The Expanse Catch-All

Stele wrote:

Yeah it took several months, close to a year, for s2 to finally appear on Amazon. Don't hold your breath.

Yes, but that was before Amazon bought the whole thing.

yregprincess wrote:

I just watched the season finale and I thought it wrapped things up on a high. A hell of a pace for that double episode.

Thinking about it after the fact I wonder if Holden narrating an explanation was a bit 'Blade Runner' rather than leaving you with something to mull on like 2001. While watching I thought it was a suitably personal and panoramic end and I agree with Malor it would have been a satisfying place to have a finale for the whole thing.

Spoiler:

I think it was actually superficially like 2001: aliens send space portals for humans to use once they've passed a progress test.

Spoiler:

A bit, except the protomocecule was originally aimed at earth not venus and during a time period when there was just bacterial life, so i think it's likely if everything had gone according to plan there would be no humans on earth, just another proto-molecule alien colony.

Spoiler:

Amos closes the airlock door, slowly turning around. "I am that guy."

F*cking yes.

ColdForged wrote:
Spoiler:

Amos closes the airlock door, slowly turning around. "I am that guy."

F*cking yes.

One of my favorite Amos scenes

thrawn82 wrote:
ColdForged wrote:
Spoiler:

Amos closes the airlock door, slowly turning around. "I am that guy."

F*cking yes.

One of my favorite Amos scenes

And we can go on and on about how we all knew it was coming and it was telegraphed and expected and, and, and... still wholly satisfying. I have quite a few favorite Amos lines ("Sh*t... did I miss it?" is a close second) but that was just tasty. I do realize the cowboy-culture irony in enjoying the scene, I really do. And yet here we are.

I wonder how much of a pure kick it is for Wes Chatham to have landed that role. I think it's got to be one of those purely fun roles to play.

ColdForged wrote:
thrawn82 wrote:
ColdForged wrote:
Spoiler:

Amos closes the airlock door, slowly turning around. "I am that guy."

F*cking yes.

One of my favorite Amos scenes

And we can go on and on about how we all knew it was coming and it was telegraphed and expected and, and, and... still wholly satisfying. I have quite a few favorite Amos lines ("Sh*t... did I miss it?" is a close second) but that was just tasty. I do realize the cowboy-culture irony in enjoying the scene, I really do. And yet here we are.

I wonder how much of a pure kick it is for Wes Chatham to have landed that role. I think it's got to be one of those purely fun roles to play.

In one of the Churn interviews he talks about going in hoping to get Amos, and have been a fan of the books before even going up for the role. Wes Chatham comes off as pretty much the coolest down to earth dude who is truly excited to be playing the character hes playing.

thrawn82 wrote:

In one of the Churn interviews he talks about going in hoping to get Amos, and have been a fan of the books before even going up for the role. Wes Chatham comes off as pretty much the coolest down to earth dude who is truly excited to be playing the character hes playing.

Admittedly , this -- along with his portrayal -- makes me feel a bit guilty that I wasn't overly happy with his casting at first. I always pictured Amos larger and balder. I'm all on board now.

ColdForged wrote:
thrawn82 wrote:

In one of the Churn interviews he talks about going in hoping to get Amos, and have been a fan of the books before even going up for the role. Wes Chatham comes off as pretty much the coolest down to earth dude who is truly excited to be playing the character hes playing.

Admittedly , this -- along with his portrayal -- makes me feel a bit guilty that I wasn't overly happy with his casting at first. I always pictured Amos larger and balder. I'm all on board now.

I think having read The Churn before ever taking the role helped him really become Amos, so portray his sociopathy in subtle ways they weren't necessarily called out by script.

ColdForged wrote:
thrawn82 wrote:

In one of the Churn interviews he talks about going in hoping to get Amos, and have been a fan of the books before even going up for the role. Wes Chatham comes off as pretty much the coolest down to earth dude who is truly excited to be playing the character hes playing.

Admittedly , this -- along with his portrayal -- makes me feel a bit guilty that I wasn't overly happy with his casting at first. I always pictured Amos larger and balder. I'm all on board now.

I thought of book Amos as older, mostly, probably in his late 40s, scarred and beaten to hell, a little grey and arthritic and f*cking unstoppable. Chatham is way too young and intact, but I really like what he's doing with the character. It was easy to understand, for example, why he promised to protect Anna, and just how much he meant it when he did. He conveys the sense of being a little lost, and needing someone good to follow, much better than book Amos did. I think of TV Expanse as being a version of the story where Amos got off Earth (or at least met Holden) as a much younger man.

I think of him and Avasarala as being the two characters that are the best-acted and the closest to their book selves. Although, I gotta say, Bobbie has come along very well this season; she feels far less uncertain than she did, and I really liked her sense of 'well, f*ck, guess I'm on this crew now' that she expressed in about five steps and a sigh.

I keep seeing these characters thinking about things, and coming to internal decisions, sans dialogue. That's not a technique I'm used to on modern TV.... things tend to be way over-verbalized, and here they often aren't. I'm not sure, though, how much of the subtexts I'd be picking up if I hadn't read the books.

Cinematography is yet another area where I'm woefully ignorant, but I at least suspect that this 'characters pondering' technique is unusual. Maybe I just haven't noticed it being done by other directors?

I always saw Amos as The Rock. Or maybe Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy. Chatham's TV Amos has really grown on me and I'm really liking him; in many ways even more than Book Amos.

Just wrapped up the 3rd season and LOVED the Drummer scenes, especially in the elevator shaft. Not how I expected that to go down! (ba-da bing!)

Well that's the thing though. in the show everyone is mid-twenties. In the book it's clear that everyone is mid-thirties or much older. I also pictured amos as 40-something, Alex too. holden is like 35 or 36, same with naomi.

Spoiler:

The sense i got from the Amos Anna scene, knowing that Wes knows The Churn, is that in the Amos's mind Anna put herself into the same category as Lydia for him.

Just caught up on S3. Just...wow. So much to love. Especially the mid-season time jump which allowed us to see characters developing. I am SO thankful that Amazon is picking the series up. Cannot wait to see where it goes from here.

Spoiler:

I am that guy....holy sh*t

Thing is, don't they have anti aging meds in the Expanse universe? So they could look younger than they are, I think.

Bfgp wrote:

Thing is, don't they have anti aging meds in the Expanse universe? So they could look younger than they are, I think.

I don't think they do in the books, but they're going to need them for the TV characters if they continue following the whole plotline.

Malor wrote:
Bfgp wrote:

Thing is, don't they have anti aging meds in the Expanse universe? So they could look younger than they are, I think.

I don't think they do in the books, but they're going to need them for the TV characters if they continue following the whole plotline.

Spoiler:

They kind of do in the very latest books, but it's very, very limited in availability and has other... side-effects.

ColdForged wrote:
Malor wrote:
Bfgp wrote:

Thing is, don't they have anti aging meds in the Expanse universe? So they could look younger than they are, I think.

I don't think they do in the books, but they're going to need them for the TV characters if they continue following the whole plotline.

Spoiler:

They kind of do in the very latest books, but it's very, very limited in availability and has other... side-effects.

Spoiler:

and pretty much only Duarte has access to them.

thrawn82 wrote:
Spoiler:

and pretty much only Duarte has access to them.

To be fair, I did say "very, very limited in availability" :D.

Pretty sure that there is a sense given in the books that the general human lifespan has been extended in a modest way thanks to conventional advances in medical science.

Spoiler:

Ie, even though the Rocinante crew are in their 50s and 60s (maybe even early 70s for Holden and mid 70s for Alex?) after the time skip for book 7, they're feeling the affects of aging more as though they are middle aged.

Duarte's thing, however, is something else entirely, obviously.

EDIT:

Yeah, found some discussion where people where saying the authors have commented that access to good health care can extend life into the early to mid 100s.

Anyone have recommendations for any of the Expanse novellas? I just finished The Churn, which was solid, but am hoping for something more space-y.

mrlogical wrote:

Anyone have recommendations for any of the Expanse novellas? I just finished The Churn, which was solid, but am hoping for something more space-y.

Strange Dogs is planet bound but more Sci Fi than i felt The Churn was. It also leans heavily into the horror aspects of the series, but you've really gotta be caught up on the main novels before reading.

I think my fav novella is The Vital Abyss, but that's because it puts you in the head of one of the created psycopaths. It's also not very spacey. I think they use the novella to explore other bits of the world since the main novel series is (mostly) in space.

Hmm i just realized there's one I haven't read, Drive, that looks space centered, but i can;t speak to whether its good or not

I personally have enjoyed all of them, and they're all quite different in tone, style and approach and are worth a read if you’re enjoying the main series. Some are more essential to understanding the world of the Expanse and the motivations of the characters therein, though, so if you’re looking to pick and choose, here are some short thoughts on each:

The Churn was probably my favorite, and also probably the most essential since it provides significant and interesting background on one of the main characters in the core books. Also, for, uh, reasons, I strongly recommend people read it at the very least before starting book 5 (Nemesis Games), although you really could read it anywhere in sequence after the first book.

The Butcher of Anderson Station is super short and gives a deeper understanding of the title character. Also, it might satisfy your criteria of being “spacey” since it’s specifically about the event described in the title of the story. Significantly less essential for enjoying the core story though.

Drive is another super short story, and also perhaps high on “spaciness” since it’s about the development of the Epstein drive. It’s a very charming, affecting, self contained story, and while not at all essential it is very recommendable.

Gods of Risk is also not terribly essential, but if you’re interested in what life on Mars is like, or curious about what a particular fan favorite Martian character is up to during the time they aren’t part of the core story, it’s also easy to recommend.

The Vital Abyss is mostly about world building, giving hints about things that the characters from the core story don’t see and planting seeds of things to come. I think it’s most fun if you read it somewhere after book 2 and before book 5, since it does a good job of teasing out background narratives during that time period and hinting at what comes next. Worth a read if you ask me, but maybe the least compelling of the lot depending on what you care about and are interested in.

Strange Dogs is a really cool self contained story that leans heavy on the more mysterious, alien, sci fi side of things. If you enjoyed the aspects of book 4 that are about what life — human and otherwise — is like at the boundaries of the Expanse universe, this one is highly recommendable. It’s also a perfect bridge leading into book 7, for various reasons I’ll leave unsaid, and for related reasons I would NOT recommend reading it until you’ve finished book 6.

Thanks! Starting with Butcher, we'll see where I go from there.

I know they are filming, but has Amazon put out anything regarding when the next season will air?

After my wife and I binged on the show this year, I determined to read every bit of the books to try to sate my appetite. Most internet sources suggested reading the novels/novellas in the order they were published. Having done so, I would agree with that recommendation.

I think the authors used the short stories to fill in pieces they couldn't satisfactorily fit into the mainline books. Reading those too early can spoil the following books and reading them too late can leave you with gaps in assumed knowledge.

The short stories certainly vary in tone and focus, yet that is not dissimilar to the core novels. The relentless passage of time that those exhibit is a constant reminder that this series isn't meant to continue indefinitely.

thrawn82 wrote:

I know they are filming, but has Amazon put out anything regarding when the next season will air?

I'd just accept a UK release date for Season 3.

thrawn82 wrote:

I know they are filming, but has Amazon put out anything regarding when the next season will air?

Apparently the cancellation/revival happened fast enough that it didn’t really effect their production schedule so I’m guessing it will likely be late spring/early summer if it follows the general release timeline of the previous seasons, but nothing has officially been announced.

That being said, the upcoming season is probably going to require more... diverse... shooting locations so it may also take longer to produce.

Heard all the buzz for years but never got around to watching the Expanse until last week.
My wife is turned off by the never-ending melodrama but this show is friggen outstanding!
Rocinante 4 life!

fangblackbone wrote:

Heard all the buzz for years but never got around to watching the Expanse until last week.
My wife is turned off by the never-ending melodrama but this show is friggen outstanding!
Rocinante 4 life!

Remember the Cant'

The thing I can't (ha pun intended) believe is how I can like so many characters practically out of the gate. It really sucked losing a bunch of them on the Cant.
I'm not sold on the Ceres cop. He is hit or miss but I like his partner and the one who rescues him from being airlocked. The main 4 on the Rocinante are all very solid and I am mad that the Martian marine/interrogator did not make it. The UN black site lady serves her purpose but I am not a fan. (I don't think you are supposed to be) Everyone around her is great.

Daz is great. Fred Johnson is great. Elle from Criminal Minds is great. (though wondering how much of a part she plays on the show).

I am curious about the use of Mormons in the show. Has there been any backlash at their portrayal? Does it play a more minor part going forward? I am only 6-7 episodes into the first season.