She will go down with her ship, like a good captain

[opensummer]

I started The Expanse a while back but have been mainlining it today and it is basically made for me as a person and that's delightful.

There's space!creole! Political tensions! Morally ambiguous characters who are better than they seem! Crew as family! Chrisjen MF Avasarala! Unlike Firefly, it's actually diverse! They! Actually! Consider! How! Societies! Would! Develop! IN SPACE!

Disclaimer before I start complaining: I'm on S01E08 at the time of writing this. Two gripes, so far-

1. I'd like it if the ladies had an expanded role. So far we've got three storylines - the cop on Ceres, the survivors of the Cant, and the UN officials on Earth. The cop's storyline has two types of wimmen, bosses and hookers and a potentially dead girl, and that's... frustrating. The survivors of the Cant has Naomi Nagata who is Badass Excellent but of the original five survivors we get one lady and a dead girl so Holden can have manpain.The UN officials on Earth? We get Chrisjen who is again Badass Excellent but she is the only woman in the upper echelons of the UN. There's ladies around in the background but no named female characters besides Chrisjen.
2.  There's sound in space and I should really know to expect better by now but come on. In space no one can hear you scream is a meme for a reason.

Finally, I got a hold of all of the expanse novels and they're going on my to read list but I'm not going to start them until I get through the third season. Tell if they're any good?

Comments

[kurgaya]

Ooh my dad was watching this over Christmas and I was intrigued! I take it you'd recommend? :)

[opensummer]

Absolutely! It’s tightly written, gorgeous to look at, and a lot of fun!

[jo]

The books are superb, but be forewarned that book Holden and TV Holden diverge a fair bit, more so than any of the other characters. Some people have issues with that, I didn't. The main female characters become quite central, and a couple of others emerge in season 2 (I think -- things kind of blur for me now). Also, the show merges events a lot more -- it's not a linear adaptation in the way that say, Outlander is.

Also, if you're looking for SF with strong female characters, Humans is superb. It's on AMC. Not a space thing, but about sentience in AI. Sort of like Westworld, but better and far less pretentious.

[opensummer]

I don't usually have any issues separating books from tv/movies they're different mediums and therefore have to make different choices. We did get Bobbie, and Camina Drummer in the second season! Both of whom are excellent, and Anna in third season.

I love humans it's one of my favorite shows of all times! AMC's been killing it with tv since Breaking Bad first aired.

[jo]

Wow! You're the first person I've encountered here who has watched Humans! Most people have no clue what I'm talking about. I had concerns about the remake because the original Swedish series was so good, but they've done a really good job.

I don't watch much on AMC other than the Walking Dead (and still haven't started the current season yet). Breaking Bad isn't my thing at all. The Terror was excellent, however. I really need to rewatch that one at some point...

[opensummer]

Yeah, Humans never got the wider recognition I expected it to. It's so well crafted that I was always shocked it never got popular. I didn't know it was a remake, I'll have to check the original out.

Yeah Breaking Bad was Not For Me but I think it represented a turn in the programming that AMC was producing and just about everything they've made since then are been objectively good even if it wasn't something I would enjoy (Breaking Bad, Mad Men, etc.)

[prixmium]

I really like The Expanse! I bought the first book a while ago and got like a hundred pages in, and it's still by my bed without moving. But that's mostly because I lack the self discipline to read hard-copy books much. I am the worst English teacher in the world.

Miller's [the cop's if you're still fuzzy on names, haha] storyline gets less... manllllyyyy after a bit. Your mileage may vary about how it hands his relationship with women in general and Julie (as a concept, at least). I enjoy it, but it is with a spoonful of salt. His narrative feels very... traditional cop fiction in space, a bit noir-y if I even know what that term means, but it is enjoyable and updated in ways that make it less stale.

I love Holden, and he doesn't really manpain about the girl he lost too much. I've not even finished Season 3 personally and it's been a while, so take my ramblings with a grain of salt, too. But I think that the thing with Ade was more to show two things: that there are some questions you don't get answered and that Holden convinces himself he's in love very easily but maybe hasn't really been that deeply.

There are at least a few more important women you've got to look forward to!

[opensummer]

Yeaaaah Miller's not great with women in general and Julie in particular. I was almost glad she was dead when they found her cause I did not want to have watch them interact. Very noir in all the worst ways.

That's a v good point about Holden and Ade. It helps that it's not a show that's about character development.

[felinejumper]

Hi! I am very new to your ~space! I think I came by just browsing other people's reading pages, for reference. And my introduction will just be:YES EXPANSE SQUEE!

In my house we just say "do you wanna watch space tonight?" and spend a lot of time gleefully chanting "space! space!" at the screen.

There will be more women, of different professions! I don't think it, at any point, develops super *deep* characterizations of anyone— it's not really what the show is for, I think, so in that sense the women don't get the intense complexity you might want? But Christen continues to have stupendous, stupendous gravel-voiced lines (GOD I love her), and there's...it's good, even if increasingly haywire in terms of plot.

space! space! space!

[opensummer]

that is the best possible ritual for space tv and I hope you do it to the rhythm of one of us

You're right it's not a show about character development and helps a lot, especially once we get Bobbie and Camina Drummer thrown into the mix, and Anna in the third season. Christen might be the best character on the show and I love her so much, especially when she drops an f-bomb into the middle of a hearing