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12-18-2019, 04:17 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-18-2019, 04:18 PM by Haxus.)
This is just a rant. I figured the cantina was an appropriate place. Since its imaginary, I can imagine myself crying in my beer; I can't really drink beer in the real world, so I stick to bourbon.
The Expanse is a SciFi series on Amazon Prime. The first two seasons were fantastic, so good that we didn't hesitate to fork out the $30 or so that it cost to watch season three. It did not disappoint.
The Expanse is an intricate and detailed sci fi story. The Earthers, the Martians, and the Belters inhabit the solar system but have not traveled outside the system yet. They are the main factions of the story as it develops. Spacecraft are highly advanced rockets, with at least a nod to Neutonian physics. Its like reading a really good sci fi novel, edgy and modern, with cool and interesting twists along the way. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes sci fi.
Season 4 was just released.
We're five episodes in to the fourth season; there are ten episodes. Paula's wondering when they are ever going to do anything. It's like watching a comic book unfold. Story depth, characters, all became so shallow as to be comparable to some of the worst sci fi movies I've ever seen. The CGI is fantastic, but the story, poised at the point of incredible potential at the end of season three, fell off a cliff.
:'(
They need to get the old writer(s) back! Pay them whatever it takes!
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I've noticed this happen to many sci-fi series. It's a depressing cycle, that I've relied on Hazeron to get me though.
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12-18-2019, 05:04 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-18-2019, 05:05 PM by Vectorus.)
I've not yet made it to season 4, but I'm not at all surprised. I think the show lost its bite, though not its way, after season 1. Sounds as if it's lost its way now too - which is a shame, since it was really head-and-shoulders above the rest of the current offering.
In season 1, you felt anything could happen. Earth could be destroyed, Mars could be destroyed, the heroes could utterly, utterly lose, anyone could die. They lined up the shots and then they pulled the trigger.
SEASON 3 SPOILERS BELOW
In season 2 & 3, they kept the tone and feel of an "anyone can die" series, while lacking the writerly courage, finally becoming as wedded as Star Trek to the dramatic status quo. When, at the end of 3, they spent an entire episode saying goodbye to Drummer, who was given a satisfying, complete and redemptive death, only for her to pop back up the next episode, and when, in the next episode, they brought back Miller too, the most meaningful death in the whole arc, I lost my respect for the writers as drama-makers. Man in the High Castle, by the bye, has done exactly the same thing. Nothing ever actually happens. I'll keep watching, because it's a fun space opera. But if you thought it was going to have the sheer narrative guts of a Farscape, well, you, like me, have been proved sadly mistaken.
Watch Farscape, by the way!
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Avoiding spoilers cause I kinda wanna watch this... I watched the first episode of the first series and I love it so far. The pilot was great. Suspenseful, tasteful, my favorite kinda sci-fi aesthetic (grungy, but not cyberpunk. ultra-industrial realism type), and they even had realistic spacecraft (I love when they have to rig for a burn, it's cool to see realistic acceleration without FTL shit, or psuedoscience inertial dampener stuff.)
Also helps that the whole show is just spaceship / sci-fi tech porn, which is my favorite part of sci-fi anyways, the spaceships.
If it goes downhill it goes down hill I guess. The first three seasons seem good, then, which is great.
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The most important skill in any series, be it cinematic or webcomic, is to know where to draw the stop line.
Else anything you will do after that will be no better than masturbating in the shower.
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Hey all, so I'm a fan of the books and have almost read all of them so I will offer some insight without spoilers.
The book season 4 is based on was the most boring book in the series. I swear in those like 900 pages, it felt like nothing happened for 800 of them. A lot of interesting story stuff happens, it just takes a bit to get going. I will say I was pleased with how they presented it in the show, and it had some really good and epic moments.
But trust me, what's coming next should be good unless they royally mess up. The book that followed is by far the best, and I have hope that means that season 4 will be very good. I admit I am putting a lot of faith in the writers, but overall I admit I have been impressed with the TV adaptation and think it's some of the best TV sci-fi of late.
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(12-18-2019, 04:17 PM)Haxus Wrote: This is just a rant. I figured the cantina was an appropriate place. Since its imaginary, I can imagine myself crying in my beer; I can't really drink beer in the real world, so I stick to bourbon.
The Expanse is a SciFi series on Amazon Prime. The first two seasons were fantastic, so good that we didn't hesitate to fork out the $30 or so that it cost to watch season three. It did not disappoint.
The Expanse is an intricate and detailed sci fi story. The Earthers, the Martians, and the Belters inhabit the solar system but have not traveled outside the system yet. They are the main factions of the story as it develops. Spacecraft are highly advanced rockets, with at least a nod to Neutonian physics. Its like reading a really good sci fi novel, edgy and modern, with cool and interesting twists along the way. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes sci fi.
Season 4 was just released.
We're five episodes in to the fourth season; there are ten episodes. Paula's wondering when they are ever going to do anything. It's like watching a comic book unfold. Story depth, characters, all became so shallow as to be comparable to some of the worst sci fi movies I've ever seen. The CGI is fantastic, but the story, poised at the point of incredible potential at the end of season three, fell off a cliff.
:'(
They need to get the old writer(s) back! Pay them whatever it takes! I just finished episode 4, and I feel like things will be getting crazy soon. Tempted to binge the rest of the season but I'm so exhausted!
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It did set me thinking: they seem to be very tied to doing one book per season, and, since season length is not something studios give you much choice about, season 4's flaws could be largely due to "errors in translation".
(Minor non-specific spoilers) That said, this season had some of the worst pacing I've ever seen in a TV show. The overall story was fine but warranted 3-4 episodes max. It's common nowadays for obsessive serialization and horror of self-contained episodes to pressure writers into weird pacing but, seriously, there was an entire plotline in the latter half of the season that was just a dozen very slow scenes of "problem --> plan is made --> plan is executed without any further complication or setback". Then the entire season plot was wrapped up in episode 9, episode 10 was nearly an hour of meaningless victory lap followed by a brief sequel hook at the end.
Bizarre. But still promising enough to follow for another season.
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