[TV] The Expanse

I agree.

I'm 3 episodes in and the plot is too dense right now. I kind of have an idea of what's going on.

They keep saying this is game of thrones in space, but even game of thrones didn't just drop you in the middle of something.

I still want it to succeed, but I don't see casual fans sitting through it especially with the pounds of exposition.

 

Well...apparently...that one missing indian chick is the key to everything. But...yea...I'm just like WTF?! It's basically Earth vs Mars vs The Belt in the battle for resources and life.

 

I'm 4 episodes in and things are starting to make sense a bit. The plot is a bit thick in the beginning and honestly it feels like this is the 2nd season of a show, not the first 4 episodes, but I still like it.

 

Brand new series usually require a hook early on to be successful. That didn't really happen in the first 4 episodes. It may evolve into a great show, but I read somewhere the ratings on the first 2 were disappointing.

I also want this to succeed but Syfy may have blown it. You only get one chance at an early impression.

 

Spoiler

My standard complaint about SciFi is the shows seem like the plot complexity was determined by children. I guess maybe they are that way for a reason? Is that really what people want? Simple action shows that give up the goods in the first ten minutes?

They are pretty much following the plot of the books. Not sure how they could have done anything different without doing a show with a different name. Maybe they could have just done "Dark Matter:The Next Generation" instead?

The only problem I have so far is I pictured everything in the books being much more cramped and dingy. I thought the scene at the end of episode four where they shot the crap out of everything with the Rocinate's PDC's on the way out was solid for straight action.

 

You gotta sell out a little if you want sci-fi/fantasy to succeed on television. You have to trick people! Show them how fun patty cake can be then start adding jump ropes. Before you know it, they're doing patty cake and double dutch at the same time! (metaphors.. I got them!)

I'm going to watch regardless, but I love genre TV. When I say, "it's to dense," I mean that for a mainstream audience. A_3PO is right, you gotta hook them immediately.

The producers/writers of GOT realized they had to do some tinkering to make the material palatable to causal watchers. They took stuff out, put stuff in, changed the timeline of other things. GOT is still faithful to the books.

Is THE EXPANSE following the books exactly?

 

In all fairness and with no disrespect, SyFy does not (and should not) give a care what readers of the books think about the show. There are too few of you to matter. They need casual viewers to buy in. They are the target audience and will determine success or failure.

 

It's been a year since I read them, but close enough that nothing stands out.

It is supposed to be:

#1 A mystery
and
#2 A story of political intrigue

I guess there's a problem with perception? From my perspective, it's like people being pissed off that the film "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" didn't have an awesome opening action sequence with big 'splosions like a James Bond flick. (Not exactly a perfect analogy - it's not supposed to be that slow, and it's not anywhere near that moody, but you get the idea.) I guess people expect science fiction to bring the "pew, pew, pew"?

 

QUESTION:

Spoiler

I got the feeling the Indian lady screwed over the white haired man. I'm just not sure how.
(I know he was the Ambassador to Mars and was basically kicked off the planet after
something she did) I think I missed something in their dinner conversation

Rocket River

 

Spoiler

She told him that the Earth knew that the Martians had given their stealth technology to the OPA. He freaked out that the Earth was about to go war, got Martians to freak out, and they did a total inventory of all their stealth technology sites to see if it was true.

The activity tipped off the UN to previously unknown information about Martian stealth technology production sites. The Martians found no indications that the technology had been given to the OPA. The Ambassador was then viewed by the Martians as having been used by the UN to get Mars to reveal top secret info to Earth on a ruse.

 

I've read the book and thought it was pretty good. I watched the first episode and thought the show looked great. Everthing looked very much like what I imagined when reading the book. However, I thought the show would be confusing to people who hadn't read the book.

 

Haven't watched the On Demand episodes, don't want to get too far ahead of what's aired and lose interest.

Not too spoilerly but will use spoiler tags anyway.

Spoiler

From the first two episodes the main thing that stuck out to me was I don't think Avasarala was in the first book.

The other odd thing to me is their accentuating the Belter's longer body of the guy Avasarala was interrogating but not doing so with the Belters in space (including Naomi).

For that matter Holden, none of his crew, nor the guy they cast as Fred Johnson are really how I pictured them from the books but that's a bit nitpicky.

 

I think if they are going to do a show that has nothing to to with the books, they can probably save money by not paying licensing fees to the authors and giving it an original name.

Presumably, if you pay for the books, you are planning to mostly do the books, not something completely different. I have no problem with them doing something else. I probably wouldn't be watching it, though if they just did another SciFi Channel boilerplate series.

Pretty clearly, for the past few years they have been struggling off and on to try and redefine the types stories they do. I think they are doing exactly what they intended ass part of that strategy, regardless of whether it works out.

Fair enough. I think some of those things, like

Spoiler

finding a hundred rail thin 8 foot tall actors to fill up Ceres

are more about costs and difficulty than actual decisions to alter the story. They did the one guy at the beginning to establish the idea, and hope you ignore the things that don't fit.

One thing, there are a TON of wide open spaces and cathedral rooms which look great on TV, but are a horrible idea in a vacuum. But I can roll with that, as it doesn't really affect the story that much. Like I said, in my mind, everything was cramped and dingy, but I get that the realities of filming can get in the way.

 

I see what you're saying. To be fair, the promotional material for this show didn't have any space battles or much action or anything in them. The reviews have been saying this show is like BSG and GoT. I think that is where the let down is coming in.

 

I guess you missed my point. They want the association with the books (for the sake of marketing and because presumably the material is good). And of course they will "mostly" follow the material.

When it comes to actually doing the show, compromises have to be made to maximize appeal to a wider audience. That's just the way it is. If some of those compromises appeal to the masses and offend those familiar with the source material, so be it.

As someone who's read the books, you will view the show far differently from the rest of us because we don't have any point of reference.

 

Agreed on budget. Why even do it at all then though. Just explain it off as internal physiological differences.

Also, it's not fair to compare anything to GoT.

 

After four episodes, I'm on board. Acting & production quality is so much better than your average SyFy show. I do agree it's been a slow mover, but I'm hoping that it pays dividends later down the line. That's not to say that it is boring, but if you're HYPING this show up, you're just buying into online reviews or you're a huge fan of the book. That being said, I'm really interested to check the book out now.

 

It is taking its time
I must say it is not as good as Dark Matter
but better than KillJoys

Rocket River

 

I'm in the process of rereading the first book. They've cut it all up and rearranged stuff to try and make it easier for consumption, for what it's worth.

I get that people want different things from their shows. For me shows like Killjoys and Dark Matter are totally unwatchable. They completely fail the suspension of disbelief and seem contrived. This passes the threshold of watchable for me. To each his own.

 

It's a decent show so far that fills the winter midseason gap of other shows. It's getting more interesting, but it's not a show that I make time to watch.