The Expanse

Also I've been told by mods that this thread is aired-episodes SPOILER-FRIENDLY so prolly avoid it.

Yes, shows/movies focused on dialogue and on screen actions are shows/movies I tend to enjoy.

khorum said:

If you keep watching it, a lot more things will happen that will be elided from the books. There are only a couple scenes with the mormons that explain why they're building the largest spaceship ever built. There's only a couple scenes that explain why belter creole is a complete mishmash and why their language is as much sign language and tattooes. They do a good job putting a lot of weight on those few scenes to explain everything from why the Martians became such a focused and disciplined "Texans in space" or why Fred Johnson DOES NOT speak with the belter language yet seems to lead one of the biggest belter factions, but it expects a lot from the audience to fill in the blanks.

If you're fine with piecing those things together through the show then you'll enjoy it and you'll be rewarded. But if you're the type to be turned off by unresolved nitpicking over things that are explained only in the novels, then I'd say just don't bother, because all that stuff is the sort of SUBTEXT the fans of the books appreciate so much---the belters use sign language and tattoos because they lived and worked in spacesuits for so long where direct verbal communication wasn't always optimal, the mormons want to build a ship that will carry generations across the stars and Fred Johnson was a UN Colonel who switched sides after being ordered to massacre innocent civilians.

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It's nice that you dont necessarily need the books to understand many of those things, as well. Like the Mormons, they believe that the best, super duper Mormons get their own planets to populate (or some such) after they die (on earth), and they are stupid rich; so it's understandable and works well, that they would pay for a huge generational ship to find their prophet's planet. The ships doing a 1g burn until it gets close enough to its target to turn around and do a 1g burn deceleration, to keep gravity on the ship and to get to places faster, is physics.

While the mag boots they use are fictional future-tech, all the other stuff, like how a dead body & a bloody mess would react in low or no gravity (with or w/o boots active) is, again, just attention to physics. It's one of the great things about the show, and it makes sense that it's all from the books, as a book writer has more time to research and get the small stuff right.

The Belter creole is problematic in the show though, for practical reasons. It's difficult for actors to get made up languages and accents right, especially for one as complex as what it should be (if the books say every faction should sound a bit different). I doubt the show's original budget had money for a team of dialect coaches to work on it, like what would be needed to get everyone on the same level. So, I have often thought, during re-watches, that it would have been better if they picked a real accent and language that sounds foreign enough to a US audience, and went with it (to make it easier for actors to get it right).



Here are a couple things I couldnt figure out:
Is it answered in the books why Belters aren't constantly suffering under a 1g burn? In the show, they did some high G maneuvers, if it almost kills Alex, Holden, and Amos, shouldn't Naomi have been dead (does the juice magically work better for Belters)?

The belters suffer more than the inners under high-g acceleration but in the books everyone is encased in gel on a crash couch, not just the fancy chairs they have in the show. In the book, the crash couch occupants are immersed into some kinda advanced gel that absorbs the worst of the acceleration along with with the drugs they're injected with. The books actually depict a few instances where people's limbs are dismembered or shattered because they weren't able to tuck them into the crash couch in time for a hard brake or a high-g maneuver. In the show the only thing that depicts that is the belter slingshot pilot getting splooshed when the belt stops his ship.

You guys know this feeling when you randomly stumble across an absolutely incredible TV series and then see there's like four full seasons out already for you to binge over the holidays?

Who's the best character and why is it Amos?

Of all the characters I actually thought Jared Harris did the best with the accent. Especially given his political shenanigans.

On topic of Amos

Cybsled said:

On topic of Amos

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That look on his face. Amos just got his Christmas present early.

Well they don't 100% know whose side the Rosi is on.

Finished season 4, still not quite as good as season 2 for me which is the best season of the show where everything just comes together perfectly. Book 4 wasn't my favorite book, honestly probably the weakest book in the series so far, so the fact that they made it semi interesting was a positive I guess. All the Bobbi stuff seemed new, I could be remembering wrong but I thought it went down very differently in the books.

Season 5 should definitely be interesting, I imagine it'll be a mix of book 5 and 6 to get all the pieces in the right places. Honestly my interest in the books has been waning for a while now, 5-8 are all just "ok" so hopefully a lot of rewriting is going on in the writers room.

Its a bit disappointing they didn't stretch the ultimate conflict on the planet a bit better in the show, it felt smaller and less interesting than the Ring station climax of season 3. That to me was the weakest part of the season, it was building up and building up to "what the fuck is going on with this planet" and it just kinda ended unsatisfactorily. I almost thought I skipped over an episode or something.

After Mr. Robot and Watchmen this season I kinda hate to admit but I prefer this kind of show on a weekly basis. Binging is great, but you can't read any internet threads about the show until you are done.