I Watch TV: The Expanse

 

The Expanse

At the end of Season One, a mysterious conspiracy headed by trillionaire bio-industrialist Jules Mao had infected the asteroid colony of Eros with the protomolecule. The crew of the Rocinante, having learned the location of one of Mao’s secret laboratories, raid it to find out what’s going on. Meanwhile on Ganymede, the bread basket of the Outer Planets, confrontation between Earth and Mars turns to active fighting. A Martian marine squad led by Bobbie Draper are attacked by a mysterious, unstoppable figure, apparently able to survive on the airless surface.

With the war between Mars and Earth comes opportunity for the OPA, the belter independence movement. And also danger, as the protomolecule creates invulnerable monsters and strange devices. When the Rocinante and Fred Johnson of the OPA decide to destroy Eros it moves out the way mysteriously, heading for Earth; at the last moment it instead diverts to Venus, taking Miller, the detective from Season One to his death. Yet the protomolecule survives and builds something on Venus. When the Rocinante tracks down Jules Mao and gets him to confess, the war ends but in the meantime the protomolecule sends a ship to the outer system where it builds a ring.

Avasarula, the UN Undersecretary, becomes Secretary General following the previous Secretary General resigning and his deputy being revealed as in league with Jules Mao. In perhaps the best sequence of series, the second half of season three has an uneasy alliance of Earth, Mars and OPA ships investigating the ring. James Holden of the Rocinante has visions of Miller, which offer oblique clues as to what’s going on. As various factions and wildcards distrustingly raise the stakes the ring opens to a strange and hostile space, with some clues as to what’s going on.

It brings together the main ongoing theme, that people are always ready to believe the worst and lash out against perceived threats. From right down at the bottom between individuals, to spaceships, factions in governments, between Earth, Mars and the Belt, right up to the vanished ringmakers. Yet if you can just, for a moment, maybe stop, calm down, take a chance on peace and cooperation, something transcendent might emerge, if only for an instant.

If I have a complaint it’s that we only start to explore the deep ancient mysteries and the strangeness of space. Yes, that’s the whole show, people acting out of selfish, or even idealistic concerns causing chaos when there’s an even bigger problem looming. Still the last season is short and is about stopping a human threat, while on an interstellar colony something very weird is happening. Could we have more than a crumb of alien contact? No, apparently not. Still the last twist from Holden is fun, especially when Avasarula sees it before everyone else (including the audience) but can’t stop him, and then after screwing her over he suggests that she let it go. Maybe trust someone else for once. It could be transcendent.

Watch This: Superb TV space opera
Don’t Watch This: A lot of people in weird lighting deciding who to shoot