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Jeff Bezos announces Amazon is picking up 'The Expanse'
- sddfd 8y agoGreat, looking forward!
- scanr 8y agoThis is great news. I thoroughly enjoy The Expanse. That the internet has given fans the power to affect studio decisions is quite a useful feature.
- sho 8y agoWhile I'm always happy to see good scifi being promoted and well-funded, as a huge fan of the books.. I could not get into the TV series at all. It feels like 90% of it is missing, and what remains just doesn't convince. I heard it has quite a decent budget but whatever it was, it wasn't even close to enough. It's quite possible that this kind of expansive (sorry) space opera can never be fully realised on a small screen, or on any screen. The limitation of the format are just too restrictive. Kudos to them for trying but for any fans - take my word for it and read the books. You won't regret it.
- SkyMarshal 8y agoIsn’t this the case with all book -> tv/movie adaptations, you lose 90% of it? No surprise really.
- tigershark 8y agoNo, it’s not always the case. I like more the Lord of the rings movies than the books. And game of thrones is a great adaptation although it’s probably the only case that I know in which the tv serie is ahead of the books.
- TeMPOraL 8y agoI'll second the books, but I do like the show as well. I agree that the full story most is probably impossible to translate into TV/movie format. Nevertheless, I'm happy with the compromises they've made to make it fit. I particularly like the VFX work, because it tries its hardest to obey the laws of physics even in smallest of details. (A particularly memorable scene for me was the initial launch of the Nauvoo. During the sequence, ship's engine exhaust was shown to heat up structural elements of the scaffolding it was leaving far in the background, and also it destroyed a small drone that got too close. Neither of those things were important to the scene or even immediately noticeable for the viewer.)
- Cyph0n 8y agoI believe that you are in the minority. Judging by the amount of activity by book readers on Reddit, the show has been faithful enough. I've read the first 5 books and I felt that the show has been great so far.
- simonbarker87 8y agoMy one gripe is that they gutted the Avarasala character completely - she is one of my favourite book characters ever but in the show she is so watered down.
- Krasnol 8y agoI wouldn't judge by the activity on Reddit. Not liking the Expanse there only leads to downvotes. I'm pretty sure there are many who won't criticize it just like there is a group who just jumped on the hype train you can't miss.
- usrusr 8y agoThe screens are restricted to showing protagonists doing, experiencing and talking, whereas books can ramble on forever about background. Screen adaptations of background-rich books have three choices: simplify away the background, add new scenes engineered to convey background via protagonists, skip the background and let the viewer sink or swim on their own. Readers who later watch an adaption are rarely happy with either option, but "simplify" is the worst. People new to the material rarely even notice "simplify", but fall into two very polarized camps for "engineer" and "skip". Just ask them about miniseries vs. Lynch Dune. Personally, I love the feeling of only scratching the surface of a much deeper world, and I hate having everything spelled out in detail. As for The Expanse (TV only), I could have binged through ten seasons of life, death and intrigue in an industrialized collar system, could protomolecule ruined that, cancellation or not - guess I should read the first book for more of the good parts)
- xevb3k 8y agoI enjoyed both the Lynch film and the books. Though I saw the film first... I thought the film captured the religious elements and emotional content of the book quite well. It obviously felt a lot out of course.
- vsl 8y agoHe’s referring to the German-Czech produced miniseries, not the book.
- vesak 8y agoYeah, same here. Having read the books, I was pretty frustrated at some points at how much some things were simplified for the TV viewers. It's still the best recent scifi series on Netflix, though.
- mhandley 8y agoEngadget's GDPR consent to track seems really odd. They say they need to track you to provide service. If you don't click OK, and select "Manage Options" you eventually get to select the ad providers you let them share data with. You leave none selected, click through "Done" and you get the actual content page. Yet ublock origin is saying it blocked 14 domains on this page. So, are they giving me an option, and then ignoring my selection?
- omnimus 8y agoI clicked cancel (i asume that is i dont want to) and got straight to the site. 10 domains blocked.
- bhaavan 8y agoI am not sure if they are in violation, if they track but do not use the data. As I understand it, the manage option is the permission to use the tracked data.
- hessenwolf 8y agoData collection is also part of the regulations; only collecting the data they need. Tracking data they do not even use seems to me to be a clear violation.
- danieldisu 8y agoThey still serve you Ads, it's just that the Ads won't be personalised for you.
- mtgx 8y agoBe aware that there are two lists in the partners page. You could easily miss it since the other is behind a greyed-out tab called "Other partners" or something like it, which contains another 100 partners or so, in addition to the 200-300 main partners Verizon will share your data with by default, unless you opt-out (illegal under GDPR). Verizon-owned sites that use this policy include Engadget, Techcrunch, Aol, and Yahoo. Some more info here: https://gdprhallofshame.com/5-techcrunch-engadget-and-oath-cookie-gore/ https://gdprhallofshame.com/5-techcrunch-engadget-and-oath-c... Even though it's opt-out, at least they let you use their services when you deselect all of them - although I don't really trust a company such a Verizon to live up to its word and not actually track you, even if you deselect all of those partners. However, companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter seem to only give you the "option" to "take it or leave it": either agree to their terms or you'll lose access to the account (also illegal under GDPR). That's also why noyb is filing complaints against them (although they missed Twitter): https://noyb.eu/ https://noyb.eu/
- neals 8y agoMust be nice. When you like a TV series, but it gets canceled, to be able to buy the whole thing.
- muse900 8y agohaha, exactly what I thought. Although he is doing us all a favor. I stopped watching season 3 although I loved the series, because I saw that it was cancelled and didn't want to leave on a cliffhanger. Now ill get back at it.
- TeMPOraL 8y agoFWIW, in the wake of the news about cancellation, the producers said that S3 won't be ending with a huge cliffhanger. Anyway, I'm extremely happy to see The Expanse saved.
- tonfa 8y agoAnd you could still read the books :)
- bradknowles 8y agoThey’ve been pretty good about not ending a season on a cliffhanger. That’s one of the many things I’ve enjoyed about the show.
- bjelkeman-again 8y agoDidn’t buy it, but got the US first broadcast rights. I think.
- azernik 8y agoBut did throw enough money at the production company to keep it in production :-D
- crazysim 8y agoHe's already throwing a billion dollars a year at Blue Origin. This is a cheap way to market and promote space exploration.
- neverminder 8y agoExcellent news. If any show deserves to survive it's Expanse. Today with SpaceX pushing us towards Mars it feels like we're living in pre-history of Expanse which is based on the most realistic SciFi I've seen yet. We need this.
- sho 8y ago> based on the most realistic SciFi I've seen yet Big fan of the series but hard sci-fi it is definitely not! True, the humans don't break the laws of physics, but Eros certainly does, and if season 3 tracks the books then that gets turned up to 11...
- TeMPOraL 8y agoWell, there must be some fiction in sci-fi as well :). A small amount of magic is usually allowed. If you ignore the protomolecule, the rest is quite hard.
- CydeWeys 8y agoNot the gravity assist slingshot trajectory.
- ygra 8y agoThat was acknowledged by the showrunner and was down to poor planning between shooting and CGI work: http://www.danielabraham.com/2017/04/04/guest-post-losing-science-drama-finding-drama-science/ http://www.danielabraham.com/2017/04/04/guest-post-losing-sc... There has been a shot with a screen showing the Nauvoo's trajectory to Eros which was quite ridiculous too, though.
- CydeWeys 8y agoInteresting, thanks for the link. I know it seems dumb but the preposterousness of that scene ruined the episode for me. I've played too much KSP :D
- TangoTrotFox 8y agoGlad to hear this. Wish this had been an option for Stargate Universe as well. SyFy seems determined to cancel every gem they get their hands on. Even Star Trek had a [substantial] 'gestation period.'
- zeristor 8y agoSo outside of the US Expanse is on Netflix. Does this mean it’s going to move to Amazon prime at some point? I assume the third series will get to Netflix eventually. Will the fourth onwards not?
- akhatri_aus 8y agoLooks like Netflix decided "Lost in space" would be their Sci Fi genre champion and that's it. It's likely with Amazon that Netflix would lose the previous seasons too as SciFy had some rights issue with non-cable/streaming/digital distribution and Amazon is likely to take these rights up.
- foob 8y agoIt's actually been reported that Netflix is significantly ramping up their production of sci-fi television shows [1]. 29% of their upcoming shows fall into the sci-fi category. Here's a quote from that article with some more context. Responding to new data that shows science fiction and related programming powered the biggest viewer share of its genre content in the first quarter of 2018, Netflix is getting ready to aim even more of its seemingly limitless resources toward outer space, committing more money to more new sci-fi projects in a bid to give its still-expanding subscriber base more of what they already love. [1] - http://www.syfy.com/syfywire/report-netflix-is-about-to-make-its-biggest-bet-yet-on-science-fiction http://www.syfy.com/syfywire/report-netflix-is-about-to-make...
- mcv 8y agoI was really hoping Netflix would pick up The Expanse completely, so I wouldn't be seeing it half a year late. I'm glad it's saved. Not too excited about it being Amazon, but I might actually switch to Amazon for The Expanse.
- petepete 8y agoI hope so. I subscribe to Prime but not Netflix and would like to watch the whole thing. The fact that I already qualify for Syfy through my Sky package rubs salt in the wound somewhat. Same goes for me getting all UK CBS channels but no new Star Trek.
- no1youknowz 8y agoThis is amazing news. When Syfy cancelled StarGate Universe, I stopped watching their shows. Dark matter came out and I got into that and quelle surprise. It gets cancelled to. Sigh, then started watching Expanse and loving it. Gets cancelled. This is me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKgPY1adc0A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKgPY1adc0A Suffice to say, I'm ditching Syfy for good now. I hope Netflix or Amazon just buys them out at this point. Nothing of value would have been lost. Except for the time viewers put into watching their shows!
- eps 8y agoI would trade 10 new seasons of The Expanse for a couple of more episodes of Firefly. Just saying.
- Cyph0n 8y agoThat ship has sailed, no? Good luck getting the cast and writers together after all this time.
- hh3k0 8y agoAs someone who always wished for more X-Files until season 10 and 11 were released: Be careful what you wish for.
- gaius 8y agoI loved loved loved Firefly but Serenity killed that franchise for me. A dismally bad film.
- isostatic 8y agoIt's a shame they never made a firefly film
- gremlinsinc 8y agoI actually liked serenity.. River's character especially, she's a badass. Didn't like them killing off characters left/right, but did help with closure a bit.
- gaius 8y agoEveryone in it did what was cool in the moment but not what any of their characters had ever done in the series. When Jayne started playing the guitar I realised: this is bullshit Part of the appeal of Firefly too was that no one was anyone special - just a bunch of random folks who do their best in weird situations. Now they’re all superheroes...
- jpkeisala 8y agoHow about bribing Firefly to Expanse universe? Having two stories running on one serie and then sometimes they would meet each other.
- nkkollaw 8y agoI couldn't/didn't want to pass the privacy popup. Are we really at the point where if one does't agree to all kinds of nasty ad crap he can't access a webpage..?
- dmurray 8y agoBefore this you were getting the same nasty ad crap, they just didn't warn you about it.
- nkkollaw 8y agoNot really. I have an ad blocker--AdGuard, paid but blocks ads in apps as well--so I'd just see the site with no ads. Now I have to be bothered with notices. But anyway--everyone is different. I only keep viewing websites that provide a good experience to me, if they show popups and similar crap I just go back to Google immediately. If they care about my visit and visits of people that do the same I do, they'll try to provide a better experience. Otherwise they won't. It's all fine with me.
- robert_foss 8y agoThe is brilliant news! The Expanse is the best old-school SciFi show on air now.
- mark_l_watson 8y agoReally great news. Show was visually great, good tight story, just enough background the characters. I bought the seasons wholesale on Google Play so I could watch conveniently. I wonder if I will need to temporarily get Amazon Prime.
- IkmoIkmo 8y agoGreat news! I'm absolutely loving the third season, despite not really being a fan of the protomolecule concept. I know the series revolves around it. It's a bit like the white walkers in game of thrones. You go from the super interesting political intrigue about socioeconomic imbalances, oppression, imperialism and geopolitical relations in the solar system / Westeros, to fantasy/magic/sci-fi-bs of glowing supernatural creatures. Absolutely hate that personally, but I like both shows nonetheless and the Expanse has something special. Can't wait for new episodes!
- tjallingt 8y agoI agree so much. The first season was amazing with the split story line between the main crew and Miller on Ceres but it all went downhill when the proto-molecule was introduced and suddenly there were massive shootouts (with characters who admitted only episodes earlier to never having killed/fired a gun) I really love the political aspects and cultural differences between the various factions though.
- wavefunction 8y agoIsn't announcing you've never fired a gun in a fictional work an example of Chekov's Gun? By announcing it the narrative is setting up the "dramatic tension" ahead of when the character is confronted by a situation potentially requiring firing a gun or killing someone.
- hanoz 8y agoI started watching this last week and thought it looked great, but the audibility of the dialogue was absolutely appalling, I was missing half the conversation if I didn't have volume uncomfortably loud, it really spoilt it. How can you spend so much money on a production and make such a basic error?
- captainmuon 8y agoSome of the recordings of the first few episodes are known to be bad. It depends on where you watch it (SyFy, Amazon, Netflix, Torrent), and if you watch it with 2 channels or 5/7. Anecdotically, I've found the Torrented (from SyFy or canadian TV?) and Netflix versions in Stereo to be OK.
- mortehu 8y agoThis type of complaint nearly always means you're listening to a surround track on a stereo system, without proper "downmixing". This means you're missing the center channel, and instead only hear the front left and front right channels. In surround sound, dialogue mostly goes to the center channel. If you didn't get the video from a good source, the problem could be baked into the video itself.
- hinkley 8y agoI have had this problem with multiple commercial streaming sites on two different TVs from two different manufacturers. I’m a little dismayed they haven’t worked this out yet. Not everyone wants to string speakers. “Left” and “right” don’t mean much in some rooms.
- izacus 8y agoIn that case you need an AVR that will remix it properly.
- camtarn 8y agoIndeed. I was extremely glad for subtitles for the first few episodes.
- tomrod 8y agoGood choice!
- imagetic 8y agoThat is good news. I was planning on cancelling my Prime membership at the end of this yearly subscription. But the Expanse officially justifies it.
- Rapzid 8y agoI wonder how much Amazon made on season 3 sales already? Is SyFy going to even survive? A lot of great science fiction shows come to mind; none of them on SyFy.. I'm sorta happy they picked it up and not Netflix; I find the quality of Amazon's streams to be higher on average. Netflix squeezes the bitrate too much even on their flagship titles like Altered Carbon resulting in banding an artifacting in dark scenes. Space is pretty dark.
- Terretta 8y agoBy contrast, Netflix’s 4K HDR of Altered Carbon (on TV with full array local dimming) was the highest quality stream I’ve seen. Some of Amazon’s Electric Dreams episodes come close. When I compare the same 4K Dolby Vision or HDR show between Amazon and Netflix played on the TV itself, I’d argue Netflix often has the edge. But the show being in HDR or DV, using extra bits for shadows, and kicking in the TV’s HDR blacks, makes more difference to banding than the distribution. Not coincidentally, anticipating Altered Carbon and this winter’s updates for Dolby Vision across the industry prompted my TV upgrade. Having been in the streaming video business from 1998, it felt like a milestone to have a TV quality purchase driven by an online show.
- riku_iki 8y ago> on TV with full array local dimming OLED would add even larger jump.
- evibeefi 8y agoI wished there was SciFi without this magic stuff (I’m talking about the protomolecule). Because other than that I loved the show because I had the feeling it was a realistic view of our potential future.
- ivraatiems 8y agoIn all honesty, this is an outlook I've heard a lot and never really understood. In any society, there is old science, modern science, cutting-edge science and then theory. To depict a realistic society of the future, the Expanse must have all of these things, and it does: People drink coffee and read books and talk to each other on devices that are essentially thinner smartphones. That's their old science. They travel through space using the Epstein drive and communicate with other planets. That's their modern science. (It's worth noting, by the way, that the Epstein drive itself is impossible by modern scientific understanding; it's actually the "magic" of the show well before the protomolecule is at all explained.) They encounter ships that can't be tracked doing human experiments of questionable morality in order to produce super-soldiers. That's the cutting edge science. And, finally, they come face-to-face with something they don't totally understand or know how to interact with, something beyond even what they fully believe to be possible. That's the theoretical part. Missing any one of these parts, the Expanse wouldn't be as realistic, to me, because the bigger point is that no matter how far we've come, there is always something we don't yet understand. Limiting ourselves in the fiction we create to what we consider "realistic" on the grounds of what we, right now, consider to be absolutely within the realm of understood science is as silly now as it was two hundred years ago (and try explaining how the Internet is a real thing to people from that time, and imagine how patiently they'd explain to you that a network of mathematical rocks communicating via trapped lightening is impossible). Is the "it can do ANYTHING" nature of the protomolecule sometimes a little rope-pull-ish? Yes. But it doesn't matter, to me, because the way everything else in the show responds to that magic is the realistic part. People try to understand it, or weaponize it, or profit off it, or some combination of all three. The storytelling around the magic is what makes the show realistic, to me, not the other way around. Given all that, why is the idea of glowing blue space alien rock any harder to stomach than hyperefficient fusion drives?
- stephenr 8y ago
- jbb67 8y agoIt doesn't seem possible to read this without giving them permission to track and monitor me so no thank you
- 013a 8y agoThe thing that made me really enjoy The Expanse is how they're constantly thinking about the physics of light speed, inertia, and acceleration, and tying that back into the plot. It makes everything feel so much more real, even if they don't always get it perfect. One example is how the ships always flip and burn retrograde during approaches to their destination; compare that to most any other modern sci-fi, where ships just "magically" stop with "technology".
- izacus 8y agoThere's also so many awesome details. How the crew still wears uniforms with "Tachi" logo. How Alex consistently wears MCRN uniform and Naomi doesn't. How different Mars and Earth ships look inside. How they actually think about debris, richochets and loss of gravity in case of combat. So much drama is driven by physical constraints that are just waved away in other shows and that makes is awesome to watch.
- mordant 8y agoThe Expanse is a garbage TV series which totally and completely diverges from the novels - for no good reason, since it's a miniseries, with plenty of time to do justice to the books. It's depressing how many people here either haven't read the books or somehow think this dreck is superior to the books.
- guilhas 8y agoRead the 3rd book after season 2. Really recommend it to everyone. It had everything, sci-fi, action, drama, special effects, mystery... Curious how this will workout on tv, although I will keep reading the books.
- bwb 8y agoyay!!!!
- jlv2 8y agoBezos: "I am that guy"