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The Expanse

24

Comments

  • #32
    Synode
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,967 ✭✭✭Synode


    The audiobooks got me through finishing Season 3 (about 2 years ago) and today. I've listened to first 5 and they're great. Haven't listened to one in a while now so will probably go to book 6 after finishing S4


  • #33
    paw patrol
    Registered Users Posts: 2,314 ✭✭✭paw patrol


    just watched season 4.
    enjoyable , good set up for season 5.


  • #34
    peteeeed
    Registered Users Posts: 13,563 ✭✭✭✭peteeeed


    Back Dec 16th



  • #35
    Johnny Storm
    Registered Users Posts: 3,982 ✭✭✭Johnny Storm


    I just rewatched season 1, it's WAY better than I remembered.


  • #36
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Looks like its been renewed for just one more season. I guess they might drop the last book. A helluva lot left of the story to fit into two seasons.


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  • #37
    beauf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,651 ✭✭✭✭beauf


    Are the books worth reading if you've watched the series.


  • #38
    coffee_cake
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Politics Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 81,310 CMod ✭✭✭✭coffee_cake


    beauf wrote: »
    Are the books worth reading if you've watched the series.

    Yes definitely


  • #39
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Yeah, they're a great read. I bought them for Kindle a few months back, maybe 50e or so for the 8 books. Handy to have a good excuse to log off work for an hour each day and read at lunchtime. Burned through them.


  • #40
    ixoy
    Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 17,988 Mod ✭✭✭✭ixoy


    beauf wrote: »
    Are the books worth reading if you've watched the series.
    Funnily enough, I didn't much care for the two books in the series I read but I really love the TV show. I also enjoyed the Long Price Quartet, which is written by Daniel Abraham who is one half of James S.A. Corey. So dunno what it was that was missing for me but I may end up finishing the series via the books.


  • #41
    Johnny Storm
    Registered Users Posts: 3,982 ✭✭✭Johnny Storm


    ixoy wrote: »
    Funnily enough, I didn't much care for the two books in the series I read but I really love the TV show. I also enjoyed the Long Price Quartet, which is written by Daniel Abraham who is one half of James S.A. Corey. So dunno what it was that was missing for me but I may end up finishing the series via the books.

    +1, I thought the TV show was better than the books (which were pretty good too IMHO)


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  • #42
    Dades
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 25,558 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dades


    The books started great for me but had diminishing returns by the third.

    Not enough character arc maybe. They were great to start though, and I tend to get bored with series quickly.

    TV was really good, too.


  • #43
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    It looks like the first 3 eps for the new season will drop on Dec 16. Then it's weekly after that. I've a funny feeling that I might have a bunch of "meetings" to attend the morning of the 17th.


  • #44
    pixelburp
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 35,941 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    I guess it worked for The Boys, despite the histrionic howls of some on Twitter. I like it myself, a nice halfway between a binge drop and drip feeding the drama.


  • #45
    ED E
    Registered Users Posts: 36,164 ✭✭✭✭ED E


    7b0a6d42613e85210083061e10a00dfa.gif


  • #46
    beauf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,651 ✭✭✭✭beauf


    That's one of my favourite scenes.


  • #47
    opus
    Registered Users Posts: 4,963 ✭✭✭opus


    Season 5 is going very well I have to say. Can't believe I have to wait a week between episodes :)


  • #48
    MorganIRL
    Registered Users Posts: 589 ✭✭✭MorganIRL


    Don't know how I missed this tv series.. remember watching the 1st 2 episodes but seemed to have lost it after. A very good series, flying through them now..


  • #49
    AOH77A
    Registered Users Posts: 127 ✭✭AOH77A


    Really enjoying season 5, think it's the best season overall.


  • #50
    breezy1985
    Registered Users Posts: 24,332 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    I know he is mad but its hard not to agree with Marcos when he gets going


  • #51
    beauf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,651 ✭✭✭✭beauf


    No one is safe around him. Family, friends, allies never mind enemies. The reverse is also true. Everyone sees him as a threat, and will take him out at the first opportunity.

    That's said the Expanse is rarely predictable.


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  • #52
    breezy1985
    Registered Users Posts: 24,332 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    beauf wrote: »
    No one is safe around him. Family, friends, allies never mind enemies. The reverse is also true. Everyone sees him as a threat, and will take him out at the first opportunity.

    That's said the Expanse is rarely predictable.

    He does have some good points and is bloody charismatic about getting them across. Definitely mad though and
    made comments in the latest episode that he would be willing to go to soviet famine extremes to win


  • #53
    pixelburp
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 35,941 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    That's certainly the nature of the character, both broadly as leader of the Free Navy, and as the former lover of Naomi: he's a quintessentially "toxic" figure in being both disarmingly magnetic, yet an utterly destructive element in the lives of those he touches. He's not exactly wrong with the conclusions he draws about the shifting power structure of the solar system, but he pulls a lot of lost souls into his orbit.


  • #54
    beauf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,651 ✭✭✭✭beauf


    I'm not going to lose any sleep over it, but I don't find the Mars story arc that credible. Or the belter population being so large. But I'll suspend any disbelief and just go with it. But its the foundations of Marcos current story arc. So it nags.


  • #55
    pixelburp
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 35,941 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    Which part of the Mars arc do you find lacking credibility out of curiousity? I thought it was one of the more understandable, logical ones that fell out from the Ring Gate appearance.


  • #56
    beauf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,651 ✭✭✭✭beauf


    People don't lose their cultural identity that fast, and you wouldn't give up a tech/military advantage that fast, and to you one of your main threats. Not on the scale required in this story arc.

    It would make more sense to find a new habitable world, then move en-masse to that, with like minded people. At least stake claim and enforce with your tech/military advantage. New Mars as such. But if there are such planets isn't clear. Also there are risks that the planet may have dormant dangers. Also that the route to the planet could close at any time. So you wouldn't put all your eggs in one basket like that. You'd hedge your bets.

    The other problem is the population of the belt. There only a tiny % on the stations we've seen. Yet they are the most important stations in the belt. Where is the other 99.9% of the population and how are they being fed and surviving.

    Maybe this is explained in the books (which I've just stated reading) better. Anyway its a niggle. I'm not going to think about it too hard.


  • #57
    pixelburp
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 35,941 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    I haven't watched this week's episode yet, so not sure where exactly the Mars plot is going on-screen versus the novels - but I'm 2 books ahead of the show overall, so a bit cautious about spoiling too much.

    The series hasn't always done a great job showing the extent of the Martian mindset though: just how militarised the entire planet is - almost cult-like - all working lockstep towards a single goal of turning an inhospitable planet into a garden. That everyone had bought into the need for planetary unity above personal desires, and the acceptance that even the grand-kids won't see the rewards of the work. Culturally, Martian identity had bought into an idea of working towards a very abstract, lofty goal; Mars is their home - but in the middle of the biggest renovation project ever undertaken. Accepting the reality that Earth was the only planet with an atmosphere; then the ring-gate came along and was like a coldwater shock to the system for a lot of Martians; suddenly generations of effort and sacrafice felt like a total waste.

    Now, there's more to the fallout than this, but to say more is to spoil major threads from books 6 (ish) and 7.

    As to the Belt; again the TV series has shown its limitations of budget & perspective. There are hundreds of stations across the belt, mostly based upon the smaller moons of the planets, and especially the various random Asteroids dotted about the system (usually for mining purposes IIRC). Tyco etc. are the major "cities" by dint of size but the Belt is thinly spread out, which is why it has always been so difficult to "rule" - and for The Belt to coalesce around a centralised voice or figurehead.

    Re. food, the belt exists via hydroponics (see Season 3, where we visited the breadbasket of the belt on *checks notes* Ganymede) and various Soy/reclamation foods IIRC. Again, not really touched upon by the TV series but the Belt is broadly self-sufficient, if not especially rich on luxuries like fresh fruit & vegetables. It's why they're big into noodles and rice, and other foodstuffs that don't necessarily need a tonne of water...


  • #58
    beauf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,651 ✭✭✭✭beauf


    The series implies the belt is not self-sufficient. At least that was my understanding. Hence any issues around Ganymede etc. Have far reaching implications.
    If the belt is self- sufficient there is no reason to be dependent on earth. Which is a core premise of the TV show. Which then has implications for Marcos strategy and his future plans, whatever they are.

    With Mars its just a too simplistic that its culture just vanishes. We know from human history that rarely does a cultural identity just disappear so fast even after massive events.


  • #59
    saneman
    Registered Users Posts: 214 ✭✭saneman


    beauf wrote: »
    The series implies the belt is not self-sufficient. At least that was my understanding. Hence any issues around Ganymede etc. Have far reaching implications.
    If the belt is self- sufficient there is no reason to be dependent on earth. Which is a core premise of the TV show. Which then has implications for Marcos strategy and his future plans, whatever they are.

    With Mars its just a too simplistic that its culture just vanishes. We know from human history that rarely does a cultural identity just disappear so fast even after massive events.

    Belters could be self sufficient (at a basic level anyway) if given the opportunity to govern themselves were they not under the heel of Earth/Mars. From the outset we see they're also beholden to the corporations that own/run the facilities that provide food/air/water and those that process the resources that brought humanity out there in the first place.

    With Mars it's not that their culture has just vanished but it has been fundamentally undermined because of the ring gates and its most precious resource, its people, are leaving. Why stay & toil in the hope that your great-grandchildren will experience a world with atmosphere when there are uncolonised planets suddenly available for all to inhabit. And those that do stay suddenly have a much greater & longer challenge ahead.


  • #60
    beauf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,651 ✭✭✭✭beauf


    saneman wrote: »
    Belters could be self sufficient (at a basic level anyway) if given the opportunity to govern themselves were they not under the heel of Earth/Mars. From the outset we see they're also beholden to the corporations that own/run the facilities that provide food/air/water and those that process the resources that brought humanity out there in the first place.

    If they are reliant on food and water from the corporations, they are not self sufficient. I don't see how that is possible with 50 billion scattered over a vast area. I'm being pedantic. I realize that. I should just wait and see how the TV series resolves.
    saneman wrote: »
    With Mars it's not that their culture has just vanished but it has been fundamentally undermined because of the ring gates and its most precious resource, its people, are leaving. Why stay & toil in the hope that your great-grandchildren will experience a world with atmosphere when there are uncolonised planets suddenly available for all to inhabit. And those that do stay suddenly have a much greater & longer challenge ahead.

    Take the Irish Diaspora. We didn't lose our culture when vast numbers emigrated around the planet. Our identity and traits didn't evaporate. If anything their success was fed back to Ireland. Same with a lot of other nationalities. I can't think of any that gave away all their crown jewels when they hit a bad spot. I know its perhaps mean to reflect the exploitations of developing nations, third world etc. But even those don't go. here are all our natural resources, we are leaving, we don't need them any more.

    But hey I can just accept it as is. I just don't find it creditable thats all.

    Still enjoying it. Great show. I've re-watched most of at it least twice if not three times. The books are lot more detailed than I was expecting. Great companion to the show though. Its answering allsorts of questions we had, Like what happened to the guy who invented the Epstein drive. I'm unlikely to over take the show with the books. It will take me a year of reading to get through them.


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  • #61
    breezy1985
    Registered Users Posts: 24,332 ✭✭✭✭breezy1985


    The belt have no official representative when the show starts and belters don't own anything in the belt other than a few ships. The OPA were threatened only as terrorists and not a government so the main reason the belt can't be self sufficient right now is the inners won't allow it.

    The ring is a blessing to an over populated Earth but could be good or bad for the belt and will definitely turn Mars into a backwater


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