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Bruhhhhhhh.❤️❤️❤️ I was asking u to do this from quite sometimes.... Thankyou for Covering The Expanse... Love you bruhh This is my favourite SciFi series... 🔥🔥
“Why can’t more shows be like this?”, the drinker asks. The answer may well be in his preamble. He literally took years to come around to countless recommendations to watch The Expanse, worried that he would be wasting his time on an unknown franchise. However, he will religiously watch every instalment of ever diminishing mega franchises, vainly hoping they will rekindle a spark of the lost magic they once had. We are all guilty of this, drawn to the safety of known brands and less willing to take chances with our time and money on “risky” unknowns. If we, as customers, are not willing to take risks on something different, why, then would the studios take even bigger risks producing it? It is worth noting that, while a critical success for its original network, The Expanse was to be cancelled for financial reasons 2 seasons ago. It is only because Amazons Bezos was a fan of the series that it got resurrected on Prime.
Yes, it sadly show state of medias and viewers when one of the best shows on TV must fight for survival and stupid shows - that doesn´t have any potencial, or anything interesting and are only to teach audience about identity politics - are renewed almost always.
I'm not, you won't get me to pay to watch a single other Super Hero movie, no more Terminator movies. No more rehashing good films from our youth and stomping all over them with trash.
It's the fault of the streaming services. They fund shovelware and just fill up their services with a ton of crap instead of saving up for fewer but better programs.
Aaaand he gets by far the most funny/suprising/shocking lines of the entire cast! " I didn't start it and they were all alive when I walked away!" XD XD XD
the entire disney's starwars combine. damn that new char in starwars (I even forgot her name), is so shallow next to amos (the dark past lead to indifferent brutal man). and amos is not even main character here
I've watched every episode of every season so far of The Expanse and until 7 minutes into this video it never once occurred to me that there was a diverse cast, and I think that alone is a testament to how well this show does it. They weren't hired because of the colour of their skin, they were hired because they're bloody good actors.
Well they were hired for these roles because they were from specific racial and cultural backgrounds. The books go into the characters a bit more. For example, Alex family were Pakistanis that lived in Texas (huge population there) that moved to Mars generations earlier. So they did hire people to portray these characters accurately.
I think the more important point is that it's a story with diverse characters - the cast matches the characters and that's fine because the characters are awesome. You don't notice it because the worldbuilding is great, there's no ulterior motive to telling a great story and the demographics of the characters aren't important. As should be the case everywhere really.
@@nrXic They cast to the characters(where possible), not the checkboxes. The only one where the casting didn't really match is Naomi Nagata, but that's because it's really hard to find a well over 6' asian/african woman who is absolutely scrawny. The actress they did cast does an excellent job in portraying the character.
The viewers/readers haven't seen any alien life forms yet (aside from the eyeball parasites and toxic slugs on Ilus). The protomolecule and everything made from it is just a very advanced biological technology. AFAIK the characters have no idea what the aliens even looked like, unless Duarte's people on Laconia have found something we haven't been told about.
@@O1OO1O1 Whatever build/made the protomolecule had nothing common with humanity, zero common values, lived on a different time scale, probably would even differentiate between you and a rock. Disassembly Reveals Useful Pathways- everything is just stuff to poke around with. It's just does it's thing with complete disregard to what is going on in that star system. It just keeps building stuff for someone who does not exist for billions of years. This is something we could realistically meet.
@@damirelsik4996 theoretically, not realistically. Realistically, none of the evidence of contact of any kind resembles this. You're theorising, I'm referencing evidence.
Just watched the first episode and was not impressed at all. Seems like a political drama that takes place in space... I'm sure the show is well written but why ruin space with political crap?
@@fixvble1237 Push forward. They’re character/world building. If you don’t like it by the end of QCB (E4) then you just might not like it. There has to be some form of politics/story to base events around. They’re all the politics of THAT world, though.. not the one we live in. Works well.
It should've been up there with the biggest in terms of popularity. It was just horribly marketed, same thing happened recently with Andor. People are so tired of mediocrity they can let gems like this slip past them. It's a damn shame.
Everybody loves the Expanse and Andor. Is "underated" now to mean even the Amish must watch? I can't figure out how universally praised and underrated go together.
Because it requires you to watch the show instead of be on your phone because of its complex story. It also take time developing characters instead of just being action action action. I’m actually amazed that shows like westworld and game of thrones ever took off because the attention span of the average TV watcher is that of a gold fish.
Showrunner Naren Shankar started out as one of the staff writers on Star Trek: TNG. He is a physicist. I.E. the sort of person who should be running Star Trek if there was justice.
No, clearly the best person to be running Star Trek is the guy who wrote 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,' 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2,' and 'Tom Cruise meets The Mummy'
I mean, it's based on a series of books that all had the same tech described in them. It's not like the physicist showrunner is the reason why the world makes so much sense. The writers, Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, are also involved inthe show and some of the best and most surprising deviations from the books were championed by them. All around A+ for those guys and how they approach their properties.
“You’re not that guy! I am that guy!” Amos is just fabulous…his subtle cues and glances speak volumes……Way to go Wes! ALL the actors in fact are really great.
The actor actually went to a psychiatrist with the novel to ask how amos would behave given what he went through in his formative years, superb attention to detail
Amos reaction when Prax tells his daughter he’s his best friend in the whole world. From that second onwards, Prax is the safest person on that station 😂
Chrisjen Avasarala is honestly one of, if not the best "strong female protagonist" I've seen played in the last decade. She doesn't need super powers or a dark past. She doesn't need proficiency points in firearms or martial arts. She is simply an intelligent, often ruthless woman who is amazingly adept in politics with a willingness to use that power to achieve her goals. It doesn't come across as artificial at any point. She has moments of weakness and disadvantage. Times when she is vastly out of her depth and knows it. But through it all, you know she is a major player without being bludgeoned over the head by a socio-political message.
The thing I love about Amos is that he KNOWS he's sociopathic, and uses that knowledge to avoid becoming too much of a monster. He uses that aspect of himself to protect people, such as "I am that guy." He didn't want that man living with a murder on his conscience, whereas Amos will kill someone who he thinks is in the way without a second thought. He knows he's broken. He knows what's broken. He deals with it. Love that show.
Amos is my favorite character of the show. The way he deals with problems and conflict with a completely rational method with him and his crew in mind is great to see portrayed. His emerging from the hired muscle to someone who has some actual character depth was a nice breath of fresh air
@@SMCca Seriously. The muscle character is frequently the least interesting member of a team. Bravo on the writers for making him pretty much the most interesting character on the show.
Dude now imagine that the narration in the books is from a 1st person perspective and you are switching from one character to another. Riding with Amos and reading his inner monologue and stream of consciousness is wild... He is absolutely bonkers and he knows it. He is also aware that times he can spot much more than anyone else so he thinks of them as sort of naive kids that he has to take care of so that later on they can guide him in matters he is clueless about. All I'm trying to say is check out the books. They are worth it. I'm about to read all of them again from the beginning.
@@MrGreenAKAguci00 His ability to sense danger and prepare for it is almost on par with Rick Sanchez. He's broken and he knows it, but he can see stuff nobody else does. "Get down. That guy's about to shoot everyone." (or whatever I can't think of a specific example) When he talks about The Churn you know he's the only one who can get you out of this mess.
"Diverse casting done right" Yep that was my experience with this show, no character/actor feels like diversity hire. Good and simple example is that gay ambassador, yes he has a husband, yes the show shows, but its just a small part of that character, like in real life, your sexual orientation isn't your personality.
I didn't pick up that detail until I rewatched S1. It's that mature and smart, the man's a character, not a token who exists to check off a box on the representation list.
The books handled this so well. Because it basically made all of our own concepts of diversity fall apart. I mean what mattered was which planet or station you were born on. But it didn’t matter what color someone’s skin was or really anything about them. So well done.
@@merlyworm Yeah, due to lower gravity. I also heard that in the books, Naomi basically towered over Holden (only heard, since I haven't read the books yet), though it's understandable why they didn't do that in the show
I don't think I've worked on a project where every department is as committed to their roles. We went through belter dialect training and zero gravity training to prepare for the show. Glad you enjoyed it. Much love and thank you for sharing.
Serge!!! That comes through for sure! I think a lot of us, myself included, really appreciate the level of detail that you can only really get by just putting in the work! I hope you guys are getting to enjoy this, cause you're putting out something top notch that I truly believe is going to stand the test of time. Thanks!!
Keep it real brother. Yall are the best show smokin right now hands down. My wife and I both were talking and we think all sci fi shows need to look at the expanse for inspiration!
Man, Drinker, did you see the final season? It shows competent people that actually know what they’re doing can stick the landing, even with fewer episodes. It’s like the inverse of what happened with Game of Thrones. Lol.
Oh yeah and the fewer episodes actually worked, as it allowed for a tighter narrative with some extra long episodes to compensate. It closed things out wonderfully that left people satisfied but 100% left the door open for more down the line. Which I am really hopeful for 😁
@@gwell2118 Season 6, maybe. But Season 5 REALLY needed those extra three episodes to really do the book justice. Seriously, read Nemesis Games. They left out half of the best stuff.
@@jaffarebellion292 Debatable and perhaps 5 was the weaker season but still it was enjoyable overall with a solid season finale. Though I am probably somewhat biased however as Nemesis Games was my least favorite book in the series so the cut stuff didn't effect me that much.
@@gwell2118 Fair. My problem with season 5 was that they cut out a lot of the Alex/Bobbie storyline. The attack on the Martian fleet, Alex meeting Duarte, and Bobbie's missile ride. Sure, what was there was good, but what wasn't there was painful. There was this huge dead spot in the middle of the season where they could've slipped it in, along with more of the destruction in Baltimore depicted in the book. Good season, but book to screen, I'd say it's the weakest adaptation. Though I will say, season 6 changed a LOT that they didn't need to, so I'd still put it in the running for the weakest adaptation. Again, good stuff, but it could've been way better. The show peaked in season 3.
This shows is the best example of how to add strong female characters in the story. Not to humiliate men. Show partnership, working as a team, support and respect
nor lose their femineity while being strong = Chrisjen Avasarala in her sari inspired clothing.....Also just my fave character. When she was all...........Savior of Mother Earth. I was like YES!!!! admittedly I have an earth bias
They DO have some woke nonsense, like how Naomi is a damn expert in EVERYTHING, such as when she LITERALLY says shes "not a medic" before perfectly using all the med supplies and healing Amos' broken leg... BUT The Expanse is better than 99.999% of everything else modern.
Hehe, I found this show late last year (pre-season5) and binge-watched it in a matter of days. Then I had my mind wiped so I could binge it again. Now I'm watching it for the fourth time with my ma, one episode a day, hoping all of season 5 will be out by the time we get there.
"Even Characters like Amos, who seems like a big dumb bruiser stranded deep in Naomis friendzone, turns out to have more layers to his personality and backstory, than the entire cast of disney star wars combined" Punchline OF THE YEAR my dude! Glad you like it, Expanse is without doubt one of the best scifi shows ever. ;)
Amos is my favourite he starts bland, almost psychopathic in his lack of emotions but Wes Chatham does an amazing job of subtly hinting emotions that appear buried deep below a stoic emotionless exterior as his story unravels and you learn why he is the way he is.
'Belters' had spread out to the Kuiper Belt when they formed the Outer Planetary Alliance (to represent everyone outside the asteroid belt). Without knowing what they meant by 'Outer Planets' the name would imply the outer belt.
@@differous01 judging by the description in the books, once you go past Saturn, colonies becomes extremely sparse. the only people who live around Uranus and Neptune are scientists in reasearch centers and the pretty much no one lives in the actual Kuiper belt
@@shapesnatch1341 When reading the books I had to check Tycho was in the asteroid belt because of it being an OPA base. I can understand others making the mistake.
@@ArchangelChi There is at least one episode with a ship ensnaring an icy asteroid with a net and hauling it to a colony to process into water and fuel. Iron asteroids are so plentiful, they're considered junk, but metals are still produced in the belt, of course.
Expanse has one more ace in sleeve. It based on books. And oh my god it’s perfect adaptation, changes are made exactly where make sense to get most of different medium.
I’ve watched various episodes throughout the five seasons on average four times. While I eagerly await season 6 with the podcasts, I started the books in January 2021. Almost halfway through Cibola Burn and hope to finish Nemesis Games by the end of the year before S6 drops
Because the book's authors are also working on the show. They know exactly what they can change while still keeping their original vision alive. I think that's also why Invincible is so good
I just cheered at the fact that this video even exists. The Expanse is the most underrated show on TV and genuinely one of the best Sci Fi series ever.
@@StreetLugeNetwork Yes. Every episode is full of little details that cement the realism. So every time the true sci-fi plot shows up and does something even slightly physics-defying it's always a *holy shit* moment.
@@DerelictusAnima I've only ever seen J K Simmons in the Spiderman movies (where he was awesome, but a rather comical character) and in The Tomorrow War (and he stole the show in that, despite being a side character). He has a very strong presence. He kinda reminds me of Charles Dance, he just has that way about him. Thanks man, I am going to check that out.
@@MegaCityGhost Good to know! Read the first three a few years ago and loved them enough that I wanted to leave the series for a bit to let it breathe, have been thinking about picking it up again after watching the TV show, I guess I should.
I have much to say about this show, I'll try to be concise 1: It's a masterpiece, I have never seen such a faithful adaptation of page to screen 2: It's scientifically literate the entire time, books and show, the logistics/reality and speculative technology never stop. They don't fall to the wayside in favor of dramatic scenes with no thought like late GoT 3: There is a definite direction of where it's going, they don't make up anything as they go along, nothing is filler or just gratuitous action trying to hold up a weak or fragmented storyline that's running out of good ideas 4: People act realistically, their skills, abilities and experience allow characters to react to sudden changes, or use their expertise to save the day, unlike other stories which have players behave inconsistently or make really stupid choices as an excuse to build drama even though the characters should know better than to do this or that. People discover ambushes or traps and INSTANTLY warn other expendable side characters, saving them 5: The world building, even more impressive than presenting true science-based technology, but the cultures and societies within vary wildly depending on where their from. Annoying lies and falsehoods don't plague the story forever, people falsely accused and vilified in the public eye are in fact often exonerated as innocent, misunderstandings are eventually straightened out on a galactic scale, such things become public knowledge 6 having rewatched it again since, another very important approach is the pacing, they do not pad the runtime with BS until the season finales, major events occur naturally based on all the above. I remembered some of these as the finale, but going back over it all, I was remembering wrong. Some of the largest and most important reveals and happenings occur not even halfway through a season, significant enough events that I assumed it was the centerpiece of that season's finale. Thus, nothing is a waste of time, and there's reason to always pay attention
Mars is Jesus aka halo around head . . Jupiter was here before the Sun swap . . it' was probable another 'marriage' by Sol current Sun . . the salty old devil
This series (I am at season 2) just reminded me why we are fighting a loosing battle. Baldurs Gate 3 is degenerate woke garbage but people LOVE it. The beastiality, forced inclusivity, gay sex, etc. The people behind Expanse HATES white people. They just reigned it in? What do you mean you ask? They are doing a simple dialectic process. You smash to opposite viewpoints into each other and find a middle ground. Then again... and again until you carefully nudged the narrative toward your end goal. It' s looooong drawn out process but it works. The end game? Something like the acceptance of MAPs. This is a multi-faceted strategy between school indoctrination, government power and company policy. They are purposefully destroying or eliminating the old guard so that the next generation can stomp on their ashes create a world that these elitist wants.. New kids are programmed to follow the narrative. Either through schools or weak parenting. The powers that be will keep this up until they have your children marching outside of the white house with banners protesting the wost degenrate things you can think of. And they can afford it.
I just saw this, and I was so amazed, entranced and shocked that I immediately replayed it, clipped it and sent it to my friends in recommendation to watch the show.
@@neosildrake Yep... Actually, he was "killed" because some "me too" jerky morrons had decided to cancel the actor (harassment or kind of shit). He is alive and doing well in books...
@@Nickel41279 I've only at book 2. Thank's for making me happy about Alex fate in the books. I think the "me too" stuff might actually be responsible for shortening the 6th season and ending the show. As I've only recently, as of 4 weeks ago, started the show and books, so I had no idea about the "me too" accusations. As a woman I can say that it is good that people speak out, but it is bad form to judge without proof. Innocent untill proven guilty is the base of our justice system in the west. If that get's thrown out of the window and companies preemtively "judge/punish" people because of possible social media fallout, then we might as well throw due.process away and go on to start lynching and burning on the stakes again. So... was he proven guilty at the time of the making of the show or any time after? I've heard the books after that continnue with a time skip of several years, so maybe we will get more. But they would have to severely rewrite stuff to continnue without Alex character, if he is still alive in the books.
I agree with your statement saying The Expanse is a show written by adults for adults. It's a complex and believeable bit of world creation and it's diverse without being forced. It's a clever and thought provoking and feels like the creators actually read the novels.
Lmao it's TRUE when I see people nervous around her I actual believe she must of done some crazy sh#t, when sjws make a character like that its always laughable
Totally this, I remember literally the first 2 min of this show knowing that it was gonna be my thing. There’s such a lack of good sci-fi right now and this scratched the itch so hard
My biggest appreciation for the show is that it gets the fuck on with it, there is hardly any filler every scene has a purpose for the overall narrative. Climaxes you expect to be at the end of the season happen mid season like Eros and finding Mei so the plot can continue on.
While I agree with you *mostly*, I found myself getting bored at a trapped-underground storyline with two opposing factions, green shit in eyes, etc. It was clear after an episode and ⅓ that they were just going to draw out all that BS until some magic solution to everything was found, so I FFWD through most of the BS. And look at that! A magic solution was found! Yay. Moving along in the story, now...
Unfortunately, the only reason we can have a show of this caliber in this day and age is because there was an author who did the leg work of a well thought out storyline, rather than modern screenwriters.
Actually, I think the show is actually written even slightly better than the books. More polished. But of course the bulk of the credit goes to the gentlemen behind the story.
Fun fact: The screen writers and show runners are the same people who wrote the novels. James S.A. Corey is the pen name for the authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck who are Executive Producers of the show. I also think that the TV show surpasses the novels, maybe it is because the writers can use their novels as first drafts and refine them in the show. Looking forward to season 6.
Another great thing about this show is that even some of the single-episode cameo characters are well-written and memorable. My favourite has to be Maneo, the horny slingshot racer out to impress his girlfriend. First human to attempt entering the Ring Space and responsible for activating the Ring and its Slow Zone, while ending up as a big squirt of ketchup on the cockpit.😄 He was on screen (no pun intended) for less than a third of an episode but EVERY Expanse fan remembers him. Also, his scenes gave us a fantastic Belter version of Deep Purple's "Highway Star".
Yes! Funny, I watched the Drinker's review of Alien Covenant, because I thought I had never seen it. Turns out, apparently I did see the movie, but forgot the entire thing because it was so unmemorable. But Slingshot racer? Yes I remember that guy from a single frame.
It is by caffeine alone that I set my mind in motion. It is through the juice of the Java that the thoughts acquire speed. The hands acquire shaking. The shaking is a warning. It is by caffeine alone that I set my mind in motion.
One of the few shows I can watch guilt free. Doesn’t hit you over the head with any message, just good quality entertainment with a respectable level of attention to details.
It does have messages, but they aren't hyper political rubbish, its all about the human condition (We see this in the different factions of humanity and the many types of people spawned from these factions) and how we fare when encountering the unknown (Shown mostly though the proto-molecule), its just smart enough to show you many different perspectives and show you that its never simple or straightforward nor is it black and white.
Now that the last season is done, I am shocked that the show had to struggle with funding. Star Trek went on for like half a century, and I’m confident that 80% of the people who like Star Trek will like this. At least even with the tight budget the Expanse team pulled off one thrilling show
I guess that because the networks want every year MORE and more money, to prove themselves to shareholders. In the past they could keep something that made even if quality was good, but not now. Also, the CGI costs every year more and more. Like cell phones. You would think that with all that tech evolution, they would get ....cheaper... but we pay more for anything technological if you check.
While I agree with you, Star Trek was a remarkably cheap show to produce. There were minimal special effects, and the majority of every episode took place on the same set throughout the entire series.
I love 90s Star Trek, but I watched something like 2-3 episodes of The Expanse and honestly it ran me down so much, I've been putting off watching more for over a year. It seems like 100% of the time the show is just *DARK, GRITTY, HARSH MISERY* without a moment's reprieve. Does it ever balance out?
@@Durzo1259 Yes, it does--it just takes time. The first season and a half are based on the first book, so everything moves carefully, but the plot threads will all come together eventually. It's realistic in that not every subplot has a happy ending, every hero has flaws, and every villain has redeeming qualities. Makes me laugh at Trek's magical science bullshit and think Star Wars is for 8-year-olds. One of the best sci-fi shows of all time.
I've always found star trek to be mind numbing pap. Polystyrene sets. 2 dimensional characters. Clichéd episodic stories. Techno babble. A veneer of preachy utopianism.
One of my favorite things about the show is that the writing doesn't shy away from punishing characters for being well-intentioned idiots. In the worlds of _The Expanse,_ it's not enough to want to do the "right" thing: if you don't think about consequences, doing the "right" thing is more likely to make things _worse,_ not better, for the people you thought you were helping.
One of my favorite things about the show. The upstanding moral characters often fail, but not simply for shock value as in shows like game of thrones. they fail because the world they're trying to live in is more complex than they are prepared for at times, so every character is constantly struggling to reevaluate their own beliefs in the face of a rapidly changing political landscape and power balance.
It's like the original Star Trek in a way. It tackles moral issues in a grown up way not just writing lazy ciphers for Trump like the one on Dr Who from the NYE show. The answers aren't just spoon fed to the audience and we are expected to think.
@@derek96720 Agreed. It's something I didn't think about, because, well, I just don't think about _Game of Thrones_ much. But you're right - _The Expanse_ handles it in a better, smarter, more mature way. I think a big part of that is that in _The Expanse_ it really is just a matter of mistakes "making things worse," as opposed to "Instant Murder" in GoT. One of those things accurately reflects reality across most of human existence, the other mostly doesn't.
Well, Drinker, bingeing on your channel for entertainment purposes really paid off. I watched one minute of this review a few weeks ago before opening up Season One, Episode One of The Expanse, a show I had never even heard of. I just finished watching all six seasons in one gulp with no breaks, absolutely riveted. As you say, the cast is diverse at no one's expense. And Shohreh Aghdashloo is magnificent, I hope she works nonstop forever. I hope this series goes on, and I hope it gets a perfectly huge audience. It's a real gold standard for SciFi. Thanks for pointing it out.
I discovered it by searching "top scifi shows on TV" and The Expanse happened to be on that list. I was unsure whether to continue watching after the first few episodes of season 1 started really slow and sometimes confusing, but eventually it paid off.
Sadly I had never heard of this show till it hit Amazon. And even then was just kind of looking at random stuff, was like "eh, I'll give this a try. So glad I did
Overall, One of the best things i've seen on a screen in my entire life. The closest other show that's that believable and felt, simply put thoroughly engaging, is game of thrones. The main thing is that It leaves this impression that most of "cinema" is actually way more cartoonish than how you always perceived it.
Coming from someone who grew up on TNG and the Star Wars OT… it feels weird to say that The Expanse is my favorite Sci-Fi show of all time. You’re absolutely right; it’s Sci-Fi written by adults for adults. I want more Expanse. I want books 7,8 & 9. I want more shows that are in the Expanse universe (as long as Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck are involved).
I've read all the available books and novellas. The show was created by the authors, and you can tell. In many ways, the show actually improves upon the books, tightening up plots, fusing characters together to save time, but actually coming up with better motivations and depth for them. My favorite sci fi show in ages
@@mrsteve4569 Oh, definitely read the books. They're excellent. No matter how good the adaptation is, it will always fall short in one particular fashion - exploration of the state of mind of characters. The only semi reliable way to do this on film is narrators, and they're almost always bad. You can give hints through how they interact with the world, minute changes in expression of actors, etc... but it's no replacement. Rather than think of one or the other as better, I think they're mutually beneficial! Some things are done better in the books, and others, the show.
Cause the ones in charge does not watch their own product? They just have a list: add in right amount of skin tone add in right amount of genders add a famous enough IP Mix together with a high budget and then sit back waiting for the cash to flow in Oh,if it's a CW show then even the budget part can be ignored.
The 'Belt' at 2:18 actually doesn't refer to the Kuiper Belt. It refers to the asteroid belt roughly between Mars and Jupiter, where the gas giants in the outer Solar System are considered the 'outer planets' (hence the name Outer Planets Alliance). Great video though, cheers.
It's imho similar to Star Trek in that regard. I "grew up" on Voyager, TNG, DS9 and Enterprise. I never really "noticed" that there was a female captain, a black commander, a female warrior, a female computer, a male computer, a native american, asians, a black alien and a buttload of other diverse choices for the cast. Because it was just... "part of it", it didn't feel forced. Same goes for the Expanse. Do I feel a headache for Drummer being female? No. Do I feel Klaes is being demonized because he's an "old white man"? Not really. Is Chrisjen a bad woman because she's "part of the establishment?" No, because she'll go wherever the fuck she wants. Does it matter that Amos is white? No, would the character work the same way if he'd be black? Yep. Does it matter that Naomi is black? No, because I have more issues that she's actually not tall enough for a belta. Can one say the same about the cast of - for example - STD? Batwoman? Dr. Who? Ghostbusters? Birds of Prey? The latest SW-trilogy? MIB International? Charlies Angels? Most people on the conservative side of social justice have little issue with diversity if it's not for the sake of diversity. OTOH, most people have issues with "x for the sake of x" in general. People like action movies, but there's a reason why Michael Bay has a reputation of doing it "too much", because it's just action for action's sake.
@@Psycorde I mean, one _could argue_ it also makes sense in STD. Tbh, I'm not too good of a writer to be able to precisely say why things like STD feel forced and Voyager (to keep a "female protagonist" in the comparison) feels fine. A few things are obvious (Janeway isn't strong because the male characters are either evil or weak, but because she is actually strong. Holden or Amos or anyone really isn't a Mary Sue (or Gary Stu), whereas Rey clearly is, etc). But even if you remove those obvious things, there's still... differences I can't put my finger on. But I don't really have to either. I understand I don't enjoy Supergirl, Charlies Angels or STD while I did enjoy Ripley in Aliens, the girls in The Boys beating up Stormfront and Janeway (and B'elana and Seven XD) in Voyager.
@@barelyfree9427 Why do you need to ignore diversity and feminism if it's done organically and not in a preachy manner? Unless you are ideologically opposed to a world filled with people from various ethnicities? Is it so hard to contemplate that a few hundred years later, humankind will be a mishmash of different cultures and women will have opportunities? The thing about The Expanse is that gender and race/ethnicity are no longer the hot issues. The division lines are between Earth, Mars and the Belt and of course, the eternal socio-economic status
The Expanse is easily the best Sci-Fi I've seen in two decades. I recommended it to my 75-year-old father, and he thought he could half watch it, wasn''t impressed and kept trying to second guess the outcome. Eventually, he figured out that you actually have to pay attention, and now he raves about how good it is.
Battlestar Galactica takes the top spot for me. The expanse seems to be too grounded in reality, for my taste. I could be wrong though. I only watched the first few episodes.
The first few episodes are a bit slow and harder to watch because its laying the foundation of the characters and universe setting. It's like that with most good stories. Watch a few more episodes.
The crazy thing about this show, i can genuinely re-watch it every year and it has me on the edge of my seat everytime. I re-watch of loved shows like Fringe and they suffer from diminishing returns each time but never this show. Its too smart, fast paced (from season 2 onwards), gritty and thrilling. Incredible show
@@throwbackthursday680 Revolutionary War? More like Civil War. Everyone in this country would sooner eat each other alive than topple their own government, whom might I add has been toppling shitloads of foreign governments.
I am 65 years old and so remember the original Star Trek. I have the same feeling about this smart and mesmerizing show. A highly intelligent friend of mine that is skeptical of sci-fi watched the first episode with me prepared to launch into a running critique. In the scene where they board the ship and find blood on the walls from the battle before they got there, she says to me, " How did the blood run down the wall if they're in zero-g?". I didn't answer just waiting for the characters to figure out the battle had taken place while the ship was still under full gravity. I have now watched 4 seasons with her and she has never questioned another thing in this series and is a massive fan like me. Also, i love the 1940's feel of the Detective juxtaposed against a 23rd century backdrop. What a great touchstone for the audience as we become familiar with this complicated world. Thank you Drinker for reviewing this!
There is one mistake, just one, scientifically, where they change course using the gravity slingshot from Jupiter, and the experience “G” forces, which you wouldn’t as it’s gravity doing the turning.
@@SvenTviking There are a few others, nothing is perfect, but you notice them because they make such a huge effort to get it right and 99% of the time they do. One of my favorite touches is at one point when Miller is up "high" in Ceres (meaning relatively close to the spin axis) and pours a drink and the liquid falls in a little spiral because that near the spin axis the spin-G is relatively weak and the Coriolis is relatively strong. They did start adding external sounds to the space battles at one point, it may have been when they went to Amazon. IIRC in the first couple of seasons when your viewpoint was on a ship in space you only heard sounds made by that ship or things that hit it and everything else was silent.
This is one of my favorite shows of all time. Avasarala was the role Admiral Chainsmoker was born for. Amos was a musclebound beefcake who seemed like a loyal sociopath at first, but was later revealed to be a highly nuanced character. Thomas Jane nailed the world-weary detective archetype, while Jared Harris was both charismatic and terrifying as the leader of the OPA. But my goodness, I have to give props to Cara Gee. Her Drummer was a workshop on how to make a bad-ass female character.
I have watched this SHOW TO DEATH and still go back for more. To me this is "Clearly " the best show of it's kind out there in the past 50 yrs. Now I will say it does not finish the books that it's based on but it does it in style and I'm sure we will see more in the future.
That's one thing that never made any sense to me, though. Whatever force slows the ship is acting on the whole ship and everything in it. It's not just some resistance the front of the ship runs into - you don't see the drive cone coming smashing through the ship, or the fuel in the tanks smash through them because it's still going 1000 miles per second when the ship stops. So the same force should act on the pilot as well - he should decelerate instantly and harmlessly just like everything else on the ship does. It should have been like when Eros did its little juke to avoid the Nauvoo and then accelerated faster than the Roci's crew could follow and still survive - the massive acceleration had the Roci crew pinned in their couches and ready to stroke out even with the juice, but inside Eros, Miller, proto-Julie, and everyone and everything else was completely unaffected because the force that was accelerating Eros was accelerating them along with it, acting on them directly and not just on the structure of the asteroid.
I only found the expense through this review and I'm hooked, one of the best programs Ive watched in a long time. 4 seasons in and it just gets better.
Reading the books and knowing Amos is there to just fuck shit up is so satisfying. Perfectly cast, although a lot different than I imagined in the books.
I really like that character. He’s a sociopath that knows he’s a sociopath and knows he doesn’t understand morality so he needs a compass. The actor plays that so well
He isn’t cold blooded though, he’s desensitized and only respects those he’s loyal to and At the beginning he’s only loyal to Naomi and the book is from Holdens POV so he seems cold blooded.
One of the greatest aspects I enjoy about this show is that the belters have a language and dialect of their own. It's a small detail but it really helps the world-building.
@@PunksterOS Belter creole is not based on any existing creole language on Earth, like the Creole spoken in the Caribbean f.ex., but is a creole language which can be any language developed from a mixture of different languages. The Belter creole in the show was specifically created by Nick Farmer, a polyglot Ty Franck met working as G.R.R. Martin's assistant. It is based on real languages of Earth, like germanic, romance, indic, chinese and niger-congo, but no creole language like that presently exists IRL outside of the show.
@@Marvee78 And here was me thinking it was supposed to be South African, and the actors were just fucking up the accent. Thanks for that man, I am glad I read that.
I really hope someone on The Expanse crew watches this and shares it about with their other team members, as it's such a nice and hopefully motivating video that they are doing a fantastic job in a genre that, for the most part is being torn asunder.
I hope so as well (I mean the production heads and the studio leadership if they are [unlike Trek and Wars] actually seeking honest commentary instead of condemning it out of hand).
You realise that Cas Anvar isn't in the next season because he's being investigated for sexually intimidating and harassing other women? So many people don't realise.
@@adam_mawz_maas Drummer/Ashford's dynamic was some of my favourite character content in the whole series. She was amazing, but in truth, not one member of the cast wasted their time on camera.
@@Blisterdude123 What amazed me was how fantastic Ashford was in the show. In the books he was a pretty one-dimensional villain with no redeeming qualities.
@@am19228 It was like the writers were literally like "We can do better for this buccaneering chad, let's make him the best character in the show for a brief period of time" lolol
"I learned a lot about myself that day, I learned that I can hold my breath for two minutes while doing strenuous exercise. I wonder how much damage I can do in two minutes before the knockout gas gets us. I'm betting it's a lot."
I actually started watching The Expanse about a week ago and I'm already caught up. It has been literally years since I found a show so good I watched 4& 1/2 seasons in like 6 days.
The good news is that it's really re-watchable too. I hardly ever watch the same show again, I've watch The Expanse twice now, and will probably start it all over again before season 6.
Most shows I can always pick my favorite characters, but this show's characters are all good and very complex, even those with small roles are interesting. The whole cast are very talented and believable, it's the best sci-fi show that I've seen in decades.
@@modisp I've not been upset at a character SPOILER Death For a long time... Probably not since early to mid Game of Thrones when it was good! Ashford was absolutely incredible.
I read the books I know the fate of Cyn and I couldn't give a f**k about him because he is with Marco. But the show Cyn, man I didn't want him to die. Show Ashford is also the most badass space pirate ever.
I always recommended this show and everyone that I told about it had never heard of it. Very surprising seeing as how great the show is. I guess it never really got a lot of promotion. The awesome graphics, great story telling and thought out characters that actually have character devolvement is great especially for a show now a days. I wasn't sure about Amos when I started watching but he slowly became my favorite character. Dude is loyal as Fu@k once he considers you family and will do anything to protect his family/friends even if it means dying. He's got some of the best lines in the show. Great video as usual drinker! Keep up the good work man.
One of the refreshing things about Amos is how bluntly honest he is. He just tells the truth, doesn't play mind games, doesn't hid meaning under layers.
You're so right about the diversity. I never cared about Bobbi Draper being a woman. She was a strong, smart, resourceful, and capable leader who sucked it up and did the job and put her people first. I didn't give a shit about her gonads or melanin.
I really like the character - I think she was horribly miscast though. The acting skills, particularly early in her run were ropey to say the least. She's obviously got better, but I think the show would really have benefited from a different actor
There’s also two gay couples in the show who are characters that play major rolls during their appearances, but it isn’t forced in any way. Them being in a same sex marriage or homosexuality isn’t the center point of their characters or personalities, just a background aspect of them. They shine in their personality traits and intelligence, not their sexual preference. That’s “diversity” done right.
@@gmiller4165 "I live for the day my children will be judged not by the color of their skin (or gender, or sexual orientation, etc.), but by the strength of their character." -MLK
@@Narapoia1 Well according to the books, Bobbie was really tall and well built because of being a martian and a marine, so I think the actress fit the bill with regards to the physical appearance
@@starliner2498 I'm not criticizing her physical appearance or physical suitability for the role (though she's not exactly believable as a marine killing machine in the way she handles herself - not like Amos or Drummer) My comment was purely based on the acting in her first season, which has got better though I still wouldn't call it good. However she has been a relatively major character outside of the core 4 and my preference would have been someone with better range / ability. Can't complain too much though - as I said, I like the character but if they had someone as good as David Straithern who played Ashford it would have been a better fit for her role in the story.
Expanse is the example that you can make a very good show without the wokeness garbage and still write women and minorities in without talking down to the audience and with no agendas, it’s called treating everyone as equals and not making a big deal about it
"The belt" isn't the Kuiper belt, it's the Asteroid belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter. "Belters" in The Expanse are generally accepted to be anybody from any place beyond Mars, including the various moons. The fight in seasons 4 & 5 is over who has the right to colonize beyond the borders of the solar system.
Kind of a pointless fight since Pluto is 40 AU from the Sun (40x more than the earth of course) and a light year is 63,000 AU, and there's 4 of them to the nearest star. There's no way anyone's colonizing another planet soon enough to make war over it logical, unless this has to do with that wormhole they discovered (haven't seen the show, just saw a trailer and that's what it looked like)
@@elucid07 Drinker said they were sublight speed, so I didn't need to know any more to know that it's not logical that there would be fighting over who would get to leave (as if anyone could control that). If your reference is to the plot about the wormhole thing, then I guess you're saying I'm right that it's about that. I don't know why you're being pert. *shrug*
@@horrificpleasantry9474 Drinker said also he won't tell you everything about show. Aliens they've discovered basically open portals to different uninhabited worlds, so humans now argue who gets rights to colonize them. But the show is simply awesome, even when I said "portals" don't take them as Hollywood-trope-portals. Just watch the show :-)
The believability of this show really hooked me. Even though there’s some fantastical elements, they are very starkly contrasted to the practicality of spaceships and travel. The fact that ships have to rotate to decelerate is such a cool little feature
Drinker, I NEED to thank you for recommending this show. Otherwise, I would have overlooked it as I browsed Prime Video's catalog, because avoiding thumbnails with a diverse cast thrown to your face is a thing now, since they usually lead to nowhere good nowadays. Holy shit, this show is BRILLIANT. No other show has got me this engaged, ever. Not even Breaking Bad. Every single shot, scene, dialogue and action serve as either a character development or as a plot moving force. It's amazing that they've managed to pull this off. Thanks again, mate.
Same, Thank you. After watching all of Netflix sci fi series that start out interesting and then just turn into drama fest soap operas, I had started to lose faith in sci fi series. This show returned my waning faith in current sci fi.
I stumbled across this as background to working at night. The first season didn't grab me immediately, but in season 3, I found myself on the edge of my seat, with my jaw gaping. A lot of people who have come to love this show have similar comments.
I always said Babylon 5 is best space opera on live screen. But damn Expanse is basically on equal level. If they manage to land full story it will come on top. Expanse just has more polish, less fillers and basically no dialogue slips.
Parts are amazing. But then you get bits where 2 ppl who don't like each other, are stuck in a room, inside a spaceship and trough contrivances can't communicate with the rest of the ship. Where they learn to get along with each other. Or the magic space stuff which does whatever the plot seems to want it to do. And cartoon vilians that want to appear deep but are not. I don't understand how one person is responsible for the good and the bad parts. The good parts are 100% worth it but god it can feel like it is going to do a got season 8 every few episodes.
