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The Expanse 2x01 Full Length Reaction

*Please note, this is the full length version, and due to copyright restrictions, requires you to sync your own copy of the episode. Enjoy!

The Expanse 2x01 Full Length Reaction

Comments

Ah I'm so glad you're back to this!

Emily Day

Big thanks for rolling into The Expanse, Jacqui. When I saw you'd reached Season 2, I blew through your Season 1 reactions this week to catch up. Quick note on your Season 1 comments that they spent their money big on the last couple episodes and went to a new level. I do think that's partially money, but I think a crew producing a show like this are like a sports team, at the start of the season they might be good but not yet great, but as they find their groove and take off, they can become special. On to Season 2, so excited that we now get the best Bobby since Supernatural!

PNWKyle

Yeah, that cameo is my favorite in the series, a close second being a certain Marine Lt.

Simon Shea

In case you need any more season 1 recaps: https://www.syfy.com/videos/the-expanse-recat 😸

cs3

The Expanse is one of his favorite sci-fi shows. The first batch of videos was shot during the production of S2, and released during the time when the season was airing on SyFy. SLIGHT S2 SPOILER AHEAD: He even has a small cameo appearance in one of the episodes. The second batch I believe was made during the production of S4 and released around the time that dropped on Prime.

Gábor Árki

Oh I didn't know about the Adam Savage episodes. Now that I think of it, it makes a lot of sense that he'd cover this show on his show. 😏

Simon Shea

A rewatch of the series is something I can highly recommend after having seen all 6 seasons. There are so many little things you can only notice after having seen how the story played out and after you've learnt many things about the characters you don't know just yet. Regarding the cinematography, I never consciously realized this earlier, but the camera work is very dependent on the gravity/acceleration. When they are in zero G, the camera slowly flows around the characters and they tend to use some unusual angles as well, just as if the camera itself would have been in zero G. When they do a high burn and there are high Gs as a result, the camera tends to be more grounded and shaky as if it reacts to the subtle inconsistencies in gravity caused by the drive. Adam Savage has quite a few Expanse episodes on his YT channel. It is quite early to watch those now, most of them have been recorded during later seasons and may spoil some things, but I can highly recommend them after the show. They go into a lot of aspects: stunts, the riggers, props, costumes, graphics, interviews, etc. Not just very informative, but seeing the sheer dedication of the entire crew is amazing.

Gábor Árki

Yeah, 4&5 together for sure; if your schedule can accommodate of course.

Simon Shea

Great reaction and well worth the wait! Something to keep in mind when you see the quality increase as the show goes on is, according to the show runner and writers, the budget for each season was nearly identical, adjusted for inflation. There was almost no turnover on the production crew and little to no interference from executives, as it's a very tight-knit and small independent studio that sold the rights to SyFy and then Amazon. The team, from set designers to costumers to CGI artists were completely bought-in to the project and 100% committed to creating something special. They just kept getting better because the art was put first and there were little to no "suits" interfering. Secondly, in the interests of you not worrying about missing stuff, the writers were never interested in cheap tricks or "twists". You'll learn soon enough that every line, every scene is purposeful and that many things become clear given time. Often a small line that seems like a throwaway is setting up something that's not going to pay off for several episodes. In some cases several seasons. They respect the audience. They won't spoon feed you or try to trick you into feeling a certain way, you are in good hands. You will miss things, but that should only inspire you to come back and watch again when you're ready. Watching this through with you is my 7th watch through (while I'm on my 3rd read through of the books) and I still notice setups and details I've missed in previous watches. It's an onion with layers as deep and complex as the very star system we inhabit. Enjoy the ride.

Simon Shea

Yes, glad we're back! You are correct, the first book ends partway through this season - episode 5 to be exact. If you have the time, I'd recommend watching episodes 4&5 together.

Eric Elliott

Naomi's referencing Pinocchio wasn't addressed to Miller, thinking that he was lying or being hypocritical, but rather a somewhat on the nose (no pun intended) comparison regarding Amos. Amos is 'not right' psychologically. He's one of those people which, as the joke used to go, "need to be housed in an padlocked, aerated steel crate, with the key kept in a case with a label on it that reads in big red letters: "Break glass only in case of War!". Amos knows this and has latched onto Naomi as a living cheat sheet to help him pass Morals & Empathy 101 whenever life throws a problem with an ethics component at him. If Holden is the man of la Mancha Amos is the wooden puppet who wants to be a real boy/human, and Naomi the person he cast for his Jiminy Cricket. The show never tells its audience explicitly how he ended up that way, but drops enough info breadcrumbs about Amos' pre-Canterbury past as well as insights into the way his mind works that you can piece it together yourself. And the implications are pretty damn horrifying, both in cause and effect. I have an acquaintance whose father served in Korea with somebody very much like Amos Burton (*). He got a medal citation for a night raid on the Chinese lines. Some others staged a diversion, and he rolled into a trench and killed twenty enemy soldiers with a sharpened entrenching tool. In less than five minutes. All of them armed, awake, and trying to fight back. He just went down the trench killing a man at every other stride, chopping into heads and smashing spines and carving bodies open (**). And this wasn't some solitary incident. He volunteered for this sort of thing all the time; in fact, he told his company commander that he was a "full-time volunteer" for that sort of mission and wanted to be included in all of them. When asked why, he just shrugged and said "I don't like to be bored". Everyone in his unit was terrified of him, including his CO, and they were right to be. The guy paid absolutely no attention to rules of any kind if he thought they were in his way and he could get away with breaking them. He had no 'internal stops' at all. After war's end during overlay in Hawaii he abducted a kangaroo from the Honolulu city zoo, and got it drunk. Then on the way back home stateside one night while taking the air when a CPO bothered him about some uniform regulation he threw him overboard. Didn't say a word, just checked there was nobody watching, chucked him over the rail with a martial-arts move he'd picked up in-country and walked quietly away. At night, middle of the Pacific. If somebody hadn't looked at the exact moment to see him fall past a lighted porthole the man would have simply disappeared and the whole thing put down to an accident. ______________________________________________ *= though in his case i believe he was born that way rather than traumatized into it, and actually liked or at least was indifferent to his condition. Amos knows he's a monster, but makes a good faith effort to act like he wasn't (by outsourcing his decision making to whoever he believes has the strongest sense of morality), while that guy plain didn't give a fork. **= I got to read the citation report and the man who wrote it, a veteran officer of WWII who'd seen the results, was, under the officialese, quite obvious- and deeply disturbed by it.

E.P.B.F.

I am so glad you're back to watching this show again. The Expanse is the whole reason I subbed, love your analysis of the show and to see you experience it for the first time.

Josh M

I'm so excited! Extra motivation to finish my work for the day and enjoy this reaction. 🥳

Simon Shea

Yes! You promised it, and you delivered, Jacqui! I came to your channel for *Firefly* and *The Expanse*, and now they're back! 😁

Phil Stubblefield

I really enjoy the perspective you bring to HOW shows are made and seeing sound/music/lighting/camerawork to pull us in and evoke emotions from the audience. I have loved the series once I decided to give it a try and then grabbed up all the books as well. It was cool to see real space physics used instead of other shows that had characters walking around while incredible inertia changes were happening.

Granger Hermion


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