Review — The Expanse, Season 1
This unique sci-fi mystery series takes a bit to get rolling, but it’s well worth your time.
The Expanse is a sci-fi mystery and political intrigue series from Syfy, based on a series of novels by James S. A. Corey. I haven’t read the books, but a friend of mine has been obsessed with them lately. That was how I found out about this series. The first season aired in early 2016, and season two is set to begin on February 1. You can watch season one on Amazon Prime, and season two will air on Syfy. At only ten episodes, season one is a quick watch. I was intrigued enough after the first two episodes to keep going, but after watching the first four I was hooked.
Like the original series of Star Trek, The Expanse is set in the 23rd Century. But unlike Star Trek, which is focused on a future in which man has harnessed interstellar travel and is out interacting with alien civilizations, The Expanse is set during a time in which the Moon, Mars, and the asteroid belt have been colonized, and unique societies, governments, and cultures are springing up in each place. Earth and Mars are in a state of cold war, and the Belters, as the inhabitants of the asteroids are called, feel oppressed by the distant government of Earth, and a separatist movement has sprung up to help fuel the flames of independence. Oddly, the plight of the Belters and the physical environment they inhabit reminded me a lot of the Martians and Mars from Total Recall. I think you’ll know what I mean if you’ve seen both.
That’s the setting in which this series takes place, but the arc of the story follows a cop named Miller, an ice-hauler named Holden, and a UN bureaucrat named Avasarala as they work a mystery from three different ends, eventually converging. Miller is kind of an odd character. He’s sort of a throwback to a film noir detective right down to the way he dresses and talks. Frankly I found that a little off-putting given that the setting is futuristic Ceres, but I got used to it. Holden and his crew and their whole side of the plot were far more interesting. Even the stuff from Earth’s side was of more interest, because it lets the audience in on the political intrigue going on in the solar system.
The mystery’s reveal winds up being a little boringly conventional genre television fair, but it’s worth watching The Expanse anyway because it just presents a very unique setting for a TV series. As someone who works in technology, I found the show’s depiction of future tech to be really well thought out, but frankly most of what they showed in terms of electronics seemed to be pretty close to what we have now. Of course all of the stuff involving interplanetary transportation is in our far future.
I wasn’t wowed by this show, but it was an enjoyable watch and I’m looking forward to season two. If you like science fiction, you definitely need to add The Expanse to your watch list.
