The Expanse

:

Season 5
Season #: 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
User Score
7.4

Generally favorable reviews- based on 79 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 56 out of 79
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 79
  3. Negative: 15 out of 79
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User Reviews

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  1. grammarye
    Feb 9, 2021
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A remarkable show suddenly becomes boring filler commentary. This season dragged significantly, and advanced the plot very little. We spend hour after tedious hour watching repeats of the same scenes, characters engage in actions that are just plain stupid & not in character with their previous seasons; the actual interesting plot advancement is compressed into short minutes here and there. That the show's owners decided to kill one of their most interesting characters off for their own petty reasons just adds more annoyance to the overall theme. The immense complexity of prior seasons is replaced with one-dimensional plot points and badly written exposition.

    I'm honestly a mix of shocked and disappointed, which speaks to the regard I held the Expanse in. I fell in love with the show during the early seasons. Season 4 had a few rocky moments (Holden holding a metal plate against a tsunami I'm looking at you) but was still a fun sci-fi experience. Season 5 has fully transitioned to soap opera and political commentary in space. The sci-fi bit is pretty much killed off. There's no more discussion of actual space or interesting alien mystery or even geopolitics.

    What a lot of Hollywood doesn't seem to grasp is that if I wanted to watch the same boring commentary on humanity transposed to yet another setting to ruin with unimaginative writing, I have plenty of existing failed shows to watch. The Expanse had the rare promise to actually be sci-fi and deal with the many challenges posed by that. It's not that the existing issues of humanity aren't present, but the point is that they should be backdrop, not the main theme. That's been done, and done better.

    A few spoiler-worthy highlights: we spend more time watching Naomi crying or breathing with difficulty (and doing so astonishingly poorly for someone who allegedly lives and works in space) than almost any other part of the season. It doesn't even advance her character much, since the audience is left wondering most of the time what the hell she is doing or why she's acting so stupidly. Maybe the books provide more context but it's all been lost by whatever halfwit director put these scenes together. She flits about emotionally so much that by the end of the season you wonder whether a personality transplant was also included.

    The big plot point of the season is Marco Inaros and his fight against Earth, one of the few characters who actually shines in creating a really irritating villain. Yet even here we don't actually get to explore much. The scenes are a mix of him psychologically manipulating his son and looking broodily into the camera while one of his one-dimensional sidekicks does something. We get a certain amount of ship porn with a few battles, yet the big mysteries of the Expanse's prior plotlines aren't advanced at all, or worse, are hand-waved off-screen.

    By the end, finishing off with a brief almost apologetic space battle and boring scenes that do a terrible job of conveying the real reasons why parts of Mars acted the way they did, it's hard to care. Killing off Alex was bad enough, but the way they did so was perfunctory and did the show and their own reputations a disservice. Indeed the bulk of activities of most of the characters seems to be have been heavily cut in favour of specific screentime, and the show's pacing suffers for it.

    It's not a gripping season. It feels forced, badly written, and attempting to appeal to a different audience to prior seasons. The interesting parts could almost be condensed into one or two episodes, and you'd have several hours of your life back. A great pity.    … Expand
  2. CodyYoung
    Jan 1, 2021
    3
    There are quite a few factors one might consider when distinguishing between good cinema and poor. Individual variables such as writing, acting, directing, production value et cetera et al are all invaluable in determining where the major faults may lie, but ultimately they are utterly immaterial if the most base aspiration is ignored: whether or not the production is convincing.There are quite a few factors one might consider when distinguishing between good cinema and poor. Individual variables such as writing, acting, directing, production value et cetera et al are all invaluable in determining where the major faults may lie, but ultimately they are utterly immaterial if the most base aspiration is ignored: whether or not the production is convincing.

    Whether it is compelling, how well it is executed, these are distant and secondary considerations which will not matter if the audience can not be convinced of the reality - of the setting, of the characters, of the stakes. If they cannot be convinced it is real, or at the very least that they should want it to be real, then they will never be convinced they should care.

    I don't enjoy writing this. I discovered this show before I knew there were books. I roped a lot of friends into watching it after seeing the very promising first season and we would get together every season that followed for the first aired episodes, My friends got into the books and passed them back to me. All of which is to say I was very much invested. All of us shared a lot of enthusiasm concerning this series even as Amazon acquired the rights and believed Amazon would provide the only two things the series had ever seemed to lack: A spotlight and a larger market.

    Season 4 was really rough, but there was a lot of confidence that showed through. Season 5, however, is listless. Nothing sells the tensions or the stakes, none of the narrative archs track well, the production value is very thin, with messy, indistinct sets and tight framing which seems as though the directors and showrunners were more concerned with concealing what was not present rather than showcasing what was. The acting has always been inconsistent, some of the talent this season is much better than in previous seasons while inhabiting the same roles (special emphasis Wes Chatham and Chad L. Coleman) while a few of the new additions are also supremely competent despite still trying to find greater comfort with the material. It is good to see greater strides on this front it is simply a pity forward progress isn't obvious anywhere else.

    This season feels tired and as a result it absolutely fails to be convincing in any meaningful way and I feel confident that if nothing changes it will be put to sleep after another season if not sooner. The only thing worse would be if it were to be allowed to continue as it is now on life support.    … Expand
  3. flowirin
    Feb 3, 2021
    2
    This is not the same show anymore. It has morphed from an interesting character led scifi / astropolitical /thriller / mystery into a grindingly boring psychodrama with extra emoting, with all the other stuff resolved off screen or in very short segments.

    The showrunners have declared their colors on social media, attacking anyone who doesn't like their change in direction as sexist or    This is not the same show anymore. It has morphed from an interesting character led scifi / astropolitical /thriller / mystery into a grindingly boring psychodrama with extra emoting, with all the other stuff resolved off screen or in very short segments.

    The showrunners have declared their colors on social media, attacking anyone who doesn't like their change in direction as sexist or racist so the thing is pretty much done.

    One of the actors has been accused of off-screen impropriety, but instead of recasting, they literally killed him, off screen, then made us watch the actor they've been shoving into our faces at every opportunity (2-3 minutes of nothing but their face and emoting at a time) emote about how it is her fault. Not once, either. I think they have a fetish for the actress or something.

    At any rate, the show has jumped the shark. The actual plot is reduced to tiny slots and the episodes that should have been devoted to it is instead wasted on dramatic, emotional nonsense and bad acting that is probably supposed to make us feel something. I'm not their target audience anymore, they seem to have pivoted towards the reddit/twitter ever-adolescents instead.

    The review sites are flooded with 2 line "best show evah!" and "Season 5 is action packed", and "season 5 is the peak" bogus reviews, so you know that they know that it is an absolute stinker. Be interesting to see if 6 actually gets made now. If it does, i'm not paying to watch it.,    … Expand
  4. Kims
    Feb 6, 2021
    1
    Love Seasons 1-4.
    This season felt more like a soap opera than Action & Adventure.
    It lacks all the elements that make the past seasons great.
  5. ryanfukyouall
    Jan 12, 2021
    0
    Weak acting, 1950s comic-book dialogue, and boring plot - the fault is my own - I knew I should have stopped watching this show after the 1st season. Shame on me.
  6. georgievich
    Feb 12, 2021
    2
    Boring, weak dialogs, bad script, caricature antagonist, too much Naomi and her family.
  7. TwiTu
    Feb 8, 2021
    0
    This is not The Expanse anymore. Its completely turned around. Not only are the new actors almost all really bad, but also the existing ones had their characters partly rewritten/reassigned and obviously cant or wont deal with it. Ive never seen that much bad acting in any show or movie. There are such ridiculous situations of bad acting, that sometimes I just sunk my face into my handsThis is not The Expanse anymore. Its completely turned around. Not only are the new actors almost all really bad, but also the existing ones had their characters partly rewritten/reassigned and obviously cant or wont deal with it. Ive never seen that much bad acting in any show or movie. There are such ridiculous situations of bad acting, that sometimes I just sunk my face into my hands and left them there for a whole minute, because it really was that bad.

    The story is completely uninteresting now. Not to mention it was mainly just about saving one person (whos character is completely irrelevant to everything and unlikeable anyway - and the actress untalented).

    The show feels forced now. As if they are pushing something. Propaganda maybe? Would fit, because the creators seem to favor a lot of people with full lips (not kidding - check it for yourself) and those with thin lips are mostly cast as bad guys or die quickly. The creators also seem to hate Asians. There are additional Chinese (or Japanese, not sure) words on every sign in the show (from the last seasons, obviously), yet you barely see any Asians at all, much less in lead roles. That also was much better in the last seasons, yet not very good either. That feels like its coming directly from the Critical Race Theory rulebook.

    Then they also killed off a character because the actor was accused (accused, not actually found guilty) of misbehavior. Even though there is only one more season anyway. So what could have happened keeping him? Obviously the creators feel like they are the judge, jury and executioner. Curiously also a part of Critical Theory.

    Sad to see this happening, but this is the way now. Brace yourselves. This by far wont be the last show or IP destroyed by or even completely made for woke propaganda.
    Thankfully only one more season now.    … Expand
  8. ticksmentat
    Feb 9, 2021
    1
    I would have given it a zero but it had that "lost" effect going letting you believe it was leading to something great, so I gave it a 1. This is perhaps the biggest let down and waste of time I have ever put into a season of a show ever. Why? *SPOILERS* The crew spends the entire season apart on separate missions... with the exception of Naomi they are all pretty stupid. 1. Go here,I would have given it a zero but it had that "lost" effect going letting you believe it was leading to something great, so I gave it a 1. This is perhaps the biggest let down and waste of time I have ever put into a season of a show ever. Why? *SPOILERS* The crew spends the entire season apart on separate missions... with the exception of Naomi they are all pretty stupid. 1. Go here, check out your roots, find a chick and get back... all season. 2. Alex, also go here and then get to here all season. 3. Holden, first two episodes had some stuff, then the rest of it... we flying to this place. 4. Naomi, the whole season essentially was about her and her predictament. Next problem, lame ass fight scene at end; why were they low on ammo, why were they low on fuel, a random ass missile-HEY THAT MUST HAVE THE PROTOMOLECULE IN IT! what, huh??? A major character Alex is killed off, not even on screen, with a stroke, from him piloting a reverse burn... yet the entire series up till this point they make him look like a bad ass pilot that can do anything... but slowing down in a little shuttlecraft kills him... what the hell? I want my 10 hours back... whole season was complete garbage. The fact that rotten tomatoes has it at 100% and high on this one too tells me these sites are now compromised to high hell and back. Good luck.… Expand
  9. OnyxShadow
    Dec 7, 2021
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. My only wish is that the turbo-lame Inaros arc gets wrapped up by like episode 3 of season 6. The Earth vs. Mars vs. Belt dynamic was a fantastic way to set up and play off the supernatural/alien elements which are by far the most fascinating parts of the show but on their own make the story feel very hollow.

    Marco Inaros is neither smart enough to outmaneuver his rivals nor charismatic enough to have reasonably turned a financially crippling and humiliating defeat into rallying nearly everyone in his entire faction overnight (other than "because the script says so"). The last part of the trailer for season 6 gives me hope that we will find our way out of his horribly mundane human vs. human war.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
82

Universal acclaim - based on 5 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. IndieWire
    Reviewed by: Steve Greene
    Dec 16, 2020
    83
    Even with the protomolecule saga relatively sidelined this season, “The Expanse” draws so much strength from exposing how fragile an expansive society like this is.
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  2. The Telegraph
    Reviewed by: Ed Power
    Dec 16, 2020
    80
    The Expanse’s complexity risks turning off the casual viewer. Yet its portrayal of a multi-faceted and morally ambiguous future brimming with dozens of heroes and villains remains a stunning achievement. For those prepared to commit the necessary time and attention, it’s an absolute blast.
    Read full review
  3. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Mike Hale
    Dec 15, 2020
    70
    If you can look past some wooden dialogue and stiff acting, however, the new season might be the show’s best as an adventure-drama delivery system — the creators have only gotten better at pacing and packaging a taut conspiracy thriller over 10 weeks.
    Read full review
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