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The Expanse - sasa ke Beltalowda!?

Season 5 begins December 16th


tenor.gif
 
Binged the novels up to a certain point a while ago - between the first and start of the second season? Found it very weird who they seemed to expect the reader to forgive and sympathize with. (Book spoilers) Most belters apparently thought it was good to slam Earth with meteors, at least up to the point I read? Michio Pa culpable!!! Wonder if the show’s different.

As always, have fun with television, everyone~
 

Sarcasmorator

Same as I ever was
(He/him)
Ah, cool! I am now halfway through S4 after years of meaning to get to this show.

Honestly I'd watch a whole show about Drummer, she's great.
 

Ludendorkk

(he/him)
Really excited for this season, season 4 was good but it was definitely a filler arc that felt like it was mostly putting the pieces in place for this one
 

Sarcasmorator

Same as I ever was
(He/him)
Well I just finished S4. Pour one out for both Miller and Klaes Ashford, whose character arc was nothing at all like I thought it would be when he showed up as the initially antagonistic pirate XO in S3. One of David Straithairn's best roles, I must say.
 
I know nothing about the books, so I know nothing about how Ashford is 'supposed to be' but he's a pretty compelling and interesting and likable character in the show. Pretty bummed out when he bit the dust, but at least he went out like a G.
 

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
Can't wait. I binged all of it right before Season 4 dropped, then binged that. Waiting a year has kinda sucked, but then again, that's the sign of a good show.
 

Sarcasmorator

Same as I ever was
(He/him)
I've only read the first book and a half, I don't know how he's supposed to be either (though I know a few characters got combined or eliminated). But he was introduced as the guy who was definitely going to lead a power-struggle mutiny and ended up being loyal and sensible (his decision to destroy the ring in S3 wasn't at all unreasonable) and basically the Expanse's Pirate Dad.
 
First three episodes of Season 5 are already up on Amazon Prime. Will report back later, but the early reviews I looked at briefly were all glowing.
 

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
Blah, I hate this whole weekly release thing. I wanna see 'em all now! :)

I might actually consider waiting until they're all up. I still haven't even started The Mandalorian, and I've also gotten into Stargate Atlantis, which I watched very little of back in the day. (SG-1 is one of my favorites up until the Ori arc, though.)

Very happy reviews are looking good, though.
 
On the reverse, I am very glad that some shows/networks maintain a weekly schedule, and I really hate the binge watch model of delivering shows.

I really value being able to text my friends after each episode to discuss what happened, and you can't do that with binging because you have to wait until everyone is on the same page, and that often leads to spoilers which pisses people off. ("Did you get to the point in the show where X happens?" "No, spoilers!")

I really value being able to sit down with the family every week to watch new episodes of things, and especially during covid times it's provided some semblance of structure and something to consistently look forward to in life.

I like being able to discuss something I enjoy watching go on for months on end, instead of having the zeitgeist around a show fizzle out after two weeks and then it's forgotten.

And I really like the sense of time watching something over a longer duration gives. It really helps give shows a sense of time and like you've gone on a real journey with the show.

Binge watching can be a lot of fun, I do it all the time while watching older stuff. But for brand new things, I just really like the delayed gratification of a broadcast schedule, and it usually heightens my enjoyment of a show over the long run.
 

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
Not a bad point. I don't routinely talk about TV with others, so it absolutely makes sense for those that do with a weekly schedule.
 
Ok. So the first three episodes have been watched. My goodness. I’ve missed this show a lot. The third episode ends with a stealth asteroid striking Earth with a cataclysmic result. so that makes for quite the inticing hook to get people engaged with this season.

I like what they’re doing with just about every character right now. And the writing is real keen. I also feel like some of the sfx this season are taking a lot of extra flourishes. For example, there’s a scene where someone is pouring liquid on the moon, and the fluid falls out at 1/6th the speed that it would have normally. It’s just a good looking show. I can’t wait to see more.
 

Exposition Owl

more posts about buildings and food
(he/him/his)
For example, there’s a scene where someone is pouring liquid on the moon, and the fluid falls out at 1/6th the speed that it would have normally. It’s just a good looking show. I can’t wait to see more.

Yeah, that was a lovely bit of attention to a detail that few other science fiction shows or movies bother with. It always takes me out of a scene to see water behaving “normally” when the gravity is low or the scale is very small.
 
All the advertisements for Expanse Season 5 keep saying "New Episodes on Wednesdays!" But Episode 4 was available to watch on Amazon Prime today (Tuesday) in the early evening on the West Coast. Wonder if it's rolling out on Wednesday at midnight in Europe or something, which gets it to us earlier b/c lmaotimezones. Whatever the case. Episode 4 was really good stuff. Macros Inaros is terrifying and a convincing strongman, and the asteroid impacts are also just as terrifying when you begin to think of the implications. Like, we're talking billions dead.

Edit: This episode’s attention to detail I loved was When the room on Tycho Station opens up into the void, the characters don’t get comically blown out into space. People don’t realize that the difference between 0 atm and 1 atm is really not a lot in the grand scheme of things, and that the rapid pressure change wouldn’t even be enough to knock shit over, it would just feel like the wind blowing on you kinda hard for a little bit. It always takes me out of things when decompression in scifi is exaggerated to such extremes so often.
 
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I'm about halfway through the first of these books and I'm wondering if this series has a moment when It Gets Good that I can anticipate or if maybe it's just not for me. I am at the point where the two viewpoint characters meet up on Ceres and it goes Resident Evil, which is supposed to be a compelling action sequence but I'm finding to just be incredibly dull. (The initial event in the apartment I liked, it's the Holden and Miller team-up afterwards that felt badly paced for me.)

The prologue with Julie Mao was kind of the height of the book for me but the Holden and Miller chapters that make up 99% of it really fall flat for me so far. It's such quick and mindless airport novel reading that I might keep up with it anyway when I just want to read something low effort if it manages to go somewhere interesting either plot wise or thematically by the end of the first book, but I'm wondering about the general consensus about the trajectory of the series.
 
I've got no experience with the books, but it wasn't really until Season 2 of the TV show that things started clicking with me on the characters and plot side of things. Also, is it a coincidence that Season 2 is when Bobbie Draper gets introduced? I don't think so.
 

zonetrope

(he/him)
I haven't read the books either, but season 1 of the show suffered from a lot of cliched dialogue and generally felt stuck in a post-BSG sci-fi TV world, and IMO it's done a lot to distinguish itself since then.
 

Lakupo

Comes and goes with the wind
(he/him)
I assume people just haven't been posting because they're enjoying the show so much? Because season 5 has been really good! Season finale next week!
 

Sarcasmorator

Same as I ever was
(He/him)
I've been waiting for the whole thing to unspool because I hate waiting for new episodes after 15 years of binge watching!
 
Season 5 is really weird. It's great and a lot of fun, and SO MUCH is happening. And yet from an episode-to-episode basis, it doesn't feel like much happens each episode. Which isn't really a complaint, but I just find myself with not a lot to comment on for each episode.

All the stuff with Amos on Earth is fantastic. Amos might be my favorite character in the show, and he and Clarissa have a really good rapport. It's a little disappointing that the show hasn't spent as much time showing just the sheer volume of suffering happening on Earth atm, but that's all probably way outside their budget.

I feel like Holden hasn't done anything all season, and he's way more boring than normal this season. He's probably the biggest casualty of this season having everyone split off in different directions, because he has nobody to bounce off of or to play straight-man for.

Alex and Bobbie have been sitting on a ship in-transit for several episodes straight doing nothing, and it makes me extra sad. I would watch a whole spin-off show about my Martian Battle-Queen, and she needs to be doing more in the story at all times. I won't miss Alex when he's written off the show.

Naomi's plot-line in the beginning of the season was really bad and awful, but she's seizing back her agency in ways that kick butt so it's been getting better. Her alone on the baitship is still kinda boring though because it's got real big Cast Away vibes where there's just no dialog for long stretches and it's painful. Great acting on the part of the actress though. Her ex-husband has been a pretty incredible baddie. Depending on how he spirals, he could be one for the ages.

Chrisjen is still Chrisjen doing Chrisjen-things.

I'm just waiting very patiently for Drummer to finally snap and go on the warpath.
 

Adam

the :motion: stands
(He/Him)
I think this show is amazing. So amazing that I really wanted to read the books. Book one, at least, I found to be pretty awful. YMMV
 

zonetrope

(he/him)
I'm liking this season a lot, but this show has always been less about the characters for me, more about the sense of scale and gigantic, tense set pieces that learn the right lessons from video games, and it's really delivering in those regards.
 
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