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The Expanse - Season 5 - Now Streaming (Amazon Prime)

Ma-Yuan

Member
Last episode was boring. So far the season had to many slow / boring episodes for my taste. :-/ even a boring episode is like 10 times better then the best star trek discovery episode so I will be gladly bored every week if it has to be 😁
 

Shouta

Member
The Naomi stuff this episode was awesome but considering how many interesting plotlines there are, it definitely ate up a a bit too much time in the episode.
 

Mossybrew

Member
Not sure who thought it would be a good idea to have an entire episode of Naomi crying and moaning. Jesus. This was almost unwatchable.
No way. This was a great episode. For all the bitching Ive seen lately about stereotype "strong female" trope characters this episode was a masterclass in writing for female characters thats isnt a tired trope or some feminist agenda but just characters that happen to be women, from Naomi to Drummer to a couple secondary characters each with their own motivations. Naomi here was just an absolutely determined character on a Ripley level not fighting aliens but technical challenges and her own human limitations, and Dominique Tipper absolutely sold it as someone at the absolute edge of their capacity who perseveres.
 
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Naomi is not good. I did really like the angle of an engineer trying to solve a problem, but the actress was so futile at it they basically had her shutup for the entire thing. She had more "simulated' dialog than actual speaking parts.

Cara Gee as Drummer outshines her in a brief bit of frustration and rage.
 

Dr.Guru of Peru

played the long game
No way. This was a great episode. For all the bitching Ive seen lately about stereotype "strong female" trope characters this episode was a masterclass in writing for female characters thats isnt a tired trope or some feminist agenda but just characters that happen to be women, from Naomi to Drummer to a couple secondary characters each with their own motivations. Naomi here was just an absolutely determined character on a Ripley level not fighting aliens but technical challenges and her own human limitations, and Dominique Tipper absolutely sold it as someone as someone at the absolute edge of their capacity who perseveres.

The constant whimpering and crying really didn't give me the sense that she was a "strong female" character. It was grating.
 
Phew, this season is so slow again after that amazing start until the episode with
the earth getting bombarded
.
That whole storyline with Amos and Clarissa is boring. I simply don't care about them wandering around nearly current time looking American landscapes and cities. I don't even understand why this is shown.

Naomi's story in this episode wasn't that fast as well, but much better than "Naomi's family problems" the episodes before.
Her "moaning and grunting" seems to be in character to me. She has survived space without a suit, is burned from radiation and probably has organs being injured. And she tries to save the people she loves, yet it's almost a hopeless situation.

I loved seeing her struggling and thought it's well done.

What I really hate about this season is that they show nothing of earth's response after what happened. I mean, they seem to have the biggest fleet in the system, yet are acting completely toothless.

Now after four endless episodes of nothing we at least get some political banter if something should happen.

I have to say, this season seems to me like so much wasted potential. Again. Which hurts a bit after season 4, where I almost didn't want to watch the show anymore.
There is always this glimmer of greatness in Expanse, yet every time they decide to go for boring little storylines that don't seem to amount to much.
 
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Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
The constant whimpering and crying really didn't give me the sense that she was a "strong female" character. It was grating.
The perseverance, pain resistance, and quick thinking in dangerous situations conveyed that to me.

The whimpering and crying helped sell the performance as a real person who isn't a Mary Sue with plot armor.
 

Goro Majima

Kitty Genovese Member
This season is determined to bore me to tears with Naomi’s storyline. So many other characters feel stuck in limbo because of the amount of time focused on her.
 

Woo-Fu

Banned
That whole storyline with Amos and Clarissa is boring. I simply don't care about them wandering around nearly current time looking American landscapes and cities. I don't even understand why this is shown.
It's shown to explain why Amos is Amos and why Clarissa
ends up a permanent member of the Rocinante's crew.

While they've briefly touched on how Naomi was Amos' conscience at the start of the story and later transferred that relationship to Holden they're now going into what made him into the person that requires somebody else to be his conscience in the first place.

All of this is in the books and works great for people who want their protagonists to not be 2d hero cutouts.
 
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It's shown to explain why Amos is Amos and why Clarissa
ends up a permanent member of the Rocinante's crew.

While they've briefly touched on how Naomi was Amos' conscience at the start of the story and later transferred that relationship to Holden they're now going into what made him into the person that requires somebody else to be his conscience in the first place.

All of this is in the books and works great for people who want their protagonists to not be 2d hero cutouts.
I concur, but it's still boring for people that want to see some space stuff in their space show. : D

This season is determined to bore me to tears with Naomi’s storyline. So many other characters feel stuck in limbo because of the amount of time focused on her.
This has been my problem with Expanse for at least since season 4.
You feel there is so much cool stuff going on somewhere in the wider story, yet they decide to show some dude's or woman's personal little struggle while the big stuff is glossed over.

It's like you watch a movie, and you get to the second act (which would be what happened with Earth in this season), and then suddenly the movie decides to go back to start of act 1 again. Feels like some eternal cock teasing.

I start to think the great second season of this show was an accident. They show some greatness in between in some episodes, and then every time go for completely letting the steam out and it's back to super slow pace again.

This is driving me crazy.
 
I'm not sure how many of us here watch these episodic podcasts/interviews.. I find them super interesting. In the case of this particular episode, they do a good job of explaining the Naomi situation. Granted that it'd be better if this context was in the episode itself, but glad to have it nonetheless.

 
I always enjoy Amos scenes. He's one of the stronger characters. My problem is I forgot Clarissa's story or why Amos cares about her.


BTW, that peeing scene felt like it was done just to do a peeing scene. It was piss-exposition.
 

Woo-Fu

Banned
I always enjoy Amos scenes. He's one of the stronger characters. My problem is I forgot Clarissa's story or why Amos cares about her.


BTW, that peeing scene felt like it was done just to do a peeing scene. It was piss-exposition.

Clarissa Mau, daughter to Pierre, sister to Julie. Clarissa was a socialite who mostly disdained the behavior of her rebellious sister. Anyway, Pierre Mao sticks his dick in the protomolecule beehive and then Jim Holden comes along and foils all/most of his dastardly plans. So of course Clarissa blames Jim for her family's fall from grace and gets herself body-modded so she can hunt down Holden and make him pay. Along the way shit happens, she has a change of heart and ends up a passenger/prisoner on the Roci on the way back to earth and imprisonment. Amos sort of adopts her into the tribe during the trip which means he'll do practically anything for her, at least anything he perceives has a chance of success.

He wouldn't make a doomed attempt to break her out of supermax but if a meteor strike changes the odds...

In the books they became just about inseparable after this, a man incapable of feeling remorse and a woman who never stops.
 
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eot

Banned
I always enjoy Amos scenes. He's one of the stronger characters. My problem is I forgot Clarissa's story or why Amos cares about her.
They don't spend much time together in the show, I feel like it was at most one episode towards the end of S3. Then they video chat in S4 and I remember having to go back and look up why they were even friendly with each other.
 

Yoda

Member
Finally am caught up. Season 5 is easily the weakest so far, we'll see if they can turn it around but I wonder what caused the poor pacing. Is the show deviating from the books? From what I've read online they've been mostly faithful to the books.
 

eot

Banned
Amos walking along that wall while taking cover from gunfire looked so weird. The wall was getting lower and he wasn't crouching down, but still acted like he was in cover
 

Irobot82

Member
Clarissa Mau, daughter to Pierre, sister to Julie. Clarissa was a socialite who mostly disdained the behavior of her rebellious sister. Anyway, Pierre Mao sticks his dick in the protomolecule beehive and then Jim Holden comes along and foils all/most of his dastardly plans. So of course Clarissa blames Jim for her family's fall from grace and gets herself body-modded so she can hunt down Holden and make him pay. Along the way shit happens, she has a change of heart and ends up a passenger/prisoner on the Roci on the way back to earth and imprisonment. Amos sort of adopts her into the tribe during the trip which means he'll do practically anything for her, at least anything he perceives has a chance of success.

He wouldn't make a doomed attempt to break her out of supermax but if a meteor strike changes the odds...

In the books they became just about inseparable after this, a man incapable of feeling remorse and a woman who never stops.
I really need to get more of the books. I have 1-3 because it was a box set and I was hoping 4-6 would be boxed as well but I could never find it.
 

vpance

Member
I liked this episode. shrug

Building up to the showdown. I don't imagine they'll kill him by the end of this season though. No spoilers.
 

Durask

Member
I always enjoy Amos scenes. He's one of the stronger characters. My problem is I forgot Clarissa's story or why Amos cares about her.


BTW, that peeing scene felt like it was done just to do a peeing scene. It was piss-exposition.
Well as long as they don’t follow it up with a pooping scene...
 
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Trogdor1123

Member
Episode was good but felt like more could have happened. Felt like it was really about getting her back in control of earth. She was a real bad ass this episode, one of my favorite characters ever. Actress is so good.

That and getting Amos off earth of course. Rest was filler
 

Dazrael

Member
There is always this glimmer of greatness in Expanse, yet every time they decide to go for boring little storylines that don't seem to amount to much.
I couldn’t have said it better myself. It’s a good show, great even compared to a lot of TV out there, but it always feels like there is something holding it back. The world building, lore and design is fantastic but it’s missing something vital that I can’t quite put my finger on to make it a classic.

There are scenes that are sweeping in grandeur and others that betray its budget. For instance there was a scene in season 4 where Avasarala is holding an important remembrance service on the stairwell of the UN building. What world leader holds important ceremonies in a stairwell?

Season 5 is better than season 4 so far, that one was a slog.
 

Mossybrew

Member
One of those episodes where the show feels like its just spinning its wheels and not getting very much accomplished plotwise. We don't get many episodes per season and I dunno, I just expect a bit more from eps like this.
 
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Xenon

Member
Just started watching a few weeks ago. The first four seasons were amazing and I binged up to the current episode. Can't say I'm in love with the direction this show has taken in the 5th season. I'm getting Waking Dead vibes(not good ones) with the compete absence of clear direction. I also feel like all the newer characters lack the complexity compaired to earlier in the show. Not even that interested in seeing the finale.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
I will say, the HDR is some of if not the best I’ve seen on a streaming platform. Especially all the color and lighting choices from scene to scene in Season 5.

Reminds me of a video game, Mass Effect like.
 
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Shouta

Member
Last episode of the season was really good. This season as a whole was a bit uneven but I think they managed to pull off finale and set it up for next season.

They handled Alex's character pretty well considering the situation.
 

Vestal

Gold Member
Last episode of the season was really good. This season as a whole was a bit uneven but I think they managed to pull off finale and set it up for next season.

They handled Alex's character pretty well considering the situation.
Agreed. The season as a whole felt like a very slow burn that dragged in quiet a few places. While the conclusion did have some good payoffs, it fell short of payoffs in previous seasons.
Notes from the episode:
I laughed pretty hard when Amos came back to the Roci and the convo he had with Holden. Amos is truly the heart of the show, the way he played that I wonder if he doesn't have a GAF account.
They handled Alex as well as they could. Although it could have been a slightly more dramatic sequence, given what the character meant to the crew and the show as a whole.
The tease for the next season pissed me off. I want that season here now lol..

Going into hibernation until we can see the conclusion to this story.
 
3 episodes that could've been shrunk to two made the third half boring as hell but the season ended on a good note for the last 2. Only pain is waiting who knows how long for the next season.

Didn't like how they presented the
death of Alex.
 
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Durask

Member
3 episodes that could've been shrunk to two made the third half boring as hell but the season ended on a good note for the last 2. Only pain is waiting who knows how long for the next season.

Didn't like how they presented the
death of Alex.

Well

In the books Fred Johnson died from a stroke from high G maneuvers during a battle so I guess they transferred his book death to Alex
 
Well

In the books Fred Johnson died from a stroke from high G maneuvers during a battle so I guess they transferred his book death to Alex
They actually gave
Fred a good death - delivery wasn't bad and set the infiltration/Marco plot in motion extremely well.

I'm sure they thought Fred's death would fit
Alex more since he's the pilot pulling High G's all the time but the delivery was dog shit
 
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Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
Not a bad last episode, but I feel the season could have been more well optimized in general. They could have done a lot more with the politicking and drama of kicking out the acting Secretary General, for example.

They kinda Poochied Alex, but I'm not sure what over avenues they could have reasonably pursued. The whole situation sucks.

Given that Arjun is dead, they shouldn't have recast that actor back in season 4. Just let the original actor do some remote video cameos and that could have been enough.
 

Trogdor1123

Member
Awesome season finale... Awful that we need to wait now!

One question about the torpedoes/missiles in the end, I thought they couldn't do that in the zone? Or did that get fixed?

That wraps up book 5 right? So lots of content left.
 

eot

Banned
I thought it was okay at best, too much of the episode was showing things that we knew were going to happen and the last five minutes weren't enough to make up for 5 episodes of nothing going on.

Did we really need even more scenes of Naomi gasping for air?
 
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