I haven't read the books and don't know if tensions will erupt into conflict or if war can be averted by the actions of the intrepid heros.

Thanks, lads!

Don't get SyFy, so can't 'keep with it,' but can hope to see rebroadcasts or discs in the near future.

…don't know if tensions will erupt into conflict…

I can only hope. ;->=

Doug

Its a good show. Best sci-fi I have seen in a while.

Yea, the last episode was primarily everyone trying to get off the station, and away from all the infected people, back to their ship, to make good their escape.

A lot of the space battles scenes for me, and/or at least my TV are very dark, so it's really hard to see what is going on. I suspect that is on purpose to keep their production costs down.

They did the same thing in the first Aliens vs. Predator movie in that small town. Couldn't tell what was going on half the time, despite trying to watch it a few times.

Probably was easier to see on a large screen, in a movie theater, but for me, didn't translate well to the small screen.

Good show. I can definitely mine this setting for ideas.

Space battles were few and far in between, but it's not military science fiction. Politics and detective work play a more important role.

and I have to say the detective work was top notch. It had been a long while since I saw actual fictional detective work on TV.

Doug, the first season will be available in April on DVD and Blueray, said an add the other day.

I haven't read the books, but I've been enjoying the show. Actually found myself going "Ok, I need more" at the end of ep. 10. Might have to read the books once I'm done writing FNG3, too much Nam stuff in my que at the moment.

I bought the books online (epubs) and am reading them to fill in the blanks from the first season – reading "leviathan wakes" at present.

Liked the show so far, Amos is my favorite though.