The Expanse

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Discussion

Jonesy23

Original Poster:

4,650 posts

135 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
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New SyFy series, apparently based on a novel series of the same name.

Summary:

"Two hundred years in the future, in a fully colonized Solar System, police detective Miller, born in the asteroid belt, is given the assignment to find a missing young woman, Julie Mao. Joining his task is James Holden, formerly first officer of an ice freighter who is involved in an incident caused by the tense relationship between Earth, Mars and the Belt. Soon the two find out that the missing woman is connected to a vast conspiracy."

Can't tell much of the plot from the first one but someone has put a *lot* of time and effort into this. Looks expensive.

Proper space opera stuff, lots of believable details in the people/culture/tech/spaceflight.

Haven't read the books this is based on but if has the same feel as something like a Peter F. Hamilton book. And they haven't skipped on the production values, there's no shortcuts & it basically looks like I imagined this sort of space opera stuff to look when reading it.


Anyway it's worth a look to appreciate the work that's gone into it. Early days on the story so we'll have to see how that goes but there are five books in the series so far and they seem well reviewed.

clonmult

10,529 posts

208 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
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The books are rather excellent. From a brief watch of the first episode, they've nailed the look and feel of the books.

They've made some changes to the story to fit TV, can't wait to see how Julie Mao develops ..... (but can't say much, as she's a central plot point in the books).

AshVX220

5,929 posts

189 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
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When does this air in the UK?

JagLover

42,266 posts

234 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
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The books are indeed very good, particularly the first two.

clonmult

10,529 posts

208 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
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AshVX220 said:
When does this air in the UK?
14th December, or so they say ... should be on the syfy channel (its airing on SyFy stateside, makes sense for it to be on that channel here too?)

It was temporarily available on their facebook page, but that was available to all, now the page is region locked for US consumption only.

Thankfully I nabbed it before they restricted access.

Corso Marche

1,716 posts

200 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
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I watched the first episode of this last night, and 30 minutes later realised I couldn't remember one thing from the episode !

We'll see I guess...

dmiller

41 posts

117 months

Wednesday 25th November 2015
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I thought it was brilliant, caught the spirit of the books brilliantly, looked really good as well, some serious money has been spent on it.

2hoots

57 posts

101 months

Tuesday 1st December 2015
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Watched the first episode of this last night and thought it was one of the best adult sci-fi shows since Battlestar Galactica's first couple of seasons.

Dark and menacing with some clever new ideas thrown in ie: the depiction of both a 'belter' and his torture using just Earth's gravity

Big budget. Great production.

MissChief

7,095 posts

167 months

Thursday 3rd December 2015
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Really liked this and it has the highest budget of any Sy-Fy show ever. Really looking forward to the rest of the episodes.

AshVX220

5,929 posts

189 months

Thursday 3rd December 2015
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clonmult said:
14th December, or so they say ... should be on the syfy channel (its airing on SyFy stateside, makes sense for it to be on that channel here too?)

It was temporarily available on their facebook page, but that was available to all, now the page is region locked for US consumption only.

Thankfully I nabbed it before they restricted access.
Checked the Virgin box last night and couldn't see it on the 14th Dec on SyFy. frown

Brigand

2,544 posts

168 months

Saturday 19th December 2015
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Just watched episode 4 and wow, this is good stuff, that episode alone could be considered an "end of season" episode with all the action.

Overall I'm very impressed with this show so far, its got a big budget with SFX on par with movies, the classic sci-fi tropes of tensions between Earth/Moon/Mars, water and air being commodities, Chinese language and cultures widely seen around the Solar System (what is the Belter's accent? Its like a cross between South African and Oriental) and it does remind me a bit with its gritty realism of the new Battle Star Galactica.

If you're a fan of classic space sci-fi, and you haven't already seen this, I recommend you watch it somehow.


Catatafish

1,361 posts

144 months

Friday 5th February 2016
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Just finished the last episodes and found it quite satisfying; a slow burner probably not for those nouveau JJ trekkie action fiends.

Series 2 is on the cards, but as the ratings are bad, and no one knows about it, so it will probably be killed off before it's peak.

chris watton

22,477 posts

259 months

Friday 5th February 2016
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Has this been on the Sci-Fi channel? Just noticed this thread, so did a search an SKY but nothing comes up!

MissChief

7,095 posts

167 months

Friday 5th February 2016
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chris watton said:
Has this been on the Sci-Fi channel? Just noticed this thread, so did a search an SKY but nothing comes up!
AFAIK a UK air date hasn't even been announced! I had to find alternative ways of watching it. You'd think companies would realise that if you don't show programmes on UK TV as quickly as possible people will simply find a means to watch it anyway? And Sci-Fi fans tend to be clued up on how to do so. Their target audience. He'll even though GoT is shown the very next night on Sky I know of dozens of people that will still torrent it to watch the next morning rather than waiting!

stuarthat

1,047 posts

217 months

Friday 5th February 2016
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Watched a couple of episodes not really impressed bit cheesy ,

chris watton

22,477 posts

259 months

Friday 5th February 2016
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MissChief said:
chris watton said:
Has this been on the Sci-Fi channel? Just noticed this thread, so did a search an SKY but nothing comes up!
AFAIK a UK air date hasn't even been announced! I had to find alternative ways of watching it. You'd think companies would realise that if you don't show programmes on UK TV as quickly as possible people will simply find a means to watch it anyway? And Sci-Fi fans tend to be clued up on how to do so. Their target audience. He'll even though GoT is shown the very next night on Sky I know of dozens of people that will still torrent it to watch the next morning rather than waiting!
Ah, OK, that explains it. Not aired on UKTV yet. Cheers smile

Scuffers

20,887 posts

273 months

Saturday 6th February 2016
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Up to episode 8,

It's a bit flake but gets better...

Corso Marche

1,716 posts

200 months

Sunday 7th February 2016
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I've watched as far as ep9, so just one more to go in this season. I dunno if I'll be bothered with season 2 when it comes around. I can't put my finger on it but it's just missing something. I never came to care for any of the characters for a start...

Brigand

2,544 posts

168 months

Sunday 7th February 2016
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This is an inebriated review, but for those of us who have reached the end I would say the key word is "Rushed". This is classic Sci-Fi stuff, I've enjoyed this show and it inspired me to get the book(s), and all I can say so far is I'm about a third of the way through the first book and its about episode seven.

I won't post spoilers etc here yet for discussions sake, but I do feel that the last three episodes felt a bit rushed for my liking, I reckon that this series would have benefited from say one or two more episodes to flesh out the storylines and background.

I'll come back in the day and elaborate more...

Scuffers

20,887 posts

273 months

Sunday 7th February 2016
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I agree with that, too much background info has to be guessed at, leading to significant confusion of the story.

could have done with another episode before the first to lay out the landscape and into the characters.

also, the last episode does not 'finish' such that we now have no idea and have to wait for the next season, which is a year away?