The Expanse Season 2 Trailers

[Galvatron]

I have access to this show via Amazon Prime. Is it worth my time?

[Imperial Overlord]

Firing PDCs doesn't really complicate the heat management situation because you're firing PDCs at enemy ships at close range or missiles that engage you. You're invisibility has already failed when PDCs matter. The need to keep them in emplacements with retractable covers when or something similar when being stealthy out of battle might limit their fire arc.

Of the firing PDCs I'm worried about. It's the mounting of them. To keep this thing from leaking IR just from the heat it produces during normal operations is probably incredibly difficult. It would take sophisticated mechanisms with materials that absorb radiation in specific patterns across its surface. The more holes (for cables, as an example) you put on the surface, the more likely someone is going to see that.

Yes, we agreed. As with just about everything else. The ship is going to have similar problems with mounting sensors and comm arrays as well. That's why the PDCs appear to be in mounted in areas that be can be shielded with retractable covers. IR from the guns when not in operation isn't going to be a big problem compared to IR from the ship's drive because its a stealth ship in a universe where long sustained burns are possible and its going to have to able to make those. That's undoubtedly one of the reasons they get detected at combat ranges when active. There's only so much you can do to hide a fusion drive.

[Adam Reynolds]

I have access to this show via Amazon Prime. Is it worth my time?

I would say absolutely yes. The Expanse is one of the best attempts to portray realistic physics in spaceflight while still having a story that is based on character rather than technobabble. Season 1 can be a little slow at times, but it is still well worth it.

[Batman]

I'm with Adam. I consider this well worth watching, and I not only never read, I never heard of the books this is based on until the series came around.

[Iroscato]

I'll add my fuck yes to the chorus. Season 2 especially is ramping shit up magnificently.

[Imperial Overlord]

The series is definitely worth your time. The books are also worth reading.

[FireNexus]

I have access to this show via Amazon Prime. Is it worth my time?

Yes. The first few episodes are kinda slow, and the first season as a whole is a bet less even than I'd've preferred, but it's overall really good and hits the ground running with a few stumbles after episode 4.

To be honest, given the first half of season 2 (which closes out book one) my biggest complaint is probably that they didn't just cram the whole book into the season.

[Iroscato]

This season - and the last two episodes in particular - have cemented this show as one of my absolute all-time faves.

Holy shit.

[Adam Reynolds]

My only concern with season 2 that I don't quite see how they will keep escalating from here. They took the climax to the first book and put it into the middle of the season. How can you go bigger than Spoiler

the protomolecule infected Eros headed on a collision course with Earth?

There are more than enough loose ends, but I don't quite see where they are going.

[K. A. Pital]

Oh you can go bigger, read teh books.

[Spice Runner]

I've seen the books on bookshelves at several Barnes & Noble stores near me. I liked the cover work and summary blurbs on the cover, but never bothered to pick them up. Now after watching the expanse upto the current episode, I'm thinking to read the novels.

I love this kind of SciFi.

[FireNexus]

The books are awesome. The second one ends with a cliffhanger that would be criminal to not put in the season 2 finale. If I hadn't picked them up when four of them were already out I'd have broken my kindle and been barred from my beer and book spot in anger by throwing it at the wall.

[FireNexus]

My only concern with season 2 that I don't quite see how they will keep escalating from here.

There are more than enough loose ends, but I don't quite see where they are going.

If they can get to the final mindfuck of the second book (the personal one, not the system-wide one), even if they have to move it earlier in the narrative, they will be going bigger. Then there's the events of the third book, which are bananas. I'd be ok if they pare down book four by a wide margin, because I just can't see them making it interesting. It's the only one I slogged through because I was invested, and it involved something that struck me as a pointless waste of Spoiler

The Investigator

a character with a compelling backstory rooted deeply in the events on Eros from a narrative perspective. All the worse because it seems like it was meant to be some great sacrifice instead of a cop out. Spoiler

Book fans, see what I did there?

Though I am willing to overlook it if it pays off in an unexpected way later on, which is not unlikely given the roots of said character.

But five, with its renewed focus on the Belt->Earth->Mars dynamic under the new paradigm and its pay off of a foreshadow from Book Two (in fact something that happened in the first episode during the Earth scenes in the show) and Six, with its tidy wrap up of the three book second arc, paid off my patience.

[Iroscato]

Yup, spoiler tags are still shot to shit I see...

[Parallax]

The newest episode was great.
I'm a little confused about the battle at the end of it, though. The location had a clearly marked border between the UN and Mars, yes? And they were patrolling it on foot?
The giant structures that were shot down were greenhouse habitats of some kind?

[Imperial Overlord]

Ganymede is the breadbasket of the system (not counting Earth) and the center of advanced agricultural system off-Earth. Parts are Mars controlled, parts UN controlled. The giant structures are either big ass mirrors to help the greenhouses or greenhouses depending on the structure in question.

[FireNexus]

The newest episode was great.
I'm a little confused about the battle at the end of it, though. The location had a clearly marked border between the UN and Mars, yes? And they were patrolling it on foot?
The giant structures that were shot down were greenhouse habitats of some kind?

Ganymede has a magnetic field which makes it uniquely suited to agriculture (of the super-advanced put a chloroplast in yeast then use GM tech to have it produce everything you need variety) among the moons of the outer solar system. They were patrolling on foot because tensions are so high that a hot war might break out any minute, and each side wants to either control Ganymede or deny their enemy control of it. That particular mission profile is helped by ground troops.

The structures as mentioned by IO were the orbital mirrors. They're used to concentrate sunlight to facilitate agriculture. Their destruction is a humanitarian crisis on two levels:

1. The general shittiness of having a billion pieces of mirror crash on a populated planet from orbit.

And

2. The grinding to a halt of the single most important food production facility for Belters.

The specifics of the ground battle should be revealed either in flashback or guncam footage (or likely a flashback that cuts to guncam right around the time the zombie guy explodes) next week.

[Adam Reynolds]

That was a good one. We'll see what happened after Gannymeade was destroyed. The Martian Navy officer's comments make me wonder if he and the Martian fleet were the ones who fired first in space. Especially since he was also the one who fired at Phoebe station. Also, Avasarala is officially the biggest badass in the solar system.

As a side note, I really like the dynamic of PDC fire in this series. It is a nice way of allowing random damage and character deaths to occur in whatever fashion fits the story most effectively. It actually is an interesting way to have the same dynamic of starfighter combat a la Star Wars with a somewhat more realistic vessel like the Rocinante as the base unit rather than a fighter squadron. You could have something like Luke being the last surviving crew member during a major attack run.

[Lonestar]

Man Shohreh Aghdashloo is probably the best actress on television.

I'm paying to see it on Amazon Prime, I really hope it lasts longer than three seasons.

[Deathstalker]

Man Shohreh Aghdashloo is probably the best actress on television.

Definitely deserves an Emmy nomination.

Frankie Adams was born to play Gunny Draper

[Adam Reynolds]

Because this is science fiction, she almost certainly won't get it, which is too bad. Why has fantasy broken that barrier while science fiction has not?

[Shroom Man 777]

Man Shohreh Aghdashloo is probably the best actress on television.

Avasarala is an amazing character. She's like... Amanda Waller but for politics instead of anti-super black ops. Or something. I've never seen any character quite like her. Ruthless politicking AND humanness and some goodness that makes her a protagonist who's not a total goody-two-shoes. Part Catelyn Stark, part Tywinn Lannister? That would be insufficient a description. Too competent to be a Cersei or a Dany, both of whom are... well, strong but... thick in the head.

It's great that she (and others) form the narrative anchor for the high-stakes stuff while the others go play space cowboy, space noir, go pew-pew and punch faces and have adventures both happy and sad. Like, she makes the political stuff work so well and she's not surrounded by CG explosions or whatever.

[K. A. Pital]

Avasarala is a typical image of an old-school politician (also in the books) - corrupt like Mitterand, but still human "at heart", and follows own ideology etc. It is not such an atypical character, but it is one of the few books/films where such a character is given central stage to be one of the key protagonists.

I mostly like Mars and most Martian characters, although the whole civilization of Mars in "Expanse" is unrealistic (it has no agricultural base to sustain such a massive industry, including shipbuilding industry, and have the best or second-best fleet in the Solar system - a society where the industrial top is too large). I understand that Mars is modeled on the Soviet Union (and Earth is just an extension of the Western powers, while asteroids are the Third World), but it is still weird.

[Shroom Man 777]

Avasarala is a typical image of an old-school politician (also in the books) - corrupt like Mitterand, but still human "at heart", and follows own ideology etc. It is not such an atypical character, but it is one of the few books/films where such a character is given central stage to be one of the key protagonists.

It's done so well though, we don't see it that much. And the thing is, yes she's got this technical establishment/traditional politician awareness or savvy... she's like a Space Merkel... but I think the ultimate subversion is that we see her use precisely these skills and these perspectives she's gained through manipulation and sheer experience and ambition to actually do good. She's manipulative and deceptive precisely *because* she knows that if she does the goody two-shoes routine she'll never win, and in a way that's no different from Dawes' or Fred's "I gotta space a bitch or blow shit up to get things done" shtick. It's not so unique... but it's done so well.

I mean, how different is "corrupt" politics as a method of pursuing what one thinks is best compared to Miller's "shoot folks in the face" noir hero stuff (and I LOVE how in their Escape from Eros, Miller was just killing people left and right... I think he's deadlier with a gun than even Amos) or, again, Dawes and Fred's revolutionary hoo-hah? Or even Holden's less prudent screwups?

I mostly like Mars and most Martian characters, although the whole civilization of Mars in "Expanse" is unrealistic (it has no agricultural base to sustain such a massive industry, including shipbuilding industry, and have the best or second-best fleet in the Solar system - a society where the industrial top is too large). I understand that Mars is modeled on the Soviet Union (and Earth is just an extension of the Western powers, while asteroids are the Third World), but it is still weird.

Do the books make sense of the Martian agriculture? I imagine that synthetic biology and nuclear fusion-powered plant-growing things or some kind of space fungus or whatever enables their mass production?

[Shroom Man 777]

I love how Holden can be so silly and how unlike any normal McHeroGuy Von Protagonistdude he's actually fairly middling in his other capabilities aside from cutting moral John Cena promos that show how he's a good guy. And how important Alex' piloting, Naomi's engineering, Amos' killing or gruntwork, Miller's sheer murderousness with his handcannon and his craziness, etc. is in actually getting things done. I mean let's say, Mal Reynolds can also get pretty dumb but like... Mal's got his cool crackshot asskicking thing to fall back on but Holden... mang.

Especially in the last episode. He gets into trouble... and his screams and shit just make him look so utterly stupid. Yet it's great! The deconstruction of the McHero Von Protagonist! His added generic blandy mcblanderson-ness helps. He's your typical murcan do-gooder. Whereas sans Amos who's ethnicity is "headcase," the rest of his crew's all actually POCs and such and proficient in getting shit done in their respective fields. If you think about it, while Holden's a great person he's actually quite a screwup.