The Expanse - fantasy, drama, detective
At the beginning of the XXIII century, a detective, accustomed to bring everything to the end under any circumstances, as part of the investigation into the disappearance of a young woman, finds himself on board a starship, the captain of which decides to help him. The greatest conspiracy in the history of mankind is guaranteed, as is its inevitable disclosure.
After the assassination of Minister of Defense Mars, the solar system is on the brink of a global war. Errinwright (Sean Doyle), a high-ranking earthly corrupt official, adds fuel to the fire and sets up his colleague Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashlu), who can convict him of the murder of a Martian and other crimes. Fleeing from Errinwright's accomplices, Avasarala boards the independent spaceship Rocinante, which, under the command of James Holden (Stephen Straight), is on its way to Jupiter's moon Io. There, in a secret laboratory, they are trying to create super-soldiers by writing alien genes into children's DNA. Holden hopes it's not too late to save the kids being experimented on.
When you're turning a big book epic into a long-running TV series, it makes sense to shoot a show like this: "One novel, one season." However, the creators of the epic space series "The Expanse", based on the books of James Corey, did not adhere to this rule. The first novel turned into a season and a half, the film adaptation of the second book took another season (in terms of the number of episodes), and the third novel fit in half a season. Thus, the show's third season concludes the second book's narrative and retells the third novel.
It looks strange - it's unusual to see how one story ends in the middle of the season and another begins, and they are separated by a time jump of several months. But this is a small price to pay for a fast-paced and intense narrative, during which the Rocinante crew and its allies save humanity twice from war and extermination. The Expanse used to be a full-bodied and energetic star-studded thriller, but in the third season, the show hit the nitro button and got even more driven.
Like the previous series, the third season of The Expanse offers colorful characters, interplanetary intrigue, space action and the mystery of an alien Protomolecule that can either destroy the Earth or take it to new heights. At the same time, the story of the Protomolecule in the new episodes receives a partial completion, and the public will find out what aliens sent to our solar system and what is the meaning of its existence and seemingly inexplicable behavior. That alone makes the third season a must for intrigued viewers.
To the heroes already familiar to us, the third season adds several newcomers. A pastor with a political past Anna Volovodova (Elizabeth Mitchell) is, perhaps, too “correct” and therefore a bit boring character for the neo-noir “Space”. Although it's nice to see a Russian heroine in the American series, who turns out to be the focus of virtues, not vices.
On the contrary, the former pirate captain Ashford (David Strathairn) who appears in the second half of the season is an undeniably excellent addition to the show. It is extremely colorful and completely unpredictable, as it is torn apart by conflicting ambitions, "concepts" and ideals. Watching him is a pleasure. Especially when he runs into Captain Drummer (Kara G), who is no less powerful and determined. Two bears can't get along in the same den!
Well-known characters in the third season continue to develop. Amos (Wes Chatham) overcomes some of his sociopathy, but remains the straight-forward, "bumped" killer we know and love. Naomi (Dominic Tipper) tries to mend her relationship with Jim, which she herself sabotaged in the season 2 finale. Martian commando Bobby (Frankie Adams) learns to think with his head and act not only on orders ... And so on. As we have already noted, the third season is very intense, and its global scope does not interfere with telling the personal stories of the characters, successfully woven into the overall narrative.
Space shows aren't as bad now as they were in 2015 when The Expanse debuted on the SyFy cable channel. However, the show competes with newcomers and remains a great show for connoisseurs of "adult" fantasy shows with through storylines. Therefore, it was very pleasant to know that after SyFy refused to pay for new seasons of The Expanse, the series did not close, but moved to the Amazon Video platform. The fourth season is guaranteed to us, and we hope that new investors will not be limited to this and will transfer all Cory's bestsellers to the screen. They are quite worthy of it.
