The Expanse Catch-All

slazev wrote:

After 6 episodes, I'm still not totally convinced, but it hasn't pushed me away.

I'm surprised I don't feel that way. I've had no love for SyFy since BSG ended, but for some reason this show (and The Magician) has me back on the bandwagon.

I am finally caught up and I like how they referenced two of the short stories already and foreshadowed several things that happen much later in the books. As a big fan of the books, I love the show. The translation to TV has been pretty good but I definitely like all of the extra details in the books.

Also, I can get behind Amos now--he is starting to grow on me. The smirk that he has brought out in the last episode or two is exactly how I envisioned Amos.

mr_n00b wrote:
slazev wrote:

After 6 episodes, I'm still not totally convinced, but it hasn't pushed me away.

I'm surprised I don't feel that way. I've had no love for SyFy since BSG ended, but for some reason this show (and The Magician) has me back on the bandwagon.

Dark Matter and Killjoys are both also pretty good, although The Expanse is still my favorite. Seems SyFy is making a comeback. I wonder if there was a leadership change there or maybe the tech has made effects budgets cheaper.

The Magicians got me intrigued at the end of the pilot. Took me a bit by surprise.

Back to the topic, I'm liking Amos, though he's ambiguous. He seems to want to survive, but doesn't care if he dies at the same time. Not sure what to think of this.

RooksGambit wrote:
mr_n00b wrote:
slazev wrote:

After 6 episodes, I'm still not totally convinced, but it hasn't pushed me away.

I'm surprised I don't feel that way. I've had no love for SyFy since BSG ended, but for some reason this show (and The Magician) has me back on the bandwagon.

Dark Matter and Killjoys are both also pretty good, although The Expanse is still my favorite. Seems SyFy is making a comeback. I wonder if there was a leadership change there or maybe the tech has made effects budgets cheaper.

They're making a deliberate push to get back to their roots, it seems: Syfy is Releasing a Film, De-Rebranding, and Becoming Super Interesting. Now if they'd just change the name back.

mwdowns wrote:
RooksGambit wrote:
mr_n00b wrote:
slazev wrote:

After 6 episodes, I'm still not totally convinced, but it hasn't pushed me away.

I'm surprised I don't feel that way. I've had no love for SyFy since BSG ended, but for some reason this show (and The Magician) has me back on the bandwagon.

Dark Matter and Killjoys are both also pretty good, although The Expanse is still my favorite. Seems SyFy is making a comeback. I wonder if there was a leadership change there or maybe the tech has made effects budgets cheaper.

They're making a deliberate push to get back to their roots, it seems: Syfy is Releasing a Film, De-Rebranding, and Becoming Super Interesting. Now if they'd just change the name back. :)

Thanks for the link. Very interesting and I hope it all does work. I really want smart, quality scifi. And yeah, please change the name next

They probably won't change the name back. The reason for the change to SyFy in the first place is because they could trademark it. "Sci Fi" was a generic term and they couldn't.

Well, one thing I think they are doing is pushing the ability to watch stuff on their site so they can keep track of how may people watch it. Hopefully that gets added to the viewership although it does help with the commercial revenue.

Did anyone else notice that in episode 7

Spoiler:

the guy who plays the spy, Kenzo, is none other than Elias Toufexis, the actor who voices Adam Jensen in the Deus Ex games?

THE CHURN

tanstaafl wrote:

They probably won't change the name back. The reason for the change to SyFy in the first place is because they could trademark it. "Sci Fi" was a generic term and they couldn't.

That and "Wraslin' 'n Ghosts" didn't roll off the tongue.

I thought last night's episode was great from start to finish, and wow, what a finish.

Awesome. Last night's episode is where the *real* story of the Expanse starts. Everything up until now has just been background. I can't wait for the finale next week.

On an unrelated note: Mormons in Spaaaaaace!

I thought they had 2 more episodes to go.

padriec wrote:

I thought they had 2 more episodes to go.

Next week's is a 2 hour finale.

I may end up buying Leviathan Wake's after this season and this is coming from someone who's never read a single A Song Of Ice And Fire book ever.

The Game of Thrones comparisons are largely a result of how Syfy has publicized the show. The Expanse books are nowhere near as dour as either version of GoT.

I forgot/didnt realize there was a thread for this.

I mentioned this in the general TV thread but this seems a better place for the discussion if there is one to be had but... does nobody else find the performance of the actor playing the pilot to be distracting and kinda bad? Half the cast of the show are doing some amalgamation of multiple accents and little tics but they're all selling it at least enough that I've been able to roll with it and stay kind of in the world. Except for him. He gets going and he has this weird cadence and emphasis and it just comes off as a cheesy affectation.

I caught up and watched the most recent episode last night and really love a lot of things about the show. Just wish this one dude didnt immediately snap me out of the story every time he yaps. But it keeps happening. He gets going and I stop seeing the character and start seeing the performance.

Alternately, there's

kazooka wrote:

Avasarala: Perfect. Wonderful actress, pitch perfect performance.

Shohreh Aghdashloo is awesome 100% of the time. Even if the material is bad she will sell the sh*t out of it and make you believe it. Always happy to see her in stuff.

I don't have a problem with it. Granted I'm not from Texas so I'm probably not the best to judge, but he's supposed to have a pronounced Texas drawl because he's from Mars.

If that's his attempt at Texas drawl and that's at all an important part of the character I dont understand how he got through casting.

People can be from a place and not have any of the local accent. It sounds like they already cast against type, just ditch the accent and get the actual meat of the character right. The show would be better for it.

mwdowns wrote:

I don't have a problem with it. Granted I'm not from Texas so I'm probably not the best to judge, but he's supposed to have a pronounced Texas drawl because he's from Mars.

The other Martians didn't have a Texas accent. Did they?

In terms of acting performances, I haven't be wowed yet. Sometimes it feels like Thomas Jane is trying too much and it comes out as fake instead of organic.
By the way, is his ex-partner still in the hospital?

I like the guy playing Alex. His accent doesn't bother me at all. He's supposed to have a Martian accent, so I'm not sure how anyone could judge his accent to be inauthentic. I don't recall the books ever specifying that it's a Texan accent (not to say they don't, just I don't remember that), I recall it generally being referred to as a "drawl" and being a little slow sounding. His accent seems fine to me. He's not what I expected in terms of casting, but, well, no one on this show is. Holden and Miller should be at least 10 years older, I perceived Naomi as Asian and Amos as black and Fred Johnson as white, although at least on the racial aspects, I may have just been failing to read closely--I feel like everyone was described as some kind of mix and my brain just picked associations at random. Some casting grates more than others, but I'm enjoying the show a lot.

I'm fairly certain they explicitly describe Amos as white and Fred as black in the books. I also vaguely recall there being something in the first book about the Mars accent being due to one of the first civilian colonies being disproportionately comprised of Texan secessionists, but I'm not certain where and don't think it's ever brought up again.

As for the age of the characters, I assume they are supposed to be older than the actors actually look since average human life expectancy is now 120+ years.

EDIT: no spell good

Wow. Wow! Episode 8 was phenomenal, you definitely feel all the pieces coming together and it provides an excellent ramp for the remaining plot this season. I wish they spent more time on the Anubis, but the plot crunch into the final scene more than made up for it. The episode overall also felt a lot longer than usual, but that's probably just me. Good stuff!

I have enjoyed the show so far and really liked Episode 8.

My only question so far:

Spoiler:

What did they put in the bottom of that couch that Alex was hiding behind? That couch took a ton of gunfire in the hotel scene.

Spoiler:

Magic?

padriec wrote:
Spoiler:

Magic?

Spoiler:

I need answers! I can suspend disbelief on certain things but a bullet absorbing couch bottom? They have taken things too far!!

walterqchocobo wrote:
padriec wrote:
Spoiler:

Magic?

Spoiler:

I need answers! I can suspend disbelief on certain things but a bullet absorbing couch bottom? They have taken things too far!!

This is just speculation, but I would assume that space guns are somewhat less powerful than the guns we use today since you don't want to risk putting a hole through a a bulkhead and depressurizing a ship or station unless you absolutely mean to.

ruhk wrote:
walterqchocobo wrote:
padriec wrote:
Spoiler:

Magic?

Spoiler:

I need answers! I can suspend disbelief on certain things but a bullet absorbing couch bottom? They have taken things too far!!

This is just speculation, but I would assume that space guns are somewhat less powerful than the guns we use today since you don't want to risk putting a hole through a a bulkhead and depressurizing a ship or station unless you absolutely mean to.

I think you're right. They actually mention this with respect to

Spoiler:

Bobbie's power armor

.

Just watched the first episode. No other movie or tv show has EVER made me want to stop what I was doing and go play X3 more than this one.