The Expanse (2015- ), Season 5, episodes 1-3
The first three episodes dropped late Tuesday, and we'll be getting one a week from now on. I've been seeing more streamers going back to weekly releases, or a hybrid like this one. There's a bunch of reasons given, but in one sense, they want folks to slow down and chew their food. I know it's a lot harder to hold info from a binge watch in my head until I can talk with others about it, versus discussing one episode for a week before the next one. On the other hand, streamers probably figure people will stay subscribed for the whole run, so they'll get more money, but I figure if people are patient, they'll just wait until whatever they want to watch is complete.
Season five picks up a few months after season four. Holden and Naomi are on Tycho Station, getting the Roci repaired. She then leaves after she gets a lead on her son Filip's location. Alex has returned to Mars to maybe make amends with his wife and son, and ends up getting drawn into Bobbie's self-appointed mission (funded by Avasarala) to figure out who's buying Martian tech on the black market and why. Amos heads back to earth to take care of some personal stuff, and we finally get a real glimpse of what life is like for the poor on earth. Avasarala has been essentially exiled to Luna. Drummer has returned to a Belter life as a pirate.
Everyone is separate, and that hurts me because the whole found family thing is my jam. Though I think it may end up being a good thing, as separating them (short term!) and maybe mixing and matching who works together lets them do different things. We get to see Holden reluctantly working with Fred Johnson and reporter Monica Stuart. We get to see Naomi back among Belters, with her accent set on high, but Belters knowing she works with Inners and treating her very differently.
We'd already seen Bobbie doing the return to Mars last season, with the propaganda still being about joining the military despite it all but collapsing as the much easier prospect of life on a planet on the other side of the Ring is better than waiting for Mars to be terraformed. Now we see Alex return, hoping to visit his wife and son. She (rightly) gives him the cold shoulder, but his son still appears to be a little more open. He gets dragged into Bobbie's investigation and at first doesn't think any of the Martian brass could be involved, but slowly realizes Mars isn't the same. His family had to move because the rent was too high, there are tons of empty buildings, and the propaganda stream is now recruiting folks for colonies instead of the military.
I will add that some of Alex's scenes are difficult to watch knowing that actor Cas Anvar was being investigated for sexual misconduct after the season was complete, and Alex is being flirty with a woman he's trying to get something from. We'll be getting one more final season, but Anvar won't be in it due to the misconduct, though I've yet to hear of any legal proceedings. That's sad for the obvious reason, but extra sad because Anvar was a real cheerleader online and at cons for the show, especially when they were between SyFy and Amazon.
This season is (mostly) adapting the book Nemesis Games, but also is mixing in elements from The Churn, which is a novella focused on Amos and his life in Baltimore. There have been hints before, especially when Monica was trying to interview him about having the same name as a well-known head of a criminal syndicate. The series wisely didn't include one disturbing aspect (or at least hasn't included it yet), but it's disturbing enough on its own. I love Amos, and they seem to be delving more into what makes him tick and why, even if he doesn't even understand it himself.
Avasarala is stuck on Luna, still part of the UN, but generally ignored by Nancy Gao, the UN secretary-general who defeated Avasarala in the last election. She's got a feeling that Naomi's ex, Marco Inaros, is plotting something using Martian tech, but doesn't have enough to prove it, despite Bobbie's investigation on Mars, and one remaining Admiral who also believes there's a plot, but knows his job is on the line because Gao doesn't want to hear it.
Drummer is out with a new crew "salvaging" from colony ships and the like. We're basically getting Pirate Captain Drummer, and I'm here for it. She's still looking for Ashford's ship to figure out what happened to him, and they finally find it, stripped of a lot of stuff, but not everything. Inaros has left it as a warning -- stand against me and die. Ashford knew he was going to die, and got Inaros to do a Villain Monologue, which was stored on a very well hidden device that was missed by Inaros and his crew. Drummer finds it, and doesn't know what it means, and the info eventually ends up with Avasarala (directly or via Fred Johnson, it wasn't clear), and it's the final piece of the puzzle for Avasarala, but it's too late, as an asteroid that Inaros cloaked with Martian tech hits earth.
Another bit of interest here is Drummer is shown with a love interest onboard her ship. And then another one. o.0 According to actress Cara Gee, Drummer is in a healthy polyamrous relationship. This being openly accepted at the time this is being set shouldn't be surprising, especially since we know Holden was born to an eight-person genetic collective. In his case, it was his parent's last ditch attempt to keep their land in Montana, not really polyam. It does make sense that Belters would probably be more open to the idea. They're usually in close quarters, with limited resources, so open relationships would be an answer early in their culture, then just part of their culture.
All of the characters are now in their places on the board, as their stories are staring to come back together. I'm really looking forward to seeing how it plays out, even if it's weekly.
Season five picks up a few months after season four. Holden and Naomi are on Tycho Station, getting the Roci repaired. She then leaves after she gets a lead on her son Filip's location. Alex has returned to Mars to maybe make amends with his wife and son, and ends up getting drawn into Bobbie's self-appointed mission (funded by Avasarala) to figure out who's buying Martian tech on the black market and why. Amos heads back to earth to take care of some personal stuff, and we finally get a real glimpse of what life is like for the poor on earth. Avasarala has been essentially exiled to Luna. Drummer has returned to a Belter life as a pirate.
Everyone is separate, and that hurts me because the whole found family thing is my jam. Though I think it may end up being a good thing, as separating them (short term!) and maybe mixing and matching who works together lets them do different things. We get to see Holden reluctantly working with Fred Johnson and reporter Monica Stuart. We get to see Naomi back among Belters, with her accent set on high, but Belters knowing she works with Inners and treating her very differently.
We'd already seen Bobbie doing the return to Mars last season, with the propaganda still being about joining the military despite it all but collapsing as the much easier prospect of life on a planet on the other side of the Ring is better than waiting for Mars to be terraformed. Now we see Alex return, hoping to visit his wife and son. She (rightly) gives him the cold shoulder, but his son still appears to be a little more open. He gets dragged into Bobbie's investigation and at first doesn't think any of the Martian brass could be involved, but slowly realizes Mars isn't the same. His family had to move because the rent was too high, there are tons of empty buildings, and the propaganda stream is now recruiting folks for colonies instead of the military.
I will add that some of Alex's scenes are difficult to watch knowing that actor Cas Anvar was being investigated for sexual misconduct after the season was complete, and Alex is being flirty with a woman he's trying to get something from. We'll be getting one more final season, but Anvar won't be in it due to the misconduct, though I've yet to hear of any legal proceedings. That's sad for the obvious reason, but extra sad because Anvar was a real cheerleader online and at cons for the show, especially when they were between SyFy and Amazon.
This season is (mostly) adapting the book Nemesis Games, but also is mixing in elements from The Churn, which is a novella focused on Amos and his life in Baltimore. There have been hints before, especially when Monica was trying to interview him about having the same name as a well-known head of a criminal syndicate. The series wisely didn't include one disturbing aspect (or at least hasn't included it yet), but it's disturbing enough on its own. I love Amos, and they seem to be delving more into what makes him tick and why, even if he doesn't even understand it himself.
Avasarala is stuck on Luna, still part of the UN, but generally ignored by Nancy Gao, the UN secretary-general who defeated Avasarala in the last election. She's got a feeling that Naomi's ex, Marco Inaros, is plotting something using Martian tech, but doesn't have enough to prove it, despite Bobbie's investigation on Mars, and one remaining Admiral who also believes there's a plot, but knows his job is on the line because Gao doesn't want to hear it.
Drummer is out with a new crew "salvaging" from colony ships and the like. We're basically getting Pirate Captain Drummer, and I'm here for it. She's still looking for Ashford's ship to figure out what happened to him, and they finally find it, stripped of a lot of stuff, but not everything. Inaros has left it as a warning -- stand against me and die. Ashford knew he was going to die, and got Inaros to do a Villain Monologue, which was stored on a very well hidden device that was missed by Inaros and his crew. Drummer finds it, and doesn't know what it means, and the info eventually ends up with Avasarala (directly or via Fred Johnson, it wasn't clear), and it's the final piece of the puzzle for Avasarala, but it's too late, as an asteroid that Inaros cloaked with Martian tech hits earth.
Another bit of interest here is Drummer is shown with a love interest onboard her ship. And then another one. o.0 According to actress Cara Gee, Drummer is in a healthy polyamrous relationship. This being openly accepted at the time this is being set shouldn't be surprising, especially since we know Holden was born to an eight-person genetic collective. In his case, it was his parent's last ditch attempt to keep their land in Montana, not really polyam. It does make sense that Belters would probably be more open to the idea. They're usually in close quarters, with limited resources, so open relationships would be an answer early in their culture, then just part of their culture.
All of the characters are now in their places on the board, as their stories are staring to come back together. I'm really looking forward to seeing how it plays out, even if it's weekly.