SyFy's New Series "The Expanse"

East I don't remember that Bobby scene from the books so it probably was actor created.

The book's authors do expand the story quite a bit. What happens this season sets the stage for much bigger events in the future.

It's a slow build of a story for sure. The series is remarkably true to the books. And unlike Martin's GOT the Expanse writers structure the books into a TV series friendly format and flow. And given the highly productive nature of the Expanse authors I'm confident these two can keep ahead of the series.

As an aside I always thought this book was the one that propelled Amos into orbit as the best and most interesting character. I also like Bobbie and Christjen. Loved Fred Johnson though he had a bigger role in the books.

They also nailed it with Marcos. The right combination of legitimate grievance and horrific insanity.
 
Marcos' story is spread out over so much time, I think this is one change the tv writers should have considered. People like their villains in-season. After an entire season away and he really has had very little screen time even this season, he comes as if out of the blue let alone having the ability to pull off such a coup. The big bad needs some story time equitable with the hero(s) in order to be convincing I think.
 
Caught up on the past couple of episodes and this thing has turned into a snooze fest for me. Way too much screen time spent on Naomi and the family drama story line, some of the scenes were like watching a soap opera and didn't move much of the story. Better end with a bang or I see this as a waisted season.
 
Maybe that's what the show writers see the sci-fi demographic wanting these days? But I don't think they are really tuning in to see mommy issues, using baby as a tool against mommy/daddy.... Get on with the strategizing and the blasting. A couple aliens wouldn't hurt either. Lost a lot of good snark with Miller. Need a character to fill-in. A lingerie scene of Bobby wrestling wouldn't hurt either.
 
Naomi's family drama is my least favorite part to. Though hats off to a series that delves into the details of living in space like this one does. When they go that way I just start seeing the series as a Smithsonian special with great special effects.

My favorite parts are Amos on Earth and Avaserella on the Moon. The politics on the moon part are scintillating and very believable.

I do think folks will like the path the series take when they eventually get to it.
 
lotr10 said:
Naomi's family drama is my least favorite part to. Though hats off to a series that delves into the details of living in space like this one does. When they go that way I just start seeing the series as a Smithsonian special with great special effects.

My favorite parts are Amos on Earth and Avaserella on the Moon. The politics on the moon part are scintillating and very believable.

I do think folks will like the path the series take when they eventually get to it.
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Not knowing the books did they spend this much time on this Naomi story line? It really seems to me that they wanted to feature this actress and force fed us many of her scenes. The kid playing Filip also is horrible, their scenes together look so forced.

By the way how about some skin? I don't know what it is about the Bobbie actress, probably the NZ accent as a I usually don't go for Amazon types, but let's see what's going on below that suit. Also if Amazon is going to go "woke" and introduce some Lesbian action let's make it worth it too :)
 
lol

For what it's worth, the last two terrible episodes have had the same director, new to the show. Looking at the resume, doesn't seem to hang around for more than a couple episodes but still gets work. Must know some people. Great start to the recent episode, two people taking a piss. Director wanted to be sure people knew women do that too. Apparently the women in her life scream and over act a lot. Much of that in this ep.

Shark jumping.
 
Spoiler alert>

Well that was an abrupt and anticlimactic way to get rid of an actor that fell out of favor. Seems like they crammed a lot of action into 1 episode too, they could have cut some of the fat out of the middle of the season and fleshed out the set up to season 6 a little better.
 
Auggie said:
Spoiler alert>

Well that was an abrupt and anticlimactic way to get rid of an actor that fell out of favor. Seems like they crammed a lot of action into 1 episode too, they could have cut some of the fat out of the middle of the season and fleshed out the set up to season 6 a little better.
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Haven't caught up yet....but sure hope it's Naomi.
 
ogealbhain said:
Haven't caught up yet....but sure hope it's Naomi.
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unless she was hitting on the other actors, probably not. The actor playing Alex has some accusations against. I haven't seen it yet. Maybe he tried to hit on Bobby, leading to his ending. That could be some great 4th wall fun.
 
SPOILER ALERT

To say that was a jarring death of a main character would be an understatement. Especially since said character is still alive and kicking in the latest Expanse book (#8).

What started out as a promising season faithful to the book ended in what can only be described as a bizarre fashion. That the writers/producers screwed this up is unacceptable.

* First they spent way to much time on Naomi. Arguably the least interesting part of the two books they were following is thrust to the forefront and takes over the entire show for the last 5 episodes. What were they thinking?

* Instead of focusing on the environmental disaster facing the Earth after the asteroid strikes; or the alarming politics of Mars as it's society fractures; or Madam F-Bomb chewing up the scenery on the Moon or the civil war that erupts in the belt in reaction to what Marcos did they focused on Naomi building a radio for three freaking episodes.

At least the writers that screwed up GOT the last couple of seasons had the excuse that they ran out of books. But with the Expanse they still have couple of books to go.
 
Auggie said:
Spoiler alert>

Well that was an abrupt and anticlimactic way to get rid of an actor that fell out of favor. Seems like they crammed a lot of action into 1 episode too, they could have cut some of the fat out of the middle of the season and fleshed out the set up to season 6 a little better.
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Spot on. The last ten minutes of episode 10 should have taken place over at least TWO FULL episodes. The Battle in front of the ring was a huge moment in the books. And the evolution of a Martian splinter group into a hyper militaristic, proto-molecule underpinned civilization is the terrifying and very cool direction the Books go.

That they introduce all this in the last couple of minutes of the season finale is astonishing to me. The complete lack of any narrative sense on the part of the producers is disappointing to say the least.
 
How do you watch this show...... hold on, let me rephrase that.... I searched for the show and cannot find it anywhere.....
 
lotr10 said:
SPOILER ALERT

To say that was a jarring death of a main character would be an understatement. Especially since said character is still alive and kicking in the latest Expanse book (#8).

What started out as a promising season faithful to the book ended in what can only be described as a bizarre fashion. That the writers/producers screwed this up is unacceptable.

* First they spent way to much time on Naomi. Arguably the least interesting part of the two books they were following is thrust to the forefront and takes over the entire show for the last 5 episodes. What were they thinking?

* Instead of focusing on the environmental disaster facing the Earth after the asteroid strikes; or the alarming politics of Mars as it's society fractures; or Madam F-Bomb chewing up the scenery on the Moon or the civil war that erupts in the belt in reaction to what Marcos did they focused on Naomi building a radio for three freaking episodes.

At least the writers that screwed up GOT the last couple of seasons had the excuse that they ran out of books. But with the Expanse they still have couple of books to go.
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I wonder how much of this was AMZ Studios taking control of the narrative? That operation seems to be trying to out woke Hulu which is a tough thing to do.

Not knowing the books I was totally baffled by the scatter shot ending. I had to read some on line reviews to figure out everything that happened and the story arc was great, but to the above point did we have to see Naomi make yet yet another run with no oxygen? I will say that actress sure has the panting part down for the role, not sure she has gotten any additional acting chops during the course of the season though. Moving forward I am not sure how invested I will be next season; as Covid lifts and I start to head back to concerts, in person sports events, and enjoy life in general again this thing will move further down in my time allocation.
 
Auggie said:
I wonder how much of this was AMZ Studios taking control of the narrative? That operation seems to be trying to out woke Hulu which is a tough thing to do.

Not knowing the books I was totally baffled by the scatter shot ending. I had to read some on line reviews to figure out everything that happened and the story arc was great, but to the above point did we have to see Naomi make yet yet another run with no oxygen? I will say that actress sure has the panting part down for the role, not sure she has gotten any additional acting chops during the course of the season though. Moving forward I am not sure how invested I will be next season; as Covid lifts and I start to head back to concerts, in person sports events, and enjoy life in general again this thing will move further down in my time allocation.
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I think you've nailed it. I hate introducing politics to the General Board but damn if this season didn't smell like a whole lot of woke culture seeping into the story line.

Unfortunately a critical mass of the creative class is infected with PC thinking even though they would deny it if charged. But almost everything now seems to have its quotient of woke culture permeating the story line. It's sad because it ruins the narrative and actually works against what these people are trying to accomplish.

I'm watching Marco Polo on Netflix. It's a fantastic series but even here woke culture intrudes. The 2nd season has a story line where a Mongol leader wants to make his daughter the next Khan. There is no historical evidence that the highly patriarchal Mongolian warrior nomad culture would have ever even thought to do this.

Or consider the series The Vikings. A great show that totally blows out of proportion the notion of Shield Maidens as if Viking battles often featured women fighting alongside the men. In these society's women were to important to risk on the battlefield. Young males were expendable.

I could go on and on here but you get the picture. Bottom line is I can take a little PC as long as it doesn't destroy the narrative or ruin my ability to suspend my disbelief in the story. But that is getting harder and harder to do.
 
lotr10 said:
I think you've nailed it. I hate introducing politics to the General Board but damn if this season didn't smell like a whole lot of woke culture seeping into the story line.

Unfortunately a critical mass of the creative class is infected with PC thinking even though they would deny it if charged. But almost everything now seems to have its quotient of woke culture permeating the story line. It's sad because it ruins the narrative and actually works against what these people are trying to accomplish.

I'm watching Marco Polo on Netflix. It's a fantastic series but even here woke culture intrudes. The 2nd season has a story line where a Mongol leader wants to make his daughter the next Khan. There is no historical evidence that the highly patriarchal Mongolian warrior nomad culture would have ever even thought to do this.

Or consider the series The Vikings. A great show that totally blows out of proportion the notion of Shield Maidens as if Viking battles often featured women fighting alongside the men. In these society's women were to important to risk on the battlefield. Young males were expendable.

I could go on and on here but you get the picture. Bottom line is I can take a little PC as long as it doesn't destroy the narrative or ruin my ability to suspend my disbelief in the story. But that is getting harder and harder to do.
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lol,

OR

they could just be trying to earn a buck by reaching a larger audience because you know.... capitalism.
 
eastisbest said:
lol,

OR

they could just be trying to earn a buck by reaching a larger audience because you know.... capitalism.
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So focusing in on one characters boring interlude on a boobie trapped space ship is more audience friendly then blowing things up, epic space battles and all sorts of other good stuff ? I don't buy it. They skipped over some of the best parts of the story in their weird fascination with Naomi's family issues.

Sorry, but I've read the books and if you think the Naomi story ark was designed to build the audience then I've got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. The writers/producers left a lot more interesting stuff out of this season which strikes me as you know - anti capitalism.
 
lotr10 said:
So focusing in on one characters boring interlude on a boobie trapped space ship is more audience friendly then blowing things up, epic space battles and all sorts of other good stuff ? I don't buy it. They skipped over some of the best parts of the story in their weird fascination with Naomi's family issues.

Sorry, but I've read the books and if you think the Naomi story ark was designed to build the audience then I've got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. The writers/producers left a lot more interesting stuff out of this season which strikes me as you know - anti capitalism.
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If you think the writers/producers intentionally are trying to scare away audience and lose money and if you actually think you are part of a target demographic for anything other than support socks, than I understand why you think you have a bridge to sell. Bet you paid in advance of delivery. ;)
 
eastisbest said:
If you think the writers/producers intentionally are trying to scare away audience and lose money and if you actually think you are part of a target demographic for anything other than support socks, than I understand why you think you have a bridge to sell. Bet you paid in advance of delivery. ;)
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Whether they intended to scare away the audience or not is not the point. I believe that this seasons muddled story line infused with the special incoherence and boredom that only woke concepts can deliver cost them some of their audience. You see the frustration on Yappi and at a lot of other venues where people talk about the show.

And for the record I don't believe that these people are trying to scare away fans rather they are so lost in their ideology they can't recognize how much of their audience they're pissing off.

I do believe that a lot of these woke folks don't want the business from people who are not woke or actively resist wokeness. Just look at the recent actions of the Big Tech company's. I know that if I ran a business I would be happy to sell my product to any anti-Trump folks who voted for Biden. But that's just me.

As far as whether I'm a target demographic or not I'll leave that to the smart folks who determine such things. I will note that I have purchased all the books, hardcovers not the cheap paperbacks, and I have watched the show religiously since it came out. I also purchased the BlueRay versions for seasons 1 - 3 when they came out and the ONLY reason I signed up for Amazon Prime was to gain access to this show.

That's real money and real support.

Not only that but I've recommended the show to a wide circle of friends and started this thread on Yappi to promote it. So if I'm not a key demographic then maybe they need to broaden their definition of what a key demographic really is.
 
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