The Expanse optioned for Television Series

[Howdyphillip]

I have read all of the books, and I am as exited about this show as I possibly could be. I do have one request though here in this thread. Can we spoiler tag book discussion until we have a book spoiler thread?

[red snow]

I have read all of the books, and I am as exited about this show as I possibly could be. I do have one request though here in this thread. Can we spoiler tag book discussion until we have a book spoiler thread?

I was deliberately vague in my comment but I think I (and many others) have discussed book details/characters further back. It's probably safer to turn it into a spoiler thread than edit everything. We should do this before the show hits as there will be people who haven't read the books checking in soon.

[Werthead]

Just watched the first episode. Which you can on SyFy's Facebook page and on their website (it's supposed to be on YouTube as well, but no sign of it). The Facebook video is international, at least.

I thought it was a strong first episode, well-directed and the actors all seemed good. Holden was better than the previews suggested, but I have no idea why Jonathan Banks was in it for 15 nanoseconds.

Maybe he appears in flashbacks later on.

They did try to pack maybe a little too much in. The lack of exposition is cool and some of the nods to the science in the books - the Belters being tall, the bird having to flap its wings less in lower-G, the guy on Ceres falling into the airlock more slowly in the lower gravity - are all the better for being subtle. It was well-paced though, which given the amount of introductory stuff was surprising. They also adopted a realistic, "in the moment" feel without going all BSG steadicam on us. I did feel they could have maybe focused a bit more and dropped the Earth stuff back an episode.

The effects were also amazing, as expected.

[Filippa Eilhart]

either someone at syfy misunderstood the word "international" or the facebook link is down

[red snow]

I hope syfy aren't scuppering the show's chances by a) putting it online before it airs and not taking that into overall ratings and b ) only airing 3 episodes before christmas. I feel it would have been better to start in January rather than have a gap.

[Richard Writhen]

Haven't seen this but it's mad kewl that you can check the first ep free. Very buzzy ...

[Spockydog]

Bloody hell, that was good. The sets are brilliant, as is the CGI and spaceships. Cast are awesome, particularly Thomas Jane. Only downside was the terrible, terrible sound mix. The dialogue was muddy and, at times, incomprehensible. Nothing that can't be easily fixed, and as I'm not the only one who has noted this, I'm sure they will.

Daniel & Ty must be absolutely delighted.

 

[red snow]

Haven't seen this but it's mad kewl that you can check the first ep free. Very buzzy ...

It can create buzz, I agree, but there's not much incentive to watch it on TV once you've already seen it.

I don't know anything about this kind of thing so it could be seen as a "loss-leader" in the sense that the geeks watch it, enjoy it, then tell everybody they encounter and those people then tune in. In which case the few thousand who watch the preview can convince 100K extra people to tune in.

[Werthead]

Apparently the Facebook video wasn't supposed to be international

Also, on where Season 1 gets up to:

io9's set report confirms that Eros is in and is seen before the end of the first season.

[Spockydog]

It can create buzz, I agree, but there's not much incentive to watch it on TV once you've already seen it.

I don't know anything about this kind of thing so it could be seen as a "loss-leader" in the sense that the geeks watch it, enjoy it, then tell everybody they encounter and those people then tune in. In which case the few thousand who watch the preview can convince 100K extra people to tune in.

They did something similar with Mr Robot, which didn't seem to do that show any harm.

I think the plan is to broadcast episodes 1 and 2 on consecutive days (14 and 15 December).  Though, I hear there's going to be a three or four week gap between episodes 2 and 3, or 3 and 4. Why, why, why not just wait until January before putting it on?

 

[Relic]

I really enjoyed this. Has a lot of potential. It's been a while since i read the first book, but it seems they stayed pretty faithful (Earth stuff from book 2 aside)

Also liked some of the small touches of detail, like the sea walls all around New York.

The only thing that really didn't work for me was Amos. He's all wrong physically, remains to be seen if they got his personality right. 

[TheRevanchist]

It was quite good, better than I expected. Not great, but good enough to make me think that finally, we may have a new Battlestar Galactica.

Saying that, two things I didn't like:
- Avasarela was annoying despite that she is by far my favorite character in the books. Also, what she is doing this early in the story? 
- Wasn't Naomi supposed to be near 2 meters tall and to tower over Holden. Of course not a big deal, but I thought that the other Belters looked tall, while Naomi was normal-height.

Things that I liked:
- the cast was quite good. Miller looked exactly like Miller I imagined. Holden, not far off.
- CGI was great.
- New York looked great.
- Fucking in 0 gravity.

[Martini Sigil]

The trailer looks friggin amazing.... with everything on TV now and in the recent past.... this genre is vastly under done...

[Richard Writhen]

Sci Fi does seem kinda subordinate to fantasy right now because of the efforts of a certain franchise ...

 

 

 

But that's apt to change rather rapidly once TFA comes out ...

[Xray the Enforcer]

I just finished the first episode and I am making sounds only bats can hear.    

[Corvinus85]

Great first episode. It had me just as giddy as the first episode of Game of Thrones. I hope it continues to deliver.

Good visual effects, and though I was disappointed at first because they were doing sounds in space, I quickly changed my mind because they really added to the atmosphere really well, like the Canterbury's engines firing up, with the awesome music in the background, or the sound of magnetic boots in a decompressed area.

I appreciate their effort to show the physical differences between Belters and Earthers and Martians. Based on Miller, I was expecting nothing, but I liked seeing the tall, lanky Belters. I even liked the explanation they gave for Miller looking more like an Earther. Maybe they did the same with Naomi. Now the Belter tongue is atrocious, but again, appreciate the effort. I liked that they have do all the Belter hand signals, as well.

Also appreciate their effort for making some incredible sets. Ceres looks great. 

 

Considering that how little space the Canterbury takes in the story, well done on bringing it to life on the small screen.

Thomas Jane and Steven Strait were both good. And while Shohreh Aghdashloo seems to be the right choice for Avasarala, I'm still having trouble seeing her cuss. Her scene with the Belter was OK.

Also kudos to them for putting in some known actors that died by the end of the episode. For anyone not familiar with the books, that should add something to the shock.

A nod to the title sequence as well; appropriate and with good music.

[Astromech]

I realize it's common knowledge to temper expectations with Syfy, but I'm pretty excited after the first episode. The casting was good with the actors all pulling off their roles. Still Amos needs to be bigger and Avasarala needs gray hair. (yes, nitpicking) There was just enough exposition to lay the groundwork. More show and less tell is appreciated. The setting was really well adapted with the effects. I'm used to very cheap effects on Syfy and these were actually quite impressive. I hope that means Syfy is invested for the future of this series.

 

 

[RedEyedGhost]

Sci Fi does seem kinda subordinate to fantasy right now because of the efforts of a certain franchise ...

 

 

 

But that's apt to change rather rapidly once TFA comes out ...

TFA?

[Astromech]

The Force Awakens, I assume

[red snow]

They did something similar with Mr Robot, which didn't seem to do that show any harm.

I think the plan is to broadcast episodes 1 and 2 on consecutive days (14 and 15 December).  Though, I hear there's going to be a three or four week gap between episodes 2 and 3, or 3 and 4. Why, why, why not just wait until January before putting it on?

 

Good point RE Mr Robot - ratings were highest for the premier so the buzz generator probably does pay off. Giving people a month to forget about the show is still hard to justify though. Maybe they'd be well served having the show online after all. Fickle me.

HAving just watched it, I really don't want to see the best thing since BSG be screwed over by Syfy's inability to know what to do with a great show again.

I agree with X-ray that Ty and Daniel must be giddy with how good the adaptation is. That includes the differences as well - I'm not one of those who thinks an adaptation has to be exactly the same (because it would be a duplication then) and it seems all the changes so far are for the good of a TV show. The production values look way better than some of the preview footage and the characters work well too (Holden seems far more obvious a choice now I've seen the first episode). Basically, it's better on all fronts than I was expecting. I agree with those who had trouble hearing things at times and the Belter language was almost incomprehensible. I think this may have been on purpose - the weird sound reflected enclosed spaces and we're supposed to have trouble understanding the Belters. Moving forward I do hope they provide subtitles for the Belters when the accent is thick. The sound is one of those things where they should probably sacrifice authenticity for clarity though.

Specifics on the plot I will put in spoilers

There were some really clever visual tricks used to get over my two main concerns with the show - gravity and the Belters physical differences. The gravity was handled amazingly well and I'm comforted that they aren't ignoring this. The actors do a great job of conveying the different g (pretty sure there were times where Thomas Jane was walking up stairs in an exaggerated way and the crew on the scopula were definintely moving differently). The bird looked crap but the message it conveyed was brilliant - if the show throws little touches like this in throughout I'll be impressed. As for the Belters i really liked the (in hindsight) obvious trick of saying it's only mutli-generation Belters that have the extreme appearance meaning they only have to throw a small number of people with "extreme" physiques to get the overall idea over. Wasn't sure whether some of the actors had cgi assists or not but the earth prisoner and the prostitute?/woman at the ceres crime scene really got the difference across. Again, I don't recall the book having this approach (I think all belters born in space looked that way) so it's again reassuring that the writers are coming up with such clever ideas for the adaption.

Storywise it seemed pretty faithful (it's been a few years since I read the book) and the juggled the various storylines well. I like how sinister Mars appeared and the earth interogation was different but fits. I think there'll be plenty of excuses to have Avasarala dealing with the politics of what should be happening in season 1.

I also liked how the show spent time to make us invest in characters that died. They could have so easily not bothered and just focused on what will become the main cast. Good stunt-casting too, hope they can keep that up.

Amos could do with being a bit more phyiscally intimidating but there's something about his almost child-like facial expressions that reminds me a lot of the character in the book.

I also got a couple of chills at various points in the show eg the turn around, the bird and the reveal of what was in the scopula. Probably because of resonance with the book but maybe just because it was good cinema.

So, I'm very happy.

Hope this also sends book sales through the roof. Ty and Dan both seem great guys (I know more of Dan through his books and presence here) and it'd be great for their hard work to make them financially secure so they can keep on bringing us books to enjoy reading.