The Expanse (Season 6) on Amazon Prime

[jdw89]

Kind of unrelated but is Dark Matter on blu?

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by jdw89

Kind of unrelated but is Dark Matter on blu?

Go to the top of the page. Type "Dark Matter" into the search box where it says "Search for Movies, TV Shows and Box Sets". Right click the flag drop-down and change to "All countries" if you want to see if it's been released outside the US. If you don't get any results, then it hasn't been released.

[jayembee]

Still a slow burner, but it's getting there. Interesting that they chose to slip in a couple of scenes taken from the Expanse novelette "The Butcher of Anderson Station", presumably to make viewers (who might not have read the book) question Fred Johnson's agenda before his first (substantial) appearance next week.

It also occurred to me that some of what's going on with regard to Naomi is, like the Avasarala scenes, to set things up for what happens in Book 5.

Seems to me that it takes confidence to set things up now that won't pay off for a few seasons from now. But then, Joe Straczynski did something similar with Babylon 5. He had throwaway scenes in first season episodes that didn't appear to have anything to do with what was otherwise going on, but paid off in spades a couple of seasons down the road.

[spectre08]

Originally Posted by jayembee

Still a slow burner, but it's getting there. Interesting that they chose to slip in a couple of scenes taken from the Expanse novelette "The Butcher of Anderson Station", presumably to make viewers (who might not have read the book) question Fred Johnson's agenda before his first (substantial) appearance next week.

It also occurred to me that some of what's going on with regard to Naomi is, like the Avasarala scenes, to set things up for what happens in Book 5.

Seems to me that it takes confidence to set things up now that won't pay off for a few seasons from now. But then, Joe Straczynski did something similar with Babylon 5. He had throwaway scenes in first season episodes that didn't appear to have anything to do with what was otherwise going on, but paid off in spades a couple of seasons down the road.

The Fred Johnson stuff is in the novel, but it's actually much earlier in the story than it showed up in the show, in the novel Johnson sends them a message while they're still in the Knight just before they get picked up by the Donnager and Naomi has to explain who Fred Johnson is. I know this because I literally read that chapter right before the episode.

They changed it a little bit, but the point remained the same.

Overall I've been really impressed at how close this series is to the novel.

[MattO]

I'm really happy to hear that it's picked up for another season already. It's been starting off slow (already lost my wife) but I could tell by this week's episode that they have the pacing and character beats pretty much dialed in.

I'm particularly impressed by Thomas Jane, the guy playing Miller. He's doing a great job of showing what a mess the character is while still making you cheer for him.

[Kevinicus]

Originally Posted by MattO

I'm really happy to hear that it's picked up for another season already. It's been starting off slow (already lost my wife) but I could tell by this week's episode that they have the pacing and character beats pretty much dialed in.

I'm particularly impressed by Thomas Jane, the guy playing Miller. He's doing a great job of showing what a mess the character is while still making you cheer for him.

Not making me cheer for him. In fact, that is the part of the show that turns me off the most.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by spectre08

The Fred Johnson stuff is in the novel, but it's actually much earlier in the story than it showed up in the show, in the novel Johnson sends them a message while they're still in the Knight just before they get picked up by the Donnager and Naomi has to explain who Fred Johnson is. I know this because I literally read that chapter right before the episode.

They changed it a little bit, but the point remained the same.

Overall I've been really impressed at how close this series is to the novel.

I guess it's been a while since I read the first novel. I do remember that it was explained who Fred Johnson was, but I didn't recall that we ever got the details of what happened at Anderson Station until the novelette was written.

[kristoffer]

Ok, I watched the first four episodes and really like it. But, for me, it is nowhere near BSG in quality.
Also if this the future where are all the robots? Although the author did answer this:
"This is a common misconception. What we have is uncommented automation. It's all around the characters all the time but it's uncommented because it's unremarkable to them. The Roci is constantly described as 'smart', and Naomi is always giving it complex tasks to work on. The med bay is basically a computerized hospital requiring almost no human intervention.
If you mean AI as in self aware or sentient machines? Yeah, we avoid that because we're both sort of bored by it. Humans are far more interesting." From
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheExpanse/..._the_robotsai/
It still feels like a bit of a cop out. I do like all the tech which is used, but not explained like the focus pills in ep3 ( I found the explanation from the book) and the "Juice" the pilots use.

[eightslicesofpie]

Why do there have to be robots just cause it's the future? It's not a "cop out," it's something they didn't want to include

[kristoffer]

Because I am certain that robots will be part of our future in a significant way. BSG had a clever way to answer that whereas this, so far, does not.

[spectre08]

Originally Posted by kristoffer

Because I am certain that robots will be part of our future in a significant way. BSG had a clever way to answer that whereas this, so far, does not.

so far the only anthropomorphic robots in the book, and I'm assuming that's the kind of robots you're missing, are sex bots. so there's that.

[kristoffer]

Just saw episode 5 and now I am hooked. I really like that series portrays the social struggle of people living different places in the galaxy.

It seems like Earth is the aristocrats exploiting the poor and then Mars is China or USSR.

I also like the rather clever use of technology in the show.

[jayembee]

Another strong episode. My only problem is that there are only four episodes left, and I'm beginning to wonder if they can actually complete the first book without cutting out a good chunk of what happens on Eros. Then again, I could probably live with less vomit-zombie action.

On edit: I pulled the book off the shelf (I feel the need to re-read it anyway) and scanned through it. The point where this episode ended, which is at the 60% point of the whole season, is about 40% of the way through the book. On the other hand, the show added in the Avasarala scenes, the Anderson Station scenes, and whatnot, so it's not completely surprising. I still think they'll have to compress the Eros sequence, though.

[MattO]

Originally Posted by jayembee

Another strong episode. My only problem is that there are only four episodes left, and I'm beginning to wonder if they can actually complete the first book without cutting out a good chunk of what happens on Eros.

Yeah, if I had to guess at this point, they're going to cut the season during Eros to have a cliffhanger. It feels like they're too far "behind" to cover the ground the book did in this season. That's not bad, though. I like the breathing room. I wouldn't have complained about more episodes in the first season, though!

[spectre08]

there's not a whole lot timeline-wise that happens on Eros in the book though. The events unfold very very quickly, and the big reason it takes up such a big chunk of the first book is that there is a lot of exposition and internal monologing going on, things that can be conveyed in pictures much more quickly than in words.

I'm almost finished with book 2, and its' given me a new insight into the character of Avasarala and why she's included in the first season. They're basically showing what her character was up to during the events of the first book, even though they're not actually spelled out in the book itself. I think that'll be really helpful when season 2 rolls around and she's a much more important player to the story.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by spectre08

I'm almost finished with book 2, and its' given me a new insight into the character of Avasarala and why she's included in the first season. They're basically showing what her character was up to during the events of the first book, even though they're not actually spelled out in the book itself. I think that'll be really helpful when season 2 rolls around and she's a much more important player to the story.

Wait till you finish Book 5 (Nemesis Games). Some of the things that happen this season with regard to Avasarala and the issue of stolen stealth technology will make a whole lot more sense. As will some of the stuff regarding Naomi.

[jayembee]

By the way, I assume that you've all seen the announcement for this on Blu-ray...

[spectre08]

Originally Posted by jayembee

By the way, I assume that you've all seen the announcement for this on Blu-ray...

2 days after my birthday! Well, I know what I"m asking for this year.

[spectre08]

i'm burning through these books like a man on a mission.

I'm midway through book 3 now, with book 4 on order from Amazon.

I'll probably finish the entire series thus released within 2 weeks.

[eightslicesofpie]

Originally Posted by spectre08

i'm burning through these books like a man on a mission.

I'm midway through book 3 now, with book 4 on order from Amazon.

I'll probably finish the entire series thus released within 2 weeks.

And then book 6 in June!

btw if you're trying to collect the paperback versions, Nemesis Games isn't coming out til May