5 ms·

The first season was excellent, and then in the 2nd season they did ruin lots of the story lines with just lame choices, and then the ending went completely dow

The first season was excellent, and then in the 2nd season they did ruin lots of the story lines with just lame choices, and then the ending went completely downhill for me. It pissed me off, just like GoT. There was this other series called Murderbot which had some similarities in the setting of the story. It was not that great compared to the 1st season of Raised by Wolves, but it was consistent throughout the whole series (so far) in quality, and it is much more satisfying. Anyways if you like scifi and haven't checked out The Expanse yet, that is a masterpiece.

datahack 1y ago
I’ve been listening to the audiobooks of the expanse via our local library. Absolutely fantastic series — you are spot on! Also, remember to support your local library.
- block_dagger 1y ago
  I watched and read the entire series. Much of it is boring and poorly written both from a style perspective as well as character development. It’s famous but doesn’t live up to many scifi masterpieces imo.
  - faeyanpiraat 1y ago
    What would you recommend?
    - block_dagger 1y ago
      Scifi series: Dune (the first 3 books) Vinge’s Deepness series Dark Forest (3 Body Problem…)
    - justinclift 1y ago
      Alastair Reynolds "Revelation Space" series was really good: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revelation_Space_series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revelation_Space_series Also, both the "Children of Time" and "Shadows of the Apt" series by Adrian Tchaikovsky are excellent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Tchaikovsky#Bibliography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Tchaikovsky#Bibliograph...
  - postexitus 1y ago
    Strong disagree. There are very few space operas which get both world building and character building so right. They usually are either great epic stories or amazing character introspectives but rarely both.
  - SideburnsOfDoom 1y ago
    The fascinating thing to me about _The Expanse_ is the disparity between the Novels and the TV Show. It's the same content, but in a different medium and environment. I would call the novels well executed, enjoyable and very readable action adventures, using well-worn tropes. There is nothing ground-breaking in them. It's not what's currently at the edges of the genre in the written form - It's not Greg Egan, it aint Ted Chiang or Adrian Tchaikovsky. M. John Harrison does not make an appearance. It's not even Stephen Baxter, Alastair Reynolds or Iain M. Banks. The TV show however, is quite something, it is one of the flagship sci-fi TV series. And it does indicate that written and visual sci-fi might be different stages of development , with the TV version lagging by decades.
- blinded 1y ago
  Its great! Have you read / listened to The Sun Eater Series?
leto_ii 1y ago
> the ending went completely downhill for me The series was cancelled after 2 seasons, so many plot lines were left unresolved.
YeGoblynQueenne 1y ago
The first season of The Expanse was great. Then it got progressively more meh with each season. (obviously my personal opinion eh?) For a really nerdy-oriented SF series try Three Body i.e. the 2023 Tencent version of The Three Body Problem. Again in my opinion the 2024 Netflix version, was one of the boringest things I've ever watched. I'm pretty sure if that had been my introduction to the Rememberance of Earth Past series I would have been left distinctly unimpressed. For an example of what I mean by "nerdy-oriented", avoiding spoilers there's a scene where some of the characters are observing a certain celestial phenomenon. In the Netflix series they are sitting outside looking at something that should not be visible by naked eye. In the Tencent series they're sitting in a proper scientific station, i.e. a big room lined with PC workstations and side-rooms with bigger machines and printers, and they're starting endlessly at a single red line on a monitor while munching on junk food. Another thing: a certain Chinese army base in the 1960's is decorated with picture-perfect, period hardware, big mainframes that a character is shown physically disassembling to service. In the Netflix series... honestly, I don't even remember. The attention to detail that only a proper nerd would notice is, to me, something genuinely new, like I've never see anyone go to all that trouble before to make sure a certain demographic won't scrunch up their face and go "that's not how computers looked in the '60s". I should also say that there is certainly quite a bit of overacting (or over-directing) in the early episodes but they get over it later.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- walterbell 1y ago
  Have you compared the 26-episode (Director's Cut / Anniversary Edition) and 30-episode versions of the Tencent series? There's also a 6h fan edit, https://disembiggened.com https://disembiggened.com.
  - sersi 1y ago
    Which one would you recommend? I loved the first book but hated the Netflix series.
ghssds 1y ago
TBH, The Expanse also suffers from a major drop in quality after season 3. It is so hard for series to maintain quality over time I now prefer miniseries as the quality is more uniform from the start to the end in my experience.
- gibagger 1y ago
  The first book/season is such a banger because it's pretty great horror sci-fi at that point. Eventually the whole protomolecule thing settles down, and afterwards you have essentially politics and genocide in space, which can be good but almost feels like a different genre.
  - robertlagrant 1y ago
    Right - the first season's gradual zooming out (expanse) from a very focused murder mystery into a solar system-spanning event was amazing. It did feel like that event then got sidelined, as you say, in favour of politics.
- unsnap_biceps 1y ago
  The books really shift tone between books 3 and 4 and 6 and 7. I felt the show did really well with the tone shift, however, I do understand how people might not enjoy the results as much as I do.
- dleeftink 1y ago
  I found it pretty consistent! The improved CG in later seasons also clearly shows.
- Eddy_Viscosity2 1y ago
  The expanse drop was entirely due to budget cuts from amazon, who were going to cancel it but didn't because Jeff Bezos liked the show. They did get a budget cut and had to make some decisions about how to execute the story with more limited resources. They still did a pretty good job imho, but would love to have seen what they could have done with full budget.
BunsanSpace 1y ago
The murder bot books are a bit silly from the get go, so the show leaned into the campy vibe to sell the comedic aspect. As someone who loves the book, I think the show is a 10/10 for capturing the feeling. Though if you where expecting as more serious scifi I can see why you think it's of inferior quality.
- animal531 1y ago
  I quite like the show, even though it feels a bit more like a young adult series.
- Terretta 1y ago
  > As someone who loves the book... 10/10 for capturing the feeling As someone who read all the books (fun vacation pop read), I think gendering the murderbot was a significant loss. I also think going with an Eddie Redmayne (https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Ffashion-highlight-eddie-redmayne-v0-pfbzyk0zah8c1.jpg%3Fwidth%3D640%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D7c4ae287d05e821d523815df4b00663147d4eb82 https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.... or https://starschanges.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/eddie-redmayne-height-weight-age-664x1024.jpg https://starschanges.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/eddie-re...) or (given wardrobe) even an Asia Argento (https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial/image-editorial/MfT7QazbO1D2keyfNTc0OTU=/asia-argento-during-photocall-%22-gigolo-per-440nw-14255866bf.jpg https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial/image-editorial/MfT7Q... or https://todaymix.ru/uploads/posts/2020-01/azija-ardzhento-59-foto-10.jpg https://todaymix.ru/uploads/posts/2020-01/azija-ardzhento-59...) could have worked to maintain the conceit. It's hard to have no gender reveal for 7 books, but it makes the introspection so much more interesting.

datahack 1y ago

I’ve been listening to the audiobooks of the expanse via our local library. Absolutely fantastic series — you are spot on! Also, remember to support your local library.

block_dagger 1y ago
I watched and read the entire series. Much of it is boring and poorly written both from a style perspective as well as character development. It’s famous but doesn’t live up to many scifi masterpieces imo.
- faeyanpiraat 1y ago
  What would you recommend?
  - block_dagger 1y ago
    Scifi series: Dune (the first 3 books) Vinge’s Deepness series Dark Forest (3 Body Problem…)
  - justinclift 1y ago
    Alastair Reynolds "Revelation Space" series was really good: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revelation_Space_series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revelation_Space_series Also, both the "Children of Time" and "Shadows of the Apt" series by Adrian Tchaikovsky are excellent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Tchaikovsky#Bibliography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Tchaikovsky#Bibliograph...
- postexitus 1y ago
  Strong disagree. There are very few space operas which get both world building and character building so right. They usually are either great epic stories or amazing character introspectives but rarely both.
- SideburnsOfDoom 1y ago
  The fascinating thing to me about _The Expanse_ is the disparity between the Novels and the TV Show. It's the same content, but in a different medium and environment. I would call the novels well executed, enjoyable and very readable action adventures, using well-worn tropes. There is nothing ground-breaking in them. It's not what's currently at the edges of the genre in the written form - It's not Greg Egan, it aint Ted Chiang or Adrian Tchaikovsky. M. John Harrison does not make an appearance. It's not even Stephen Baxter, Alastair Reynolds or Iain M. Banks. The TV show however, is quite something, it is one of the flagship sci-fi TV series. And it does indicate that written and visual sci-fi might be different stages of development , with the TV version lagging by decades.
blinded 1y ago
Its great! Have you read / listened to The Sun Eater Series?

leto_ii 1y ago

> the ending went completely downhill for me The series was cancelled after 2 seasons, so many plot lines were left unresolved.

YeGoblynQueenne 1y ago

The first season of The Expanse was great. Then it got progressively more meh with each season. (obviously my personal opinion eh?) For a really nerdy-oriented SF series try Three Body i.e. the 2023 Tencent version of The Three Body Problem. Again in my opinion the 2024 Netflix version, was one of the boringest things I've ever watched. I'm pretty sure if that had been my introduction to the Rememberance of Earth Past series I would have been left distinctly unimpressed. For an example of what I mean by "nerdy-oriented", avoiding spoilers there's a scene where some of the characters are observing a certain celestial phenomenon. In the Netflix series they are sitting outside looking at something that should not be visible by naked eye. In the Tencent series they're sitting in a proper scientific station, i.e. a big room lined with PC workstations and side-rooms with bigger machines and printers, and they're starting endlessly at a single red line on a monitor while munching on junk food. Another thing: a certain Chinese army base in the 1960's is decorated with picture-perfect, period hardware, big mainframes that a character is shown physically disassembling to service. In the Netflix series... honestly, I don't even remember. The attention to detail that only a proper nerd would notice is, to me, something genuinely new, like I've never see anyone go to all that trouble before to make sure a certain demographic won't scrunch up their face and go "that's not how computers looked in the '60s". I should also say that there is certainly quite a bit of overacting (or over-directing) in the early episodes but they get over it later.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
walterbell 1y ago
Have you compared the 26-episode (Director's Cut / Anniversary Edition) and 30-episode versions of the Tencent series? There's also a 6h fan edit, https://disembiggened.com https://disembiggened.com.
- sersi 1y ago
  Which one would you recommend? I loved the first book but hated the Netflix series.

ghssds 1y ago

TBH, The Expanse also suffers from a major drop in quality after season 3. It is so hard for series to maintain quality over time I now prefer miniseries as the quality is more uniform from the start to the end in my experience.

gibagger 1y ago
The first book/season is such a banger because it's pretty great horror sci-fi at that point. Eventually the whole protomolecule thing settles down, and afterwards you have essentially politics and genocide in space, which can be good but almost feels like a different genre.
- robertlagrant 1y ago
  Right - the first season's gradual zooming out (expanse) from a very focused murder mystery into a solar system-spanning event was amazing. It did feel like that event then got sidelined, as you say, in favour of politics.
unsnap_biceps 1y ago
The books really shift tone between books 3 and 4 and 6 and 7. I felt the show did really well with the tone shift, however, I do understand how people might not enjoy the results as much as I do.
dleeftink 1y ago
I found it pretty consistent! The improved CG in later seasons also clearly shows.
Eddy_Viscosity2 1y ago
The expanse drop was entirely due to budget cuts from amazon, who were going to cancel it but didn't because Jeff Bezos liked the show. They did get a budget cut and had to make some decisions about how to execute the story with more limited resources. They still did a pretty good job imho, but would love to have seen what they could have done with full budget.

BunsanSpace 1y ago

The murder bot books are a bit silly from the get go, so the show leaned into the campy vibe to sell the comedic aspect. As someone who loves the book, I think the show is a 10/10 for capturing the feeling. Though if you where expecting as more serious scifi I can see why you think it's of inferior quality.

animal531 1y ago
I quite like the show, even though it feels a bit more like a young adult series.
Terretta 1y ago
> As someone who loves the book... 10/10 for capturing the feeling As someone who read all the books (fun vacation pop read), I think gendering the murderbot was a significant loss. I also think going with an Eddie Redmayne (https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Ffashion-highlight-eddie-redmayne-v0-pfbzyk0zah8c1.jpg%3Fwidth%3D640%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D7c4ae287d05e821d523815df4b00663147d4eb82 https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.... or https://starschanges.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/eddie-redmayne-height-weight-age-664x1024.jpg https://starschanges.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/eddie-re...) or (given wardrobe) even an Asia Argento (https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial/image-editorial/MfT7QazbO1D2keyfNTc0OTU=/asia-argento-during-photocall-%22-gigolo-per-440nw-14255866bf.jpg https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial/image-editorial/MfT7Q... or https://todaymix.ru/uploads/posts/2020-01/azija-ardzhento-59-foto-10.jpg https://todaymix.ru/uploads/posts/2020-01/azija-ardzhento-59...) could have worked to maintain the conceit. It's hard to have no gender reveal for 7 books, but it makes the introspection so much more interesting.