Is anybody else watching The Expanse?

SPOILER.

I wondered what was in the water but you see that she's on a beach when the Indian ambassador lady talks to her.

I know, but the beach of an ocean that's been polluted beyond repair by earthers, right? Hence the necessity for ice-mining? I mean it's a small detail maybe but I'll admit it added a note of tension to the scene for this guy

Bobbie Draper always looks so worried.

Amos' Weapons Training Course Syllabus for Beginners:

1) This is safe
2) This is fire
3) Don't shoot us

when does this start again in the uk?

>:(

It's on PB if you need it.

supposedly will hit UK Netflix once the run finishes on SyFy (about three weeks time, possibly?)

I buy the DVDs to support good shows, but watch via www.space.ca/show/the-expanse/ and a VPN to participate in the conversation.

Jim is starting to realise where Miller's mindset was at when he iced the evil scientist at the research station, if he could go back now he probably wouldn't be such a prissy moralist and go into such a big huff about it with him.

A major problem with the series is that there isn't enough time spent watching Holden go from idealist to angry pragmatist. The competing plotlines and characters with more foreign backgrounds always catch the camera's eye.

It was more forgivable in the books, where half the first book and about a fifth of subsequent ones are from his viewpoint.

draper feels like the star of this season. it's bold (or crazy) to not only have a first season with two equal protagonists, but then essentially ditch them midway through the next season

xp: That's to say, in the broadcast series, it isn't really clear at all why the other crew would stick their neck out for Holden. This isn't Starfleet, where there are social norms, or Firefly, where the core have a history, or even Farscape, where there's a common enemy.

was anything else been heard of the tagalong guy who was like the first contact with the alien force in the first series. Was he just killed outiright? I thought at the time there might be something more made out of taht, had some idea of a hybrid form appearing or something.

THink he had attached himself to the crew of the Rocinante somehow and seemed to be a rather underhanded type, then he gets ditched but you see something happening to him. & from the amount of time spent setting up the character t seemed like something more would come out of that.
But i was thinking something more would happen with the pair who crash into Venus, though that might still occur over the next couple of shows.

Didn't he get chomped by the protomolecule?

Apparently his name was Kenzo Gabriel: http://expanse.wikia.com/wiki/Kenzo_Gabriel

I liked him. Thought the actor was great.

I have to give some respect to shows that build a character up just enough to seem fleshed out before unceremoniously killing them. Avoids the whole "meaningful death" plot point while still showing that the loss of life can happen to anyone at any time.

xp Holden refused to give him a lift off Eros so he was indeed chomped by the protomolecule

yes.. holden's hardening does stretch back over quite a few episodes. it's been pretty clearly telegraphed,
Sanpaku. some might say overly so!

Holden is the blandest character in this regardless, really.

I still get the sense that most decisions are by crew consensus, we needed more moments where Holden's tells off a naysaying Naomi/Alex/Amos, "Here's where you're wrong, and why". We just have Holden's gut instincts, which usually result in worse global outcomes, and the crew (prior to the last ep) still follows. As a book reader with access to internal monologues, the motivations are clear, but as a series viewer, we just see Holden as less gentleman and more well-meaning brute.

I didn't question why crews followed John Crichton (Farscape) or Malcolm Reynolds (Firefly), and it isn't the quality of acting, its the script.

I feel like such a Holden in life, sometimes. His decisions don't necessarily seem heartfelt; in fact, the script really hasn't given him a deep heart. The character development has been perfunctory, the actions logical but with any internal conflict being familiar guideposts. I'd guess he's going to fuck up majorly at some point, if the story needs it, otherwise he's going to fuck up in a relatable if enraging way and the polarization of others will be our engagement.

John Crichton was thrust into a battle that wasn't his and Mal on Firefly was always fighting battles that weren't implicitly his but he carried this weight of responsibility as the competent man

Holden is in search of a cause. I kind of wrote him off as a self-righteous twerp before I even started this thread, I think. The rest of the leftover Canterbury crew bought into his hero act for a while, I can understand that.

This was a very good episode. I really liked the gravity-assisted approach sequence.
I hope that one day Amos and Draper get to go to punch-out prom together.

Is anyone else warming to Alex? He's such a ridiculous character at this point that I can't help but like him a bit.

guilty!

Could be just that it was the last thing that happened in the 1st series but I was thinking that once the protomolecule had assimilated Gabriel it would use what it found in some way. Looked like it was going to be a strand for further development.
But not seen anything of it.
Thought it was more being taken in to examine thoroughly than ate but not sure.

Alex's generally annoying fake chirpy demeanour and naff cowboy patter is fairly bad, but against the odds he is alright!

I don't understand why he talks and makes cultural references like a Texan when he's from Mars.

Can book readers clarify the political makeup of Earth? Is it basically one superstate under the UN now?

http://expanse.wikia.com/wiki/Mariner_Valley

"It was originally settled by Chinese, East Indians and Texans from Earth, and people from the Mariner Valley may look like any of those ethnic group, but they generally speak with a Texan accent; for example, Alex Kamal is from there, has the skin complexion and hair color of an East Indian, but speaks with an exaggerated Texan drawl."

Surely the accent would've evolved into something quite different from Texan over a couple of hundred years? I am nitpicking.

"quite different from texan" is a v accurate description of alex's accent 🙃

Ha, fair enough.

I was warming to Alex and then we had that extended sequence where he talked to the ship again and I reset back to zero :/

His somersault maneuver to catch the beer in his mouth was pretty sweet though.

I liked the extended ship talking sequence

So happy the Roci herself isn't voiced.

Captain Martens is an idiot if he didn't want Draper to defect.

Also thinking Shohreh was being at least a little disingenuous when she said she was hoping to avoid a diplomatic incident with Draper.

I was trying to remember where I'd heard her distinctively husky voice before, looking at imdb it was probably that BBC/HBO Saddam Hussein mini-series where she played his wife.

I first remember her as Ben Kingsley's wife in House of Sand and Fog

24, Day 4 is what I remember her from.

^ the mother of riz ahmed iirc

Different dude: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1332975/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t7

haha holy shit i always tht that was him

So Shohreh was his mother both as Iranian secular immigrants who bought depressive Jennifer Connally's house from the bank, and as Turkish Islamist militants who sought to melt down all the nuclear plants.

Notably, no desis on /r/Expanse buy that Avarasala is from the subcontinent. Pale skin is fine for a Brahmin, but the accent is completely off.

I love Shoreh -- the little hand-gestures she makes whenever she speaks are so mesmerizing

I am really the only person shipping amos and draper though

I'll stick to Alex and various Roci maintenance ports.

dude

there is a commonality there for sure btwn draper/amos - the emotional stuntedness, the "set of tools" they bring to a situation. god how cathartic was it when she finally let rip in the last ep

Notably, no desis on /r/Expanse buy that Avarasala is from the subcontinent. Pale skin is fine for a Brahmin, but the accent is completely off.

My girlfriend was convinced the actress was South American before we looked her up.