I highly recommend checking out The Expanse.
Me, too! Just finished the first season. My bloviating thoughts:
I can't believe I am going to do this, but the time has come for me to applaud a SyFy Channel series. Shocking!
Yeah, yeah, I know some people liked Stargate. I never cared for the movie, so the series was a pass for me. And while lots of people loved Battlestar Galactica, I found the show to have the worst elements of a graphic novel and a soap opera in one annoying package (honestly, I tried three times to watch that series and failed to get beyond the start of season 2 each time). But The Expanse (Season One, anyway) actually was pretty darn good!
Now, to be fair, I did like the first book in the series. Leviathan Awakes reminded me of Old School science fiction that combines spacey adventure with just enough scientific realism to keep things believable (as opposed to most contemporary sci-fi that, to me, is either little more than farcical after-school nonsense, or displays a slavish devotion to scientific realism that ruins any sense of fun or wonder). Much to their credit, SyFy kept most of these elements in place in translating the book to the show, making it a fun romp in a well-realized setting. One thing I *really* liked about the show is how SyFY eschewed the typical "bright and shiny" vision of the future that is often de riqueur in the genre ( I blame Roddenberry
) and went with a very noirish dark and dirty "workingman's universe" setting for many of the locales, particularly the Outer Belt, something fitting for their slavish existence to Earth. Likewise, Earth and Mars, the two colonial powers, were shown to be "bright and shiny" in their luxury. Now, at times I do think they might have gotten carried away with the primitiveness of the settings - for example, if I recall correctly, Eros was more like the Atlantic City casino strip than the downtrodden slum it was portrayed as in the show, something I blame on budget - but I still prefer this to just another interpretation of a chrome-covered future.
Story-wise, it is the old maxim of the book always being better than the movie. As usual, I blame the writers adamant assertion that they HAD to change to story...just because. While it is true that no movie/TV treatment can be 100% faithful to the written word, that is different from changing things just because you can. Sadly, that is what season one did, and the show is worse for it. As is usually the case, I found the vast majority of the changes made to the show to be completely unnecessary. They were unnecessary because 1) they disrupt what was a tightly written page turner of a narrative with needless segues and redundant characters, and 2) ultimately accomplish nothing as the main narrative always returned to the plot of the book (thank the Lord) with a "never mind" abandonment of what was injected ham-handedly by the writers. One good example of this is the completely useless character of Chrisjen Avasarala, a person who I understand first appears in the second book of The Expanse. I think this is painfully evident here as despite the writers desperately trying to turn her into a Game of Throne's conniving "Little Finger," she seems totally out of place in the events of season one and accomplishes little besides staring at the night sky from her rooftop, visiting aquariums, and getting into a cat fight with Holden's mother. Not exactly "Little Finger." The character has potential, but because the writers insisted on introducing her too early, she never rises above being a fifth wheel in the narrative of the first season. And don't get me started on "corporate spy" Kenzo Gabriel, a character literally shoehorned into the hull of Rocinante for no purpose that I could ultimately see except to be monster food. If anything hurt the first season of
The Expanse, it is the gratuitous changes made by the writers that did little but trip-up a sharply-written story.
I thought casting was very good. Steven Strait's "Jim" Holden nailed that character's Jack Ryan, Boy Scout-like nature. Likewise, Thomas Jane was perfect in capturing the film noir, Phillip Marlowe-inspired nature of "Joe" Aloisus Miller. As with the book, Detective Miller steals the show as soon as he appears.
One change I DO credit the writers with is making Amos Burton a much more interesting character. In the book, he is little more than a giant bruiser with a heart of gold who does little more than a Mutt and Jeff routine with pilot Alex Kamal. Here, they turned Amos into a guy with a thuggish nature and a very short fuse. I'll give them that as it does make for a more interesting character. The rest of the cast is decent as well.
CGI-wise, it is typical, if slightly better than normal, SyFy FX. I don't know why, but I always have a problem with their FX as I find the angles, the camera drift and the lighting they use make for confusing scenes where I am never sure about what I am supposed to be looking at. I think this is how SyFy makes a little go a longer way.
Having said that, I think they did a good job bringing our solar system, particularly the Outer Belt, to life.
Overall, I give the series a rare (for SyFy) B+ from me. The story is as engaging as the book, the heavily noir-inspired presentation is well done, the actors all hit their mark, and as with the best aspects of the genre, the story of tension between the "haves and have-nots" of the future, not to mention some sleazy corporate and government conspiracies, is a very timely message. If you haven't given the show a watch, I recommend it!
