I wonder if Amazon was the only company bidding for the show, it sounds like it. Where the hell was CBS? Netflix?
Lots of things in business go on behind the scenes. Businesspeople are under no obligation to notify the public of everything they do. What we hear in the press is usually just the tip of the iceberg. So just because we don't know about something, that doesn't mean it didn't happen. It just means it wasn't publicized or leaked.
People say Netflix "passed on it" but the truth is, there were legalities involved that would have prevented Netflix from taking the show anyway. Indeed, due to these legalities, it was only ever going to be Amazon or no one.
Not to dissuade you as Prime brings other benefits as well but I wonder if it would have more impact if people subscribed when the new season airs (as to leave less doubt as to the reason why).
Seasons 1 &2 are currently available through Prime, like Netflix, Prime is usually one season behind the current season. I wonder if they'll concurrently make Season 3 &4 available next year or give us season 3 next year and make us wait til 2020 for season 4. Hope not!
I guess its a good thing Bezos is a fan of the show. He was the one guy empowered to actually do something to save the show. The younger generation needs a show to inspire people to get into science, unfortunately, I don't think Star Trek is that show anymore.
What about The Expanse possibly makes going to space in real life seem like a good idea? This show makes space seem more terrifying than Gravity did, and that movie literally opened with a card that just said "Space is horrible" and spent the next ninety minutes reinforcing that fact. I agree that DSC hasn't been beating the pro-space drum very much, but I'm not sure anything currently is, movie-and-TV-wise.
Space seems pretty nice in the Orville in a low key muzak sort of way. You might lose a leg for a while though.
Because Amazon owned the streaming rights for seasons 1-2 and that probably caused issues. It's why there was more talk of Hannibal coming back after streaming deals expired. Asshat Jeff Bezos, who has $150 billion dollars and still doesn't help out his employees is a huge, fan so he probably called right away.
What about the Expanse makes space terrifying? That humans still don't get along, and are willing to kill each other to get their hands on a super weapon? I'd say that's a pretty realistic take on human behavior. You want terrifying, go to the Alien franchise. DSC gave us a war with an alien race (the re-imagined Klingons) and virtually no space exploration except visiting one, maybe two planets in the entire first season.
Space in the Expanse isn't the force fields and Earth normal environments of Star Trek. It's dangerous in that one tiny mistake can be fatal. They need constant resupplies of things like air and water.
Netflix currently have streaming rights outside the US (and NZ, somewhat bizarrely) for seasons 1-3. I'd like to hear what the deal is going forward. If Amazon gets the rights outside the US as I expect, I hope that will speed up the series being shown over here in the UK (I don't do dodgy downloads).
Looking back on it, I'd say mostly gravity, ironically enough (well, acceleration, which is functionally the same as gravity). "Juicing" seems to be excruciating, the fragility of non-Earthborn people is horrifying (remember Avasarala torturing that really tall Belter in season one?), Epstein was slowly crushed to death by his own engine, and just a few days ago, we saw a guy get shredded by his own seatbelt. Amos has been nearly killed because the Roci while maneuvering while he wasn't in a safe spot, like, four times. Then there are the space battles, where even "flesh wounds" to the ship involve bullets passing through the cabin like tissue paper and ships can be obliterated without even a second's warning that they're under attack (the breaching pods in the season two opener and the Mars missile platforms more recently). Seriously, the swarm of flying knives a few episodes ago didn't scare you? I'd rather take my chances with that big black bastard from the Alien movies if it got me artificial gravity and an inertial damper.
Because Amazon Video is but one element of Prime membership, a rush of people signing up for the service specifically for access to Amazon Video and The Expanse Season 4 isn't actually going to have much tangible impact on the series' future moving forward because that's not the way that Amazon Video, as a business model, operates.
I imagine it'd probably help once they actually start watching the show on Amazon. Personally, I've had Prime for ages just for the shipping and some other benefits. I don't think they even had video Netflix-style all-you-can-eat video when I first signed on. I've actually gotten junk mail from Amazon (along with occasional interrupting pages when I'm buying stuff), reminding me that I'm technically paying for a video service that I don't use. I expect season 4 of The Expanse will be the first thing I watch on it.