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Comment by TLightful | Hacker News Reader

Same. Struggling through the 5th season, though.

Feels like it's lost its narrative drive.

I feel that Season 5 works a lot better if are a book reader. I totally get why the shift away from the gates is a bit confusing.

The Expanse was never a planet-of-the-week show. Exploring the impact of the new planets on the solar system and its people is also important.

One thing I'm a bit disappointed is the fact that they drop part of Mars storyline.

I have to second this. The parties motives, Mars and Inaros, make so much sense. Hard to convey that level of detail and complexity in a TV show. They managed to explain most Mars motivation rather well so, in the arc where Bobbie is chasing black marketeers.

I could imagine, so, that season 6 will answer most of these questions.

Yes, S5 is basically only good because of the by now known actors and overall production quality. It's a much less interesting story than any of the previous seasons and keeps rehashing narratives and tropes.

S1 was completely mindblowing, film noir in space in a well fleshed out world and awesome production quality, S2 OK, S3 was a "must see" but then it went downhill.

For what it's worth, every season follows the books pretty faithfully.

Except for a notable character death in Season 5.

And a much more fantastic rescue. Kinda mad that the book rescue wasn't in the show.

But it mostly was, no? Apart from Naomi repeatedly going out of the ship to signal with lights.

Or am I missing something?

* book spoiler *

Bobby riding a missile like a surfboard is much more fantastic that what was in the show. It is one of the "big scenes" that I wanted to see on screen. It is explained in the book that her suit thrusters don't have the range to reach Naomi in time. So she mag boots on to one of the remaining missiles that were orbiting the Razorback (also missing from the show) and Alex flies the missile remotely to Naomi.

It's been a while since I've read the books, I completely forgot about that (so much so that I have to take your word on it). I do remember the missles though.

While I'm sure they could have CGI-ed it, that rescue might have just been too wild/insane to show on TV (it might cause the casual viewer to think the show is too crazy to continue watching).

It's only cool until you think about the physics of it. Thrust needs to be applied towards the center as mass if you want to move forwards. Apply the thrust off-center and you start spinning. The scenario in the book is a great way to start spinning really fast without going anywhere. You'd need to huddle around the missile to align your own center of mass with it (the thrust vectoring can adjust for minor errors), but that's not very cinematic.

MotherF... I just watched the episode. Edit my previous comment to say two notable deaths in season 5 that didn't happen in the books.

Well, after some searching, aparently the actor was accused of sexual misconduct.

I'm the same - loved the first 4 seasons, but season 5 feels slow like they're really dragging things out. Also feel like some of the dialogue and acting are not very convincing. And it almost feels like a series of short stories, instead of one storyline.

You're not wrong. The parts on Earth from season 5 was from "The Churn", a novella.

The parts on Earth are from book 5. "The Churn" novella is the story of Timmy becoming Amos that happened before Amos was on the Cant.

You're absolutely right.

Ah, I haven't read the books, and didn't even realise the series was based on books until this thread!

Book 5 is pretty disjointed with 4/5 stories happening at the same time. So, your feeling is accurate to the book.

For a while I thought this was an unpopular opinion, but now I'm seeing more people agree. Relative to season 1-4, season 5 is extremely anti-climactic and at times even annoying (e.g. the looping Naomi transmission really got on my nerves). It's hard to believe season 6 will be the last after the complete disappointment season 5 has become.

Conversely I see hate for season 4, but I really liked it. I really love plot-lines around mysterious aliens or ancient technology. It's one of the reasons why Deep Space 9 and Babylon 5 are some of my favorite Sci-Fi series.

Yeah the 5th season is a struggle for me, too. I stil love watching it but it's a bit slow. It feels it's all character build-up, with little story progression. Amos' prison & planet escape storyline makes no sense in the grand scheme of things. Sure it's a nice story, but it doesn't have much to do with the Expanse universe, the prison/planet escape could've been part of any generic movie, specially because it doesn't really explore the story of Baltimore all that much.

I still enjoy watching it and would've been happy to watch these episodes if the Expanse was like one of the half dozen star trek shows that ran 170-180 episodes each. But not in a 50 episode show like the Expanse is.

It also feels like the character building is a little too late. Exploring Amos' upbringings (maybe 10 minutes before the prison visit after which it's all wiped away) or Naomie being a parent in the second to last season, I don't know. Would've been good to integrate much of that sooner. Feels like we're kind of stuck building up characters as filler to not run out the story too fast. That's okay if it was more spread out over the seasons.

As others have mentioned, it makes more sense in the context of all 8 (eventually 9) books. The show is only around book 5 so far.

Wow really? I love season 5, so much depth to the world building and big actions. If it follows the book it builds to an amazing pay off IMO.

Stick with it! Its building into something magical if it follows the books.

Also, read the books they are incredible!

Ok, thanks - I'll give it a shot

Unfortunately, Season 6 will be the last Season of the series :( They've stated they are sticking to book 6 and not trying to cram the last 4 books into 1 season. The speculation is there will be "movies" for each of the final 3 books, but that's not confirmed in any meaningful way.

I feel the same. I've fallen behind in terms of the episodes being released and don't feel any particular need to catch up.

I'll watch them eventually, but it's just not exciting enough for me to make it a priority.

I’m not a book reader and agree, although I’m only three episodes into season 5.

Amos was one of my favorite characters but am a bit put off by how his role has, to an extent, become fan service.

I appreciate that he’s a tough guy, enjoyed that aspect of earlier seasons, and want more of it. But don’t give me, the viewer, instant gratification just because I want it if it will erode my suspension of disbelief.

Feels like the characters and narratives are trending towards more traditionally defined arcs with characters getting in fights to show the audience they’re invincible or otherwise saved by cheap deus ex machina tricks.

I abandoned the show after season 4. The fourth season was disappointing and sounds like the fifth might be a let down as well. The first 3 seasons were absolutely fantastic.

5th season is based on the 5th book which is easily top 3 of the whole series.

the 4th season and the 4th book are widely considered below average for the series.

if you liked the first 3 seasons, you'll feel right at home with s5.

I disagree. Most of S5 so far has been personal stories, not space opera. I'm still finding it entertaining, but I wouldn't recommend the show to anyone on the basis of season 5.

Just finished the season finale. Keep watching, it’s worth it.

Fifth one is better then 4th and I would say also better then 3th.

For me 4th was boring and even more disappointing considering that, after all they suffered to open the portal, all that they found was a ruined, minefield piece of shit planet.

Fith is being a little more entertaining but also turning the back to the portal.

Edit: also there's sound in space. IIRC that wasn't the case in the first seasons.

> Edit: also there's sound in space. IIRC that wasn't the case in the first seasons.

I haven't noticed. I usually interpret the sound in space as sound that ship makes inside, the one that came to you through comm or something etc.

Nah, it's systemic. At some moment there were some missiles. There's no way to explain that, unless you believe the missiles make a transmition to the ship that launched them, to say in their noisy missile language that they're pursuing the target :)

That's not at all how I feel, Season 5 is the best of all of them IMO. 4 was definitely a let down but 5 has been fantastic.

I was bored by the cookie-cutter Scary Alien Machine Planet and weird physics in S4, but season 5 is a great improvement. It brings the story back to Earth and the Rim, with real people making consequential decisions.

Exactly. 4th season felt superfluous/boring. 5th gets back to basics. Maybe a little repetition (razorback, nuke, Mrs.) but it is fun.

Many people have said this, but it really does reflect the book material.

The upside is that we can expect the last season to pick up again.

Just want to add on that:

Amos: "I'm that guy"

... was the line of all 4 series. Haha. Loved the build up to that moment. standing ovation in the cinema audience kind of a moment

Last nights episode made S5 worth the space-opera vibes. Really happy it’s getting back to sci-fi and hopefully leaving game-of-thrones-in-space behind a bit

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