The Expanse

Qhue_sl said:

I read a demo chapter on Amazon that seemed to cover most of the first episode, so I think at the very least it is one book per season and I'm not even truly sure they would make it to the end of the first book in these 10 episodes. I feel they have plenty of material to use.

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I've only watched the pilot so far, and i've read the first two books.

It's not a spoiler to say that the little indian woman is in the second book, Detective hat is in the first book. So they're adapting for the screen and probably running it at more than one book per season. They'll slow burn one plotline.

From a casting and production standpoint I imagine it's more practical and from a "I dunno if how many seasons we'll get" standpoint.

They did announce a second season prior to the first episode even airing, so they seem to have confidence in it.

3 & 4 help advance the mystery of who is behind all the stuff going on and it also starts to potentially tie some of the different plots together.

Probably not. It's gonna be more of the same.

The setting of it is what hooked me. Most sci-fi like this is either set in earth+colony (the moon or mars), or it's set in multiple star systems. There's not a whole TON of sci-fi that deals with the midrange phase of colonization and exploration within the solar system. And it took an extra step where they haven't reverted to emulating European Colonial systems, which is something that authors will do in this setting more often than not. There's not a "Governor Of Ceres" which is beholden to "The King of the UN". The political landscape of the series is fairly credible. Fred, when we get to him, is grossly under developed in the books... I hope they take the time to correct that in the show.

I've always liked Clarke's bookImperial Earthwhere he took that setting and examined the political ramifications of it in a pretty realistic fashion.

Because of dat railgun scene yo.

The only thing I can think is that fighting in the show allowed Holden a chance to show his leadership ability by winning them over. Plus... drama and stuff.

In the book it was a little quick maybe, but also maybe not. Because these people had been serving with him for like 2 years or something. They already knew him. So when shit went sideways they were able to trust him as captain. You can say that in a book and not have to show that he's "a goodguy". The only reservation I had with it is that these aren't military (besides for the pilot), so that kind of instant camraderie seems like it might have been a little bit convenient. But again... he'd been their XO for years, so it's not. That's just the relationship that he has with them. That's where it starts, ya know. He's the bossman, they're used to him being the bossman, and they like him.

But in the show you have to let the viewer come to the conclusion that he's a good guy and you have to show the viewer that or else it will feel super forced. You could probably do it without infighting, but you'd have to have a conversation between crewmembers along the lines of, "Remember that one time that Holden was really cool to us?" And an episode of that would be kinda lamer than infighting. Infighting also lets you peg down character traits more quickly. So there's that.

Well, that's what I mean. He's established XO in both but you don't get to see him XO much in the show. And when he does, it's to sneakily sell his own crew out because of a personal crisis of conscience. That was handled a LOT better in the book in a single paragraph. I'm not really sure why they put that on his girlfriend except that maybe she's going to be his conscience for a while in order that he seems less Lawful Stupid. And 1st episode he's all, "Nope. Don't wanna be captain, fuck that noise". Which I see where they're going with that but if he doesn't wanna be captain then what the fuck, ya know?

Gotta show him earning the authority of captain. In the book it's a lot easier to just assume it's true and roll with it when they state he's earned it already.

Watched episode 1 and 2. Episode 2 was mind numbingly boring. I have 3 and 4 queued on TiVo but I am going to have to be incredibly bored to even bother watching them. And I love SiFi. I even made it through season 3 of Defiance which might have been some of the stupidest stuff ever put on television.

I watched 2+3+4 in one setting and I enjoyed it alot. The setting, the space opera, I'm hooked. Personally it feels like the best scifi since Babylon 5 / BSG.

The only complaint I could see going forward is that the main characters aren't the ones doing any of the action and fighting, they are the civilians getting screwed over as it happens around them. Need that fist pump post-battle when the characters you care about off a bad guy.

Malakriss_sl said:

The only complaint I could see going forward is that the main characters aren't the ones doing any of the action and fighting, they are the civilians getting screwed over as it happens around them. Need that fist pump post-battle when the characters you care about off a bad guy.

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Malakriss_sl said:

The only complaint I could see going forward is that the main characters aren't the ones doing any of the action and fighting, they are the civilians getting screwed over as it happens around them. Need that fist pump post-battle when the characters you care about off a bad guy.

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Well.. if you watched E04...

I like Amos in the show way better than book Amos for some reason. He's kinda oafish and menacing instead of just oafish.

a_skeleton_03_sl said:

I have a problem that there is fighting in the crew right now. That did not seem like it was part of the story at all in the first book. I just read it two days ago so I think it's still fresh enough.

Right now none of the crew likes Holden and by now they were following his every word in the books.

Also why bring in Mike from Breaking Bad only to kill him off and to play a character that wasn't even part of the book.

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Actually that is not that far off of the book. I think they play it up a bit more in the show but everybody was pretty much WTF holden and his cannot resist the urge to drop bombs on the universe mode of spewing out information that keeps spinning things out of control in the first couple books.