by Mike Hilty, Contributing Writer
The first show I ever watched that was canceled by another network and saved by another was Ren & Stimpy. It was always a childhood favorite, and I was annoyed at best when it was canceled. It was ahead of its time but was definitely not a Nickelodeon show for kids. It would have thrived on something like Adult Swim or Comedy Central. The other network it was on, MTV, probably could have sustained it just fine. When it came back, it was markedly different. It wasn’t the same; However, it was still the characters I loved. It didn’t end up surviving that long, but at least it was given a chance.
In the day and age of streaming platforms, giving content a second chance is sometimes a worthwhile chance.
The Expanse, based on the novels by James S.A. Corey, recently ended its sixth (and ALLEGEDLY) final season. Originally on SYFY, The Expanse was canceled after three seasons, and then Amazon Studios snagged it for the final three seasons. I had heard plenty of good things about the show (shout out to my sister Lauren, who I rarely listen about movies and TV shows, for proving with this recommendation that maybe I should listen to her more), but I was nervous about the source material. Truth be told, I hadn’t watched any of the show before I volunteered to write about season six of The Expanse. I also (unsurprising to some of you I’m sure) didn’t read the books either. The Expanse is not a show I would recommend anyone pick-up in the middle. You HAVE to watch it from the beginning. What’s worse is that the first season is not easy to get through at all. So here’s a VERY brief summary about who are the main players and setting the lay of the land.
The Expanse takes place hundreds of years in the future where the Solar System has been colonized. The three main systems that the story revolves around are the United Nations (the UN), which is comprised of Earth and Luna (the moon), the Martian Congressional Republic in Mars, and the Belt composed of systems in the asteroid fields in the moons between Jupiter and Saturn. For centuries, the UN and Mars have fought for supremacy in the system, sometimes verging on war. The people of the Belt often feel like second class citizens and are treated terribly by other systems. They also doesn’t have a true leader and sometimes descend into in-fighting and tribalism. We mainly follow the space ship the Rocinante, whose crew consists of Captain James Holden (Steven Strait), engineer Naomi Nagata (Dominique Tipper), and mechanic Amos Burton (Wes Chatham). Others who often come into contact with the Rocinante are Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo), who is a leader of the UN from Earth, Bobbie Draper (Frankie Adams) from Mars, and Camina Drummer (Cara Gee) from the Belt. A large portion of the show deals with the emergence of a threat called the protomolecule, a biological weapon that kills everything it comes into contact with. The protomolecule forms The Ring, which is home to lots of other habitable lands and a growing schism between Earth, Mars, and the Belt as to who should control access to The RIng and the worlds they present.
One concern I had immediately about season six was its shortened length. When the show was on SYFY, it was 13 episodes. Then when it got to Amazon, it was reduced to 10. Season six is only six episodes. Unfortunately, recent history has shown that wrapping up a TV show with a shortened season doesn’t always work. There’s a lot to wrap up, but you don’t want to introduce a lot of newer characters and short change their arc. Thankfully, no real notable characters are introduced in season six and we at least can focus on the core group that we have. But six hours isn’t a lot of time to set up the groundwork for the season, establish plans, then carry out and conclude those plans to some extent or another. The episodes had a bunch of stuff going on, but sometimes it descended into looking off into the distance, pouting about something, and then giving grand speeches about relevant topics.
The Expanse’s main issue has been that when it focuses too much on the politics, it gets very repetitive and stale. In previous seasons, when there was a specific threat that didn’t involve colonialism or feelings of abuse and mistrust among the systems, it became much more interesting. Marco Inaros is a villian that has been building for a while, and it’s great to see the slow build to show how grave of a threat he is to the system. We’re going on our second season where he’s the main threat, and as he’s grown in power, so has the writers’ challenge the to make him still a compelling character and antagonist. It doesn’t always work, but they’re at least making him still capable of doing great and terrible acts.
After five seasons with these characters, to see how far most of them have come was definitely a joy for season six. I want to give a special shoutout to Amos Burton and Chatham’s performance. Of all the crew members that have changed and developed from where he was in the first episode, Amos’ change has been the most complex, but also the most rewarding.
Bobbie Draper and Chrisjen Avasarala both go through drastic changes as well throughout their time on the show. These are veterans, and where they both go in season six is amazing to watch. There are a lot of great callbacks and cameos this season that reward those who watched the previous five seasons and will have you walk down memory lane.
As the show went on, the less interested I became in Holden and Naomi as characters. Their relationship evolves throughout the season, but their characters continue to have similar philosophies and ideas on how they should work as a crew and what their place is in the system. The Rocinante is literally the Forrest Gump of The Expanse, as they show up for major events that even I as a fan kind of rolled my eyes at, wondering why are they even here.
Another thing that I’ve always liked about The Expanse is the scope of the story spanning an entire season. This isn’t like Firefly where it was more of a procedural show versus something serialized from a story perspective. Each season also has clear themes they’re trying to establish. Season six is leaning very heavily on themes of trust and how the whole doesn’t always equal the sum of their parts. For instance, Marco Inaors’ big idea is that all inners (people from Earth and Mars) have abused the Belt for centuries and now it’s time for payback and revenge. However, season six constantly pokes holes in the flawed transitive logic that always persists in situations like this: that if you have an enemy, then you automatically assume that ALL people from that group are the enemy and are bad. The crew of the Rocinante is proof of how a group of diverse people from different systems can work together and form a family unit that works together for the greater good.
This season also focuses on people’s ability to evolve from who they were originally. Avasarala is perhaps the greatest example this season of someone who has completely changed who they were since the beginning of the show, but people are stuck with the old notion of who she was that they won’t even give her a chance to show her evolution as a character.
Greatest Hits: here are my favorite moments of the season in no particular order (shoutout to the show Lost for giving me the idea). I will make these as spoil free as possible:
- That handshake in episode five
- “Why is your word enough for me and mine not enough for you?”
- I resign… what a baller move…
- “I’d rather be shot in the front than the back”
- Amos shield
- “With you or with you?”
- Filip’s signature at the end of the series finale
- Singing “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”
Season six of The Expanse isn’t always perfect. Some storylines are rushed and some characters don’t get as many times to shine. The series finale (allegedly… there’s still three more books to adapt) wraps up with a little bit more of an usual ending compared to the first five seasons. There’s still a lot in the air, but most of the major storylines get wrapped up and our main characters have different paths forward into the future. It was a satisfying final season, but far from it’s best. Unfortunately those days are long gone and there was a noticeable drop in quality when it went to Amazon. Proceed with caution if you are interested in season six. Make sure you at minimum watch seasons four and five for context, but in reality, the show needs to be watched from the beginning to fully appreciate season six.
Season Grade: B-
You can follow Mike Hilty on Twitter and Letterboxd