The Expanse Season 2, by Alcon
Finished 5/24/2018
Genres: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Hard Sci Fi
Remember the Cant, Save the Rocinante
Spoiler-tastic Review
EDIT: IT’S BEEN RENEWED!
I wasn’t planning on watching this season so soon, but I moved ahead with my schedule in light of the recent news that the show’s potentially getting cancelled. Hopefully if enough people show an interest in this series it will be renewed.
Where last we left off the Asteroid Belt had declared independence from Earth and Mars. This is partially a result of the Belt colony of Eros being devoured by the alien protomolecule in a science experiment, which evil scientists from Earth and Mars had weaponized into a bioweapon. This season picks up where the last left off. The three independent storylines converged into two: one on Earth and one in the Belt. A new storyline was added, revolving around the new character of Bobby the Martian Marine.
In some ways I liked this season more than the first, and in some ways I liked it less. It seemed to me that this season was less well plotted than the first- I really liked the parsimony of how the Rocinante storyline and the Julie Mao storyline converged into the Eros Incident. I also really liked the redoubled focus on the political fallout of the Eros Incident, where humankind made first contact with an alien species. I think I liked season one more, but that’s not to say I didn’t like this season- I’m just partial to Noir mysteries and that season had a noir while this season didn’t.
The actors have really improved this season. Where in season one around half the main actors were wooden, (*cough*Holden*cough*) in season two they’ve finally figured out how to act. Perhaps they’ve gotten more comfortable in their roles, perhaps the writers are finally giving them good dialog, or perhaps the directors did a better job directing- who knows. One way or another all the main characters are actually pretty good all the time, instead of just some of the time.
Save the Roci!
Highly recommended.
Stay Sunny!
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