Only You Can Stop the Expanse from Becoming the Next Canceled Sci-Fi Classic

https://www.wired.com/2017/03/geeks-guide-the-expanse-2/?mbid=social_fb

by rbanffy • 9 years ago

96 47 9 years ago

I have bought seasons 1 and 2 on Google Play TV, and I have really enjoyed it so far. I bought season 1 because a friend I met at Google's son, who I met once, did the Belter language for the show. I will buy season 3 if it is released.

peatmoss• 9 years ago

Season 3 is supposedly confirmed. It's Season 4 that's in question.

vidanay2• 9 years ago

Love the show. And I DO pay for it....with my Dish Network subscription that includes SyFy channel. Asking people to pay for it twice is a little ridiculous.

wrsh072• 9 years ago

The real trouble is that metricslike this suck. They don't really have feedback on who is watching. They could monitor chatter on social media (someone must do that, right?) But they don't have much to help predict whether the show is an instant classic or not

The article even mentions that studios give no indication for what they're looking at to see if the show is successful, ie we don't even know if buying it on iTunes or Amazon or Google will make a difference

wrsh072• 9 years ago

For what it's worth, imo the biggest impact you can have is to tell your friends how great it is - especially the trekkies and Firefly fans.

And then tell them to evangelize The Expanse, too

Jach• 9 years ago

They have metrics through Nielsen. They might not have your data unless you're a Nielsen house but their sampling is usually good enough. Agree though that what the money holders actually care about (beyond more money) is mysterious.

codingdave• 9 years ago

The metrics may suck, But finances are tied to it. So it doesn't matter if the ratings are accurate or not, when the funding derives from them. It is a measurement problem. Fix it, and then you can have further discussions. Until then, you can talk about quality and classics until you are blue in the face, but that isn't what drives the funding.

That is why people are talking about paying for it directly as an alternative -- because what needs to change is the funding model.

vidanay2• 9 years ago

Metrics like that might (do) suck, but they are the metrics that exist.

grue007• 9 years ago

I love the books, devour them as soon as they come out, and I think the show has done a fine job adapting the story.

I'm happy that the show has survived the weakest part of the book series - Detective Miller - and gotten past the admitted cribbing from Firefly without looking derivative. The show has truly gotten stronger from every episode.

One change I would make is to subtitle the Belter dialogue. It's such a fun part of the books which in translation to an audio track ends up getting lost as a word-mash.

HOWEVER! As far as whether the show will survive: The show either needs more cash, or to allocate that cash in a more narrow, strategic, and modest way. It suffers the problem endemic to all under-budgeted TV sci-fi: the low budget always visibly bleeds in at the edges. "Yeah, that actor's really not the best fit for that part, and we could have made the plot easier to grasp with an additional scene, but with the money we save, we can afford some CGI for the rail gun!" Maybe it's just me, but I would rather watch an excellently executed sci-fi drama on an obviously artificial Dogville-like set than watch an "OK" space opera that has a nominally realistic looking space-ship brig which I won't remember anyway.

(Not to diss The Expanse's actors! - the majority are quite good, subtle, and growing on me with each episode.)

Action and special effects together are the number one self-defeating conceit of all sci-fi, especially television sci-fi. In order to please the action-craving audience (I guess?), they starve the heart and soul of the show: focusing on characters. What I love about Star Trek: TNG, one of my favorite shows of all time, is that in the Riker's Beard Era, it focused on the truth and depth of the characters through and through. That focus allows the audience to overlook the latent camp of the setting, and forgive the sometimes poor execution. As a result, TNG is still watchable today.

Special effects age. Characters are immortal.

kevin_thibedeau• 9 years ago

Netflix effectively bankrolled the new Trek series which is bound to tank on CBS's streaming service. It would seem that they could take over funding The Expanse too.

dagw2• 9 years ago

It would seem that they could take over funding The Expanse too.

At least here in Sweden it says "A Netflix Original Serier" at the start of each episode, so I'd assume Netflix is at least partially funding it already. In fact is was only very recently that I discovered that it wasn't a Netflix exclusive show in the US.

jseliger• 9 years ago

I love the books, devour them as soon as they come out, and I think the show has done a fine job adapting the story.

I didn't love the books because too many of the sentences are weak, obvious, or clichés: https://jakeseliger.com/2016/04/28/briefly-noted-leviathan-w... , but I gave the show a shot and hoped for something better than what it is, or what the first few episodes showed. Still, I think the cash shortfall problem is probably real and accounts for some of the show's challenges.

I'm reminded of SyFy's making of The Magicians, which is a lovely book (https://jakeseliger.com/2009/08/28/the-magicians-lev-grossma...) and a TV show that I really wish HBO had made.

Para20162• 9 years ago

I wonder, in The Magician book - do the characters also drink semen to become more magical?

The show is made for middle/upperclass teenage white girls, is the book for a different audience?

baddox• 9 years ago

Interesting that you would hint at a budget shortfall showing up on screen. I've thought quite the opposite. With the exception of a couple of actors (really just specific moments with certain actors), I feel like the show is full of splendor. I've been asking myself how they could possibly pull off some of the effects and sets as a SyFy show that seems not very popular. They must either have a nice budget or be extremely resourceful.

misnome2• 9 years ago

Funny - I felt that Miller was the most interesting part of the first season. Mostly everybody else seemed to just be 2D cliche templates (Amos continues to fulfil the 'Space Gorilla' cliche so hard it hurts), and I consider most of the acting for the main characters rather forgettable. At least Miller had a narrative and a motivation, rather than just being tumbled round by whatever was happening at the time.

I started reading the books and it seems like a lot of subtleties got thrown out - there's an awful lot of "Drama" injected into the series by having the characters make stupid decisions/hiding irrelevant information just so that it can be 'discovered' or reversed later,

I also get the feeling that they stopped bothering to remember the setting was mostly supposed to be "Hard" Scifi, outside of specific references to the books, but that's a pretty specific complaint.

humanrebar• 9 years ago

I don't know. I would watch Shohreh Aghdashloo read the phone book. She's a very compelling actress.

oxide• 9 years ago

Well said, I haven't seen the show yet myself but I absolutely relate to the desire to see characters and their development prioritized over special effects usage, etc.

It stings to see characters go underdeveloped for any reason, whether it's poor writing or simply mismanaged priorities like you mentioned.

Jare• 9 years ago

I don't think the kind of stuff that would make the show more popular (forced relationships, character angst, etc) is the kind of stuff I want to see it in. So, personally, I'd rather they stick to their guns and deliver the best 3 seasons of sci-fi TV ever, filled with military, politics, physics, and characters that are fumbling their way in a universe much bigger than them.

flukus• 9 years ago

I don't think the kind of stuff that would make the show more popular (forced relationships, character angst, etc) is the kind of stuff I want to see it in.

This is what ruined halt and catch fire for me, way too much sex and personal dram forced in. Does it ever help them get the demographic they're chasing? If people wanted light erotic I can imagine some better backdrops than the creation of the 486.

wj• 9 years ago

Off topic but Halt and Catch Fire season three was my favorite yet. There is some drama that the characters mostly bring on themselves (Can and Joe) but after watching some episodes of the show Suits (Scandal has the same issue) the drama in Halt and Catch Fire is barely noticeable.

tgb2• 9 years ago

I've been interested in this show for a while, but don't have any TV. Looked at it on Google Play [1] and some of the episodes say "season only" where the price goes. What does that mean? I have to buy the full season to see them? Why on earth would they do that? I'd really like a way to pay $2 for each of the first episodes and then to shell out the remaining price for the whole season if I like it.

[1] https://play.google.com/store/tv/show/The_Expanse?id=qSBdK4f...

foxbarrington• 9 years ago

If you happen to have Amazon Prime you can watch the first season for free [1]. Otherwise it's $2.99/episode.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Dulcinea/dp/B018BZ3SCM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=...

BEEdwards• 9 years ago

They should preview the first few episodes free, but the show is basically a movie broken into weekly parts so the bundle makes since to me.

bradleypowers• 9 years ago

The "Season Only" Episodes are, in this case, behind the scenes type things. You can buy 1 by 1 without issue, I've been doing the same. The other nice thing (I think it's new) is that Google Play will deduct the price of episodes you've purchased individually from the season price if you do decide you want the whole thing later.

tgb2• 9 years ago

Fantastic, thanks!

wmf• 9 years ago

I'd really like a way to pay for each of the first episodes and then to shell out the remaining price for the whole season if I like it.

That's how Amazon works; when you buy a season any individual episodes are refunded.

transfire• 9 years ago

Why America can't have good TV -- the whole system is designed around maximizing viewers, but by definition they mostly consist of lower "casts".

But hey. No worries. More Sharknado is on the way!

johan_larson• 9 years ago

Have we had a fan-funded TV show yet? I know boardgames sometimes get crowd-funded on Kickstarter or similar sites. Video games, too.

dagw2• 9 years ago

https://www.kickstarter.com/discover/categories/film%20&%20v...

ericcholis2• 9 years ago

Chuck and Serenity come to mind. The rabid fan base used their dollars to indirectly influence the studios to renew and greenlight a feature film; respectively.

wnevets• 9 years ago

Didn't it already get renewed for another season, whats the point of this article?

ericcholis2• 9 years ago

Yes, the third season. Speculation is that the current ratings are diving, thus the fourth season is unlikely.

robryan• 9 years ago

It is strange that the Netflix deal has them waiting until all of season 2 has been aired.

So lots of people internationally who would watch it on Netflix will be pirating it.

btschaegg• 9 years ago

Yeah, I was pondering on that for other shows already, too.

However, I can imagine that made negotiations for them much easier (no-one who still uses a TV would watch their show on $DATE at $TIME when there's a VoD around). On the other hand, it is also nice to be able to schedule one's own progress in a show without having to go "what happened last week again?" each time. I'd argue it's even worth waiting for the Netflix "launch".

Mayzie• 9 years ago

So lots of people internationally who would watch it on Netflix will be pirating it.

Unfortunately that's what I have to resort to at the moment. I'm in Australia, and The Expanse is a marvellous series. I watched the first episode of the first series on Netflix when I couldn't find anything else to watch - I then binge-watched the entire first series at that point.

Now that the second series is out, I am back to good ol' pirating each episode as they air in the United States, as there is no other way to obtain it. And because of this, Netflix will unfortunately miss out on me binge watching the second series on their platform and won't get the viewership / statistics for it because I would've already seen it.

Why can they not do what they're doing for The Last Kingdom, another show I discovered on Netflix and subsequently love, and air the episodes in a weekly fashion as soon as they air in the producers domestic market?

Oh well, their loss. And likely ours when the series will inevitably get cancelled due to "lack of viewership" :-(

xupybd• 9 years ago

Well the only way I can watch is via Netflix. I'm region locked out. I'd happily buy a box set, but I can't find it for sale in NZ. I can't buy over Amazon or Itunes, because I'm in NZ. Netflix will let me watch season 1 and that's it.

So maybe more would watch this show if they could?

Taniwha• 9 years ago

In NZ it's on Sky as part of the basic package - season 2 is playing now as it's released in the US

smacktoward• 9 years ago

I was very interested in this show, and gave Season 1 a try via Amazon streaming. Unfortunately I found it to be too dry and plodding to sustain my interest. The characters were underwritten, and the storylines the show wanted to put front and center were its least engaging, which is just fatal.

Maybe it got better in Season 2, I dunno; I wasn't interested enough to find out. And I haven't read the books, so I can't say if the problems stemmed from the adaptation or from the source material. But I'm the kind of person who should be in the core audience for a show like this, so it doesn't surprise me to hear it's having ratings problems.

Para20162• 9 years ago

What scifi TV shows do you watch? Sometimes I see people provide an opinion on a show - but I have no idea if we share the same tastes. It's hard to determine who to listen to if I have no idea what the rater actually enjoys.

mercer• 9 years ago

I agree, and I also couldn't get into it at first. It does come together later on though and I'm happy I kept watching.

That said, there's a difficult to describe lack of something in the show that keeps it from being great, and it bothers me that I can't put my finger on it. I loved Firefly and BSG and have watched most episodes at least twice (possibly even ten times in the case of Firefly), and yet I can't see myself rewatching The Expanse.

RodericDay• 9 years ago

The first season was absolutely stellar. I thought it was actually shaping up to be better than BSG and others.

And then, S2 started off bad, and midway through, completely jumped the shark. Without going into spoilers, they contrive a really, really awful bit of "romance", and place it squat in the middle of everything. Really too bad.

dreamcompiler• 9 years ago

Every episode of this series is one of the best sci-fi movies I've ever seen. If they expanded (P.I.) every episode to 120 minutes I'd pay $20 each to go watch them in theaters.

Only You Can Stop the Expanse from Becoming the Next Canceled Sci-Fi Classic

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