The Expanse Season 3

[eschaton]

I found book 4 a bit boring and spun out. I can't imagine them expending a whole season on it.

Naren Shankar has already said in an interview they plan to cover book 4 next season. However, given that book pretty much only covers the Roci crew out of the current cast of characters, they'll also be doing some solsys-side plotlines to keep everyone in the main cast involved. Probably a mixture of elements of book 5 moved up a bit and entirely original content.

 

[Jedi Marso]

Finished binge-watching the entire TV show (so far) last week, and then read book 4, which picks up the storyline where the show currently stops.

Without getting spoilery, book-4 is the first book that deals with humans going through the ring-gate to one of the 'new' star star systems. Long story short, it's about humans being humans at their best and worst on a planet that was not what it seemed at first. Also, in terms of the current cast, there are really only the main 4 except for Miller's old Earther partner from Ceres, who actually has a substantial role. Miller re-appears as ghost-in-the-alien-machine Miller.

Gunny Draper only appears in the prologue and epilogue.

Honestly, I'm not sure they can make an entire 'good' season out of this book. Six or eight episodes, maybe. I haven't read book 5 yet but they need to tap more material than just book 4 to keep it interesting, or expand on it somehow with some of the other characters from seasons past to keep it more interesting- that would also be a way to keep some of the other cast members we've come to appreciate over time.

 

[The Wormhole]

So could we get some (as minor as possible) spoilers on what we should be expecting next season? Time jump? Same characters? Did we just finish book 3 or book 4? You can answer is spoiler tag, and I don't want any details!

As already mentioned, the show ended with the ending of Book 3.

Spoiler: novel spoilers

Book 4 follows the plight of a colony set up on one of the new planets accessible through the ring gate.
Book 5 is a Major Event for this universe, and book 6 further explores the fallout from that.
Book 7 is a time jump thirty years into the future.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

As already mentioned, the show ended with the ending of Book 3.

Spoiler: novel spoilers

Book 4 follows the plight of a colony set up on one of the new planets accessible through the ring gate.
Book 5 is a Major Event for this universe, and book 6 further explores the fallout from that.
Book 7 is a time jump thirty years into the future.

Spoiler: so...

Are the characters from the show involved in Book 4?

edit: I somehow missed the post above yours...

 

[Marc]

Gunny Draper only appears in the prologue and epilogue.

Give she was next to Alex as the Roci went through the ring they might have plans for her to more involved with Season 4 which hopefully be more exciting then book 4.

 

[David cgc]

Also, in terms of the current cast, there are really only the main 4 except for Miller's old Earther partner from Ceres, who actually has a substantial role.

Huh. I remembered him dying in the TV show, but, looking it up, I apparently forgot that he turned out to only be mostly-dead.

 

[The Wormhole]

Huh. I remembered him dying in the TV show, but, looking it up, I apparently forgot that he turned out to only be mostly-dead.

Well, episode 4 of season 1 ended with him harpooned in the chest, but in episode 5 he's in hospital recuperating.

Spoiler: so...

Are the characters from the show involved in Book 4?

edit: I somehow missed the post above yours...

Yep, as mentioned the Rocinante crew and Ghost Miller are in Book 4.

 

[Aragorn]

Huh. I remembered him dying in the TV show, but, looking it up, I apparently forgot that he turned out to only be mostly-dead.

Are you talking about Dmitri Havelock? The actor is Magnum PI now, so maybe they'll give another character his storyline.

 

[The Wormhole]

^^I've been thinking about that one myself. I imagine they could always bring back the other detective on Ceres, the woman who was Miller's sort of love interest. IIRC, she was an original character for the show so they could literally do anything with her.

 

[kirk55555]

That was literally one person. Paging @kirk55555

I'm only on Episode 3 of Season 1, give me some time

Seriously though I did randomly start watching this show a few days ago, because I am literally desperate for a new sci fi show at this point. First two episodes were pretty good, but its right on the line of what I consider tolerable "hard" sci fi, and its also right at the line of being Game of Thrones where literally everyone is a horrible ass at best and a monster at worst because you can't have good people in a "realistic" show, because good people with no dark side obviously don't exist Also, zero-G sex is moronic, but since its not on HBO at least it didn't have actual nudity or I would have just dropped it right there. But, some of the story was interesting, like the stuff with the water hauling ship (which has literally the only good person in the entire show so far, and even he's borderline), and I am kind of curious to know what happened to the abandoned cargo ship.

That said, if it takes until Season 3 to have real sci fi elements that isn't very good motivation. I have my doubts about getting through season 1 as it is. The cartoonishly evil Senator woman is borderline intolerable in how much of a Saturday morning cartoon she is (it reminds me of how literally every military/government person stationed on Earth in Babylon 5 was a fascist by season 2-3, except Expanse starts out with seemingly everyone on Earth being a monster, it didn't start out mild then go full planet Nazi like B5). Then you have Thomas Jane being a horrible person who mumbles every single line for some reason, so I want him to die both because he's a corporate toady with no sense of morality (getting paid to kidnap a woman and just going with it, it makes me wish he was just playing the Punisher on this show ) and because he's barely understandable without subtitles or turning the TV up really loud.

So, yeah, I'll probably drop the show after episode 4 (the one people online seem to say to get to if you're trying the show) unless Thomas Jane's character grows some humanity (and gets a speech coach) or evil senator woman dies (I'm not picky, doing just one of these things would make the whole show more tolerable), but as of now it had two watchable episodes that I don't regret watching, even if I doubt it will stay at that level over the next two episodes.

 

[DigificWriter]

Sorry to bump this thread, but I started an Expanse rewatch a week or so ago and have blown through the first 36 episodes of the series, reaching a point in the story that is brand-new to me and that I wanted to comment on.

I'm currently in the process of watching episode 3x07, "Delta-V" and have just been introduced to Klaes Ashford, whom I really like despite his apparently being a villainous character throughout the rest of the season. Some of that probably stems from the fact that he's played by David Strathairn, but there's also something about his personality and his interactions with Drummer and Naomi that just drew me in almost immediately.

We'll see if I continue to like him as his S3 arc unfolds, but for now, he might be my second-favorite new-to-Season-3 character behind Anna Volovodov based just on one episode.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

I'm currently in the process of watching episode 3x07, "Delta-V" and have just been introduced to Klaes Ashford, whom I really like despite his apparently being a villainous character throughout the rest of the season

I wouldn’t go that far, he was more of an antagonist than a villain.

 

[gblews]

I'm currently in the process of watching episode 3x07, "Delta-V" and have just been introduced to Klaes Ashford, whom I really like despite his apparently being a villainous character throughout the rest of the season. Some of that probably stems from the fact that he's played by David Strathairn, but
there's also something about his personality and his interactions with
Drummer and Naomi that just drew me in almost immediately.

He was definitely one of my favorite characters in the series. Strathharm is putting on one of those scenery chewing performances that actually works so well that you don’t mind it. Yes, I loved the relationship between him and Drummer. Both characters are so refreshingly honest with each other, more or less.


But I don’t think he is a bad guy, I mean, not all the way bad. Anyway, I hope we see a lot of him in season 4.

 

[DigificWriter]

I've got four episodes left in the season, and wanted to say that I love how the series has seamlessly gone from being 2001: A Space Odyssey to being Babylon 5 without losing any of the things that made it so engaging.

I also love the expansion of the cast, which was already stellar but somehow got even better with the introduction of characters like Clarissa Mao and the already-mentioned Ashford and Anna and an increased role for Drummer.

 

[DarKush]

Finished up The Expanse Season 3 this morning, after going on a binge this week. Overall I have been impressed with the series. Reminds me of Babylon 5, Firefly/Dark Matter, new Battlestar Galactica (more so for tone and feel), and a smidgen of Star Trek: Voyager.


It took me a few episodes into Season 1 to get into it. I was not the biggest fan three episodes in. I liked the aesthetics and production values right off, and was impressed with the characterization, writing, and world building, but it was too slowly paced, and to be honest, I wasn’t warming to the characters. After three seasons, I still am not the biggest fan of these characters, though for the main crew I do like Amos and Alex the best.

I really, really liked the worldbuilding. I also thought the protomolecule aliens were interesting (though I wasn’t the biggest fan of the computerized renditions) and Season 3 ended in an intriguing place, a nice broadening of the story to keep the Mars-Earth-Belter conflict from growing stale.

I had the three seasons on DVD, but I would have to get Amazon Prime to keep watching and right now I’m not going to do that. I got other stuff already to look at.

I wish The Expanse writers had taken on Star Trek: Picard. I think it was in many ways what Star Trek: Picard aspired to be. I also was comparing it a bit to Star Trek: Discovery, and though I liked Discovery more and some of the DISCO characters more, I wouldn’t have minded The Expanse writers taking a crack at that series either, to tighten up their arcs. A few months back I binged Dark Matter, which I liked better than The Expanse. The Expanse had stronger worldbuilding and a bigger budget, but I liked the Dark Matter characters more and I thought their season finales packed more punch.