The Expanse

Void

Void

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I can't remember much of the plot to The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, as I read it around 35 years ago, but I'm going to say no, because shit is about to change drastically on this show. I'm pretty sure no one that hasn't read the books is able to even guess where it is headed.
 
Ukerric

Ukerric

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Vvoid_sl said:
I'm pretty sure no one that hasn't read the books is able to even guess where it is headed.
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QFT.

You had half a second early in the first episode to tell you that real shit is coming, and that's all until probably "Windmills" (ep 7).
 
spronk

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Goddamn Jared Harris and Aghdashloo are so killing it on screen, I could just watch them play their two characters forever. Whatever South African accent Harris is doing is awesome, as is all his little stories and power plays. Not as impressed with The Wire guy who is playing Fred Johnson, I always imagined his character as a bit older and stronger presence, like Keith David (the dude from Saints Row 4, Community, or your Admiral buddy in Mass Effect 3). But then again I always thought Naomi was white too

Its a bummer more people aren't watching, this is easily my favorite show on TV right now. If it was on Netflix I'd marathon through the entire season and immediately watch it again. So glad its already picked up for season 2. It looks like season 1 is only gonna cover 1/2 the first book, but also like they are going to bring in plots from later books into earlier seasons. What exciting times to be watching TV!

5 episodes left.
 
Ukerric

Ukerric

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Ukerric_sl said:
You had half a second early in the first episode to tell you that real shit is coming, and that's all until probably "Windmills" (ep 7).
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Ok, you have two repeats about some "bioweapon" in this episode, just before Miller gets his ass fired for being too competent for once.

(he's supposed to be a joke of a cop, if you haven't guessed. Dawes stresses the point, although you may not understand the context)
spronk_sl said:
It looks like season 1 is only gonna cover 1/2 the first book, but also like they are going to bring in plots from later books into earlier seasons.
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My own speculation is that, since basically the second book is a smaller-scale repeat of the general book 1 plotline (bad corp doing bad things with stuff they shouldn't have done), they are basically merging book 1 & 2, but the resulting plot is too dense for a 10-ep season so they're spreading the entire stuff over two seasons.

Book-enlightened speculation:
A number of hints point to the escape from Eros being the season 1 climax. Don't know if SyFy is going to show us the full gore of that. But the pacing would need to be frenetic otherwise toward the end (ep 7: go to Eros, find Julie, ep 8: Casino wins! ep9: find Toth, ep10: back to Eros), so no book 1 wrapping in season 1.

Since Caliban's War is basically a smaller-scale version of the latter bits of Leviathan, with individual murders rather than mass ones, and soldier bioweap instead of asteroid-sized ones, my guess is that they're going to merge Protogen into Kwik-Mao as a single baddy corporation, interweave the Ganymede super-soldier hunting after the whole Eros debacle but before they flush out Toth Station, then back to Eros for the final showdown, and the birth of the Ring. That's probably why we have Avarasala straight from day 1, because there's not going to be years between the end of season 1 and 2.

Which means that Miller gets to stick around for more during season 2 (and get presumably get involved in the Ganymede stuff, which isn't the case in the books), instead of coming back at the end only. Yay!
 
Ukerric

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Only 4 episodes left. Plot points dangling

Avarasala is going to get her report that Holden was spotted on Tycho station "celebrating" (with Naomi). Does that convince the UN that the OPA were the ones behind all this stuff and Holden enjoys his job well done?

Havelock is still in hospital. Will Miller tell him to get his ass out because the OPA owns the police (in the books, it's because of rampant anti-inner planet racism from the police; I don't think the chief was OPA from start, she just throws her lot with OPA once Earth enters conflict). He's supposed to be the "in" for Miller later when they're looking for Toth Station, is that still going? (Hernandez is not credited with any more eps for season 1)

Miller is out "with prejudice" rather than "because you're a sorry excuse of a cop, and I don't have the budget anymore". That probably means he's going to need his contact with Octavia and maybe Havelock? to get intel. (Karkanis is only credited to the next ep. and gone after).

How does Miller find out about Holden/Rocinante? In the books, he tracks Holden and goes to Eros because the Rocinante is going there, but in the show, he knows the Anubis was headed to Eros, and if there's survivors (Julie), that's probably where they are, so he's probably going on his own. If so, he does not have a reason to try to track Holden, and the meeting is probably more tense, with Miller less than trustful of Holden. I presume they're not meeting until late in ep8, then.
 
Kirun

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Is Miller this retarded in the books? After all the shit he has been dealing with - the OPA, Ceres going nuts, etc., he doesn't expect his fucking captain to be on the take? Really?!
 
Ukerric

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Kirun_sl said:
Is Miller this retarded in the books? After all the shit he has been dealing with - the OPA, Ceres going nuts, etc., he doesn't expect his fucking captain to be on the take? Really?!
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In the books, he's the joke cop. The cop the boss gives stuff that she doesn't want to get solved, like, I don't know, the case of the father wanting Julie Mao, OPA operative currently on assignment on the Scopuli. After Havelock scrams out of Ceres, his new partner finally break the news to him that everyone knew that (just one page before he gets fired for incompetence in time of tight budgets).

And no, in the books, she's not so obviously on the take. She only starts enforcing OPA rule after Earth pulls out of Ceres, and so Star Helix has left them to hang dry, which hasn't happened in the show (at least yet, and probably not).
 
Azrayne

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Gotta admit, as much as I want to love this series something about it feels off. The pacing or writing or something... the scenes feel rushed together, but at the same time it seems like each episode ends without the plot having moved forward a whole lot. But maybe it's just the result of watching an episode every week instead of binging, I haven't done that in a long time.

In the books, he's the joke cop. The cop the boss gives stuff that she doesn't want to get solved, like, I don't know, the case of the father wanting Julie Mao, OPA operative currently on assignment on the Scopuli. After Havelock scrams out of Ceres, his new partner finally break the news to him that everyone knew that (just one page before he gets fired for incompetence in time of tight budgets).
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On top of which he's deluded about the situation, thinking he's still top shit until he has it spelled out to him, when there are a ton of clues right in front of him. He's also an alcoholic and suffering some kind of psychosis - in general he's a much more of a sad, broken down kind of character than he is in the show (physically as well - he's not described in especially flattering terms, whereas he's a well dressed and good looking guy in the show).

But the same could probably be said about pretty much everyone in the main cast except perhaps Jim. Amos' personality seems a lot softer, Alex is much younger and better looking (in the books he starts out late 40's, chubby and balding), Naomi has a much more aggressive, outgoing personality instead of the more withdrawn, quiet-but-competent type she is in the books (she reminds me a little bit of Lizbeth Salander from the Millenium books).

Should be interesting to see how they portray Bobbie...
 
spronk

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yeah I pictured the cop from Tim Burton batman as Miller, not this Max Headroom looking dude with crazy hair. can't complain since the actor is killing it, just didn't match what I imagined

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Ukerric

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Azrayne_sl said:
But maybe it's just the result of watching an episode every week instead of binging, I haven't done that in a long time.
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I did a rewatch of the first 6 ep this saturday, and I agree. It does feel a lot better if you chain the episodes. I'm still going to watch every ep as they come, but I'll probably rewatch the entire series when ep 10 comes out.
 
Qhue

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Jared Harris is just killing it in this role. The use of the South African accent for the Belters is perfectly haunting, was it implied in the books that belters speak a pidgin heavily influenced by Afrikaans?


It bothers me that the ratings on this are, apparently, very low. Did SyFy fuck up by premiering this in December?
 
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Cybsled

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I think so. They threw out the first 2 episodes around the holiday, then said "watch the next 2 On Demand!", then started on episode 5 when it came back. Hard to gain a following for a show for the mass market when you do that. Then the more hardcore sci-fi fans...you probably have plenty who just watch episode rips, because why support quality programming when you can just pirate it instead of paying $1.99 for an episode if you don't have cable ;/
 
Jorren

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I still run into people that would normally be all over this, have no idea that this show even exists. I agree that the December premier and the rapid release of the first 4 ep did not serve them well.
 
Tuco

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Love this show so far. I hope it does well. The special effects in a lot of the scenes are amazing and the look into near-future asteroid mining tickles my pickle.
 
Arden

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Qhue_sl said:
Jared Harris is just killing it in this role. The use of the South African accent for the Belters is perfectly haunting, was it implied in the books that belters speak a pidgin heavily influenced by Afrikaans?
It bothers me that the ratings on this are, apparently, very low. Did SyFy fuck up by premiering this in December?
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In the books Belters spoke a patois that was a smattering of numerous earth languages, but primarily Spanish based. The words were Spanish based anyway, but the accent was unclear. I like the show's take on the Belter accent. I agree that Jared Harris is doing a great job.
 
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spronk

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They have already renewed for season 2, I think this is a show they feel will build a following over time so they are just throwing season 1 out there and hope word of mouth spreads well. I think it'll work long term if they stick with it, they have a great show, excellent source material, and its a fantastic show to marathon through. If anything it would have been just perfect for Netflix, but hopefully it gets up on Netflix soon and is wildly popular there.
 
Ukerric

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Last episode was a bit disappointing, because it was hugely padded.

If you're not a book reader, know that the entire stowaway spy+martian donkey balls sub-plot is a complete addition. It didn't happen at all. In the books, you have Holden and crew undocking from Tycho, end of chapter, Miller chapter, next chapter begins with Holden and Amos at the entrance of the casino in Eros.

Rewriting stuff, because I just re-read the relevant chapters, so it's not padding for ep 8, but maybe a major re-order of stuff. In the books both Holden and Miller were headed to Eros. Holden because Fred got notified that "Lionel Polanski" checked into a hotel on Eros, and Miller because he's found out about the Rocinante, and when the Roci heads to Eros, he pursues Holden. Holden gets to know about the asteroid where the Anubis is docked only later,
when he and Miller get to Julie and find on her log where she parked the Anubis. Here Holden knows about the Anubis, and they're going to check it, and head straight into the protomolecule, well before Eros.
 
Ossoi

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his accent is awful, guessing none of you have ever met an actual South African
 
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Arden

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Ukerric_sl said:
Last episode was a bit disappointing, because it was hugely padded.
If you're not a book reader, know that the entire stowaway spy+martian donkey balls sub-plot is a complete addition. It didn't happen at all.
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My one complaint about the show is that they keep adding random shit in and changing book events. I can't stand it when shows/movies do this. Don't get me wrong, sometimes the producers/directors have time/money constraints and have to cut certain things out. Sometimes they even need to combine characters or summarize events to simply very complex situations. I don't like those things, but I understand them. What I donotunderstand is when some asswipe studio exec or aspiring screen writer decides thattheyknow better than the author of the books how the story should unfold and adds random shit in just to "spice things up."

I know I'm showing my nerd on this one, but they did that shit in LoTR Two Towers at the battle of Helms Deep. First, they cut out a bunch of important stuff which, like I said, I understand. But then they randomly have Haldir show up with a couple hundred elven archers that never happened in the book-- just to die almost immediately and unceremoniously as if to say "I know those guys weren't supposed to be there, so we'll just go ahead and kill them off like the mistake they were."
 
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