What I’m Watching: The Expanse S3

So, I read these when they came out, some years ago. They (“James S.A. Corey” is a pen name for Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck; I don’t know why they didn’t just use both their names) wrote a good hard SF STL setting, then there’s an unfortunate “space zombies” episode, and then they kind of blow that up for a more traditional space opera thing.

The first season was great, but took a lot from the 1st & 2nd books; the second season was the rest of the first two books. Minor improvement in not having space zombies, but so much of the books are skipped for more standing around talking time.

So finally S3 is free with ‘Zon Prime. Well.

The space battles and gunfights are generally very good, when you can see them; about half the time you can’t see anything happen except on a tactical scanner, which is “realistic” in that there’s no camera handy, but dull storytelling. The “Prax tries to rescue his daughter, but he’s a botanist which isn’t very useful” story works well.

Unfortunately, this is a politics-heavy season, and Earth politics are incredibly dull and preachy, and have maybe the most annoying character ever introduced since Jar-Jar Binks, Preacher Anna Volovodov (also, shitty translation, it should be Volovodova), blonde bimbo savior. Every scene she’s in is a Boomer ex-hippie preaching about love and peace and ideals, or how scared everyone is but it’s OK because “god” is with them. Ugh. She contributes nothing, has no real useful skills (supposedly she’s a nurse but in the two times that matters, she doesn’t do anything but “comfort” people; no medical skills exhibited) but fills about 30% of the screen time of the season. All her Earth scenes are created for the show, they have nothing to do with the books.

Once the politics are resolved, maybe we’ll get rid of Preacher Anna? No, she shows up at the Big Dumb Object for no reason (which is where she comes in in the books), and preaches about how “There are things in the Universe much bigger than we are”, but none of them are her god, so it’s utterly pointless. The military characters try to ship her off with the other civilians, and she finds a way to stay just to annoy me.

I’m impressed that there’s two full-on mutinies and lunatic captains shooting their own people rather than the “enemy”. In real navies you don’t get that kind of action too often, because nobody that insane is ever given control of a multi-billion-dollar vessel. Actual military people at upper ranks tend to be selected for calmness and sucking up to hierarchy, any rebellion is beaten out of them when they’re cadets, but here we get a traitor and an actual space pirate deciding who walks the plank.

Bobby Draper is still very cute, and keeps showing what dicks the Martians are. Earth people are assholes with no redeeming traits, Belters are piratical but generally fun, but the Martians are like the Mitchell & Webb Nazi sketch, but none of them realize they’re the baddies.

Finally a dumbass Belter, a girl hopped up on drugs screaming for “vengeance”, two annoying paparazzi, James “What the Fuck Have You Done Now” Holden, and a hallucination of Joe Miller’s Stupid Hat turn on the Big Dumb Object and go have the magic space opera part of this season. Most of this doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, physics-wise or in Human psychology. But it turns on the Plot Device so they can go explore 1300 star systems next season.

★★★☆☆ but I fast-forwarded over a lot of Preacher Anna’s preachin’, I’d probably give it ★☆☆☆☆ if I had to sit thru all of it.

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