Bedrockgames
I post in the voice of Christopher Walken
When I walk into a whole foods I can’t help but think of the Starbucks scene in Austin Powers now
Amazon takes over Bond franchise
- Thread starter Morrus
- Start date
MarkB
Legend
Nice ring. Can I get it on Amazon?
Haven’t the foggiest.
Paul Farquhar
Legend
Just had a look. Yes you can (unlicensed though).
Olgar Shiverstone
Legend
It does have a confusing start -- you rally have to get about four episodes in and then it takes off.
overgeeked
Open-World Sandbox
Don't know if this has already been shared...
Ruin Explorer
Legend
I mean, that first statement is a very bold position, which "currently on" and "live action" seeming to do an inordinate amount of work! I think it's fair to say that very few people indeed had a high opinion of S2, whether serious fantasy fans or casual viewers.
The Expanse is an interesting one because it's horribly badly acted and we have to pretend it isn't. I got a death threat once for saying that, note, but I'm sorry my nerds, the acting... it is bad... real bad. Like Stargate Atlantis bad. Also, none of the starting characters are like, inherently charming. They're all kind of jerks of various kinds.
That really puts a huge damper on caring about the characters initially.
If you stick with it through this terrible acting, mediocre-but-not-completely-awful writing, various par-for-the-course/table-stakes apologia for fascism (sorry but the show and books are initially way too kind of the fascists on Earth and Mars and even a little too kind to the psychos in the Belt), the somewhat ludicrous plot, and only okay SFX, the show slowly, steadily, becomes kind of good somehow.
The characters, despite being jerks, also mostly grow on you (especially everyone's favourite neurodiverse psychopath Amos - he's a psychopath in the nicest possible way, to be clear, and I totally get his deal). Also eventually a lot (but not all) of the fascist apologia gets dialled back or undermined or shown to be part of the problem that might destroy the inner Solar System (including Earth), not "cool badassery". And the story becomes gradually more interesting. That lasts for like what, four seasons?
Then in S5 or S6 (I think S6 mostly) it goes steeply back downhill because we get some really terrible overacting from actors who I know can do better because I've seen them in other stuff (which means it's on director for telling them to act like that), and just really a ton of melodrama.
It's also continually held back because the male lead can't act/won't act or has a really bizarre idea of what his character is supposed to be. The character is bad enough in the books but much worse in the TV show. I had to just tolerate him.
Also for some reason the showrunners love, love, love to cast absolute master-tier super-actors like David Strathairn and then put them in scenes with like, novice actors or really bad actors, and... it's a mess. Again the directors do seem to egg their better actors into a lot of scenery chewing and overacting which I guess levels things out a bit.
(It's not like it's unique in this - there are quite a number of successful police procedurals that adopt this approach to acting. But it's weird as hell to see it outside one of those.)
payn
Glory to Marik
Some of the actors are bad, but some of them are fantastic.
If you approach it from caring about what the characters care about, Earth/Mars/Belt, its pretty gripping. Though, yes, most of them are loathsome for their own sake. Sometimes its part of the appeal like in the case of Miller.
...and you lost me. At this point I have zero idea why you put more than 2-3 episodes into something you think is this awful.
This part I agree with you. The first 3 seasons got rewrites of the novels in the best ways possible. Amazon put an end to all that and slowly ran this show into the ground.
Yeah, boy scout Jimmy actually plays more of a naivete character to show us why the definition of a hero is a person that gets people killed. After Miller is gone, this character is lost and the actor, as you say, isnt good at it.
I think actors like Strthairn just elevate everyone they work with. I can see why showrunners get them when able, its not like you get to pick whoever you want due to availability and cost. As far as most shows go, I think The Expanse did a pretty good job managing that.
Similar Threads
