General / Off-Topic The Expanse, Season 5 :: December 16th 2020

Ralph Vargr

Ralph Vargr
Mu77ley said:
Amusingly the Expanse was originally designed by Ty Franck as an MMO setting, then when that didn't pan out he used it as a tabletop RPG setting for his home game, (using the d20 Modern ruleset) which then led one of his players, Daniel Abraham, to say "Hey! We should really use this setting to write a book you know". The rest is history.

Of course, there's an official Expanse tabletop RPG now: https://greenroninstore.com/collections/the-expanse-rpg
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I'm shocked. It's not like Firefly was somebody's campaign, y'know... :)
 

Ralph Vargr

Ralph Vargr
metatheurgist said:
Yep, I know we hate to use the term poor writing for a great show like The Expanse but you gotta call it as it is. If the first thing I (a geeky academic) think of is "Hey! Didn't that girl upgrade our ship" then a smart, savvy operator like Holden should've been cluey as well. They didn't even need to make a big deal about it, just a single line like "Crap, check my ship for bugs!". There's even an industry term for it - "It's called hanging a lampshade on it".
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Lampshade Hanging - TV Tropes

Lampshade Hanging (or, more informally, "Lampshading") is the writers' trick of dealing with any element of the story that seems too dubious to take at face value, whether a very implausible plot development or a particularly blatant use of a …
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askavir

askavir
This season has sure been dragging it's feet... It's almost over, and yet it feels like it hasn't yet started.
 

Factabulous

Factabulous
Last episode next Wednesday, nearly time for me to start watching (I like a binge :) ). They're starting filming series 6 this week, so I guess it's another year to that releasing (which will bring this story arc to a close). From the clips & reviews I've seen it sounds like S5 is sticking pretty close to the books, in which case it should be good - looking forward to seeing how they recycled Bull :D
 

Rubbernuke

Rubbernuke
Ralph Vargr said:
I think they are replacing Alex with Bull. A heroic sacrifice to save Naomi may be in the last episode.
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I expect so too. I don't expect a heroic death though for Alex, simply as the allegations and investigation came after season 5 finished filming. I imagine he'll be written out, since they'd not want to waste the remaining 10 episodes.
 

Rubbernuke

Rubbernuke
askavir said:
This season has sure been dragging it's feet... It's almost over, and yet it feels like it hasn't yet started.
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The problem for me this season is they've focused on characters too much, to the point of padding what should be a few scenes into hours. Most of the trek between the wrecked prison and Baltimore could have been left out (like they did when they used the helicopter on the roof) as it added very little to Amos' story arc. A lot of Nagatas time is just padding, as is Holden who seems to just grimace at Bull.

But I remember the books having dull threads too. Season 4 was dull as it was based on a boring book really.
 

askavir

askavir
Rubbernuke said:
The problem for me this season is they've focused on characters too much, to the point of padding what should be a few scenes into hours. Most of the trek between the wrecked prison and Baltimore could have been left out (like they did when they used the helicopter on the roof) as it added very little to Amos' story arc. A lot of Nagatas time is just padding, as is Holden who seems to just grimace at Bull.

But I remember the books having dull threads too. Season 4 was dull as it was based on a boring book really.
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I love the show, mainly love the universe they created, and love the fact someone dared to bring some hard scifi into tv in a time when there is almost no scifi of any kind at all.

However when I think about it with a cool head, I realize the show has been mostly living off it's excellent first 2 seasons. Season 3 was dull, season 4 had it's moments (mostly Amos and especially Drummer and Ashford - great duo) but still a bit "meh", and this 5th season started great, but like you said it's like we've been watching a very long episode 3 for the past 5 episodes :) Naomi, Marco and their son subplot, sprinkled with Amos trekking the woods, just isn't interesting enough to support an entire season.
 

Rubbernuke

Rubbernuke
askavir said:
I love the show, mainly love the universe they created, and love the fact someone dared to bring some hard scifi into tv in a time when there is almost no scifi of any kind at all.

However when I think about it with a cool head, I realize the show has been mostly living off it's excellent first 2 seasons. Season 3 was dull, season 4 had it's moments (mostly Amos and especially Drummer and Ashford - great duo) but still a bit "meh", and this 5th season started great, but like you said it's like we've been watching a very long episode 3 for the past 5 episodes :) Naomi, Marco and their son subplot, sprinkled with Amos trekking the woods, just isn't interesting enough to support an entire season.
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This is my feeling too- season 1 was amazing. For me they should have taken Season 4 ideas and made it a thread with 5 (so not the same as the book, but taking the interesting parts and pushing them together). I get Drummer is angry, but each episode its the same scowl.
 

Northpin

Northpin
I quite loved the first 3 seasons, 4th not so much.
And the 5th has such a slow build up. Having made the mistake to start watching it after the 5th episode didn't helped either (seen the first 5 episodes in 2 days) then having to wait a week for the next one. I won't be doing the same mistake for season 6
 

Rubbernuke

Rubbernuke
What is intriguing is that if you look very closely at the intro, they label and show some quite spoilery things, especially when you follow the sequence of images. For example, look for the labels at the last ring gate and the planet through it....
 

Para Handy

Para Handy
askavir said:
This season has sure been dragging it's feet... It's almost over, and yet it feels like it hasn't yet started.
Click to expand...
Factabulous said:
Last episode next Wednesday, nearly time for me to start watching (I like a binge :) ). They're starting filming series 6 this week, so I guess it's another year to that releasing (which will bring this story arc to a close). From the clips & reviews I've seen it sounds like S5 is sticking pretty close to the books, in which case it should be good - looking forward to seeing how they recycled Bull :D
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I honestly wish I had waited until the 10th episode was out before watching any of this season. Such a blinking bore - all touchy-feely, "oh look at me emoting" crap! Soooo sloooowwwwwwww.
 

Old Duck

Old Duck
I came here to complain, only to find that everyone else beat me to the punch. I love The Expanse, but the last few episodes have been major letdowns. The Mandalorian tells more story in 30 minutes than SE has in three 60 minute (give or take) episodes. I never thought I would get bored with this show, but that's exactly what is happening. Good job, Amazon.

iu
 
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Ralph Vargr

Ralph Vargr
Rubbernuke said:
What is intriguing is that if you look very closely at the intro, they label and show some quite spoilery things, especially when you follow the sequence of images. For example, look for the labels at the last ring gate and the planet through it....
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That's what my pause button, and magnifying glass are for...
 

Ralph Vargr

Ralph Vargr
Northpin said:
I quite loved the first 3 seasons, 4th not so much.
And the 5th has such a slow build up. Having made the mistake to start watching it after the 5th episode didn't helped either (seen the first 5 episodes in 2 days) then having to wait a week for the next one. I won't be doing the same mistake for season 6
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A definite change from my era of live TV. We had to wait. And, yes, bingeing is better. :(
 

Rubbernuke

Rubbernuke
Ralph Vargr said:
A definite change from my era of live TV. We had to wait. And, yes, bingeing is better. :(
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The thing is (which annoyed me) was that the first three released eipisodes of season 5 were cracking. The minute you have to wait for the next it all goes to poop and slows down. I don't want to put on my tin foil, but it certainly feels engineered to tie into the release schedule a little too much...
 

Ralph Vargr

Ralph Vargr
The family drama of Naomi's past is way too long for dramatic purposes. I find Amos' emotional journey much more interesting. When he looked out the shuttle window at Earth, he was leaving much more than the planet behind. Well done for Wes' portrayal.

I want Felix Delgado to get Marco Inaros- or, at least to have a part in it. Both Marco and Karal deserve Disney Villian Deaths.

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Disney Villain Death - TV Tropes

Villains in the Disney Animated Canon have an especially curious tendency to exit the film by falling off or out of things. Unfortunately for them, even though they are animated characters, they cannot defy gravity. The varied list of things to …
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