The Expanse - Television Season 1 Review

I'm still trying to wash the disappointment that came from the Borgias off my soul, so I thought I'd retreat to a beloved series that just happened to get a new season released recently. I'm pretty familiar with this series, however I thought I'd start from the top and work my way to the new season. I'm glad I did, as I had forgotten how awesome this show is. I saw this on Amazon Video, where it is available for free to all Amazon Prime members. You can also get this one on DVD/Blu-ray too though.

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General Information 
The Expanse is a science fiction television series based off the book series of the same name by James S.A. Corey. The first season premiered on 14 December 2015 via the Syfy channel. The first three seasons of this series were produced by Syfy, however the channel cancelled it despite its welcome reception. Amazon rescued the show after a successful fan campaign and renewed it for both a fourth and fifth season. A bit more scrutiny on the show's original cancellation was not due to budgetary or critical concerns, but that Syfy was unhappy with the distribution rights. Although understandable, I felt that this was a massive error by Syfy as this show helped bring Syfy back to mainstream entertainment after years of obscurity (I'm a huge fan of Defiance, and I hear Magicians is good too, but I give most credit to The Expanse). The overall show holds a 70 Metascore with a massive 90 User Score on Metacritic.

Something fascinating about this show is that it is not just based off a book series, but that the book series is based off a pen and paper roleplaying game. James S.A. Corey is a penname for Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, who first developed the story for what would become this show by running a roleplaying game. These roleplaying adventures comprise the overall story of The Expanse, which makes this show's development one of the most unique I have ever read about.

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Season one is primarily based off of the first book, Leviathan Wakes

For the book fans out there, season one mostly covers the material in the first book of the series, Leviathan Wakes. There are some differences between the book and the show, but overall I'd say it's a fairly loyal adaptation, although I have not read the other books yet. If only comparing The Expanse to Leviathan Wakes, I would argue that the show is vastly superior, so I don't think viewers are missing out on too much if they skip the books for the show.

The Story
In the future, space travel through the solar system has become routine and Mars and the Asteroid Belt have become colonized. Earth is now ruled by the democratically-run United Nations, Mars is independently-run under a fascist military, and the "Belt" is loosely controlled by a mix of corrupt companies and terrorist factions (known as the "Outer Planets Alliance" or "OPA"). Tensions are high between the three factions, and this is the world that the characters of the Expanse live in.

Josephus Miller (played by Thomas Jane) is a burnt-out cop on Ceres Station in the Belt, who gets assigned to investigate the disappearance of a young woman who is the daughter of a wealthy corporate figure. Miller's seemingly routine investigation crosses paths with a crew of ice haulers, led by James Holden (played by Peter Strait), who become embroiled in an interplanetary plot that could tear the solar system apart.

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Miller and his hat are the true heroes of the show

The sheer amount of world-building in this show is really impressive, and I generally found it all to be relatively well-delivered so the viewer never feels like they're being dumped with exposition. Some have characterized this show as "Game of Thrones in space," but I wouldn't say it has the same grittiness and danger to the main characters. This show still has an aura of threat throughout it though. Unlike Star Trek and Star Wars, space travel is very unforgiving as ships don't have shields and death via exposure is a very real thing.

The main plot is quite good as well, and I enjoyed how the stories intertwined amongst each other, although there were times that I felt it took a little too long for Miller and Holden's stories to converge. Strangely enough, I never had this issue with Chrisjen Avasarala's (played by Shohreh Aghdashloo)  plotline as she is essentially cut off from the rest of the cast, but I think her circumstances are different from Miller's. The characters in Holden's crew need more depth (especially Amos and Alex), but I think they're fine where they're at considering this is the first season. 

Special Effects/Atmosphere
Considering this show was on Syfy, my first concern is always that it's going to be chock-full of terrible CGI, however The Expanse does a phenomenal job with what it has. The space battles all look very cool and there was only a few points where the use of CGI was blatantly obvious (the bird that Miller sees is about as realistic as a sock puppet).

One of the things I love most about this show is its set-design though. There's a heavy modernist style to the majority of the backgrounds and set-pieces that really looks crisp and futuristic. This style is used everywhere from the offices at the United Nations to nightclubs on Tycho Station. There's an occasional industrial twist added to it in the more blue-collar settings like the Ceres Station Docks, which also looks really cool. Overall, the set magnifies the world-building and enables it to reach new heights, which makes the world all the more believable.

****
Chilling on Tycho Station with the boys sounds epic

The Acting
Tom Jane brings a ton of gravitas to this show and I don't think I ever got tired of seeing him perform. I've always been a big fan of his and I think he was perfectly cast for the noire detective role. Something I appreciated with Jane was that he was able to pull off entire scenes on his own and make them meaningful and engaging. The scenes where he paced around Julie Mao's apartment were really well done. I know he's a big-bad movie star, but this show makes me wish he did more television appearances.

While the jury is still out on whether Peter Strait can carry the leading role as Holden, I want to applaud Shohreh Aghdashloo's performance as Avasarala. She brings this effortless presence of charm and intimidation that really stands out whenever she's on-screen. Like Tom Jane, Aghdashloo has the disadvantage of either being alone in most scenes or speaking to smaller-scaled characters, which could easily be boring, but she pulls it off with style and class.

*****
Avasarala doesn't take any shit

Speaking of smaller-scaled characters, there are some great supporting cast that really help keep this show at its best. Jared Harris brings his usual slimy charm to the show and arguably outshines Tom Jane when he's on the screen. Chad Coleman is also in this and deserves a mention as this might be his best performance since The Wire. Holden's crew all do a decent job as well, but I feel like we don't see enough of them individually, with a small exception going to Dominique Tipper's portrayal of Naomi Nagata.

The Best of the Best: Miller cracking skulls and working leads on Ceres Station.

The Worst of the Worst: Holden can be a bit too whiny at times.

Would I Recommend?
The Expanse shines as one of the best hard science fiction television series in modern times. It puts most space opera shows to shame so this comes highly recommended.

-------------------------------------------------Spoiler Comments-----------------------------------------------------
  • The only thing the show doesn't pull off well that the book did is that the book comes to terms with the fact that Miller realizes that he's actually a shitty cop and that he was never supposed to solve Julie Mao's disappearance. That moment when Miller discovered that in the book was really interesting.
  • I never really bought Miller's infatuation with Julie Mao. I don't think this was a fault of Tom Jane's acting, but it never really made sense to me. It just seems like the case became an obsession of his.
    • Speaking of Miller, it sort of seems like Miller's relationship with Octavia Muss and Dmitri Havelock just fell off, which is weird since the start of the show makes it seem like Dmitri is going to be a big part of the series. Maybe we'll see more of him in Season 2?
  • I hope you all treasured that brief appearance from Jonathan Banks as much as I did.
  • Eros looks like a floating turd in space.
  • I know most of you were worried about Miller and Holden's chances after being doused with radiation, but I was mainly worried about whether Miller and his hat would be reunited.
----------------------------------------------------References--------------------------------------------------

*Amazon. (n.d.). The Expanse season one cover image. Retrieved from: https://www.amazon.com/Expanse-Season-1-Shohreh-Aghdashloo/dp/B01AHWLXEC.
**Amazon. (n.d.). Leviathan Wakes book cover image. Retrieved from: https://www.amazon.com/Leviathan-Wakes-James-S-Corey/dp/0316129089.
***Miller, L. (2016, February 2). Detective Miller image. Indie Wire. Retrieved from: https://www.indiewire.com/2016/02/review-the-expanse-season-1-has-totally-changed-the-game-for-sci-fi-on-tv-28351/.
****Graves, R. (n.d.). Alex and Amos image. Pinterest. Retrieved from: https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/388365167848627013/.
*****Syfy. (n.d.). Avasarala gif. Giphy. Retrieved from: https://giphy.com/gifs/syfy-the-expanse-3ornkcGflapSGI9Bde.

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