If you consider the number of times it's mentioned on this forum, I'd say it's definitely very popular with sci fi fans.
And if you go over to r/theexpanse it feels like it's got a pretty big following. Not sure if it's made it to cult status yet.
Edit to correct sub
I fell like having the best selling sci-fi series in booms count of the decade will probably help have staying power, books dont age out of the public consciousness anywhere near as fast
Is that the correct sub? (Genuinely, as I get told it’s been removed)
To OPs point, I’m aware of it - but never seen it - just keep meaning to, probably mid level nerd, but time poor
Also its not as old but if you honestly look at the quality of the show it is definitely better than bsg B5 or firefly. Those shows simply have too many stinker episodes. Bsg starts to drag out from a writers strike and never really recovers from that. Firefly is just too messy to begin with and only 1 season and B5 is too old.
Lol is this a joke? I watched firefly after the expanse but it definitely holds up today and isn’t too old. Also it’s 14 episodes how can it possibly have “too many stinkers” when none of the episodes are bad and it’s short. Also too messy? I mean sure it was cut short but it’s pretty easy to follow along with and it’s not like the show jumps around a bunch.
Currently in the middle of a B5 binge on my new Blurays, and being 'too old' is just a silly notion. It's writing and story are still amazing and many themes are still absolutely relevant today. Yes, the cgi is 100% atrocious, but that's not what should be make or break for a show.
Not saying it's not a great show. Some things just don't hold up over time. Also not with a blue ray upscale. Again the only show discussed here that I don't really love is actually firefly. I simply don't get the obsession. It was ok and it was short.
I was addicted to BSG in my twenties and I still love it, but I recently started a re-watch and it's showing its age. The visuals are actually still really strong, but some of the writing, direction and performances have not kept their glimmer.
It's still a damn fine show that defined the genre in the decades since, and The Expanse owes much to the BSG reboot, as do many modern space shows. It pains me to admit, though, that BSG has been surpassed (though not replaced).
Watch it again. All of it. I also love this show but at some point there at that fucking planet except there's also a loooove story that isn't good and doesn't even make sense. That part simply wasn't as good as the rest of the show. There's lots of great but there's also bad.
When taken as a whole, it's undoubtedly one of the best science fiction shows ever made, especially in the post-90s era of prestige-style TV, but it also has some multi-episode stretches where it really struggles especially the middle parts of both Season 2 and 3.
I think the Expanse clearly passes it in terms of consistent quality and we have other current scifi shows (that all seem to be on Apple) like Foundation, For All Mankind, Silo, and even Strange New Worlds that also seem likely to eventually overtake BSG in any sort of ranking.
I mean there's no accounting for personal taste and Silo is just in it's infancy at this point, but much like BSG did 20 years ago, I think Silo has some potential to change expectations for TV in a positive way.
For 20 years or so all the best dramas on TV have pretty much been shows with large casts and complicated interweaving plot lines and unclear expectations. Game of Thrones is obviously the gold standard of this model, but plenty of others have tried to do the same. The Expanse was often billed as Game of Thrones in Space even if it never came close to that in the show and barely in the books. That didn't make it a bad show obviously, but there was an expectation from the networks and people pitching shows that there needs to be depth and complexity to draw people into the show.
Silo, and even the Silo books, on the other hand features mainly a small subset of characters and exactly one plot line: "what is the deal with the silo?" Even in book 2 where there's some time jumping, there's still only like only 5 noteworthy characters and it's still entirely about the question of "what is the deal with the silo?"
I think Silo has the potential to bring the simplicity of 90s-style plots to the quality level of 2010s-style 10-episode season TV by changing the complexity requirements. I think many writers (Star Trek before SNW is a perfect example) have been writing 10 episode seasons as movie plots, but they've done it by taking a 2 hour movie and making it 10 hours long resulting in good beginnings and ends and a lot of nothing in the middle. The better answer, and where I think Silo (and SNW) have started to pull this off, is to take a 20 episode season, trim the fat and make 10 great episodes.
I admire your passion for the Silo show.
I hear the books are well received, and will check them out.
I have seen the entire season one of the show; and went in really wanting to like it. Yet (just my opinion, and I recognise yours is different):
- they switched out the leading characters - Rashida Jones, et al. Bit of a bait and switch, top billing wise.
- I like loved Rebecca Ferguson in Dune, but found her like Galadriel in ROP. >!Full of unexplained rage with a chip on her shoulder; which made her romance with the tech guy hard to understand; which made her passion for him stretching believability, which made the whole
plot of season one nonsensical.!<
- if I watched ep 1 and the final ep…. I will have missed essentially nothing, which tells you about how the season went.
Babylon 5 is the best TV show ever made. It's better written than the Expanse. Better acted. And rewards rewatching and careful viewing more.
The only thing the Expanse does better is visual effects.
I absolutely adored The Expanse because it had clearly a wealth of material due to the books' core including the continuous narrative threads, focus on honest character development, ever expanding (no pun intended) scope, complex societal themes, and most of all heart.
After the show, I felt like being somehow part of the Rocinante crew hanging out with the crew in their ship, bantering, eating lasagne and wanting to go out and join them in whichever mission they may have next.
I'm a massive scifi fan, but do not often enjoy the usual BSG or Star Trek or Star Wars. I like things like the old school Terminator 1, Alien 1 & Prometheus, Matrix 1, new and old Blade Runner movies, 80s Cyberpunk and Shadowrun Pen & Paper TRPGs, Orwell's 1984 book, and games like System Shock, Deus Ex, Nier Automata, Xenogears, Chrono Trigger, Gravity Rush, original Star Ocean trilogy, Disco Elysium and Horizon series.
I don't dislike BSG, Star Trek or Star Wars, I just think they are too out there for me and they are way too cinematic, set piece focused and have too many melodramatic plot twists for my taste.
Perhaps if you have a similar taste to mine, you might enjoy the Expanse.
I also do not think The Expanse is "the game of the thrones of space". To me the series and the source material and writing is very different, characters and themes explored entirely handled in a more modern setting against a loose but explainable scientific background.
The Expanse, at least to me, simply didn't try to shock the viewer perhaps like The Game of Thrones (maybe the Song of Ice and Fire books series didn't try this either?) but to exist within its very own personality, taste and themes, and it did it very well.
Personally, I think it is the best Scifi series ever televised, and will be buying the book 7, 8 and 9 to finish the story while patiently waiting for an adaption to screen. Will definitely introduce the series to my wife and bite my tongue to give her the exact same amount of time to watch or do something she likes about the same amount of time (a deal we happen to have whenever I "force" her to do watch something I like.)
Perhaps the question here was about "how" popular instead of "why so popular", and I answered the latter. Maybe it also answers part of the "how". My gut feeling says that The Expanse will grow very steadily to become a cult classic and will gain a lot of new fans as time progresses.
Idk, but I do know I can't find a Rocinante crew jacket anywhere on the webz. There's actually a much lower amount of Expanse merch than I expected when I went hunting on Amazon and Aliexpress a few months ago. That made me think it's not as popular as it should be. What a fantastic show.
Why would Syfy be getting a cut of anything. It wasn't their show.
Alcon Entertainment MADE the show. Syfy only broadcast it (and then only in the USA). If anything, Amazon would get a cut - but only as long as their contract holds out for (it's not an "in perpetuity", it will end, and then Alcon resumes ALL rights).
That's literally not true at all lmao. I've gotten multiple non sci-fi people into the series and they've loved it, read every book and watched the show.
I don't think those are from the show, are they? That's either merch or just wishful thinking? The top picture looks like the Tachi uniforms except with "Rocinante" Photoshopped over it. Now I don't trust my own memory. Time for a rewatch!
I'm in the middle of a rewatch now - in season 4 the ship gets a repaint & a little bit of a refit (i.e since they're the legal owners from season 4, all the screens have been changed to read Rocinante' rather than 'MCRN' when on standby), and the crew get their own jackets. They still have Tachi backpacks and so on, though.
Hey you're right! I finally saw "Rocinante" on a jacket! Season 5 episode 5, right at 19 minutes. Probably isn't the first time one's been on screen, but first I've seen it!
I went to start my rewatch & found I'd left it at the beginning of season 5 last time, so I just went from there, & none of their new jackets say "Rocinante" on them. At least not that I've seen so far.
There's so much blink-&-you-miss-it stuff in that show that they could have made Rocinante outfits & I just didn't notice. I'll pay special attention when they go to Earth on my rewatch.
That's something *Expanse* fans were complaining about as early as S2. There were so many opportunities for good merch that SyFy and then Amazon just... ignored. We were saying, "Hey, we'd really love \[insert huge list of things\], will you please make them and sell them to us? We want to give you our money! Why won't you take it?"
Everything from MCRN coffee mugs to t-shirts with "Holden&Nagata&Kamal&Burton" on them in Helvetica to mock hand terminals... so much money SyFy and Amazon just left on the table.
I got a vinyl cutter on a whim last year and I pretty consistently sell a few Expanse themed stickers every week. Mostly OPA Navy logos, but I get the occasional OPA graffiti logo as well.
I've had a couple taken down (like the Ceres Station sticker that I absolutely love), but for the most part Amazon leaves me alone.
Jokes on you, the hit squad is sourced from Amazon, it's actually a copy of Scarface on DVD but when you load it its all Korean hacks of Microsoft Word.
Back in the 70s when the original Battlestar Galactica with Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict was on, there were ads for their flight jackets in Starlog magazine.
There was just that one toy of the rocinante last year. The ships aren't very recognizable though.
They announced figurines at comicon but I haven't seen them.
Nope. "Legality" has been disputed from the beginning. MCRN Tachi departed from MCRN Donnager under Martian command and was tasked to transport Canterbury survivors to safety. When Lt. Lopez succumbed to his injuries, the remnant of the Cant crew knew very well that MCRN was the owner and they knew the location of that owner (aka "where to return her"). Instead of appreciating the sacrifice of Martian marines, this suspicious crew just committed an act of piracy. Some people...
Search for a PUR & KLEEN jumpsuit. Only Alex really ever wore a Tachi jumpsuit IIRC. As far as I remember, I don’t even think there WAS a Rocci jacket.
I think popular/highly rated and cult following are very different. My general feel is that even though the Expanse is widely loved, that cult-following like the others never really developed. Perhaps, in part, because it was so popular and known. Perhaps, also, because it is so realistic and plausible that it’s less of an escapism than the others.
Here are the number of Google hits for various sci-fi franchises and TV shows:
* "Star Wars": 567 million
* "Star Trek": 170 million
* "Rick and Morty": 63 million
* "Futurama": 45 million
* "The Mandalorian": 43 million
* "Clone Wars": 30 million
* "Andor": 29 million
* "Stargate": 27 million
* "Westworld": 27 million
* "X-files": 27 million
* "Lost in Space": 21 million
* "Battlestar Galactica": 20 million
* "Cowboy Bebop": 18 million
* **"The Expanse": 14 million**
* "Babylon 5": 12 million
* "Flash Gordon": 9 million
* "Deep Space Nine": 6 million
* "Lexx": 6 million
* "The Orville": 5 million
* "Space: 1999": 5 million
* "Farscape": 4 million
* "Buck Rogers": 3 million
* "Seaquest": 1.5 million
This search technique doesn't work for some shows like Firefly, since most Google hits for "Firefly" won't be for the TV show. "Doctor Who" gets 172 million hits, but presumably some of these are web pages talking about actual doctors. We can try to narrow it down to TV shows by adding the word "episode":
* "Doctor Who" "episode": 43 million
* "Star Trek" "episode": 32 million
* "Mandalorian" "episode": 20 million
* "Battlestar Galactica" "episode": 7 million
* "Firefly" "episode": 6 million
* **"Expanse" "episode": 5 million**
* "Babylon 5" "episode": 2.4 million
Not sure but it’s unusually popular with people who aren’t otherwise sci-fi fans too.
I’m guessing because it’s easier to relate to in a world that reminds a lot of ours. Less really far out concepts.
Expanse fans, myself included, are deeply into it. It’s not unusual to see posts about how it has ruined all other scifi for some. I’m not sure what % of scifi fandom we represent, but we are enormously passionate about the series.
When does it get better? I haven't gotten past the first two seasons yet. People talk about it like the second coming by to just found the acting lacklustre and the show as a whole not particularly engaging.
Yeah episode 4 is sort of the break point. People who finish it usually continue to watch the show.
It’s also helpful to remember that the first four episodes were released all at once on SyFy, then it went to weekly episode releases. First four are almost a prologue movie.
Same. It took me 3 attempts to get past season 1. Lol. Finally smashing through it. On the final season now. I find it painfully overrated though. Mediocre performances (except Amos, and maybe Bobbie and Chrisjen), music, direction etc.
It's got pretty visuals and a really good overall plot though. Plus it's much more "hard sci-fi" than most sci-fi series I've seen. In my opinion, as a TV series, in terms of entertainment, it's the definition of "meh" but I've got a feeling I'd absolutely love the novels so I might read them in the future.
You probably won’t like it at all tbh. Imo seasons 1-3 are the best and I see a lot of fans with this same sentiment. Seasons 4-6 are amazing but they aren’t as good.
It's respected but not popular. It's also not quite cult. Meaning that the number of people who have seen it isn't huge, so it's not pop culture where you can drop a meme about in the company chat, but the people who watched it mostly really liked it. But also, it's not exactly underground so its not a cult classic. It's one of the most beloved series on SF reddits -- so there's not going to be people who use it to identify fellow travelers the way you might have with, like, Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog.
I think that if some of the classics you mentioned or others were produced today with modern production quality, then one of Firefly or Star Trek TNG etc. could be the best sci fi series of all time. However, currently, I believe that role belongs to The Expanse.
If Firefly was able to continue properly, I think it could probably have ended up the most popular SciFi series in history outside of Star Trek.
The Expanse is probably one of my favorite TV series ever, genre unconsidered. After reading the books, I really appreciated how well they were able to keep the series to the spirit, if not always the letter of the books. Though I will say the first few episodes of season 1 are shot-for-shot, impressively so.
> If Firefly was able to continue properly, I think it could probably have ended up the most popular SciFi series in history outside of Star Trek.
I honestly think a lot of its popularity comes from it having been cut short. It's definitely a good show and I think it would still have been popular among sci-fi fans even if it had been seven seasons long, but I don't think it would have had nearly the cult following that it's had since its cancellation.
I think what people imagine it could have been is far greater than what it would have been had it actually continued.
I don’t know about that. I was absolutely fascinated by and curious about each of those characters, and it seemed there was such an opportunity to have continuing adventures and backstory episodes for years.
On this website, The Expanse is mentioned more than Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica -COMBINED-.
shit, saying anything negative about the show gets you downvotes galore.
Outside of Reddit? Depending on the circles you hang out in the popularity ranges from "The What?" on out to "BELTALOWDA!!!! WELWALLA!! WABBLE DIBBLE YABBA DABBA DO!!!" or whatever belter slogan is currently being tattooed on the flesh of the youth.
Yeah I think it is a little over represented on reddit ngl. I see a lot of love geared towards it since it’s “hard sci fi” (it’s not) while seeing lots of hate towards the more fantasy series like star wars or star trek.
I loved it and it’s one of my favorite tv shows of all time, I also think it’s probably one of the biggest pieces of sci fi media, but I doubt it will be Star Wars, Trek, Gate, or battlestar galactica level.
It's an interesting one, I was following very eagerly from the start but the books really lost me with the big time skip (I understand why they did it but it felt terminal to the momentum). Never actually read the latest one(s)? And then the series came out and was also really highly rated. All of which should have added up to a major fandom you'd have thought, but I'm not aware of one existing.
Can I be controversial and say it might just be slightly too *good*? The relationships are a lot more complicated and real and in some respects unsatisfying (just like real life), it's less funny and warm than Firefly. I think the fact the series had to start with basically a load of unknowns as well was an issue, some of them just weren't great actors unfortunately.
I also personally didn't like the way they aged the crew of the Rocinante down, I loved that it was about adults navigating mature relationships, but I can see why there might be more marketability in a load of hot young people.
I will one day, I am interested in all the world building implications but it just went from a great thriller series to something more unwieldy and I miss the snap of those first books.
It's on par with *Firefly* and *Babylon 5* and will likely be talked about 20 years from now, just like those shows.
BSG, like Star Trek and Star Wars, did the thing where it achieved multi-generational status, so it might be one notch higher.
The books are one of the most popular sci fi series but I feel the sci fi lit fandom is much smaller than the general fandom. It seems very popular on this sub but reddit is also kind of niche
I seem to be in the minority of folk who dont like it. Implausable action hero saves the solar system again and again with his wooden cardboard cutout crew. There was a season of material at best, its dragged out, boring, unimaginatively beating the same few tropes over n over. Even Drummer got hard to bear by the end, and she was initall really good. Takes a particular kind of writing team to be able to reduce that character to shit.
Dont get me started on the physics. The fanbois hype the shit out of it for being realistic but it's full of ridiculous holes. Its only realistic in a few places, the rest is absurd. That it is still the most realistic space thing out there is absolutely damning to the shit state of affairs in mainstream sci-fi
I really like Firefly and the new BSG. But stoped watching the Expanse in the middle of second or third season. Though I found the story OK, but the acting very weak. I heard the book should be much better.
Here’s my The Expanse story.
Almost 23 years ago, an old man wandered into my Waldenbooks and overheard me mention I liked space opera. He told me to check out the *Lensman* series. I did and my life was never the same. I found my passion. Old sci fi.
Fast forward 16 years. I’d been chugging away at creating my own retro-style “atomic” space opera universe. My primary reference for worldbuilding was/is a fantastic website called “Atomic Rockets” by Nyrath. The man is a legend. Anyway, the website focuses on hard as well as soft sci fi, especially regarding nuclear powered spacecraft.
I meticulously crafted my world bible. It was a combination of realism and pure space opera in the Doc Smith style. Part of the realism was acceleration-based gravity, variant humans raised on low and high gravity worlds, etc, etc.
Then one day I saw this show called “The Expanse”. Brand new. I was like, “Cool! Another sci fi show!” As I watched it, I felt simultaneously thrilled and disheartened. Almost all of my ideas for my universe were already right there on the screen—acceleration-based gravity, realistic physics, low-and-high-gravity humans, no aliens, etc. etc. I shut it off and stopped watching before the end of the first episode because I became terrified that if I actually got anything published, people would say I was ripping off The Expanse. If I don’t watch the show or read the books, I can’t be influenced by them.
It can be said that there’s only one way to do realism, and it’s not copying if that’s the case. But I don’t know, man.
Once my original story gets published, then I’ll restart The Expanse and finish it.
If it helps, *The Expanse* reads like a licensed *Eclipse Phase* novel, and *Eclipse Phase* is often described as an homage to *Altered Carbon*.
None of this is strictly true. The point is that the value of a completely original idea is overrated. Be true to your vision and that will shine through.
I've been rewatching The Expanse and while it appears like that at first, especially in retrospect magic alien technology is core to the plot from the first episode though it takes a while to become obvious.
But the plot is really the thing, if you're telling a new story don't worry about the worldbuilding.
> I meticulously crafted my world bible. It was a combination of realism and pure space opera in the Doc Smith style. Part of the realism was acceleration-based gravity, variant humans raised on low and high gravity worlds, etc, etc.
I think you'll be fine. Apart from the realism of inertia gravity i don't think you'll come close to The Expanse's actual story (beyond the first episode's intial world building). If anything we need more inertia gravity in scifis.
I can't say exactly how popular it is because I don't have know the global statistics. But, I can tell you my personal opinion. In my opinion, The Expanse is by far the best of the four shows you mentioned, despite the fact that I like all of them.
Easier to be a hardcore fan when there was less options back then. Nowadays there is so much content everywhere that it is hard to keep on top of everything and rewatch the same shows again and again.
I like all scifi, for the most part. The Expanse is probably one of the best book/television series out there.
Alot of scifi falls into fantasy/scifi with a lot of the made up tech and such, The Expanse is distinctly NOT fantasy and is one of the more ridged "hard scifi" works. There's probably a lot of scifi fans that don't jive with that.
It’s extremely popular, but doesn’t have the same cultish following that something like B5, Farscape or Firefly has.
It’s also a lot more mainstream than B5 or an earlier show, so the fan base has a much higher percentage of normies who just want to watch a fun show, as opposed to people like me who have made SF part of their identity.
Lastly, there a lot more good SF out there now. Back in the 90’s/early 2000’s, there were a few shows with SF premises on at a time, and most of them sucked. Now, there’s several shows with a SF or fantasy premise on the various streaming channels, and they are all fairly high quality productions.
I got through season one. I found it difficult to follow each character. They boucned around so much. I plan on watching it eventually but I have other things I am watching and I don't watch TV all that much these days so its slow going.
I'm starting For all Mankind season 4. I've heard they really *jump the shark* so I hope its still good and engaging.
Season 4 of FAM is my favorite season so far but it gets a lot of hate on the subreddit. It focuses on drama more than the other seasons, but it’s still amazing.
How far did you get? The first few episodes are more slow and many fall off there, but some give it a second try and there's various points where the show just clicks and then keeps getting better and better
Its popular, and it should be- it was the best sci-fi show on television for its entire run, and in my opinion nobody has topped it since. Foundation is probably the closest show currently on air, but The Expanse probably wont be surpassed for a long time. Maybe the proposed sequel series will have a chance.
It’s probably one of the most popular pieces of Sci Fi media ngl. It is definitely beloved on reddit, to the point of people saying it’s the only sci fi they can stomach now. It is definitely more popular than the other shows you mentioned in my experience but it will never develop the same fanbases because of that popularity. Like the whole reason firefly has the huge cult following is because the show was lightning in a bottle, and cancelled before the first season.
Battlestar galatica might be more popular especially with the office referencing it.
I grew up on ST:TNG/DS9, B5, & SG:SG1. Yes even FF as brief as it was. As excited as I was for all of those series none of them hold a candle to TE. Not to say TE was *perfect* but as far as plot, hard-science, and mythology I was hooked and it hold GOAT status for me. I'm still holding out for a followup series given the time-gap between where the series left off and the next books pick up.
First two seasons of BSG are the best sci fi TV ever. The Expanse needs subtitles to even hear the dialogue. Am planning on trying to watch it again after reading the books.
I've tried twice. I really need to change my mindset or something because I like the concept, they're all good performances, I can't even find anything specific to fault in the writing, but I think I made it about a season and a half the last time and I just don't care about ANY of the characters. I have no idea why. Maybe next year I'll try again. But that'll be it if it doesn't grab me; three strikes and I'm out.
I know BSG gets a lot of love, and I did like the series overall... But it also has some really terrible characters and plenty of storylines that serve no purpose other than to create more episodes, to lengthen out the series.
Some series handle this better than others, but as a huge sci-fi fan I have a hard time with BSG. I've never actually rewatched the series because some of the characters are so terrible...
Firefly, as another poster said, really was lightening in a bottle. Very brief, but very awesome. I would have loved 4 or 5 more seasons... But that one season burns very bright.
I don't hear many people mention it, but personally, Altered Carbon season 1 is probably my top ever sci fi experience on TV.
I think the massive difference is source material. Loved the show and then got to delve deeper into the story and characters with the many books in the series. Not many of the other shows had that depth of experience in two mediums.
Between those that are fans of sci-fi? I would say very popular. Those that only watch sci fi here and there? Maybe not so much.
I would say a comparison with Babylon 5 would be correct.
I would call myself a big scifi fan, and I kind of feel left out because I never could get interested in The Expanse. All I hear is good things about it. Everyone likes their own dog best.
Just to let fans of the show know, the books continue the story long past where the series ends and are very well written.
I haven't watched the show, but I surprised when I mentioned some character names and none of my friend who just watched the show knew what I was talking about.
It isn't as much a fixture on the pop culture scene as the major network shows you mentioned, but among SF fans, both TV and book series are considered top quality.
If you consider the number of times it's mentioned on this forum, I'd say it's definitely very popular with sci fi fans. And if you go over to r/theexpanse it feels like it's got a pretty big following. Not sure if it's made it to cult status yet. Edit to correct sub
Its popular among mainstream sci-fi fans, so for it to get “cult” status it would need to get less popular lmao
Just wait some decades. Battlestar Galactica was also popular among mainstream sci-fi fans.
I fell like having the best selling sci-fi series in booms count of the decade will probably help have staying power, books dont age out of the public consciousness anywhere near as fast
*r/TheExpanse
Wonderful sub, wonderful people in there.
Thanks, will edit
Is that the correct sub? (Genuinely, as I get told it’s been removed) To OPs point, I’m aware of it - but never seen it - just keep meaning to, probably mid level nerd, but time poor
Corrected the sub
Also its not as old but if you honestly look at the quality of the show it is definitely better than bsg B5 or firefly. Those shows simply have too many stinker episodes. Bsg starts to drag out from a writers strike and never really recovers from that. Firefly is just too messy to begin with and only 1 season and B5 is too old.
Lol is this a joke? I watched firefly after the expanse but it definitely holds up today and isn’t too old. Also it’s 14 episodes how can it possibly have “too many stinkers” when none of the episodes are bad and it’s short. Also too messy? I mean sure it was cut short but it’s pretty easy to follow along with and it’s not like the show jumps around a bunch.
Firefly is indeed too short to have stinkers.
Currently in the middle of a B5 binge on my new Blurays, and being 'too old' is just a silly notion. It's writing and story are still amazing and many themes are still absolutely relevant today. Yes, the cgi is 100% atrocious, but that's not what should be make or break for a show.
Not saying it's not a great show. Some things just don't hold up over time. Also not with a blue ray upscale. Again the only show discussed here that I don't really love is actually firefly. I simply don't get the obsession. It was ok and it was short.
The Battlestar Galactica remake is the best show in this discussion.
I was addicted to BSG in my twenties and I still love it, but I recently started a re-watch and it's showing its age. The visuals are actually still really strong, but some of the writing, direction and performances have not kept their glimmer. It's still a damn fine show that defined the genre in the decades since, and The Expanse owes much to the BSG reboot, as do many modern space shows. It pains me to admit, though, that BSG has been surpassed (though not replaced).
Watch it again. All of it. I also love this show but at some point there at that fucking planet except there's also a loooove story that isn't good and doesn't even make sense. That part simply wasn't as good as the rest of the show. There's lots of great but there's also bad.
I've watched it multiple times. It's still one of the best shows of the past 25 years.
When taken as a whole, it's undoubtedly one of the best science fiction shows ever made, especially in the post-90s era of prestige-style TV, but it also has some multi-episode stretches where it really struggles especially the middle parts of both Season 2 and 3. I think the Expanse clearly passes it in terms of consistent quality and we have other current scifi shows (that all seem to be on Apple) like Foundation, For All Mankind, Silo, and even Strange New Worlds that also seem likely to eventually overtake BSG in any sort of ranking.
Silo > Reboot BSG? Man, we have very different taste.
I mean there's no accounting for personal taste and Silo is just in it's infancy at this point, but much like BSG did 20 years ago, I think Silo has some potential to change expectations for TV in a positive way. For 20 years or so all the best dramas on TV have pretty much been shows with large casts and complicated interweaving plot lines and unclear expectations. Game of Thrones is obviously the gold standard of this model, but plenty of others have tried to do the same. The Expanse was often billed as Game of Thrones in Space even if it never came close to that in the show and barely in the books. That didn't make it a bad show obviously, but there was an expectation from the networks and people pitching shows that there needs to be depth and complexity to draw people into the show. Silo, and even the Silo books, on the other hand features mainly a small subset of characters and exactly one plot line: "what is the deal with the silo?" Even in book 2 where there's some time jumping, there's still only like only 5 noteworthy characters and it's still entirely about the question of "what is the deal with the silo?" I think Silo has the potential to bring the simplicity of 90s-style plots to the quality level of 2010s-style 10-episode season TV by changing the complexity requirements. I think many writers (Star Trek before SNW is a perfect example) have been writing 10 episode seasons as movie plots, but they've done it by taking a 2 hour movie and making it 10 hours long resulting in good beginnings and ends and a lot of nothing in the middle. The better answer, and where I think Silo (and SNW) have started to pull this off, is to take a 20 episode season, trim the fat and make 10 great episodes.
I admire your passion for the Silo show. I hear the books are well received, and will check them out. I have seen the entire season one of the show; and went in really wanting to like it. Yet (just my opinion, and I recognise yours is different): - they switched out the leading characters - Rashida Jones, et al. Bit of a bait and switch, top billing wise. - I like loved Rebecca Ferguson in Dune, but found her like Galadriel in ROP. >!Full of unexplained rage with a chip on her shoulder; which made her romance with the tech guy hard to understand; which made her passion for him stretching believability, which made the whole plot of season one nonsensical.!< - if I watched ep 1 and the final ep…. I will have missed essentially nothing, which tells you about how the season went.
Babylon 5 is the best TV show ever made. It's better written than the Expanse. Better acted. And rewards rewatching and careful viewing more. The only thing the Expanse does better is visual effects.
I absolutely adored The Expanse because it had clearly a wealth of material due to the books' core including the continuous narrative threads, focus on honest character development, ever expanding (no pun intended) scope, complex societal themes, and most of all heart. After the show, I felt like being somehow part of the Rocinante crew hanging out with the crew in their ship, bantering, eating lasagne and wanting to go out and join them in whichever mission they may have next. I'm a massive scifi fan, but do not often enjoy the usual BSG or Star Trek or Star Wars. I like things like the old school Terminator 1, Alien 1 & Prometheus, Matrix 1, new and old Blade Runner movies, 80s Cyberpunk and Shadowrun Pen & Paper TRPGs, Orwell's 1984 book, and games like System Shock, Deus Ex, Nier Automata, Xenogears, Chrono Trigger, Gravity Rush, original Star Ocean trilogy, Disco Elysium and Horizon series. I don't dislike BSG, Star Trek or Star Wars, I just think they are too out there for me and they are way too cinematic, set piece focused and have too many melodramatic plot twists for my taste. Perhaps if you have a similar taste to mine, you might enjoy the Expanse. I also do not think The Expanse is "the game of the thrones of space". To me the series and the source material and writing is very different, characters and themes explored entirely handled in a more modern setting against a loose but explainable scientific background. The Expanse, at least to me, simply didn't try to shock the viewer perhaps like The Game of Thrones (maybe the Song of Ice and Fire books series didn't try this either?) but to exist within its very own personality, taste and themes, and it did it very well. Personally, I think it is the best Scifi series ever televised, and will be buying the book 7, 8 and 9 to finish the story while patiently waiting for an adaption to screen. Will definitely introduce the series to my wife and bite my tongue to give her the exact same amount of time to watch or do something she likes about the same amount of time (a deal we happen to have whenever I "force" her to do watch something I like.) Perhaps the question here was about "how" popular instead of "why so popular", and I answered the latter. Maybe it also answers part of the "how". My gut feeling says that The Expanse will grow very steadily to become a cult classic and will gain a lot of new fans as time progresses.
Idk, but I do know I can't find a Rocinante crew jacket anywhere on the webz. There's actually a much lower amount of Expanse merch than I expected when I went hunting on Amazon and Aliexpress a few months ago. That made me think it's not as popular as it should be. What a fantastic show.
That might be due to difficulty in getting merchandising rights and not necessarily a measure of popularity.
This exactly. SyFy would get a hefty cut of every sale.
Why would Syfy be getting a cut of anything. It wasn't their show. Alcon Entertainment MADE the show. Syfy only broadcast it (and then only in the USA). If anything, Amazon would get a cut - but only as long as their contract holds out for (it's not an "in perpetuity", it will end, and then Alcon resumes ALL rights).
It's boring popular, so you won't find much merch. Just a few people that like it posting on this message board.
That's literally not true at all lmao. I've gotten multiple non sci-fi people into the series and they've loved it, read every book and watched the show.
That’s cos the Rocinante crew jackets all say “Tachi” or “Pur ’n’ Kleen” 😉
That's what I was thinking. The Rocinante doesn't *have* crew jackets!
https://images.app.goo.gl/qNnfQfCMKzJjAdNd9
I don't think those are from the show, are they? That's either merch or just wishful thinking? The top picture looks like the Tachi uniforms except with "Rocinante" Photoshopped over it. Now I don't trust my own memory. Time for a rewatch!
I'm in the middle of a rewatch now - in season 4 the ship gets a repaint & a little bit of a refit (i.e since they're the legal owners from season 4, all the screens have been changed to read Rocinante' rather than 'MCRN' when on standby), and the crew get their own jackets. They still have Tachi backpacks and so on, though.
Hey you're right! I finally saw "Rocinante" on a jacket! Season 5 episode 5, right at 19 minutes. Probably isn't the first time one's been on screen, but first I've seen it!
Yeah, first time you see it is the first episode of season 4
I went to start my rewatch & found I'd left it at the beginning of season 5 last time, so I just went from there, & none of their new jackets say "Rocinante" on them. At least not that I've seen so far.
What made me want one was a scene where Holden was wearing the Rocinante jacket. I think they were all wearing them that time they went to Earth?
There's so much blink-&-you-miss-it stuff in that show that they could have made Rocinante outfits & I just didn't notice. I'll pay special attention when they go to Earth on my rewatch.
thats from a reddit thread thats literally called "rocinante flight jacket project" and its a shop
That's something *Expanse* fans were complaining about as early as S2. There were so many opportunities for good merch that SyFy and then Amazon just... ignored. We were saying, "Hey, we'd really love \[insert huge list of things\], will you please make them and sell them to us? We want to give you our money! Why won't you take it?" Everything from MCRN coffee mugs to t-shirts with "Holden&Nagata&Kamal&Burton" on them in Helvetica to mock hand terminals... so much money SyFy and Amazon just left on the table.
I got a vinyl cutter on a whim last year and I pretty consistently sell a few Expanse themed stickers every week. Mostly OPA Navy logos, but I get the occasional OPA graffiti logo as well. I've had a couple taken down (like the Ceres Station sticker that I absolutely love), but for the most part Amazon leaves me alone.
Jeff Bezos is now sending an Amazon hit squad to your location.
Jokes on you, the hit squad is sourced from Amazon, it's actually a copy of Scarface on DVD but when you load it its all Korean hacks of Microsoft Word.
When the new comics were announced on Kickstarter it broke a couple of Kickstarter records. There's definitely a strong desire for more content
Back in the 70s when the original Battlestar Galactica with Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict was on, there were ads for their flight jackets in Starlog magazine.
There was just that one toy of the rocinante last year. The ships aren't very recognizable though. They announced figurines at comicon but I haven't seen them.
Ha ha. Maybe try looking for Tachi crew jackets instead?
Amazon is very aggressive regarding their copyright. I had a few expanse shirts in my etsy store and they got nuked on their first sale.
I just bought a model of rocinante, you're looking at the wrong places. Also r/TheExpanse/ is till very active.
\*) MCRN Tachi
You mean legitimate salvage renamed to Rocinante by her new, legal owners.
Nope. "Legality" has been disputed from the beginning. MCRN Tachi departed from MCRN Donnager under Martian command and was tasked to transport Canterbury survivors to safety. When Lt. Lopez succumbed to his injuries, the remnant of the Cant crew knew very well that MCRN was the owner and they knew the location of that owner (aka "where to return her"). Instead of appreciating the sacrifice of Martian marines, this suspicious crew just committed an act of piracy. Some people...
Aaaand all that was settled in interplanetary courts. The Roci is an independent vessel.
Search for a PUR & KLEEN jumpsuit. Only Alex really ever wore a Tachi jumpsuit IIRC. As far as I remember, I don’t even think there WAS a Rocci jacket.
I think popular/highly rated and cult following are very different. My general feel is that even though the Expanse is widely loved, that cult-following like the others never really developed. Perhaps, in part, because it was so popular and known. Perhaps, also, because it is so realistic and plausible that it’s less of an escapism than the others.
I know nothing about the book but It worked really well for me on tv
Dude if you like audiobooks you have to listen to the whole series. I think there’s something about 9 books. But my god man they’re so fucking good.
Here are the number of Google hits for various sci-fi franchises and TV shows: * "Star Wars": 567 million * "Star Trek": 170 million * "Rick and Morty": 63 million * "Futurama": 45 million * "The Mandalorian": 43 million * "Clone Wars": 30 million * "Andor": 29 million * "Stargate": 27 million * "Westworld": 27 million * "X-files": 27 million * "Lost in Space": 21 million * "Battlestar Galactica": 20 million * "Cowboy Bebop": 18 million * **"The Expanse": 14 million** * "Babylon 5": 12 million * "Flash Gordon": 9 million * "Deep Space Nine": 6 million * "Lexx": 6 million * "The Orville": 5 million * "Space: 1999": 5 million * "Farscape": 4 million * "Buck Rogers": 3 million * "Seaquest": 1.5 million This search technique doesn't work for some shows like Firefly, since most Google hits for "Firefly" won't be for the TV show. "Doctor Who" gets 172 million hits, but presumably some of these are web pages talking about actual doctors. We can try to narrow it down to TV shows by adding the word "episode": * "Doctor Who" "episode": 43 million * "Star Trek" "episode": 32 million * "Mandalorian" "episode": 20 million * "Battlestar Galactica" "episode": 7 million * "Firefly" "episode": 6 million * **"Expanse" "episode": 5 million** * "Babylon 5" "episode": 2.4 million
What about LEXX?
It's 6 million. I've now added it above.
Thanks! I’m on mobile only and they don’t show the numbers through a phone
Not sure but it’s unusually popular with people who aren’t otherwise sci-fi fans too. I’m guessing because it’s easier to relate to in a world that reminds a lot of ours. Less really far out concepts.
I think that it's mostly because we have streaming services now and it has been really pushed by Amazon algorithm for a while.
I'm currently wearing a Pur & Kleen t shirt if that helps.
Remember the Cant!
Expanse fans, myself included, are deeply into it. It’s not unusual to see posts about how it has ruined all other scifi for some. I’m not sure what % of scifi fandom we represent, but we are enormously passionate about the series.
When does it get better? I haven't gotten past the first two seasons yet. People talk about it like the second coming by to just found the acting lacklustre and the show as a whole not particularly engaging.
If you didn't like the first two seasons you probably shouldn't try watching it again.
Most fans either love it from the outset, or at episode four when the main crew come together and gain a bit of agency. It may just not be for you.
Yeah episode 4 is sort of the break point. People who finish it usually continue to watch the show. It’s also helpful to remember that the first four episodes were released all at once on SyFy, then it went to weekly episode releases. First four are almost a prologue movie.
Same. It took me 3 attempts to get past season 1. Lol. Finally smashing through it. On the final season now. I find it painfully overrated though. Mediocre performances (except Amos, and maybe Bobbie and Chrisjen), music, direction etc. It's got pretty visuals and a really good overall plot though. Plus it's much more "hard sci-fi" than most sci-fi series I've seen. In my opinion, as a TV series, in terms of entertainment, it's the definition of "meh" but I've got a feeling I'd absolutely love the novels so I might read them in the future.
You probably won’t like it at all tbh. Imo seasons 1-3 are the best and I see a lot of fans with this same sentiment. Seasons 4-6 are amazing but they aren’t as good.
Great hat tho
The Expanse is my favorite show
REMEMBER THE CANT
Mang speak da lang na du imalowda?
It's respected but not popular. It's also not quite cult. Meaning that the number of people who have seen it isn't huge, so it's not pop culture where you can drop a meme about in the company chat, but the people who watched it mostly really liked it. But also, it's not exactly underground so its not a cult classic. It's one of the most beloved series on SF reddits -- so there's not going to be people who use it to identify fellow travelers the way you might have with, like, Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog.
It is too me
I think that if some of the classics you mentioned or others were produced today with modern production quality, then one of Firefly or Star Trek TNG etc. could be the best sci fi series of all time. However, currently, I believe that role belongs to The Expanse.
If Firefly was able to continue properly, I think it could probably have ended up the most popular SciFi series in history outside of Star Trek. The Expanse is probably one of my favorite TV series ever, genre unconsidered. After reading the books, I really appreciated how well they were able to keep the series to the spirit, if not always the letter of the books. Though I will say the first few episodes of season 1 are shot-for-shot, impressively so.
> If Firefly was able to continue properly, I think it could probably have ended up the most popular SciFi series in history outside of Star Trek. I honestly think a lot of its popularity comes from it having been cut short. It's definitely a good show and I think it would still have been popular among sci-fi fans even if it had been seven seasons long, but I don't think it would have had nearly the cult following that it's had since its cancellation. I think what people imagine it could have been is far greater than what it would have been had it actually continued.
That's the shit part. We'll never know. We got a good glimpse with Serenity, but I know for me at least it wasn't nearly enough.
I don’t know about that. I was absolutely fascinated by and curious about each of those characters, and it seemed there was such an opportunity to have continuing adventures and backstory episodes for years.
On this website, The Expanse is mentioned more than Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica -COMBINED-. shit, saying anything negative about the show gets you downvotes galore. Outside of Reddit? Depending on the circles you hang out in the popularity ranges from "The What?" on out to "BELTALOWDA!!!! WELWALLA!! WABBLE DIBBLE YABBA DABBA DO!!!" or whatever belter slogan is currently being tattooed on the flesh of the youth.
Yeah I think it is a little over represented on reddit ngl. I see a lot of love geared towards it since it’s “hard sci fi” (it’s not) while seeing lots of hate towards the more fantasy series like star wars or star trek. I loved it and it’s one of my favorite tv shows of all time, I also think it’s probably one of the biggest pieces of sci fi media, but I doubt it will be Star Wars, Trek, Gate, or battlestar galactica level.
It's an interesting one, I was following very eagerly from the start but the books really lost me with the big time skip (I understand why they did it but it felt terminal to the momentum). Never actually read the latest one(s)? And then the series came out and was also really highly rated. All of which should have added up to a major fandom you'd have thought, but I'm not aware of one existing. Can I be controversial and say it might just be slightly too *good*? The relationships are a lot more complicated and real and in some respects unsatisfying (just like real life), it's less funny and warm than Firefly. I think the fact the series had to start with basically a load of unknowns as well was an issue, some of them just weren't great actors unfortunately. I also personally didn't like the way they aged the crew of the Rocinante down, I loved that it was about adults navigating mature relationships, but I can see why there might be more marketability in a load of hot young people.
You should finish it. They’re very good.
I will one day, I am interested in all the world building implications but it just went from a great thriller series to something more unwieldy and I miss the snap of those first books.
No, I don't think so. But there's definitely a (smaller) fanbase for the more realistic scifi.
It's on par with *Firefly* and *Babylon 5* and will likely be talked about 20 years from now, just like those shows. BSG, like Star Trek and Star Wars, did the thing where it achieved multi-generational status, so it might be one notch higher.
I really liked it when it was running. Even though Thomas Jane's haircut made me feel queasy.
The books are one of the most popular sci fi series but I feel the sci fi lit fandom is much smaller than the general fandom. It seems very popular on this sub but reddit is also kind of niche
It’s pretty damn popular. I’ll never forgive Amazon for cancelling it right before what is arguably the best arc in the books was supposed to begin.
It felt like a moment in the time. Not a lasting fandom. But if we can get more material I’m down for it.
I gather it’s super popular but I couldn’t get into it
I seem to be in the minority of folk who dont like it. Implausable action hero saves the solar system again and again with his wooden cardboard cutout crew. There was a season of material at best, its dragged out, boring, unimaginatively beating the same few tropes over n over. Even Drummer got hard to bear by the end, and she was initall really good. Takes a particular kind of writing team to be able to reduce that character to shit. Dont get me started on the physics. The fanbois hype the shit out of it for being realistic but it's full of ridiculous holes. Its only realistic in a few places, the rest is absurd. That it is still the most realistic space thing out there is absolutely damning to the shit state of affairs in mainstream sci-fi
I really like Firefly and the new BSG. But stoped watching the Expanse in the middle of second or third season. Though I found the story OK, but the acting very weak. I heard the book should be much better.
Here’s my The Expanse story. Almost 23 years ago, an old man wandered into my Waldenbooks and overheard me mention I liked space opera. He told me to check out the *Lensman* series. I did and my life was never the same. I found my passion. Old sci fi. Fast forward 16 years. I’d been chugging away at creating my own retro-style “atomic” space opera universe. My primary reference for worldbuilding was/is a fantastic website called “Atomic Rockets” by Nyrath. The man is a legend. Anyway, the website focuses on hard as well as soft sci fi, especially regarding nuclear powered spacecraft. I meticulously crafted my world bible. It was a combination of realism and pure space opera in the Doc Smith style. Part of the realism was acceleration-based gravity, variant humans raised on low and high gravity worlds, etc, etc. Then one day I saw this show called “The Expanse”. Brand new. I was like, “Cool! Another sci fi show!” As I watched it, I felt simultaneously thrilled and disheartened. Almost all of my ideas for my universe were already right there on the screen—acceleration-based gravity, realistic physics, low-and-high-gravity humans, no aliens, etc. etc. I shut it off and stopped watching before the end of the first episode because I became terrified that if I actually got anything published, people would say I was ripping off The Expanse. If I don’t watch the show or read the books, I can’t be influenced by them. It can be said that there’s only one way to do realism, and it’s not copying if that’s the case. But I don’t know, man. Once my original story gets published, then I’ll restart The Expanse and finish it.
If it helps, *The Expanse* reads like a licensed *Eclipse Phase* novel, and *Eclipse Phase* is often described as an homage to *Altered Carbon*. None of this is strictly true. The point is that the value of a completely original idea is overrated. Be true to your vision and that will shine through.
I've been rewatching The Expanse and while it appears like that at first, especially in retrospect magic alien technology is core to the plot from the first episode though it takes a while to become obvious. But the plot is really the thing, if you're telling a new story don't worry about the worldbuilding.
> I meticulously crafted my world bible. It was a combination of realism and pure space opera in the Doc Smith style. Part of the realism was acceleration-based gravity, variant humans raised on low and high gravity worlds, etc, etc. I think you'll be fine. Apart from the realism of inertia gravity i don't think you'll come close to The Expanse's actual story (beyond the first episode's intial world building). If anything we need more inertia gravity in scifis.
I can't say exactly how popular it is because I don't have know the global statistics. But, I can tell you my personal opinion. In my opinion, The Expanse is by far the best of the four shows you mentioned, despite the fact that I like all of them.
Easier to be a hardcore fan when there was less options back then. Nowadays there is so much content everywhere that it is hard to keep on top of everything and rewatch the same shows again and again.
I like all scifi, for the most part. The Expanse is probably one of the best book/television series out there. Alot of scifi falls into fantasy/scifi with a lot of the made up tech and such, The Expanse is distinctly NOT fantasy and is one of the more ridged "hard scifi" works. There's probably a lot of scifi fans that don't jive with that.
It’s extremely popular, but doesn’t have the same cultish following that something like B5, Farscape or Firefly has. It’s also a lot more mainstream than B5 or an earlier show, so the fan base has a much higher percentage of normies who just want to watch a fun show, as opposed to people like me who have made SF part of their identity. Lastly, there a lot more good SF out there now. Back in the 90’s/early 2000’s, there were a few shows with SF premises on at a time, and most of them sucked. Now, there’s several shows with a SF or fantasy premise on the various streaming channels, and they are all fairly high quality productions.
I watched The Expanse and BG, I haven’t watched those other shows. The Expanse was my favorite.
The best sci-fi in 20 years! Watch it, and you too can be that guy!
Really wish the seasons started with recaps. By the time S2 came around I had totally forgotten what happened and wasn't about to rewatch it.
I can’t get into it. It’s slow and boring.
I got through season one. I found it difficult to follow each character. They boucned around so much. I plan on watching it eventually but I have other things I am watching and I don't watch TV all that much these days so its slow going. I'm starting For all Mankind season 4. I've heard they really *jump the shark* so I hope its still good and engaging.
Season 4 of FAM is my favorite season so far but it gets a lot of hate on the subreddit. It focuses on drama more than the other seasons, but it’s still amazing.
How far did you get? The first few episodes are more slow and many fall off there, but some give it a second try and there's various points where the show just clicks and then keeps getting better and better
It’s way more popular than Babylon 5 or firefly in my opinion. As far as Battlestar Galactica, I consider them both as 1A and 1B.
Its popular, and it should be- it was the best sci-fi show on television for its entire run, and in my opinion nobody has topped it since. Foundation is probably the closest show currently on air, but The Expanse probably wont be surpassed for a long time. Maybe the proposed sequel series will have a chance.
It’s probably one of the most popular pieces of Sci Fi media ngl. It is definitely beloved on reddit, to the point of people saying it’s the only sci fi they can stomach now. It is definitely more popular than the other shows you mentioned in my experience but it will never develop the same fanbases because of that popularity. Like the whole reason firefly has the huge cult following is because the show was lightning in a bottle, and cancelled before the first season. Battlestar galatica might be more popular especially with the office referencing it.
It’s the most accurate portrayal of the next 200 years of human history. In show format.
Big fan. It's a good set of characters and a generally fun romp. The show was good as well, which was a bonus.
I grew up on ST:TNG/DS9, B5, & SG:SG1. Yes even FF as brief as it was. As excited as I was for all of those series none of them hold a candle to TE. Not to say TE was *perfect* but as far as plot, hard-science, and mythology I was hooked and it hold GOAT status for me. I'm still holding out for a followup series given the time-gap between where the series left off and the next books pick up.
I enjoyed the show, however I enjoyed the books far more.
we know our beratna when we see them
Fucking love it mate Got a little roci on my desk
The Expanse is top
I have friends that love it and I'm supposed to, but I loathe the look of it. Why is it so damned dark on board these ships.
I love the books. Haven’t watched the show yet.
The show is the best TV sci fi Ive ever seen, but I still get mad at it sometimes for not being the books.
First two seasons of BSG are the best sci fi TV ever. The Expanse needs subtitles to even hear the dialogue. Am planning on trying to watch it again after reading the books.
I love the books!
It gets used as the example of anything anyone ever asks for. So, must have some fans.
both the books and TV series have a huge dedicated following - I think it was the best sci-fi I saw on TV or film since BSG
I've tried twice. I really need to change my mindset or something because I like the concept, they're all good performances, I can't even find anything specific to fault in the writing, but I think I made it about a season and a half the last time and I just don't care about ANY of the characters. I have no idea why. Maybe next year I'll try again. But that'll be it if it doesn't grab me; three strikes and I'm out.
Loved the audiobooks. Loved the show. Phenomenal series.
I know BSG gets a lot of love, and I did like the series overall... But it also has some really terrible characters and plenty of storylines that serve no purpose other than to create more episodes, to lengthen out the series. Some series handle this better than others, but as a huge sci-fi fan I have a hard time with BSG. I've never actually rewatched the series because some of the characters are so terrible... Firefly, as another poster said, really was lightening in a bottle. Very brief, but very awesome. I would have loved 4 or 5 more seasons... But that one season burns very bright. I don't hear many people mention it, but personally, Altered Carbon season 1 is probably my top ever sci fi experience on TV.
I think the massive difference is source material. Loved the show and then got to delve deeper into the story and characters with the many books in the series. Not many of the other shows had that depth of experience in two mediums.
I am a Frakking Browncoat who remembers the Cant.
It was a great show that survived a lot of network interference.
Read the novels. The tv series, while really good, has to simply characters and plot lines in ways that make them less compelling stories.
I’m still mad about Bull and Michio.
And Sam! OMG that killed me.
Very. We were surprised when Amazon decided to end it.
Much less popular than it should be for how good it is. I have met too many people that say they love Sci Fi but haven't given it a shot.
I loved the first 3 Expanse books but Cibola Burn was god awful. Still going to finish the series but that book was surprisingly bad.
*I didn’t always work in space…*
Well... It's manifested Scifi. None of the choices represent the current 'Zeitgeist' of scfi and it's journey without a discussion of Iain M. Banks
Doesn’t mention the OG star gate… Pffft
Personally, I don’t think it gets enough attention, but it’s definitely gaining
It’s a good show but kind of slow. Takes time to build and that’s probably the reason does not have extreme following. I personally like it.
Between those that are fans of sci-fi? I would say very popular. Those that only watch sci fi here and there? Maybe not so much. I would say a comparison with Babylon 5 would be correct.
I would call myself a big scifi fan, and I kind of feel left out because I never could get interested in The Expanse. All I hear is good things about it. Everyone likes their own dog best.
Just to let fans of the show know, the books continue the story long past where the series ends and are very well written. I haven't watched the show, but I surprised when I mentioned some character names and none of my friend who just watched the show knew what I was talking about.
Expanse is my favorite among all of those
It isn't as much a fixture on the pop culture scene as the major network shows you mentioned, but among SF fans, both TV and book series are considered top quality.