Stephen Reed

The Expanse is WELL WORTH binge watching on Amazon Prime a second time. Clues are revealed in the first season that pertain to events in later seasons that make sense on re-watching. Little things in the production indicate a fidelity to space physics. My favorite is the simple pouring of water from a container into a drinking glass on the spun-gravity massive asteroid Ceres. Another is the very slow wing flapping of birds on Ceres, because the gravity is far below one G. Others: no sound in space so no boom when things blow up. Gravity is only when thrust is applied, or worlds spun-up. Weapons are nuke missiles, railguns or lasers - all are plausible, with no "shields". Stealth is the best defense. The prefered form of executing people is spacing, ejection from an airlock into vacuum. Voice coaches have given Belter characters a creole whose phrases become well understood within the first couple of seasons. The only suspension of belief is the allowance for star gates, which enable the plot to encompass new unoccupied worlds within easy reach. The female characters are so amazing, especially Cara Gee's role as a Belter commander. My favorite male character is Amos Burton who looks for a good-person mentor to guide his otherwise psychopathic decisions. Reading the book series is recommended. After discovering the TV series, I read all the books years ago. The Expanse is best viewed as a diverse contemporary drama situated in the what-if expanse of the entire solar system. From my viewpoint as a computer scientist, its depicted future - despite accurate physics - is not at all likely due to the alternative future of the technological singularity being achieved long before humankind - as is - settles the planets, moons and asteroids. Perhaps some day, an even better long-form Science Fiction drama will be created. Until then, The Expanse is tops.