Everybody who likes sci-fi should watch The Expanse. There's a reason it's critically acclaimed.
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I love Battlestar Galactica, should I watch The Expanse?
- Thread starter Mórríoghain
- Start date
Thanks, this was really helpful. I gave a few episodes of The Expanse a shot and didn't like it. Now it's clear why it's just not the same kind of show as BSG.
The Expanse is probably the better show, although both are excellent and easily the best sci-fi shows outthere. The main difference is that Expanse takes a few episodes to get going (also for the average viewer to even get their bearings about the setting, if you're not into e.g. hard sci-fi novels), while Galactica opens with a hell of a bang; this is out of necessity due to the different stakes on each show and what they each focus in. Expanse is a bit more character-based, with more realistic, flawed and and nuanced characters vs Galactica's larger-than-life archetypes; it also doesn't help that the first episodes focus a lot on what's, at that time at least, the straightforward boy-scout character (Holden), as an audience surrogate to anchor the show.
My SO straight out didn't like the first few episodes of the Expanse, and yet within that season it ended up being one of her favorite shows and having her completely and utterly hooked. It's the poster child of "it gets better"; I would advice anyone getting to at least the end of season 1. If you don't like it by then, you probably never will so give it up.
My SO straight out didn't like the first few episodes of the Expanse, and yet within that season it ended up being one of her favorite shows and having her completely and utterly hooked. It's the poster child of "it gets better"; I would advice anyone getting to at least the end of season 1. If you don't like it by then, you probably never will so give it up.
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Look at the husks and you'll be like heyyyyyy wait a minute....
It is not like BSG really except "space" but I think I like it even more. It's one of the best sci-fi shows of modern times. The setting is absolutely fucking great and fascinating and it deals with a lot of the politics of the solar system.
Highly recommended if you like sci-fi :)
Highly recommended if you like sci-fi :)
I watched maybe 3 seasons of BSG before I got disinterested but I'm loving the Expanse so far. It does take 4-5 episodes to get going because there is so much plot to setup, but by the end of S1 I was really into it and I just blew through the second season in a week. It reminds me a lot of the good parts of Mass Effect.
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My general recommendation is if you don't like it by the time you get to the Donnager escape scene, you won't get on with the show.
Personally I prefer it to BSG because altho it doesn't have any full on crazy SF moments like The Adama Manoeuvre, the more realistic approach to physics, setting (eg people on spaceships in fights wearing spacesuits in n case of depressurisation, realistic inertia & momentum with no inertial fame ping nonsense) & so on speaks more to my inner nerd...plus no matter how great the ship is, you're constantly reminded of how lethal space travel can be when all that's between you and hard vacuum is a this plate of metal.
Personally I prefer it to BSG because altho it doesn't have any full on crazy SF moments like The Adama Manoeuvre, the more realistic approach to physics, setting (eg people on spaceships in fights wearing spacesuits in n case of depressurisation, realistic inertia & momentum with no inertial fame ping nonsense) & so on speaks more to my inner nerd...plus no matter how great the ship is, you're constantly reminded of how lethal space travel can be when all that's between you and hard vacuum is a this plate of metal.
I've read most of the books but the thought "this is written like it's made for TV" often crossed my mind.
That said, I find the actual series to be quite entertaining and I can recommend it to everyone who likes scifi, although it's overarching themes do little to move the needle regarding bringing something new or original to the genre (probably because the source material just isn't that good).
Piling on, yes all day long. It's great - but very different than BSG. Where BSG is claustrophobic in its urgency there is an unbounded aspect to the Expanse that makes it feel both terrifying and amazing at the same time. It seems like the more tragic reality of what eventual space culture, and universe, will feel like - and the stories within that.
I do love BSG, and watched the whole thing all over again last year with my son - blew his mind - but hasn't aged as well for me as I had liked.
Anyways - expanse - as others said, is more mass effect than BSG - and must see TV.
BSG is one of my all time favorites as well, and I also love the Expanse. There are beautiful character moments that remind me of BSG a lot.
It's a very different show and much harder sci fi than BSG but if you like space, and some drama, and people, you'll like Expanse.
It's a very different show and much harder sci fi than BSG but if you like space, and some drama, and people, you'll like Expanse.
I had a really good time watching BSG. But I read the first book of The Expense and was utterly bored with it back when it came out. Then watched the first episode with my partner because he was interested, but he found it boring too.
Shame because I really like sci-fi and we've been looking for another sci-fi show.
Shame because I really like sci-fi and we've been looking for another sci-fi show.
Bookreaders seem to not like it, but who cares what they think. I thought it was the best season.
The Expanse is the closest a sci-fi show has come to Galactica for me. The highs are better in Galactica but The Expanse is far more consistently high quality. It's a fantastic show.
The Expanse is a fascinating show mainly because for me it provides a plausible insight into humanities future in centuries to come in terms of identity and technology.
As a species we're never going to become like Star Trek or BSG but I can imagine a world as envisaged in the Expanse (bar consequences of the Protomolecule).
As a species we're never going to become like Star Trek or BSG but I can imagine a world as envisaged in the Expanse (bar consequences of the Protomolecule).
The first season of the Expanse is, in my opinion, pretty bad. Great world and quite well produced but the storytelling is so so awful, it's boring and demotivating most of the time. No sense of stakes.
however, it is 100% worth sticking through. Season 3 is where suddenly it approaches and in some ways leapfrogs BSG quality. It goes from 5/10 to 9/10 and stays there. Plus, all the earlier episodes suddenly seem much more necessary with all the insane things going on and deep worldbuilding.
highly recommend. but the first two seasons are a slog
The expanse is amazing. You're going to get hooked when you see the first (tiny tiny spoiler)
space combat scene
I actually got another free Prime subscription a day ago, and since I had not seen the fifth season yet decided to watch all of the series over again due to the upgrade it got on Amazon. While watching it, all I could think was "I really need to buy the BSG collection on Blu-ray" (have it on DVD). The first post nailed it, but the two are somewhat similar in aesthetics in that they go for more of a grungy, realistic take on the future instead of one where everything is pristine, right off of the assembly line. There are many things in The Expanse that remind me of BSG, but only vaguely. The two shows are entirely different in most ways that matter.
Also, the first season of The Expanse took a while for me to warm up to when I initially watched it at release, and I honestly believe the show just got progressively better each new season, and finally took off in the third. My best friend started watching this a few months ago also and asked me if it ever gets good. The first two seasons have a very different tone than those that proceed them.
I don't agree. I honestly think the biggest hurdle for people enjoying the series is the introductory season. It just doesn't ease the viewer into it, and at times feels simultaneously overwhelming, and sometimes slow due to the pacing and how they constantly segue from some fast-paced, or dramatic space scene back to another humdrum scene on Ceres.
Me too, but primarily Ceres looking like The Citadel, and many of the space suits and weaponry look similar to those in the games. It also made me think of Dead Space quite a bit too.
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Yes. The Expanse is top-of-the-line science fiction. Anyone interested with the genre should watch it. It has great character-development work like BSG however it goes deeper into the "hard" and "realistic" sci-fi territory than the former ever did . . . . .
. . . . and just a personal warning, it might have unintended negative consequences for your love of the genre.
Watching the first 3 seasons of the Expanse in SyFy ruined sci-fi spaceships for me. Unless its a single-seater fighter like say an X-wing or a Starfury, i find it really difficult to suspend my disbelief for any other spaceship. You name it: the Big G, the Normandy, the Defiant, the Millennium Falcon, Serenity, etc. . . . . after seeing how the Rocinante works in the Expanse, all the other sci-fi ships seem magical if not downright dangerous.
Whenever i see another sci-fi spaceship cockpit, my brain keeps telling me something along the lines of, "The navigation controls of so-and-so is too far away. It should be closer and within easy arms reach preferably bolted into the arm rest of the pilot's chair so that when the ship is sublight travelling by several G's the pilot does not have to reach forward and risk getting their arms snapped back by the inertial forces at play."
Or if i see another sci-fi spaceship with a horizontal floorplan like an airplane, my brain keeps telling me, "Shouldn't they have a vertical floorplan like an apartment building so that the propulsion system at the very bottom could simulate the effects of gravity? Does this ship have a rotating drum instead?". I know artificial gravity generators and inertial dampers exists in other sci-fi ships and my mind accepts that explanation . . . . but only for non-combat ships. For some reason, my mind thinks that safety and redundancy protocols on any sci-fi military would push them to create ships with a vertical floorplan like the ones in the Expanse just so their fighting ships have a backup plan if and when their gravity/inertia generators took a hit. Good luck trying to treat soldier wounds properly in low gravity.
Still even with this weird warning, i'd still encourage everyone to watch the Expanse. You will be introduced to some really cool spaceships like the Rocinante, the Donnager and my favourite, the dreamiest (and practical looking) stealth ship in sci-fi, the Anubis (Amun-Ra):
Whenever i see another sci-fi spaceship cockpit, my brain keeps telling me something along the lines of, "The navigation controls of so-and-so is too far away. It should be closer and within easy arms reach preferably bolted into the arm rest of the pilot's chair so that when the ship is sublight travelling by several G's the pilot does not have to reach forward and risk getting their arms snapped back by the inertial forces at play."
Or if i see another sci-fi spaceship with a horizontal floorplan like an airplane, my brain keeps telling me, "Shouldn't they have a vertical floorplan like an apartment building so that the propulsion system at the very bottom could simulate the effects of gravity? Does this ship have a rotating drum instead?". I know artificial gravity generators and inertial dampers exists in other sci-fi ships and my mind accepts that explanation . . . . but only for non-combat ships. For some reason, my mind thinks that safety and redundancy protocols on any sci-fi military would push them to create ships with a vertical floorplan like the ones in the Expanse just so their fighting ships have a backup plan if and when their gravity/inertia generators took a hit. Good luck trying to treat soldier wounds properly in low gravity.
Still even with this weird warning, i'd still encourage everyone to watch the Expanse. You will be introduced to some really cool spaceships like the Rocinante, the Donnager and my favourite, the dreamiest (and practical looking) stealth ship in sci-fi, the Anubis (Amun-Ra):
BSG is probably my favorite show of all time.
The Expanse doesn't even scrape Top 10 sci-fi for me. I watch it, but I find it pretty boring. But, they are not at all similar.
The Expanse doesn't even scrape Top 10 sci-fi for me. I watch it, but I find it pretty boring. But, they are not at all similar.
I watched the first two seasons and it didn't grip me quite like BSG did. Like, nothing to that point had been on the level of the Pegasus arc in BSG. That said, the story was clearly building to something, but I didn't find it enthralling.
Perhaps I should give it another go, since I'm behind by three seasons. It definitely is the closest thing to a modern take on the "space opera" genre that we've had in a while. I mean, I like The Orville but that's a carbon copy of 90's Trek.
Also, The Expanse is a BEAUTIFUL show. It makes BSG look quite dated.
Perhaps I should give it another go, since I'm behind by three seasons. It definitely is the closest thing to a modern take on the "space opera" genre that we've had in a while. I mean, I like The Orville but that's a carbon copy of 90's Trek.
Also, The Expanse is a BEAUTIFUL show. It makes BSG look quite dated.
I watched the first season of the show recently after reading Leviathan Wakes and found it to be a letdown when compared to the book. They simplified certain characters and plot points and turned them into cliches. I only really liked Thomas Jane's Miller. But to each their own.