I have not read the books but I think it ended pretty well. I certainly would have liked to see a 12 episode season of course (I hear they ran out of budget?) They SEEMED to leave some things open for more.
Did I miss something or did they not really conclude the story on the colony (dogs)?
Anyone catch the Hicks and Hudson tags on two of the drop pods? I thought that was pretty cool.
I thought I saw somewhere the DVD set for Season Six comes out in March--might have been something else. I gotta wonder if they'll do a box set for the entire series. If so, I'm buying.
finally watched episode 3 this morning.
In reply to dculberson :
Yes. -_-;
In reply to aircooled :
Haven't watched the last episode yet, but can make some predictions/assumptions.
In the book, Laconia wasn't just "some colony". It was the primary antagonist of the penultimate book and a major antagonist in the final book. The dogs weren't a major plot point, and Cara and Xan don't come in for a while and don't play a significant role until the final book. Their origin is not significant to the story.
Wouldn't surprise me that they ran out of budget. There was a lot of stuff in this last season that hasn't felt nearly as well polished.
aircooled said:I have not read the books but I think it ended pretty well. I certainly would have liked to see a 12 episode season of course (I hear they ran out of budget?) They SEEMED to leave some things open for more.
Did I miss something or did they not really conclude the story on the colony (dogs)?
Anyone catch the Hicks and Hudson tags on two of the drop pods? I thought that was pretty cool.
Yeah, they apparently had a kind of limited budget and had to trim down the episode count to not lose quality in what they were able to make. They could easily have made another 6 episodes with just what was in the book that this series covered.
The story on Laconia covered the novella/short story 'Strange Dogs' pretty completely- the novella ends at pretty much the same place. It sets up for things that happen in the last two (or three... I forget whether it comes into play in Persepolis Rising or not) books. Honestly, the fact that they did include Strange Dogs in this season gives me a lot of hope that they are planning to do something more down the line with the last three books- there really isn't any good reason to have spent like half an hour or so on that story if they weren't going to do anything with the later story since it didn't really contribute to the main story.
I liked the dogs. You could save a lot of money on health care with one of those guys around. 
Watched the last episode last night (thank you Amazon for releasing things at midnight GMT...). Overall I think that they handled things well with the constraints that they apparently had in terms of budget/episode count. If they'd been able to make it a 12-episode season a lot of things would have made a bit more sense and have been clearer, but they managed to wrap everything up quite well under the circumstances and hit all of the major plot points. If they do make more using the final books (movies/miniseries/etc.) they set things up well for it.
A few thoughts (warning: book spoilers ahead):
I wasn't the biggest fan of their adding in the extra drama and making it look like they were going to kill of Peaches and Bobbi. I'd seen a lot of speculation that they were going to pull their deaths far earlier into the story for dramatic effect, and they certainly made it look that way for a while there. I was rather surprised to see that the prognosis for Peaches' condition being that she had an expected lifespan of 5 years given how much longer the time jump to Perspolis Rising is than that (~30 years or so) and she is still around then.
I didn't really understand the reason for having changed the circumstances of the assault on the station- I guess explaining that they had set things up so that the landing pods (which had more than one person in them, like the ones used to assault the science station early in the series) were tumbling and looked out of control so would be less of a priorty for the railguns targeting systems would have taken too long? I didn't understand why they kept the plan such a secret as well, other than to be a surprise to the audience- which they have to figure a decent number of already knew about from the books. I guess having the Roci in harm's way from the railguns vs. hanging out on the other side of the gate until the guns were down also added to the drama and excitement, but I thought the original worked well- it just didn't make sense for them to be there IMO.
A consistent problem that I've had with the series vs. the books is how a number of things that in the books are very well-thought-out and smart plans are reduced to a heat-of-the-moment decision on the screen. Bobbi's PDC/railgun trick to knock out the Pella a few episodes ago is a good example, and setting things up so that Marco and his ships would go Dutchman going through the gate was another classic example. In the book Naomi had everything pretty much figured out from the data and knew exactly what needed to be done to set it up so they wouldn't make it through vs. it feeling much more like a complete shot in the dark in the series.
One thing that I did think that the series did better was with Naomi and the decision to (as far as she knew) kill Filip along with Marco and his fleet. Her having to push the button to set things off and her reactions after that hit a LOT harder to me than the book did. The change with how Filip got off the Pella as well wasn't bad- and it did set him up a bit better for the future than the book did since in the book he literally had nothing when he went AWOL vs. having the repair skiff in the series.
It was interesting how they handled Xan's movement after being brought back... it seemed somewhat excessively robotic compared to how I remember the final two books describing it, but after reading Strange Dogs it does seem like that was pretty accurate. I kind of wonder how much of that was the actor and how much was done in post...
I'm kind of ambivalent to the change with regards to how Drummer(/Michio) came to be the head of the Transport Union. On one hand, the book set things up so that Avasalara had orchestrated it so that Holden would be the one who objected to being the President and recommended Michio(/Drummer)- but Avasalara wanted a Belter to be the one to head it up because she knew it would never succeed otherwise. Whereas the series made it seem like Avasalara didn't actually want a Belter to be running it and that it had purely been Holden's (and Drummer's) idea (though she accepted it in the end).
Finally- I've got to give them props for the final scene of the Roci essentially 'flying off into the sunset.' It was a great closure for the show, and also did a great job of highlighting the theme of just how insignificant all of the events were in the grand scheme of the universe. I sincerely hope that they are able to work out making the rest of the books into either a miniseries or movies... from what I understand, the production company not wanting to do it any more is why they aren't planning to at the moment, but if another steps up I'd love to see Persepolis Rising, Tiamat's Wrath, and Leviathan's Fall on-screen.
I also really hope that they release a 10-volume set of all of the books (including the upcoming Memory's Legion with all of the novellas) down the line- I don't really buy physical books much any more, but these I'd love to have around in hard-copy form.
I enjoyed it and thought it wasn't a bad ending.
As far as severely condensing lengthy plot points into a few seconds of quick decisions, that is sort of necessary when adapting a book to film. In order to keep the show moving, some creative license is required when getting from A to B can be more of a straight line.
Hopefully, a production company will find the will and funds to continue the saga.
Just watched the final episode. I think they did an excellent job despite cramming so much into so little time. The battle scenes were excellent, especially the attack on the rail guns. It had a real D-day feel to it. It makes me wonder what they could have done with another couple episodes, they really could have dedicated an episode to the assault alone. The drama leading up to it, with the volunteers knowing that at least 20% would be killed before the even hit the "beach." The solution to the Pella felt rushed too. But I agree they did do a good job with Naomi's reaction. I do find it interesting that they included so much Laconia content in the shortened series, much of which wasn't even in the 6th book. That tells me that their has to be future plans, otherwise it's pretty much a waste of time that could have been better spent elsewhere. Overall, very well done.
They had me for a minute when Holden gave a speech after becoming president of the trade union. That would have completely changed things.
I found the 6th season and final episode to be just right. The acting was still incredible.
TV spoilers maybe---
I was very satisfied with the ending. I was surprised by this show on SyFy when it started. I fell in love with it and it delivered every season until the last. I was happy they focused on the people and didn't get caught up in the Marvel Universe Movie mega CGI battle ending. The sacrifice of a pirate for Drummer, the moment Amos realized he has become a role model for someone else, the mirror scene of Bobby charging the guns just like her introduction but this time backed up by humans and belters, the emotional destruction of Naomi, and that final speech by Marco (the speech and acting were incredible!!!!!!!!!) Loved it and I am actually mourning the loss of this show. I can only remember maybe one or two other shows I felt this way about.
Time to try the books.
In reply to Advan046 :
You will love the books. I'm about to start them over again.
The books are great, the show is great, what an unusual thing to be able to say. I am reading through the books again now.
In reply to bobzilla :
I hope so. I am debating if I should try the audio books or stick to reading on paper. I know I won't enjoy reading on a kindle or tablet as I have tried.
Advan046 said:In reply to bobzilla :
I hope so. I am debating if I should try the audio books or stick to reading on paper. I know I won't enjoy reading on a kindle or tablet as I have tried.
The audio books are excellent! First rate
FYI I checked Amazon today and the entire six season DVD set of "The Expanse" is set to release Nov 14. I pre-ordered mine!
stroker said:FYI I checked Amazon today and the entire six season DVD set of "The Expanse" is set to release Nov 14. I pre-ordered mine!
Reviews seem to indicate it was a lackluster box set. I am not too big on extras as long as the show video/audio quality is good.
I bought a set and I thought it was fine. Then again, I may be an outlier because I don't give a crap about the "extras". I never saw season 5 & 6 so when the set was available I bought it. They must have been planning on Season 7 b/c there was no other explanation for the scenes on Laconia with Duarte. I do wish Cas Anvar had been smarter, though.
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