The Expanse: Season Two

After lucking upon Season 1 and quickly bonding with its quaint, almost avant-garde style of sci-fy storytelling, purchasing Seasons 2 (and, erhem, 3) seemed a no-brainer. Detective Miller would surely have much more to offer besides that crazy hairdo, and the rest of the cast weren't half bad either.But, but, but. Pretty much from ep 2.1 it seemed clear that things had changed. Gone was Season 1's carefree and often irreverent style, and in came crowd-pleasing effects, romance, war of the planets (uh, red v blue...), and a new gung-ho Martian marine squad of dubious repute.And if that wasn't enough mood-gloop, by ep 2.5 Miller is gone. Spoiler? Sorry, but given he had top billing until then, I think we deserve to know about his service withdrawal so soon into the season. That said, I can imagine why he (Thomas Jane) might have made the call.Seeing other reviews here it seems my sentiments are in the minority. I accept that. But I stick with my point regardless: what started out as very promising and, yes, in many ways unique, was reduced to a predictable boom-shangelang CGI fest by committee. Sure, grabbing an audience is hard these streamy-beamy days, with formula the fastest road to finance. But not to greatness.

The characters and story continue on their journey. So well done. Chasing the blue slimy intelligent protomolecule stuff, and who is the mysterious seventh man in the attack on the gardens of Ganymede. This and otherexciting plots twist across the expanse.

Well, I was blown away by season 1 on blu-ray and thought it was the best TV sci-fi I had ever seen. How could that be topped? Well season 2 does just that.The visuals in blu-ray are gorgeous - cgi so good that it provides a seamless immersive experience. The principal characters appear at first sight to be stereotypic but they have flaws, complex motivations and make mistakes. This enables them to do the unexpected without the introduction of unexplainable character change that some shows seem to mistake for character development.There are nods to real world physics or at least more so than most sci-fi shows but space remains resolutely a place where sound can travel in a vacuum.For those viewers who like space battles and aliens at a rate to satisfy the attention span of a gnat or who seek some kind of empathic bond with a principal character who can do no wrong, well, they probably won't like this show. Everything builds, dodges and weaves, which only gives more impact to scenes where everything does let rip.I thought the books were competently written sci-fi but no more than that. The TV series takes them to another level. There's also a sense on my part that finally there's a production crew and techniques behind this series that could do justice to Ian Banks's Culture novels.

The second season continues the story but at a higher pace and with more danger. Both Earth and Mars have been working on the proto molecule and Naomi has given Fred Johnson access to her group's small container of proto molecule. Now the Belt also has access. As usual, as you would expect, human beings live on paranoia, fear and a willingness to emphasise difference rather than humanity and this season really shows what people are willing to do to each other. War between Mars and Earth is imminent. The proto molecule in Eros has crashed into Venus and start building their own structures while Mars and Earth watch it happen. Meanwhile, a new proto-human hybrid is tested against Earth and Martian marines on Ganymede. The Earth marines try to protect each other against it and venture into Martian territory and so the Martian marines led by Draper get involved, everyone but she is killed. Her testimony is rejected by command when she says that the thing she saw walked around in hard vacuum without a suit. Mars and Earth decide on a peace summit in order to distract everyone from what is really happening. Draper decides to act after travelling to Earth for the summit and provide witness testimony. Our favourite spaceship crew of the Rocinante work to trace those who had worked on Ganymede to produce the thing proto-soldier. The story is just superb, so damn watchable, worth every penny.

I have now got the third in the series and I am very pleased with the show so far.S/F often comes with lots of special effects and not much else.This has a great cast in depth as well as a interesting story line. Science is deep enough for me.When I saw the reviews I had to give it a try and have not been disappointed.

Very well plotted and cast, with enough twists and turns to keep you glued to your seat for all the episodes. Really hope we get series four on dvd in the Uk soon!

set around an intergalactic conflict between Earth, Mars and the Belt involving secret tech, there are some relatable and powerful characters and conflicts driving the story. Visually stunning, great acting, great dialogues

Watched season one and I was hooked so as soon as season two became available I purchased it immediately.The story is great and incredibly well thought out and it had me hooked after 2 episodes and I simply just couldn't get enough of it. The characters are believable and it is well cast, special effects/CGI are outstanding and completely draw you into this epic, devious and twisted universe of the future.I have binge-watched both seasons one and two and am eagerly awaiting season 3 onwards.