You Should Be Watching: The Expanse

I am hardly the first person on the interwebs to use a platform to tell others they should be watching the sci-fi show The Expanse but, you should be watching The Expanse! I think we all have those shows that look good and right down our alley but for whatever reason, it may be the channel, night of the week, time constraints, we never get around to. That was The Expanse for me, I knew I liked sci-fi, I had heard it was good and many YouTube channels and others I follow had voiced their opinions but I never got around to it until recently. Holy crap it is good. The show has everything for everybody. It presents a very scientific “hard sci-fi” world under the surface of a space noir mystery featuring deep characters with various motivations and allegiances Almost like Star Trek meets Blade Runner meets Game of Thrones. The show does a great job of creating an interesting world with history and backstory involving various factions that are fiercely independent but also severely reliant on each other. Toss in a mystery that threatens that delicate balance and you have one hell of a show.

Full disclosure I know the show is based on a series of books and no I have not read them.

Without going into too much plot spoiler territory I will lay the groundwork. Humans have colonized Mars and with that comes generations of people growing up never knowing Earth. Couple that with a third faction the Belters who tend to live on space stations and mining resource satellites. Both these factions represent people looking to escape the shadow of a earth who does not understand what it is like to live their lives. On the flip side is an earth slowly losing touch in both technology and military advances struggling to maintain its power and control over its colonies. Our main characters are dropped right in the middle of this dynamic and forced to interact and deal with all three factions in varying degrees as they unravel the overall mystery of the show.

One of The Expanse’s strongest aspects is it’s dedication to the lore and the science. The best sci-fi shows don’t just lull you to sleep with lengthy wordy explanations for why everything works but they weave those facts and details into the overall story. For instance take the Belters, they speak and entirely different language and dialect that the show’s creators desperately attempt to preserve going as far as to bring coaches on set to make sure the actors are doing it right. They also have very pale complexions and thin bones and bodies from living in low g environments. A fact that is even used by Earth in interrogation techniques with prisoners. The ships of the various fleets operate under a very strict set of rules as well. Many don’t pay much mind to it in Sci-fi like a ship has “life support systems” That is just a room that somehow supports life or artificial gravity is just created by a magic box on the ship. The Expanse puts thought and energy into every one of these matters and if you are willing to dive deeper into the lore outside of the show you can really get lost in the science of what makes everything tick.

The show has also had a interesting story throughout it’s life, even though it was a hit on the SyFy network and was universally praised it was recently announced that it would not be brought back for a season 4. Amongst these rumors and eventual confirmation fans all over took to sub-reddits and hashtags to attempt to save the show and to their delight it worked. Almost immediately Amazon stepped up and announced it would take over the production of season 4 and make it a Prime exclusive show. Season 4 has yet to have a release date but all 3 seasons are currently on Amazon with seasons 1 and 2 available on Prime so now is the perfect time to binge through it in time for the eventual season 4. The Expanse has a deep world, complex characters, good effects and some pretty awesome twists and turns, I would not be doing my civic duty, if I did not use this platform to encourage you to pick it up.

So whether you’re a Duster, Belter or Earther strap on your Mag Boots and enjoy and let me just say in Belter Creole, “Im ta nating”.