The Expanse (series): Visually solid, this sci-fi tale will not appeal to everyone

Science fiction is a tough genre to push on the masses. Outside of Star Wars and perhaps to a lessor degree Star Trek, it has historically proven to be a very risky venture for companies that spend a bunch of money trying to make some sort of epic show or movie. If you look up the biggest failures of cinema of all time, a great many of them are science fiction and this is probably because since almost none of what they are talking about can be represented outside of expensive CGI, this sort of undertaking is significantly more risky than say, getting 6 actors together to do an "apartment sitcom" like Big Bang Theory or Friends.

The Expanse is visually stunning. I would say it is at least as good if not better than a lot of full-fledged films are concerned and as much as I love Battlestar Galactica the visuals are much better in this than they were there. That's ok though more than a decade has passed between the two and if the power of what is most likely in your pocket right now is any representation of the strides that computing technology has made in that time period, it is easy to understand how the graphical capabilities of films and series would improve dramatically over that amount of time.

src

Now here is a fair warning to all you people out there that think my opinion means a damn: This thing starts out really slow and it kind of has to. We need to be introduced to the major characters and given backstory on them. Since they do not do any narration in this outside of the words on the screen at the very start of the show, all of the character information we are given is "shown, not told" and this takes some time.

I know this: despite being a huge sci-fi nerd myself that loves both Star Wars (just the older stuff) and Star Trek (both new and old), there were many points during the first episode that I checked how much time was left and nearly switched it off. When I switch something off I normally never return to it.

If you are a sci-fi enthusiast though I emplore you to stick it out at least for the first episode because things take a really interesting turn at the end that really gets things moving. By the time you make it to halfway through episode 2, you will know whether or not this series is for you. For people that really dislike sci fi, I can see that there is not much chance you are going to enjoy this, even though it does really pick up halfway through episode 2.

src

me personally i find this aspect of the show unnecessary and stupid but they have taken a sort of Game of Thrones approach to the storytelling in that there are plenty of very attractive ladies on the show and you can be all but guaranteed they are getting their tits out at some point. It happens multiple times in the first two episodes.

I suppose I can applaud this to a certain degree, because it indicates that this show is not attempting to appeal to little kids the way Star Wars does and therefore we can have adult storylines. I don't mean gratuitous sex scenes, I find those very 80's now that we all have the internet and can look at porn anytime that we want. I am referring to how swear words to not need to be avoided and other adult topics can also happen such as gore, betrayal, genuine evil, drugs... you know? real adult topics. One only need look at the rather rated PG notions of Star Wars avoidance of blood and all swearing and Battlestar's hilarious invention of the word "frack" to know what I am talking about.

src

The dramatic notions of the story evolve as the series progresses but he basic premise that is not a spoiler is that mankind has expanded throughout the universe and Mars and Earth are the two main factions. Having exhausted most of the resources on both planets they have taken to the local cosmos for minerals and even water in the form of ice, which has become the most valuable material in the solar system.

Everyone worth their salt works in some sort of extra-planetary gig aboard gigantic space stations or ships designed to get after these resources and of course, warring factions and even pirates have emerged on the scene. It get's pretty interesting as things move on IMO.

There is a core group of characters involved but as you would expect, this changes over time. I am only recently realizing that this series has long been over and was first released back in 2015. I suppose that explains why it started out on SyFi but was later a Amazon Prime Video release in later seasons.

Since I now realize that this show took place during the pinnacle of DEI it will be very interesting to see how much social engineering gets forced into the story. In season one it is evident, but not being force-fed to us yet. We'll see!

Should I watch it?

I honestly think this should (and will be) a hard pass for anyone that isn't a sci-fi fan. I'm just being honest here. There is just too much space jargon going on for someone that has no interest in spacecraft and the dangers that would obviously come about from working in space.

The acting is solid, the visuals are beautiful, and according to Metacritic ratings as well as my own observations, the story really picks up steam and start moving wonderfully after we get the obligatory 2 episode introduction phase over and done with. If you are truly impatient, you could probably switch straight to episode 3 and just watch the recap and move on from there.

All that being said, I am really enjoying it, but also understand that I am not like the masses as far as my likes and dislikes are concerned.

_{This show can be legally streamed only on Amazon Prime. It can be rented at AppleTV and Fandango, but I can't imagine why anyone would do that since the season rental is more than the cost of a monthly subscription to Amazon}