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[Ingueferroque]

What is the budget of a regular episode?

Interesting how they cast more notable (critic/crowd drawing?) actors and give them very little screen time. Thinking about Jared Harris, Jonathan Banks, ...

I wonder if Jonathan Banks has a recurring role.

 

[kirblar]

Just got thru ep4. This is good.

 

[aku:jiki]

I wonder if Jonathan Banks has a recurring role.

He was on the ship that blew up... Clearly they cast him for something, but this is not a flashback heavy story (I don't think the books have any?), and so I think he'll only be in 1-3 more episodes.

I like that by the end of Ep2 you know exactly why the Ep1 ending happened even though no one ever says it.

What do you mean?

 

[Moff]

Jonathan Banks really is a mystery

 

[lt519]

Jonathan Banks really is a mystery

Breaking bad guy? Probably just a cameo so they could put him in trailers.

 

[Volimar]

I can see why he wears the hat, Thomas Jane's long locks are really distressing

Yeah I hate his hair.

 

[RS4-]

Jonathan Banks really is a mystery

He's probably some important char that isn't even in the books. Maybe something to do with Holden getting on the Cant.

 

[Vulcano's assistant]

Jonathan Banks really is a mystery

To be fair, there would be no chance of him showing up again if he had stayed.

edit: well, I don't actually don't know if he even got off.

 

[David Incorporated Esq.]

Breaking bad guy? Probably just a cameo so they could put him in trailers.

Kind of what I'm thinking. "Well we've got to put a whole crew of extras together for one episode, why not toss in a big name for a fun cameo?"

Really, Banks shows up for one afternoon, Syfy gets a cameo and can throw him in a trailer. Everybody wins.

 

[JeffZero]

The live ratings for the second episode are an even-with-the-pilot 0.3 but the actual number of viewers dropped a bit. The show is not in the top 100 for last night.

If you're enjoying this show, tell everyone you know, yo.

 

[Union Carbine]

Digging it so far though I somewhat wish that they went with one of these characters and just followed them instead of jumping between them. I could really just watch a show about Thomas Jane's Good Cop/Bad Cop on Ceres.

 

[DieH@rd]

Saw 4 episodes.

Great stuff! They really adapted it well, production quality remains high, and storywise shit is still far from hitting the fan.

Can't wait to see how will they cram 2/3s of the book in the next 6 episodes. Hopefully nothing major will be cut.

Spoiler

That punk kid who stole water mentioned that some gangs are missing, but I think that story point will be ignored in the later part of the show. I say that because I think cops did not mention that their riot gear is missing. Still this story point can resurface later in the season, we shall see.

 

[styl3s]

Saw 4 episodes.

Great stuff! They really adapted it well, production quality remains high, and storywise shit is still far from hitting the fan.

Can't wait to see how will they cram 2/3s of the book in the next 6 episodes. Hopefully nothing major will be cut.

Spoiler

That punk kid who stole water mentioned that some gangs are missing, but I think that story point will be ignored in the later part of the show. I say that because I think cops did not mention that their riot gear is missing. Still this story point can resurface later in the season, we shall see.

Did they say they are going the Game of Thrones route and doing 1 book per season? I mean they could easily stretch it in Season 2 assuming this gets renewed.

I kind of regret watching all 4 episodes because i just have to wait even longer to get episode 5 unless they release episode when episode 3 comes out or something. I remember Showtime or HBO doing that where you got next weeks episode early on VOD.

 

[Selner]

The names of the episodes on wiki seem to indicate that are doing all of book one in season one. You can sort of guess what events occur.

 

[David Incorporated Esq.]

Yay the Rocinante!

I'm loving this show.

Did a nice job making the ship look both cool and uncool. Also, guns everywhere fuck yeah!

Reminds me of a Homeworld multigun corvette, and that rules.

 

[Cornballer]

Quick reminder about this:

Stick to the broadcast air dates, please. Episode 1 & 2 are fair game since they've already aired on SyFy. Ep 3 & 4 should be under spoiler tags until December 22nd and 29th, respectively. Thanks.

Also, if you're going discuss spoilers from the books, please label them very carefully with the book number so people know what to read and what to skip.

e.g. BOOK 5 spoilers

Spoiler

blah blah blah blah

 

[Night Hunter]

episode 2 was kind of the ugly duckling, but I just saw 3 and 4, and goddamn.

I mean I like the show just fine, a lot of potential. But I absolutely love how they do space combat.

Spoiler

but what the fuck was up with that "crossing the bridge to the Rocinante" scene in ep 4? The music was pretty laughable and the whole thing was shot in a pretty weird way. Otherwise the best and tensest episode so far.

 

[lt519]

episode 2 was kind of the ugly duckling, but I just saw 3 and 4, and goddamn.

I mean I like the show just fine, a lot of potential. But I absolutely love how they do space combat.

Spoiler

but what the fuck was up with that "crossing the bridge to the Rocinante" scene in ep 4? The music was pretty laughable and the whole thing was shot in a pretty weird way. Otherwise the best and tensest episode so far.

Ep4 spoiler:

Spoiler

How the stealth ships made themselves look like one and then broke apart was really really cool. I also thought his move to kick Naomi to push himself back down to the crosswalk when the gravity cut out was pretty bad ass. After just having watched a guy get his head blown off it was a pretty tense scene, I wasn't even paying attention to the music at that point.

 

[Kaladin]

I watched Episode 1. So much going on there. Even knowing the general gist of the plot it could be hard to follow everything.

I think I will continue, but I'm not sure.

 

[kirblar]

I watched Episode 1. So much going on there. Even knowing the general gist of the plot it could be hard to follow everything.

I think I will continue, but I'm not sure.

It simplifies a lot in the next few eps- you're seeing pieces of a puzzle that come together very quickly.

 

[Kvik]

Episode 1

Great worldbuilding, i was instantly hooked from the start. I have to turn on subtitles to see what they are speaking (Belter Creole). The Ceres station outdoors (if you can call it that) still looks like a film set for a bit, but the parts in space was really well made (definitely way better than Dark Matter sets)

Looking forward to Ep 2.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

Subtitle is so good.

 

[Kaladin]

It simplifies a lot in the next few eps- you're seeing pieces of a puzzle that come together very quickly.

That's what I'm hoping for.

 

[Asturie]

I just finished episode 3 and about halfway through the first book. The show is really good but they have made some interesting but small changes from what I can tell. Hoping the show continues to be this good and remains relatively faithful to the book because the book is fantastic so far.

 

[JeffZero]

Let's just hope the show gets to continue. SyFy's going to need to move a few boulders on this one. Using it as a kind of "loss leader" as it rebuilds its brand is savvy, but it remains to be seen just how much loss the mothership is going to allow. The show is their most expensive ever.

Sorry if my posts are all doom-and-gloom ratings-y lately. I'll have more to say when I catch up.

 

[RPGCrazied]

Just watched the first 2 episodes. I really like it. I'm pretty amazed at the budget, seems really high for a TV show, specially on SyFy. Is this a miniseries or full blown series?

 

[Moff]

Just watched the first 2 episodes. I really like it. I'm pretty amazed at the budget, seems really high for a TV show, specially on SyFy. Is this a miniseries or full blown series?

it's based on a series of books, at least 5 so far. don't know how many are planned.
first season covers the first book.

 

[GavinUK86]

Just watched the first 2 episodes. I really like it. I'm pretty amazed at the budget, seems really high for a TV show, specially on SyFy. Is this a miniseries or full blown series?

full blown series, 10 episodes, already renewed for season 2.

 

[Kahoona]

it's based on a series of books, at least 5 so far. don't know how many are planned.
first season covers the first book.

They are really going to have to pick up the pace if they plan on covering everything in the first book in one season.

 

[foomfoom415]

it's based on a series of books, at least 5 so far. don't know how many are planned.

I believe they are contracted for 9 books in total, so 4 more are coming.

 

[RPGCrazied]

it's based on a series of books, at least 5 so far. don't know how many are planned.
first season covers the first book.

full blown series, 10 episodes, already renewed for season 2.

Nice, hope it can keep up the budget. I'd hate for this show to get cheap cg. So far its been nice.

 

[lt519]

Nice, hope it can keep up the budget. I'd hate for this show to get cheap cg. So far its been nice.

The SyFy president expected low numbers initially, they are well aware they are repairing a brand and that an abnormally large chunk of their viewers to start will be online (especially due to pre releases). He also admits his viewers are tech savvy and more likely to stream than other networks, something he admits they need to learn to capitalize on. Mentioning they need to be patient with this one. I think they are really all in for two seasons. So I expect a quality joy ride for at least two years. But Jeff is right they need to overcome a couple major hurdles to justify the budget past these first two seasons.

Check out his interview with Variety, it's really good and sheds some light on their idea of what they want this to be and what it means to the network. Also talks about budget and staging, etc. Very neat stuff.

 

[JeffZero]

It's a good interview.

As viewer habits are changing, networks are being forced to adapt along with them. “To succeed now we have to be in the long game, and it isn’t about short-term ratings,” Howe says. “It’s about creating storytelling that people really want to live with over a period of time and really be passionate about.”

Howe thinks Syfy has the advantage in this brave new digital world since, “our audience has always been in cyberspace … Syfy was the first network ever to stream a show, at a point in time when the technology was incredibly hard but the rights were very easy. Now the technology is easy and the rights are very hard,” he laughs.

 

[Santiako]

Went through the four episodes in a couple of days, I'm loving it and I think I'm going to pick up the first book later today.

 

[Moff]

I think no one so far has voiced a negative opinion in here

 

[firehawk12]

Someone really needs to ask them what the thinking is releasing the show during Christmas.

Do they think they are Doctor Who? lol

 

[Moff]

Someone really needs to ask them what the thinking is releasing the show during Christmas.

Do they think they are Doctor Who? lol

maybe the thought the theatre release of a pretty big movie might spark the interest for a bit of scifi back home on the tv

 

[firehawk12]

maybe the thought the theatre release of a pretty big movie might spark the interest for a bit of scifi back home on the tv

I argued that people would be too busy talking about Star Wars to worry about a show that they might not have even heard of.

Unless of course there are trailers before Star Wars or something.

 

[Selner]

Someone really needs to ask them what the thinking is releasing the show during Christmas.

Do they think they are Doctor Who? lol

No competition?

People may not have a lot to watch over the holidays, so they drop the first four episodes and let people watch them when they want to.

Might even get some additional word of mouth as people visit family over the holidays.

I've already seen a few people on GAF say things like "Nothing to watch? Check out The Expanse".

Totally a gamble, with quite a lot of risk.

 

[lt519]

They are very successful on the internet right now.

Front page of Xfinity's most popular TV shows.

Here's Google's top selling shows:

iTunes top selling shows:

They've self admitted they are focused right now on generating buzz and word of mouth. To be the #2 selling TV episode on Google and #3 on iTunes is a pretty big deal and will go a long ways. How many people are loading up their iPads and Nexus' with TV Shows for holiday travel right now? A ton. And honestly, it's probably better now then to compete against X-Files in February or GoT in April. They probably wouldn't even be charting during peak TV season.

 

[Dominican Power]

Show picks up steam after 4 episodes.

 

[Irobot82]

Ugh. Worst part of this show is having to wait for the rest. WHY outdated TV model WHY!!!! Anyone know any good Sci-Fi to hold me over? Last one I really liked was BSG.

 

[Technosteve]

i just bought this show on itunes, WHERE IS EPISODE 5

OMFG fuck star wars

 

[foomfoom415]

Ugh. Worst part of this show is having to wait for the rest. WHY outdated TV model WHY!!!! Anyone know any good Sci-Fi to hold me over? Last one I really liked was BSG.

You can give the novels (or the audiobooks) a shot. They will fill in lot's of little holes of universe-building details you didn't even realise you were missing.

OMFG fuck star wars

I'm not quite sure where it came from, and I've not much to add, but I'd like to chime in support to the anti Star Wars platform.

 

[Fireblend]

i just bought this show on itunes, WHERE IS EPISODE 5

OMFG fuck star wars

whynotboth.gif

....

I'm all caught up and now I'm sad we have to wait so long for episode 5. I'm crossing my fingers this show will get some traction with word of mouth. It'd suck to have it cancelled and have to read the rest when the production looks and feels so good so far.

 

[X-Frame]

Just caught up with all 4 episodes and ho-lee-shit .. so so so good.

Damn I wish this was released all on Netflix or all at once or something. I'd seriously binge all the rest of them now.

 

[jerry113]

How does this compare to BSG?

 

[Kvik]

Episode 2

Sometimes I wondered why everyone is panting and wasting oxygen whilst doing EVA. The medic is practically fitting the neurotic crewmate trope very nicely. While Holden manages to save everyone's arses by some quick thinking.

At this point I'm still more interested in Holden and his crew rather than Detective Miller's story.

 

[jerry113]

I'm loving this so far. This is the first proper space opera on TV we've seen since BSG. It also doesn't look cheap like most of syfy's other recent output.

I like how it takes place entirely within our own solar system and that there's no aliens. Seeing how different the cultures are amongst humans in diff parts of the solar system is interesting by itself.

Ep 4:

Spoiler

cool space battle! feels like submarine combat. Faraway ships firing torpedoes at each other - fights taking place over millions of kilometers. Nice.

edit: oh shit, what a brutal way to go. I didn't expect to see that level of gore on a syfy show.

 

[Walshicus]

Stufg.

Might want to tag those spoilers up for episodes three and four.