The Expanse Season 3

[eschaton]

Yeah, I loved the latest episode. The only bad thing about it was basically all of the good parts involved the guest cast on the UNN Agatha King and MCRN Hammurabi. Not much happened on Io other than the creepy scenes with proto-Katoa, and the Roci (sorry, Pinus Contorta) scenes were basically perfunctory. I was a bit surprised we didn't see anything Earthside too - there's going to be a lot to wrap up next week.

I know nothing about show financing, but I have a hard time seeing how Netflix and/or Amazon wouldn't chomp at the bit to pick the Expanse up. The show has a built-in fanbase and can hit the ground running - particularly if it's done quickly while the production crew is still together. The budget per episode doesn't seem that different from first-run streaming shows either. It seems to me the real question is more will they be willing to pay the price that the production company wants.

 

[Christopher]

Persepolis Rising and Tiamat's Wrath could well be too big of a time jump for the current actors to be credibly aged by 40 years.

I haven't read the books, but maybe the show could compress the timeline and have the events of those books happen earlier?

 

[eschaton]

I haven't read the books, but maybe the show could've compressed the timeline and had the events of those books happen earlier?

Things are already kind of fucked. For example, Naomi finally mentioned her son, Filip, in the books he's in his mid teens by the time he enters as a character (in Nemesis Games). I don't think Naomi's character starts out much different in age from Dominque Tipper, and she says she was very young when she had Filip. But if they introduce him as a 15-year old in say two seasons it will seem a little off, because there haven' been the gaps of a few years between each of the series. Indeed, she said in the most recent episode that she started working on Pur-N-Kleen pretty much immediately after losing custody of him. Given the show timeline makes it seem like everything to date happens in like a year, he really shouldn't have "aged up" much yet.

 

[Marc]

particularly if it's done quickly while the production crew is still together. The budget per episode doesn't seem that different from first-run streaming shows either. It seems to me the real question is more will they be willing to pay the price that the production company wants.

Having all the sets and associated props in place would also be a big factor too.

Dark Matter last year, The Expanse this year, syfy can truly go fuck themselves.

 

[eschaton]

Having all the sets and associated props in place would also be a big factor too.

Dark Matter last year, The Expanse this year, syfy can truly go fuck themselves.

Also, it was reported last month that Neflix has discovered sci-fi/fantasy is the most popular Netflix viewing choice. And they plan to cater to this by bringing more original genre content online. Hence picking up The Expanse is a no brainer - it gets them a new, popular genre show without having to spend any money on development.

 

[Christopher]

Things are already kind of fucked.

That's an oddly judgmental way of putting it. They're just putting the story elements together in a different way for a different medium and format. It's not screwed up, it's just reinterpreted.

Dark Matter last year, The Expanse this year, syfy can truly go fuck themselves.

But they've also kept other excellent shows like Killjoys and The Magicians. People always want to take this personally and assume that networks hate the shows they like or something, but these decisions are strictly about money. Networks have to cancel shows they love all the time, or keep renewing reality-show crap that they hate, because financial realities leave them no other choice. In this case, Syfy's contract for The Expanse didn't grant them digital rights, so they didn't have enough financial incentive to let them keep paying for the show. We don't know whether the responsibility for that limited contract lay with Syfy or with the show's production company. But if there'd been a way for Syfy to afford to keep the show, I'm sure they would've wanted to keep it, given how acclaimed it is.

 

[The Wormhole]

Dark Matter last year, The Expanse this year, syfy can truly go fuck themselves.

It seems to be the third season curse. SyFy has pulled the plug on The Expanse, like Dark Matter and Defiance before it, during its third season.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

It seems to be the third season curse. SyFy has pulled the plug on The Expanse, like Dark Matter and Defiance before it, during its third season.

Bonnie Hammer time again or is she long gone?

 

[Christopher]

Honestly, 3 seasons isn't that bad for a TV series' run, in the grand scheme of things. As I calculated last year:

So only 45% of Syfy's shows have made it more than two seasons, 29% have made it more than three, and only 13% to date have made it to five seasons, the maximum run of any Syfy show. (The only longer-running shows they've aired are ones they picked up from another network.) That's probably pretty typical for any network -- the majority of shows get canned after a year or less. We just don't remember them as well because they came and went so quickly.

 

[Forbin]

Amazon never releases their originals on disk, do they. I'd definitely want a complete Expanse boxed set.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I was surprised with the news that Krypton has been beating it in the ratings. Sometimes these things feel like there's questionable factors that went into the decision but this seems to sound like just an economically based decision.

 

[Marc]

It seems to be the third season curse. SyFy has pulled the plug on The Expanse, like Dark Matter and Defiance before it, during its third season.

I don't know if the ending of Defiance came because they new there wasn't going to be a s4 or they painted themself into a corner on how to go with a 4th season but at least it got a good wrap up.

I was surprised with the news that Krypton has been beating it in the ratings. Sometimes these things feel like there's questionable factors that went into the decision but this seems to sound like just an economically based decision.

That's a bit of a surpise. I'm watching both, like both but think The Expanse is the better show and it's not as visually dark so looks way better too.

And The Expanse is intended as an going storyline, haven't seen anything that Krypton is intended for the more than the 10 season run.

 

[John Clark]

Bother - I hope netflix do take it on entirely.

 

[DigificWriter]

I'm not very confident that The Expanse will find another home someplace else because that rarely happens, and now I've lost what motivation I had to keep watching.

 

[Q2UnME]

I'm not very confident that The Expanse will find another home someplace else because that rarely happens, and now I've lost what motivation I had to keep watching.

I think in this instance there a few things going for the potential of a pick-up (Critical acclaim, fanbase, etc) and some things going on behind the scenes we might not know about, like the "rights'. Netflix was interested in getting 'Dark Matter' but someone else had the rights to it and wouldn't budge. I'd be cautiously optimistic on this one ... SyFy was not the rights holder as far as I can tell from the articles. It looks like like the main production company has the control and just has to find someone willing to pay up. I think Amazon and Netflix are in play, but Hulu, Apple and others are out there too. I'm willing to see how this plays out and will follow the program where ever it lands...

Q2

 

[crookeddy]

From what I read after the S1 pickup, Netflix was paying such a large part of the budget for the international rights that SyFy was getting the show almost for free - thus the renewals despite low ratings. However with ratings as low as they are, SyFy probably wants the timeslot back so that they can put something that will have a chance to be more popular there.

So, the frontrunner for keeping the show alive is Netflix.... BUT the digital distribution rights for the US belong to Amazon. When do those expire? I doubt Netflix wants to share a show with their competitor, so that put the Expanse in grave danger of going dark :-(

EDIT: An example of a show Netflix really wanted, but decided not to go with because of complex distribution rights is Agent Carter...

If they want a traditional network to buy it, I don't even know who'd be interested. It would have to be a non-NBC owned cable network... Paramount network maybe? You'd think they have Paramount shows to air though.

 

[David cgc]

Wow, I had no idea how bad of a deal SyFy has with The Expanse.

Considering that SyFy seems to get literally nothing from The Expanse aside from whatever commercials they can sell during it's first-run appearance, I wonder why the episodes I buy on (U.S.) iTunes have a "SyFy Original" pre-roll card and a giant fucking yellow SyFy logo square in the middle on top of the opening scene of every episode. It's not like last year when they were putting the wrong version on-line, I'm getting the long credits and all the swearing, it's just tagged.

Amazon never releases their originals on disk, do they. I'd definitely want a complete Expanse boxed set.

I keep checking back to see if there's any news on a 4K blu-ray. I saw a HDR tech-demo last year that really pushed it, and the most impressive scenes were sci-fi style, with lots of dark technical rooms with plenty of bright blinking lights and glowing buttons. Though I'm not sure if any TV series has been released on 4K disc yet. A quick google indicates no (not counting direct-to-video, a few vintage TV movies, and documentary miniseries like Planet Earth).

 

[Aragorn]

I keep checking back to see if there's any news on a 4K blu-ray. I saw a HDR tech-demo last year that really pushed it, and the most impressive scenes were sci-fi style, with lots of dark technical rooms with plenty of bright blinking lights and glowing buttons. Though I'm not sure if any TV series has been released on 4K disc yet. A quick google indicates no (not counting direct-to-video, a few vintage TV movies, and documentary miniseries like Planet Earth).

Stranger Things (Target exclusive) and Westworld are the only TV shows I can name off the top of my head that are on 4k Blu-ray.

Oh, Game of Thrones: Season 1 will be coming out in June.

 

[crookeddy]

Stranger Things (Target exclusive) and Westworld are the only TV shows I can name off the top of my head that are on 4k Blu-ray.

Oh, Game of Thrones: Season 1 will be coming out in June.

Do you know if any of those are actual 4k or upscaled 2k?

 

[ATimson]

Do you know if any of those are actual 4k or upscaled 2k?

Stranger Things and Westworld are actual 4K. Game of Thrones S1 is an upscale - not sure if later seasons have 4K masters or not.