The first few episodes of season 5 of the Expanse dropped last week so I watched them yesterday. It looks like the rest of the episodes are going to be released on a weekly basis.
The production values remain top notch. And while I’m not sure about some of the visuals in these episodes, it still more or less retains its commitment to Newtonian movement in space, with spaceships moving around like actual spaceships, having to accelerate and decelerate, no onboard gravity when they’re coasting, etc. A sharp contrast to the submarine or aircraft carrier like dynamics most space shows adopt.
It’s been a while since I read the fifth book, but so far, based on what I can recall, it’s broadly being followed. But there are aspects of the sixth book mixed in a bit early, and even discussion of things that don’t really get addressed until the later books. The last point is interesting because, while Amazon already renewed the show for a sixth season, it’s also been announced that the sixth will be the final one. It’s unclear whether books 7-9 will ever be adapted, so front loading of any of their content increases my hopes that the core mysteries of the series will get addressed.
Of course, I’m still reading the books and currently waiting for book 9 to drop, so to the extent those mysteries are revealed in that final book, I’ll already know the answers. But it would be a shame if the show ended up just omitting them.
Anyway, this is my periodic recommendation of the series. The vision is darker than something like Star Trek. It’s a dangerous world with serious problems, one upended by the discovering of an alien technology. So it’s not for everyone. But intelligent space opera is, unfortunately, rare in movies and TV, so if that’s your thing, and you’ve somehow missed the show until now, you owe it to yourself to check it out.
Are you watching it? If so, what do you think?
SelfAwarePatterns 
I’d forgotten about this. Must have been on Netflix at some stage – or at least one of the episodes. Loved Shohreh Aghdashloo.
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The early seasons were on SyFy, and probably did make it to Netflix or Hulu. You can find all the seasons on Amazon now. It’s part of Prime, if you have that. (If you don’t, I’m sure Amazon will be happy to sell it ala carte. 😉 )
Shohreh Aghdashloo is awesome, and her character, Avasarala, is still there!
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Haven’t decided yet whether to wait and binge or follow along. I’m putting it off for now…
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I can see that. I usually don’t have the discipline for it. But already knowing the story, I probably could have pulled it off this time, if they’d timed it to finish up during the Christmas break, when I could just use one of my vacation days to watch it. But it looks like the finale will be in late January / early February, which will probably be a less convenient binge time.
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Having sucked down prodigious quantities of SF and fantasy for 60+ years now, I find myself uninterested the the human touch aspects of many stories. Troubles with ex-wives and ex-husbands, etc. have me reaching for the remote control with its FF button. Luckily, this series sneaks in just small snatches of such interactions. (I am sure I am in a minority, as when I was younger, I didn’t feel this way. Becoming jaded with age, I guess.
Loved the books, love the series, even though various appearances were switched over during casting. Looking forward to episode 4 coming on Wednesday. (Disappointed I couldn’t binge the whole season, however, but then anticipation is part of the enjoyment … or at least it used to be.)
And they could have announced “Episode 4 is coming!” or some such thing. At first I asked myself “Is that all there is of season 5?”
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I’m somewhat with you on the ex-wives / ex-husbands thing. I’m okay if they’re incorporated into a broader story, but I’m not in the camp that enjoys soap operas with some sci-fi mixed in. (As compared to outright space opera.) It’s a little different if someone’s ex is a sociopath intent on causing mass death, because then the ex part of the story is just seasoning, really just an excuse for the protagonist to be tangled up in it.
On the lack of announcement, it’s funny you mention that. Just this morning I had a conversation with someone who thought episode 4 was coming until February. Yeah, they could have handled that a lot better.
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