The Expanse - Sixth and Final Season (1 Viewer)

[Sean Bryan]

Yeah, these episodes wiz by so fast.

Loved seeing Inaros getting his ass kicked by the Rociante like a little bitch. I’m going to miss this story when it’s over.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Normally, a must see on Friday; but didn't get around to it until earlier today. Some serious space combat action in this episode. Enjoyed the choreography of the combat sequence and thought the editing worked well to present a comprehensible view of the tactics and action on screen. Really impressive.

I guess we will have to see if Holden made the right call (he usually does) in disarming the warhead as it struck the Pella. Given that Inaros seems to have gotten some good news from Laconia at the end of the episode it might prove costly. I was wondering earlier why the series was focusing on a subplot involving one of the Ring worlds but now it is tying into the main storyline.

Other random thoughts...

So, Pet Cemetery in space?

Nice tip of the hat to noted SF author Fred Saberhagen with the naming of one of the belter ships. His Berserker stories were a series of short stories and novels set in the SF space opera genre and were favorites of mine.

Nice callback to Prax and a potential solution to a food shortage on the various systems.

Enjoyed Amos as your Ceres Station Travel Guide - Noodles, Bars, and Union Brothels.

Hard to believe we are at the half way point.

- Walter.

 

[Steve Armbrust]

Nice tip of the hat to noted SF author Fred Saberhagen with the naming of one of the belter ships. His Berserker stories were a series of short stories and novels set in the SF space opera genre and were favorites of mine.

Ah, that's who it was. I noticed the name and wondered "why are they naming a ship for former MLB pitcher Bret Saberhagen?" I forgot about Fred. Sorry, Fred. RIP.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Episode four continued to build towards the season / series finale. While there was some action in the episode (involving Drummer's away team and the supply depots) the episode sort of felt like it was pausing to catch its breath with some fairly strong dramatic beats. Including putting a face on the cost of the war during several scenes and dealing with the aftermath of Holden's decision. (For me, the scene with "Peaches" and Holden was one of the best scenes in the episode.)

While I enjoyed the conversation on Locania between Cara and the adult (cannot recall the character's name) on several topics including sacrifice; my initial reaction was that it was probably too mature in tone for conversing with a child Cara's age. (Sort of felt more like exposition for the viewer vs. something organic to the scene. Don't get me wrong, I liked the dialog, despite that misgiving.)

So will the "disarmed" missile become "rearmed" taking out the Pella? First thing I would have done was to make sure the warhead was completely rendered harmless in its current setting.

Damn, only two episodes left. I believe the finale will have a run time of around 75 minutes.

- Walter.

 

[NeilO]

Yes, another good episode and the Aftershow was quite interesting as well. If you haven't been watching those, they do provide some nice behind the scenes information from the writers and actors.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Episode five continued the setup for the series' finale. A very strong dramatic episode filled with a lot of interpersonal exchanges between various characters. The various sequences establish what is at stake both in the short term and possibly beyond in terms of inner / belter relationships. Pretty difficult to pick out a single one, but the scene with Camina and Naomi was really strong. Also really liked Amos and Bobbi's scene in the bar. (Setting the stage for a relationship of sorts?)

I had previously commented upon Cara Gee's Drummer character and she continues to impress. Her scenes were probably my favorite ones from the episode.

So Cara's brother is 'fixed' but clearly altered. Creepy eyes and the ability to perceive things not visible to human eyes? How much will we learn about the 'dogs' in the final episode?

Only one episode to go. Even though it does feature an extended runtime, I am not sure how they will resolve all of the plot elements that have been developing over the past few seasons.

- Walter.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Great, great, great final episode. The series did a nice job of wrapping up the main story threads but perhaps not surprisingly left some of the more important threads open. (Most notably Laconia and a certain belter who wisely decided to alter his path in life.)

Some of the best action sequences of the series. The entire assault on Medina Station and the rail gun was sensational. Best shot of the sequence might have been with Bobbi firing her suit weapons. Nice callback to Aliens with three of the members of the assault squad named Hudson, Hicks, and Ripley. (I had to pause the screen when I saw Hudson and Hicks on the status screen being reviewed by Bobbi. )

That Holden, he is a tricky one, a.k.a. a duplicitous son of a bitch.

Nice bonding of the crew of the Rocinate in this episode.

Amos always gets the best lines. "No one dies with a full bladder."

I will definitely have to revisit the entire series at some future point.

- Walter.

 

[NeilO]

Yes, a great series finale for now. I hope at some time in the future they pick up the other books somehow. I guess this is the year that I start reading the series. I was going to make some of the same points Walter made, but he beat me to it.

Just saw this tweet with all the easter eggs in the names.

 

[Josh Dial]

Nice callback to Aliens with three of the members of the assault squad named Hudson, Hicks, and Ripley.

By my eyes every member of the three fire teams was named after famous characters from sci-fi. I also saw Bowman (2001: A Space Odyssey), Shepard (Mass Effect video game), Idaho (Dune), Rico (Johnny Rico from Starship Troopers), Deckard (Blade Runner), and Riker (Star Trek).

Fun little set of easter eggs.

 

[jayembee]

Well, I certainly would like to see more stories in this 'universe.' I mostly posted it as the final season because that is how Amazon has been promoting season six.

It does raise the question (and I am getting way ahead of myself) if there was a long gap in production would they be able to reunite the cast, or would they adapt the books to new characters and settings? The ring certainly opens up lots of storytelling potential.

- Walter.

Further seasons (or a "sequel series") would certainly involve an adaptation of the last three books of the series. Those last three books pick up the story after a considerable jump in time. I wouldn't think it would be that problematic to get the same cast. Potential spoilers prevent me from saying anything more.

 

[jayembee]

It’s a weird na bad decision. This should be bonus material listed in line with episodes and trailers and recaps. Hiding bonus episodes in X-Ray makes no sense except as an effort to promote X-Ray.

Which only works if X-Ray, you know, works on all the platforms.

I didn't have a problem with them being in the X-Ray section. They are bonus features after all.

The problem I did have, though, was that I couldn't find them watching the show on the Prime TV app. After some frustrating investigation, I discovered I could only get them by logging into Amazon on my laptop and watching them that way. This despite the fact that they first several sites I investigated said that the shorts were available "on all platforms".

 

[Sean Bryan]

Yes, this was a great series finale. A nice closure to the main story, yet still pretty open-ended.

It’s a shame the show has ended as there are far too few shows like this out there. I’d love to see a continuation at some point to adapt the rest of the books (which haven’t read).

 

[jayembee]

Normally, a must see on Friday; but didn't get around to it until earlier today.

Nice tip of the hat to noted SF author Fred Saberhagen with the naming of one of the belter ships. His Berserker stories were a series of short stories and novels set in the SF space opera genre and were favorites of mine.

Nice callback to Prax and a potential solution to a food shortage on the various systems.

Pardon the snippage. Anyhoo...

I discovered too late that the episodes were being uploaded early. With ep4, I went into Prime about 5 minutes before midnight to get ready and noticed the ep was already available. With eps 5 and 6, they were up as early as ~8:30pm (Eastern) on Thursday.

Yes, I noticed the Saberhagen reference, and appreciated it. I've been rather surprised that in various discussions around the net about killer robots (spurred by Martha Wells's "Murderbot" series), no one ever brings up the Berserker stories.

I liked not only the Prax appearance, but Anna Volovodov's as well.

 

[DaveF]

My favorite scifi show of the past six years is done. :/

I am bummed the final season got short shrift, with two to six fewer episodes than it should have had.

I am thrilled in the age of two-seasons-and-canceled streaming, and after cancellation by SyFy after season 3, that it got a full six season series with a planned and satisfying conclusion.

I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the books, and to eventually rewatching the series.

The Expanse is for me one of the best scifi shows of the past 40 years. It was everything I wanted in a show. I’m also glad friends and coworkers go into it and I could share with them and talk some as it went along.

 

[jayembee]

I also thought it was a nice, satisfying (well, as satisfying as it could be without including the last 3 books) conclusion. I'm just completely gobsmacked that they managed to pull off such a faithful adaptation of the books (even to the point of interpolating the side novelettes). And the cast was to die for. Everyone just rang true for me, and I can't imagine anyone else playing these characters. Special shout-out to Shohreh Aghdashloo, Steven Strait, and Wes Chatham. The only one that wasn't how I imagined reading the books was Frankie Adams. She was damn good, but in reading the books, I imagined Bobbi as being built like a Sumo wrestler.

 

[NeilO]

My favorite scifi show of the past six years is done. :/

I am bummed the final season got short shrift, with two to six fewer episodes than it should have had.

I am thrilled in the age of two-seasons-and-canceled streaming, and after cancellation by SyFy after season 3, that it got a full six season series with a planned and satisfying conclusion.

I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the books, and to eventually rewatching the series.

The Expanse is for me one of the best scifi shows of the past 40 years. It was everything I wanted in a show. I’m also glad friends and coworkers go into it and I could share with them and talk some as it went along.

I am thinking that a lot of the budget for the season went to the final episode.

I have not read the books, but from what I heard, TV Drummer combined two characters in the books, one of whom was introduced in book 6. By doing that, they were able to eliminate (or tell earlier) the introduction and backstory and save some screen time.

 

[jayembee]

It's been a while since I've read the earlier books, but... TV Drummer was mostly book Drummer. At some point, though, the show gave scenes with a different character (in the books) to Drummer.

 

[David Weicker]

I really enjoyed the finale, and thought they did a good job finishing the show.

If I had any complaints about the last season, it was the IMO total waste of screen time given to the planet scenes. Considering how short the season was, using up valuable time to present a very incomplete sub-plot (with no relationship to the main story, with characters we'd never seen before, and would never see again) was a poor decision. I don't care if they were part of or a lead into the remaining books - those stories are not being told (and probably never will be told). Over the six episodes, they used up almost a full episode of screen time.

 

[DaveF]

IIRC Drummer is a merger of Johnson’s second in command and his lead engineer, introduced in the third book.

 

[DaveF]

Cara Gee is brilliant. Her performance as Drummer is incredible. I hope for more from her.