The Expanse has been saved! Amazon has closed a deal to pick up the sci-fi drama series, which is in its third and final season on Syfy. The announcement was made tonight by Amazon’s boss himself, Jeff Bezos, at National Space Society’s International Space Development Conference in Los Angeles where he was an honoree. It happened an hour or so after The Expanse panel at the same event that featured exec producer and showrunner Naren Shankar and cast members Cas Anvar, Wes Chatham and Steven Strait.
Now that the future seems a little more certain for now (at least one more season) I think the talk should go back to the show itself. Since I don't get space channel here in Canada I just finished my catchup of eps 5-6-7 so I'll get it going.
Episode 6 of season 3 appears to end Book 2 of the novel series, IIRC. From my experiences book 3 concludes kinda of a trilogy of the opening of the series (book 4-6 in the middle part, and starting in book 7 we have the endgame with books 8 and 9 still due to come out). The show continues to deliver, IMO. While some details have certainly been changed, I am glad that they continue to follow the books and even hint at future events from book.
IMO, the weak point of the show remains Steven Strait. He has the look and sound of Holden, but I just don't think he is a very talented actor. He struggles immensely in emotive scenes, for example the Naomi child reveal scene where it just sounds too much like he's reading lines, IMO. I've thought Cas Anvar, Dominique Tipper, Wes Chatham (this is has a long and great career ahead of him, IMO), Chad L Coleman, Jared Harris, Terry Chen and in particular obviously Shoreh Aghdashloo have been solid, if not great in their roles (again can't stress enough how awesome Shoreh Aghdashloo has been throughout the series). Frankie Adams has been just ok, IMO. I get that Holden is by far the hardest role, but he has really struggled at times, IMO. Strait seems like a good guy and all and he certainly hasn't been terrible, but I just don't think he is that good of an actor.
It's kinda interesting that the creators have decided not to end the seasons with the books. It leaves the big climaxes for mid-seasons and gives them time to build into the next storyline late in seasons. Certainly an original tactic.
For Book Readers:
It appears they just moved Naomi into Carlos de Baca's role on the Behemoth right? I don't remember exactly how it goes but the new guy was the antagonist from the book the second in command right and Carlos was 3rd in command which is now taken by Naomi it seems.
Also f*** YEAH!!! Wasn't sure if they'd get Thomas Jane back. So glad they did.
Every episode just seems to fly by and always leaves you wanting more. A show like this, IMO, is why networks fought so hard and at times continue to do so against serialization since it's a hard show to watch week by week. You are always left wanting the story to continue making it kinda hard to follow week after week. I think this will thrive on Amazon if they follow the Netflix format of premiering this whole season at the same time. Can't wait for the rest of the season and now more seasons now.
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IMO, the weak point of the show remains Steven Strait. He has the look and sound of Holden, but I just don't think he is a very talented actor. He struggles immensely in emotive scenes, for example the Naomi child reveal scene where it just sounds too much like he's reading lines, IMO. I've thought Cas Anvar, Dominique Tipper, Wes Chatham (this is has a long and great career ahead of him, IMO), Chad L Coleman, Jared Harris, Terry Chen and in particular obviously Shoreh Aghdashloo have been solid, if not great in their roles (again can't stress enough how awesome Shoreh Aghdashloo has been throughout the series). Frankie Adams has been just ok, IMO. I get that Holden is by far the hardest role, but he has really struggled at times, IMO. Strait seems like a good guy and all and he certainly hasn't been terrible, but I just don't think he is that good of an actor.
I will agree with you about Steven Strait in that he's probably the weakest of the main actors. But James Holden is also a flat character when you break him down. He's just the "decent space captain" good guy for the most part. Another problem to me is that it feels like he's been trapped on the Rociante alot.
Book Spoiler
Hopefully the story arc of Cibola Burn where most of the time he's on the colony planet and trying to be an arbiter will give him a chance to stretch his legs
As for Frankie Adams...
Some Major Book Spoilers
She's been fine as Bobbie Draper for the most part. But the television introduction of her character was really clunky(in the books her character starts with the patrol on Ganymeade). And I'm worried Bobbie is going to feel shoehorned in the story since her character really doesn't appear as a main character again until several books later...
I'm also slightly worried about how the TV writers are going to handle Avarsarla for now as well. Since she also becomes a background character for the next several books as well. (mind you, there will be an election for the next UN Sec. General, that she is going to help back and help win(but again, all background stuff). But that character gets killed "off-screen" anyways...
It appears they just moved Naomi into Carlos de Baca's role on the Behemoth right? I don't remember exactly how it goes but the new guy was the antagonist from the book the second in command right and Carlos was 3rd in command which is now taken by Naomi it seems.
It feels like Naomi is combination of the mechanic/chief engineer Sam(who is not appearing in TV at all), and de Baca. While Drummer is Michio Pa/Drummer/Sam(being Naomi's friend) but she's the captain, not the first officer. David Strathairn's character(the antagonist) is pretty much a new character who is now the first officer, not the captain.
I think putting Naomi on the Behemoth is a good idea. It helps make the split between her and Holden feel more real.
I'm glad the show is confirmed for season 4 on Amazon. I hope Amazon will release it for optimal binge watching, and not once per week.
The Y-Que racing scenes from Delta-V are probably my favorite scenes from the show so far. 10/10 Production quality and acting from Maneo's actor. All Maneo wanted was some of that sweet sweet Belta ass.
The show has solidly moved into Abbadon's Gate territory from the books. The new characters are from the 3rd book. Their reasons will be explored in time. I won't post anything because of spoilers, but it looks like the rest of the season will be the first half of Abbaddon's Gate so you might have to wait until Season 4 to get definite answers from the show.
That was a pretty good episode. The 'Is Holden Crazy?' plot was handled really well. Though I think the Melba stuff was just okay. Just like in the book, I love how crappy the Behemoth is as a warship.
Book stuff...
Wow, they are really rushing through the first half of the book. I guess that makes sense, since the whole Melba stuff is just typical revenge plot. I could see people being confused by it at first though(especially with her super strength implants, heh). One consequence is that Melba's regret over murdering Ren feels flat.
Amos is such a boss. I like that we still don't know if he went to the empathy removal surgery or not. That could lead him to turn into a great villain at some point.
Amos is such a boss. I like that we still don't know if he went to the empathy removal surgery or not. That could lead him to turn into a great villain at some point.
He definitely didn't. Remember how totally touched he was by the doc calling him his "best friend in the whole world"? He was way too into finding the kid and he's way too into bro-ship with Alex and Holden.
I must say, they're following the books very closely, with a few exceptions here and there of course.
I really hope they portray the death and destruction the mass de-deceleration caused aboard the ships as it is described in the books. While Anna isn't my favorite character, her wandering about the death and carnage post-Martin Marines stupidity is really well described.
About half way through Cibola Burn, and I can't wait to see the direction the show is going to go with things.
kinda wish we got more of Millers monologue when he steals Holden while they're assaulting the bridge, especially the bit about there being a piece of Protomolecule onboard the Roci. I really enjoyed seeing Mecha Drummer/bull. Bull is/was one of my favorite characters in the books, and while I'm sad they didn't put him into the show, I'm glad his plot line got merged with Drummers. IF YOU REPLY TO THIS, PLEASE DON'T REPLY WITH ANY SPOILERS PAST THE FIRST COUPLE OF CHAPTERS OF CIBOLA BURN
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