Thanks Bezos. You're horrible on many counts, but good looking out for saving The Expanse.

Season 4 Now available on Amazon Prime Video, after Seasons 1 - 3 were on SyFy.

If you've never seen the series, this is a good place to hop on, as this planet colonizing saga is kind of a standalone even in the books.

Production values are up (and they were good on SyFy), but this is gorgeous to look at. If you liked GoT (before they bammed it up), this is similar in structure as it tells multiple, complex and interwoven stories. The primary factions are Earthers, Martians and Belters. Earth runs the OG solar system. Mars is a colony that has been around for years and rivals Earth in military power, and the Belt refers to the people who have lived for generations in near zero gee, doing the grunt work of maintaining a nascent extra-planetary civilization, via mining in the asteroid belt on on the moons of planets.

In the end of Season 3, a long dormant bit of ancient alien biological technology (referred to as the protomolecule) awakens and builds a gate to multiple (1300 or so) other solar systems.

So humankind gets a boost, upending hundreds of years of politics and planning. (Martians live underground with a single minded focus on terraforming the next available planet into something habitable and prosperous, but now there are hundreds of habitable planets within reach, where none of that is necessary.

very well done both in writing and translation to the small screen. some cool characters, too.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

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I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

For some stupid reason Prime has it listed separately from the SD/HD edition. I got like 1/4 the new season before figuring this out.

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Love,
Nopayne

peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

I was interested in the show when it first aired on Syfy but never watched and when I tried to jump in it was too complex for me to stick with. If you're saying this season is the place to dive in I'll get it a try.

sometimes u gotta leave ur inner nigger in the bank vault. - desus

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@SituationPodemy

couple of eps this season. maybe for folks who are starting here. here's more of a primer of the key factions:

earth / UN - world government. 10b + ppl. half the population is on basic (income). Avasarala is the leader of that. they need the resources and products manufactured in the belt.

mars - rivals earth in military power. best tech. working on multi-generational plan to terraform mars, so they have a militaristic, collective driven consciousness to get things done and leave a legacy of open skies (instead of subterranean living) for their granchildren.

belt - the workers of the solar system. taken for granted. consequent chips on their shoulders. they've adapted over generations to near zero gee (in the books they are almost 7 ft tall). the OPA (Outer Planets Alliance) is kind of their PLO. sometimes political. will get busy if they need to. shit has calmed down recently but many still remember when they would harass UN and mars ships, and whatnot. b/c of the events of the previous seasons, a 'legitimized' faction of the OPA is in charge of Medina station, which sits in the ring space, a kind of null space between the 1300 rings (portals to other systems). it's the first really official recognition they've gotten from the Inners (derisive term for inner planets - earth and mars).

rings were just discovered a few years ago, and ppl are trying to run blockades and traverse the rings to colonize the new planets.

this season starts with some squatters on one of the new worlds - belters who came to mine and try to come up (gold rush) and tension with a corporation which has laid claim to the planet and it's resources.

the only other stuff is that the crew of the roci (rocinante) are a group that came together through the previous books. they introduce themselves through the early episodes as they encounter the two factions on the new planet. so you should learn who they are fairly quickly.

if you dig it, it'd be worthwhile to backtrack and watch from season 1.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

Not sure I’m loving the changes to the Mars plot. Forget if that was in the books or one of the short stories, but didn’t go down like that. But might get to a point where the changes make sense/were needed.

Like the foreshadowing of Marco so far. Wonder if we’ll actually see him this season.

I know this isn’t probably cool to say, but can’t help but think Naiomi ( specifically actress playing her) has become significantly less attractive than in past seasons. Had to be more than just the haircut

in the book, i recall that she and avasarala were kind of put on a shelf while the rest of the crew was off on Ilus.

>Not sure I’m loving the changes to the Mars plot. Forget
>if that was in the books or one of the short stories, but
>didn’t go down like that. But might get to a point where
>the changes make sense/were needed.


>
>Like the foreshadowing of Marco so far. Wonder if we’ll
>actually see him this season.

THAT's what i think is happening. in the books they weren't very explicit about how mars (or a sizeable faction) made that switch. they setting up the long game. and letting bobbie get her solo on. it's different, but i like it.

>
>I know this isn’t probably cool to say, but can’t help
>but think Naiomi ( specifically actress playing her) has
>become significantly less attractive than in past seasons.
>Had to be more than just the haircut

she not getting smashed out in zero g, but more importantly, she has been undergoing serious physical stress this season. and makeup and her (via acting) doing a good job of portraying that weight.




peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

I loved BSG until they got off New Caprica, and then I thought it was all downhill form there.

peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

because of the show lol. def our favorite character

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"A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards. More than that no man is entitled, and less than that no man shall have." - TR

>because of the show lol. def our favorite character

read The Churn (one of the novellas in the Expanse series). it deals explicitly w/ Amos' background on Earth, in Baltimore, and why he is the way he is.

very cool as a standalone. it's only 2.99 on Nook. its a good bit of story telling and character development.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

I haven't read any of the books (nor the novellas), but I've bought my wife the new book each year for Christmas. She'd already read the most recent book, so I got her all the novellas on Kindle to help fill that gap lol

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"A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards. More than that no man is entitled, and less than that no man shall have." - TR

My feelings on the source material (this particular book) caught up with it as the season went on. The hype to have it back and on Amazon carried it early, but it did slow down and lose momentum in middle. Still good, and have really high expectations for next season. Some interesting choices:

- not sure I'm down with how much they've given already on the Marco plot. I loved how or came or of almost nowhere in the book. So much foreshadowing files the impact of the event imo.

- didn't enjoy avasarsla as much this season
- bring back the mohawk! I want my cute Naomi back

Right now I’m more excited for the final book, but the next season will be fire as well

I haven't read the books so I don't know where this is going but it felt like a filler season to me. None the plot lines were very interesting.

It looked great though.

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Love,
Nopayne