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The Expanse, followed by the shrinking..

Dr.Morris79

Member
After a few endless weeks of life I finally settled down, popcorn on lap, to carry on watching one of my favourite shows in years. Being out of the loop it struck me as odd this season had six episodes as i'd heard it was the final. Okay I thought, it has to end at some point.. but after watching the six it hit me that this just wasnt wrapped up properly

Upon reading around it now seems it got shit canned due to funding from Amazon and in sunk the pain and realisation that these arseholes canned one of the best Sci-fi shows in YEARS and we now get to eat a woke shit sandwich of Lord of the rings that had an obscene budget and looks utter shite

I couldnt be more pissed off and needed a vent. I loved this show and to see it be butchered at the end was heartbreaking

sCuXBfn.jpg


Just going to buy the books now but my god, what a kick in the bollocks

Carry on.
 

Bitmap Frogs

Mr. Community
It’s been cancelled twice, so rather indicates the audience want there for it.

The problem with scifi tv, in general, is that the audience is there but the shows are so expensive to make (fx shots, cgi, extensive makeup) that they need massive following to justify production. Fantasy is in the same boat. Remember that excellent first season of American Gods? Each episode costed the same as a game of thrones episode, and it was succesful but not game of thrones succesful so they had to tone down the budget and that made the showrunners bail out.
 
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Velcro Fly

Member
I thought I read somewhere it was basically decided beforehand that they were not going to adapt the entire book series for TV. Something about there being a "natural stopping point" or some such. I never finished the show but I'm on book 8 of the novels.
 

Dr.Morris79

Member
Season 1 - 4 are fantastic but Season 5 - 6 are terrible
I agree that 5 was a bit pants overall but six seemed to get back into it only to end some threads in such an abrupt manner.

I thought I read somewhere it was basically decided beforehand that they were not going to adapt the entire book series for TV. Something about there being a "natural stopping point" or some such. I never finished the show but I'm on book 8 of the novels.
Thats a damn shame! I'm now going the book route to get my fix on this too (ironically, bought off Amazon..)

There's a Telltale Game series coming out about the Expanse.
I thought Telltale went under?
 

Catphish

Member
I’m thankful for this thread because I was gonna watch it from the beginning, since I stopped after the 3rd season.

Now I won’t bother. Sucks, tho.
 

Mikado

Member
Just finished S1-3 on bluray. S3 ended at a reasonable place and one could probably stop there I suspect. Managed to find an S4 set on disk, but I know I'll never see S5-6 since they're only on amazon streaming.

How annoyed am I going to be at the end of season 4?
 

MastaKiiLA

Member
It was all good to me. S6 deserved to be full-length, but I'm just happy we got a series finale, and that it wasn't killed in its sleep in the offseason. The Laconia arc can start off fresh on another platform.

It was seriously my favorite sci-fi show ever, overtaking TNG. S6 had its moments too. The battle with the Roci against the Pella and other free navy cruisers was easily my favorite in the whole series. The volley of PDC fire after baiting the Pella into dodging the railgun. The whole strategy was brilliant, using the distance to the pursuers as a means of cutting down the firing angle, and thus allowing them to utilize the Roci's single greatest asset, that goddamn railgun.

IMO, beyond the respect for physics that this show has, it was the space battles. The creators of this show put a ton of effort into setting up and shooting these skirmishes in a way that makes tactical sense. So many of this show's battles had me rewinding multiple times to admire some move or tactic that was employed. For that reason, I think S6 was tolerable.
 

Xyphie

Member
Like with Game of Thrones the show would've been better without the "supernatural" elements. The more it got into the space magic stuff in later seasons the worse the show got. Should've just stayed space politics between Earth/Mars/Belt. Shame because the worldbuilding was absolutely fantastic.
 

Mossybrew

Gold Member
I enjoyed the series the whole way through. Sure there were things I could nitpick, and I'd agree the last two seasons were probably the weakest, but overall a pretty great show.
 

manfestival

Member
Yeah I am definitely on board for being incredibly disappointed at the direction the show went. Season 5 was a bit of a bummer as the pacing and focus shifted but it wasn't terrible... just not up to the quality that the rest of the story has been at. Then 6 happened and it just felt like a waste of a season
 

Trogdor1123

Member
Is there a good long form YouTube video or series of videos, that goes through all the books and explains all the loose ends and additional storylines?
 

Hardensoul

Member
I just finished it this past weekend because I was bored! The ending was ugh…ok sure that can happen.. SMH

Also I must’ve just doze through and missed what happened to the storyline of that family with little girl that befriend an alien dog that can resurrect the dead!!
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
There's a Telltale Game series coming out about the Expanse.
Player makes a choice that puts Earth in danger...

Holden will remember this

Player: "Eh, no biggie, that guy runs his mouth off about everything anyway"

Player makes a choice that puts Naomi in danger...

Amos will remember this

Player: "Oh fuck, rewind rewind!!!"
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
I just finished it this past weekend because I was bored! The ending was ugh…ok sure that can happen.. SMH

Also I must’ve just doze through and missed what happened to the storyline of that family with little girl that befriend an alien dog that can resurrect the dead!!
That alien planet was a looooong lead into the next 3 books which we will sadly probably never see.

I feel the show was never quite able to frame the Belter//Inner struggle appropriately. I wish they had been able to cast belters more true to the books as a bunch of tall spindly wankers set against earthers/martians would have been visually much cooler than the reliance on tattoos and that accent. I wanted more focus on the protomolecule, personally, as the political stuff got tedious after a while. Still, it is a favorite show. I'm very curious what visual reference the game will use. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the ship designs, really need to spring for some models or even those crazy fan made lego builds.
 

Fbh

Member
Yeah the first few seasons were awesome but then it started to deflate.
The one were they spend all the season on some planet was pretty boring and then it turns into the Naomi Nagata family drama show and it's just not the same anymore.

In season 6 they even torture you hinting at more interesting plot threads we could have seen in the future......then it's back to more scenes of Filip being the most unlikable character ever.
 

Hardensoul

Member
That alien planet was a looooong lead into the next 3 books which we will sadly probably never see.

I feel the show was never quite able to frame the Belter//Inner struggle appropriately. I wish they had been able to cast belters more true to the books as a bunch of tall spindly wankers set against earthers/martians would have been visually much cooler than the reliance on tattoos and that accent. I wanted more focus on the protomolecule, personally, as the political stuff got tedious after a while. Still, it is a favorite show. I'm very curious what visual reference the game will use. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the ship designs, really need to spring for some models or even those crazy fan made lego builds.
Even tho the season was not as good, to me still bad. I really hate the way it ended. Way too many left unresolved and felt too abruptly.
 

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
I binged it for the first time earlier this year and enjoyed it all the way through, but I did find the final two seasons the weakest. I hope they bring it back at some point. I'd also love to buy a box set if they release one at some point.
 

The Cockatrice

I'm retarded?
It wasn't canceled as usual. No idea where you people got your information from. If you must know, the next "arc" in the the books happen like 30 or something years in the future. They had no way of achieving that unless with heavy CGI or cast different actors which would not work well at all.
 
Season 2 was the best.
4 was alright until they got stuck in a cheap SG-1 set.
I don't even remember most of 5 and 6. "Dude what if broken people find common ground" and "dude what if family drama but in space" are just as generic as "noir detective but in space", but the execution was horrible and it was all very repetitive.
That Diogo guy from the first half was so memorable compared to Naomi's son, and with much less screen time...
 
Like with Game of Thrones the show would've been better without the "supernatural" elements. The more it got into the space magic stuff in later seasons the worse the show got. Should've just stayed space politics between Earth/Mars/Belt. Shame because the worldbuilding was absolutely fantastic.
A constant problem in sci-fi. Though I didn't think The Expanse was too egregious. At least I thought everything was decently in the realm of 'science beyond our understanding'. Way too many sci-fi series finish at some 'love is the fundamental force of the universe and renders all science moot' endpoint.

I'm reading the books now, I think I'm on book 4, and I know the novels carry on way past the end of the series so... we'll see how this one goes.
 

Relique

Member
Like with Game of Thrones the show would've been better without the "supernatural" elements. The more it got into the space magic stuff in later seasons the worse the show got. Should've just stayed space politics between Earth/Mars/Belt. Shame because the worldbuilding was absolutely fantastic.
Hard disagree. I found the protomolecule stuff to be the most interesting and a good overarching mystery that drove the whole thing forward. I think most of the political elements of the show were pretty good but once it got into individual characters and family drama they kind of lost me. I barely got through season 5 due to this and and haven't been back to finish season 6.
 

Tams

Member
On one hand, I am grateful (too much?) that Amazon saved it from Netflix.

But Season 5 was a borefest and not replacing Alex with another actor was a stupid mistake. Naomi's son was such an annoying character.
 

Tams

Member
Hard disagree, season 4 is by far the worst in my opinion. I'm listening the audio books since the ending of the TV Show and book 4 was really hard to listen.
5 is definitely the worst. Hands down. It just became a different show, a family drama set in space with one of the least likeable and least enjoyable characters as the focus. And then they kill off one of the best characters.
 

Dr.Morris79

Member
I’m thankful for this thread because I was gonna watch it from the beginning, since I stopped after the 3rd season.

Now I won’t bother. Sucks, tho.
You should stick with it, it's still certainly better than 90% of dross on tv nowdays..

Just finished S1-3 on bluray. S3 ended at a reasonable place and one could probably stop there I suspect. Managed to find an S4 set on disk, but I know I'll never see S5-6 since they're only on amazon streaming.

How annoyed am I going to be at the end of season 4?
I think most of the seasons end on semi cliff hangers but nothing too major after 4.

It was all good to me. S6 deserved to be full-length, but I'm just happy we got a series finale, and that it wasn't killed in its sleep in the offseason. The Laconia arc can start off fresh on another platform.

It was seriously my favorite sci-fi show ever, overtaking TNG. S6 had its moments too. The battle with the Roci against the Pella and other free navy cruisers was easily my favorite in the whole series. The volley of PDC fire after baiting the Pella into dodging the railgun. The whole strategy was brilliant, using the distance to the pursuers as a means of cutting down the firing angle, and thus allowing them to utilize the Roci's single greatest asset, that goddamn railgun.

IMO, beyond the respect for physics that this show has, it was the space battles. The creators of this show put a ton of effort into setting up and shooting these skirmishes in a way that makes tactical sense. So many of this show's battles had me rewinding multiple times to admire some move or tactic that was employed. For that reason, I think S6 was tolerable.
Exactly! It was bloody awsome how they planned it all out. Seeing the PDC's rip out half the cockpits and pop heads was a brilliant touch too.

Like with Game of Thrones the show would've been better without the "supernatural" elements. The more it got into the space magic stuff in later seasons the worse the show got. Should've just stayed space politics between Earth/Mars/Belt. Shame because the worldbuilding was absolutely fantastic.
I will say that even with space magic I still enjoyed it. Even the story with the kid and her brother hooked me in. When she was first introduced I had vivid flash backs of Obi wan and the Leia chase scene and thought, oh no.. not this again :messenger_tears_of_joy:

But the kid could act, and the the whole purring dog things seemed weirdly cute but had menacing undertones.. then the brother looked quite evil but was still thoughtful and kind about his sister not being able to eat anything outside the colony, it was a great mix that subverted your expectations..

Gah, why'd it have to end!

Yeah I am definitely on board for being incredibly disappointed at the direction the show went. Season 5 was a bit of a bummer as the pacing and focus shifted but it wasn't terrible... just not up to the quality that the rest of the story has been at. Then 6 happened and it just felt like a waste of a season
Aye, season 5, was very Naomi and feels, it was a hard season, even 6 had a few too many feels scenes when you just wanted it to get going..

I should give this show a 2nd chance given how much praise it gets, but s1e1 literally put me so sleep
You should, it was a bit of a curve to get into as there is so much going on I think, I can see why some would drop it. Worth sticking with though.

..Shite. Spent too long trying to reply to everyone, gonna be late out the door. Whoops :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 

kurisu_1974

Member
Like with Game of Thrones the show would've been better without the "supernatural" elements. The more it got into the space magic stuff in later seasons the worse the show got. Should've just stayed space politics between Earth/Mars/Belt. Shame because the worldbuilding was absolutely fantastic.

This but the exact opposite.
 
Like with Game of Thrones the show would've been better without the "supernatural" elements. The more it got into the space magic stuff in later seasons the worse the show got. Should've just stayed space politics between Earth/Mars/Belt. Shame because the worldbuilding was absolutely fantastic.
I think adding that space magic element is the reason why so many people I knew compared this show to Mass Effect. And without that comparison me and my friends would have never stumbled into watching this amazing show in the first place.
 

Alandring

Member
I was thinking about grabbing these two. They any good content wise?
I'm at book 6 now, so I haven't listened the new books. But the 6 books are really, really closed to the TV Show. We could make a list of differences between the books and the TV Show, but I think you can easily start with book 7 after the TV Show.

But they are cool. The few differences are interesting (see them more as an alternative way to tell the same story) and for me who doesn't remember well the first seasons, it was a nice reminder.
 

Bragr

Banned
Like with Game of Thrones the show would've been better without the "supernatural" elements.
Yeah, I am convinced it's one of the reasons why Martin struggles to write the books, the amount loopholes he's made with his magic bullshit invalidates so much of Westeros. I still can't get over how Arya traveled to some idiot magic school and learned how to fight and shapeshift in no time at all. It was too easy. How are we supposed to buy normal knight stuff now when you can just magic kill everything and learn to shapeshift in a matter of months? the dragons and the creatures beyond the wall were the only supernatural elements he should have used.
 
Huge fan of the books (actually in the middle of a re-read before I read Leviathan Falls for the first time), but never did get around to watching the show until recently. Only two episodes into S1 so far, but wow. I'm loving it.
 
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