The Expanse, Season 2: Stay away from the agua.

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > The Expanse, Season 2: Stay away from the agua.

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

Was the belter mission commander Michio Pa?

My god did this premier blew my expectations out of the water and they were high. BSG who?

gohmak fucked around with this message at 20:58 on Feb 2, 2017

# ¿ Feb 2, 2017 20:35

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 09:57

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

Doctor Butts posted:

Bobbie is so hardcore anti-earth I don't see how everyone who has to deal with her on a daily basis isn't straight up rolling their eyes at her the whole time.

edit: also, nice cuts on the f-bombs, SciFi!

So will we get Avasarala F bombs and Naomi titties on the bluray?

# ¿ Feb 2, 2017 21:00

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

Dessel posted:

Who's the young woman that looks like to be Fred's "2nd in command?" Liked her shouting to the belters before the mission started, also the body language in that scene was incredible.

Actress Cara Gee. There is no character name given but I'm pretty sure it's Michio Pa

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4446254/

# ¿ Feb 3, 2017 02:13

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

Spuckuk posted:

There was a rumour that they originally wanted Gwendolin Christie for the part.

The actress they have was a boxer, and pretty physically huge, I like that they did the arm wrestling scene to emphasise it.

Nah that was just white internet fanboys. They were casting for tall SE Asians and Pacific Islanders from the get go.

# ¿ Feb 3, 2017 02:31

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

http://i.imgur.com/JsC80QS.mp4

These two just get Miller and Amos.

# ¿ Feb 3, 2017 02:34

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

Was that a Fedex product placement or insult? Delivering 1 out of 2 packages in all.

# ¿ Feb 3, 2017 17:36

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

WhiskeyWhiskers posted:

Her captain was pretty against the whole war thing and got disgusted by her thirst for genocide. Seems like they're showing she has issues.

Similar to Avasarala in season one, they are giving her character an ark to develop into how they are when the appear in Calibans War. That is a real treat for book readers and confirms this show is superior.

# ¿ Feb 3, 2017 17:41

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

grilldos posted:

To be fair, I am going off of the world built by the books here, which very much makes a thing out of the accent being the norm. The show is an entirely different beast, granted.

If we want to really dive into it, we can. To be clear, my issues are mostly about the TV show as a good TV show, not as a comparison to the books (however, the books handled the Dresden capture much better).

Season 1 is pretty great, and the way it differs from the books are specific, with purpose, and above all, entertaining. See Donkey Balls, an episode written by the book authors, with a plot entirely made up for the show. It's well paced, funny, stressful, and firmly defines every character on the Roci while doing some colorful world-building. Everyone shines. And on the whole, the season's plot's pace suits the split genre, half hard-boiled detective story and half a survival road trip. The characters push the plot, not the plot pushing the characters.

Season 2 has started out really bizarrely when compared to Season 1, which I just recently rewatched. For the most part, the acting is too stilted and subpar; the blocking of scenes is too stagnant (more on that later); and the editing is way too tight, allowing almost nothing to breathe -- most of the scenes that don't involve the Roci crew and Miller are too rushed. This post speaks to that feeling:

Season 1 doesn't feel like this usually. Characters did have little speeches they'd give which attempt to put everything in cultural context with dialogue that's not very realistic at all, especially Miller, but they were treated with scenes that weren't frenetic. Everything felt earned. Even when exposition needed to be dumped onto the viewer, it usually wasn't blatant and was coupled with solid character development.

Not all of Season 2's first pair of episodes is bad. The CGI battle scenes were a joy to watch, and all of the Miller scenes (with the exception of the Thoth Invasion) were fantastic, which I feel is mostly due to Tom Jane and the Roci actors. Tom Jane forces a scene to pace well. If you compare his scenes of Season 2 with Bobbie's, it's a night and day difference. He pauses, he collects himself physically. Do you remember how many scenes in the first season involved Tom Jane taking his time to do blocking bits like Stand Up or Cross A Room? It was all the loving time. Characters are drat near still in Season 2 unless the scene actively calls for something different.

So at the end of the day, most of these problems are directoral. Breck Eisner did these two, and he did none of Season 1's. I also would be willing to bet that Syfy really pushed for Big Action for the season premiere, so the Thoth Station invasion had to make it into the first two episodes. The editor had to really cram all of this in, with footage from a borderline director. I think in someone else's hands, maybe one of the 4 guys who directed season 1, things would have come out better. Especially if they didn't need to cram so much poo poo into these two episodes.

And finally, Thoth Station's invasion, specifically Miller's scenes once it's boarded, feels off. This is the one scene where all of the problems of this season premiere show themselves. You get the sense that, what, there are like 10 people on the station? That station is loving huge, and the direction does nothing to really give you a sense of the space. It feels like a set, in the way that (another Syfy show, one that is not good) Dark Matter's station sets feel like a set. The blocking is weird and without motivation for anyone other than Tom Jane, and when his invasion lackies shoot up the Matrix folks with hundreds of bullets, they're all facing eachother in a big circle and should have shot eachother up. Badly. Tom Jane also wanders around and immediately finds exactly what he is looking for, Dresden, one room over, on a station that is loving Gigantic, according to the ship fight that the viewer just saw minutes before. Dresden's rant feels less like the pointed words of a charismatic sociopath and more like an actor just spewing out lines quickly.

This scene reeks of bad direction from the start to the end, because the director simply went by the plot, which is the sign of a lovely director. The boarding party breaks in, kid gets shot, Miller notices gel, scolds his men, they find weird people, the weird people get mad, they shoot the weird people, Miller leaves everyone alone for some reason, he finds Dresden, Holden and Johnson show up, Dresden says insane poo poo, Miller shoots Dresden. All of this happens, and the director does nothing on his own accord to make any of it feel earned or the least bit realistic in physical flow. poo poo happens because it was written to happen.

I really do like the show, and I'm not at all saying it's poo poo and should be dropped or whatever extreme bullshit TV IV is known for. These were a pretty flawed pair of episodes with plenty still in them to enjoy. I am looking forward to getting on with it now that Syfy's blue balls orgasm of a premiere is done.

This is part of why the Thoth Invasion felt so off at the end of it, too. The invasion in the book was half an infantry battle and half Miller discovering the truth of that station, Dresden, and coming to a personal epiphany about who he is and what the system has become. There's none of the personal reflection in that scene. It's just action, baby! I'm fine with pure action, they gave it to us with the ship battle. So where's the character-driven emotional payoff I'd grown accustomed to with Season 1?

Wow. Well made and thought out arguments. I think you're wrong and season 2 is kicking off to be great tv. I hope they ignore criticisms like this and keep up the good work.

# ¿ Feb 4, 2017 05:27

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

flosofl posted:

To be fair, the point of criticism is not necessarily to hate on a thing. And in this point I think grilldos is trying to counter the gushing of "PERFECT EPISODE" with some valid arguments. And let's be honest, while I think it was a good episode and I enjoyed it, it was far from a perfect episode.

For honest criticism, I think the hope is that the show runners DO pay attention to it and use it constructively to improve and address the shortcomings.

And my point is that some of his of criticisms are what I enjoyed about the episodes.

Also evil sniveling scientist Dreaden is better that smug sociopathic manager Dresden.

# ¿ Feb 4, 2017 05:46

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

Eiba posted:

I don't think there was any rush of "perfect episode!" here though.

He even said he was responding to praise it got elsewhere.

As someone who enjoyed the episode (personal taste) it seemed... kind of excessive. Especially since my impression of the thread is that it was oddly down on it. Though I suppose I can understand where he's coming from. People disagreeing with your opinion sticks in your head more (hence me remembering mainly criticism in this thread, when it was probably more balanced) and eventually you gotta say something.

Edit: What a lame first post on the page. Sorry. I should probably resist posting about posting more.

One person's well articulated lovely opinions can often sour the whole mood of a thread.

I for one didn't need shots of Miller stalking across a room to brood over Julie's personal effects. We got Bobby Draper feeling the soil of her home world through armored hand while looking at an overlay of a brighter Martian future. The audience understands what drives her.

His complaints about Thoth station reeks of "It didn't live up to my book expectations." The scene was fine. The lack of "tactical realism" is due to these belters not knowing what the gently caress they are doing. Miller goes in alone because he doesn't want them loving more poo poo up. It's like he expected a long entrenched siege with bullet time effects and commando maneuvering that wasn't required for what the scene was trying to relay.

# ¿ Feb 4, 2017 13:23

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

Tighclops posted:

I'm glad someone told me they were making a TV series literally seconds before I ordered the books, I stopped myself and so this is all new to me

Go ahead and read the books anyway. It will enhance the experience.

# ¿ Feb 4, 2017 20:41

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

Pharmaskittle posted:

Plus earth has like three times their population. Mars has powered armor, but it's possible only their badass marines get it, not necessarily their rank and file troops. Yeah they burn at a G when they can, but that's still not going to stack up to an earther who's spent every second of their life in full gravity. That's not even getting into the agoraphobia that would be cooked into every Martian. Mars could definitely win a space and maybe air battle against earth, but they could wouldn't have a prayer taking and holding a square foot of the surface.

Plus you know The UN burns at 2g DBZ style.

# ¿ Feb 5, 2017 03:38

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

WhiskeyWhiskers posted:

He should have been flung along the trajectory the stars in the background are going.

Also it looks ridiculous

No he wouldn't

# ¿ Feb 6, 2017 16:24

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

Eiba posted:

So you can imagine that the hull is actually moving sideways at a decent clip, but always arcing "up" because it's round and moving in a circle. If you "fall" out of the spinning cylinder, you're going to stop moving in an arc, but you will, in Newtonian fashion, keep moving sideways in a straight line. From the perspective of the people watching you on the station, who are being pulled up and away by the rotation, it will appear that you're falling (more or less) straight down below their feet until the rotation of the station turns them away.

Spin gravity is cool and fun to think about!

Edit: Trust us, the spin gravity was depicted absolutely perfectly in that scene. The weird bit was what pushed him out of the airlock. He probably should have just fallen to the floor and suffocated, but for dramatic effect he got pushed out by the escaping air.

If the camera tracked his body it would move down and to the right from the door as the station spins away from the point of release but there is nothing scientifically inaccurate about the scene other that than the lack of venting atmosphere shoveing him out the door.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2017 16:34

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

WhiskeyWhiskers posted:

The camera is looking perpendicular to this image though and continues along the original trajectory as the guy goes along the path of inertia. Why would he fall downwards?

His head should be lined up with that star to the left of his head as he falls downward to the right. very slight knit pick.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2017 16:36

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

tooterfish posted:

Ah, here's where the attention to detail really grabs you though.

The brothel is in one of the poor parts of town, close to the centre of the asteroid. It's a cheap place to live because the coriolis effects are so uncomfortable.

If you notice later on, Miller pours a glass of water in the governor's office and the water actually flows straight down. The governor and all the other rich well-wallers live close to the edge, where you can hardly notice coriolis effects at all.

Not necessarily close to the edge but closer to the equator. The closer to the poles the greater the coriolis.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2017 00:05

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

Platystemon posted:

https://giant.gfycat.com/DependentCorruptAuklet.mp4

Rocinante has the correct orientation, but the cutting of the scene makes no sense. Miller should be decked when the thrusters fire, not when the clamps lock.

Docking like that would be easy enough if you had computer control and enough propellant.

The thruster fire knocked Miller off of his bed then moved ballistic perpendicular to the docking bay until captured by the clamps. The fall should be ecliptical but as with the spacing scene the fundamentals are accurate. Very nice touch and has gotten nerds talking.

gohmak fucked around with this message at 02:22 on Feb 7, 2017

# ¿ Feb 7, 2017 00:12

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

I just got that Eros spins on its side like spin the bottle.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2017 20:54

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

Svaha posted:

The Expanse, season 2: "I'm peeing right now...the perks of a vac suit"

The Expanse, season 2: "Have you ever talked to a pedophile?"

# ¿ Feb 10, 2017 02:22

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

nerdman42 posted:

I kind of took it at face value that Miller killed Dresden for revenge, but his reasoning makes a lot of sense: Dude was already pulling some Mengele-type "for the greater good" charm over Holden and Fred and probably could've talked his way out of anything. Killing him before he got too far in his manipulations was a good call.

Shiro Ishii and Unit 731

# ¿ Feb 11, 2017 14:22

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

flosofl posted:

The MRC Marine stuff screams of fan-service to get Bobbie on screen ASAP. It does literally *nothing* to advance the plot other than ~~HULK~~BOBBIE WANT SMASH PUNY EARTH. And every scene is so hackneyed and terrible down to the "huh. we better wrap up all this inter-squad tension before we start doing actual plot stuff!"

And the depth of characterization so far has been lacking. Which is weird, because inconsistent as it's been, at times a lot of the background players in the rest of the show seem interesting at some level.

INTRODUCING BOBBIE AND THE REDSHIRTS:

Bobbie - I really hate Earth. A lot. And I'm strong.
The Lieutenant - I sure am war-weary. Really, you kids just don't understand war.
The Rich Bitch - I'm rich but I'm regular folk. I'm also xenophobic to the point of seriously threatening my ELITE squad's cohesion.
Earth Immigrant - I may be from Earth, but Mars is my home. Stop picking on me.
Some Guy: Really, I'm an integral member. But I'll just faaaade into the background.

It's like the show is "here's some characters, but don't get too attached if you know what I mean"

The more import redshirt question is which one gets to pilot the Mech?

gohmak fucked around with this message at 14:34 on Feb 11, 2017

# ¿ Feb 11, 2017 14:31

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

Ah, the ol' "spoil by complaining about spoilers" bit.

# ¿ Feb 11, 2017 19:11

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

/\
Non book readers avoid the above post at all cost.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2017 00:12

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

Accretionist posted:

Power comes from your legs. You'd need mag-boots or something to plant your feet against. Also, the recipient wouldn't have as much inertia so they'd move with the blow to a greater degree, robbing you of impact force.

I expect low-G hand-to-hand would be even more about grappling/gouging/etc. than it is in full-G.

Which brings me to my only regret about season one. Robbing us of Miller visiting Julie Mao's space BJJ class.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2017 19:42

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

Kassad posted:

In Red Mars, the spaceship gets hit by a solar storm during the initial trip. There's a radiation shelter consisting of a cylinder split in half along its length: one half for the crew, the other half is filled with water and lead (IIRC) as a shield. The cylinder is designed to keep the shield between the crew shelter and the source of radiation at all times. There are smaller shelters in other parts of the ship for animals and plants brought on the trip. Oh, and sensitive electronics too. They get warned in advance by NASA and pack everything up in about an hour. Once on Mars, the first few settlements are built underground to limit exposure. After a while, they start building tent cities using a material that absorbs radiation IIRC. And a group of scientists invent an anti-aging treatment that repairs DNA damage, which also helps with long-term radiation exposure as long as people get the treatment every few years.

Seveneves all the males die.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2017 19:47

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

NmareBfly posted:

They mention having to switch off hospice mode but it's a single quick line. If I recall correctly, there's also stuff in the book about the auto doc NOT being a standard piece of equipment. Remember that the crew ~~stole~~ salvaged a completely top of the line boat from the flagship of the entire fleet. It's not too surprising to me if it has a crazy advanced medical system, because it might need to shuttle high risk VIPs and poo poo.

That said the realest depiction of rad sickness in space is probably Seveneves. There's some really good stuff in there in terms of people dying slow, depressing deaths.

And put the otherwise pretty good book down before the third act.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2017 23:27

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

Platystemon posted:

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The TV IV > The Expanse, Season 2: The Mormons are going to be pissed.

The Expanse, Season 2: Me crush rear end to dust!

# ¿ Feb 16, 2017 17:45

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

MizPiz posted:

It looks more like Eros swung out of the way of the Nauvoo with Miller's location being the axis, which is why there wasn't any noticeable movement for him. That's my uneducated interpretation, at least.

Also

Or Winter is coming

# ¿ Feb 16, 2017 18:00

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

ZekeNY posted:

That was a solid episode -- I just wish the line had been "the space Mormons are gonna be pissed"

But we don't call our Mormons Earth Mormons.

# ¿ Feb 17, 2017 08:08

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

Cender posted:

It was actually in the station audio feed before the shot of Naomi's tear, just buried deep in the audio.

I don't hear it

# ¿ Feb 17, 2017 08:26

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

Phobophilia posted:

alot of their actions can interpreted as suspicious and hostile on the parts of protogen, the captain of that vessel could very well be trying to fast-talk out of their situation in the same way as kenzo or dresden (the first was successful, the latter were not)

but

i genuinely dont think they were protogen. occam's razor: protogen doesn't need any more protomolecule sample, they already have a stock of the stuff frozen down somewhere, and they can always culture some more in some poor kidnapped belter or press-ganged security staff. and protogen should be well aware of the containment risks involved, they have dozens of feeds monitoring the interior, they should be aware of any highly motile forms of protomolecule mass, and are less like to be surprise attacked

What makes you think Protojen has more protomolecule? Season one showed us they needed to find Julie Mao to recover a sample and when they left Eros they went to Thoth.

# ¿ Feb 17, 2017 13:51

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

Nihonniboku posted:

Book with show continuity spoilers: In their reddit AMA, the writers of the books confirmed that season 2 will not conclude with the end of book 2, but they would not confirm where it would end. I desperately hope we don't spend the entirety of the rest of season 2 on Ganymede, but other than that their escape from that moon, I can't think of any other possible season ender other than the end of book 2 in the battle over Io.

The advertisements for for season 2 gave away the finale I think. major book 2 spoiler monster in the airlock cam

gohmak fucked around with this message at 15:44 on Feb 17, 2017

# ¿ Feb 17, 2017 14:03

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

he explained it better /\

gohmak fucked around with this message at 16:27 on Feb 17, 2017

# ¿ Feb 17, 2017 16:22

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

HERAK posted:

Book spoilers:The ring rising out of Venus would be a pretty good cliffhanger if they can keep the story about it going in the background.

I could see them stretching Calibans War for 1.5 seasons ending the 3rd with that and Miller's return. The next 2 episodes I bet will be the Eros chase and Miller convincing Proto Julie to go to Venus wrapping up Leviathan Wakes. Then the rest of the season will be about the humanitarian crisis on Ganymede, ending with escaping the war zone with Prax and cliffhanging on the cargo bay discovery. But this season seems to be moving at a pretty fast pace so wouldn't be surprised if they fit some Abbadons gate into season 3 or delve into some of the novelettes or unwritten stuff like recovering The ~~Nauvoo~~ Medina. I really want episodes dedicated to The Churn and Drive like they did for The Butcher.

gohmak fucked around with this message at 16:31 on Feb 18, 2017

# ¿ Feb 18, 2017 16:20

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

Snowman Crossing posted:

Yeah, when I was watching the episode I immediately forgave them for that. Same deal with the Epstein drive exhaust plumes, which according to the books are so bright and long that they completely dwarf the vessel creating it. That wouldn't be as neat looking on screen as spaceships zooming around with a more understated flare from the engine.

And sounds

# ¿ Feb 19, 2017 03:15

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

Not to mention Eros is spinning like a bottle

# ¿ Feb 21, 2017 06:09

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

Wxhode posted:

I'm really mad that the show got rid of the gel-filled crash couches rotating to adjust to different thrust vectors.

Got rid of? The never had them

# ¿ Feb 22, 2017 01:21

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

VagueRant posted:

What DID Fred do with Earth's nukes? Wonder if you'd be tempted to hit Venus with them JUST to make sure.

Also PROMOTIONAL SPOILERS: ep 6 (or more, since it says COMING WEEKS?) promo!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytq693c3xVw
Looking pretty hype.

Whooo boy this season is moving fast! In a good way

# ¿ Feb 23, 2017 19:17

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

Platystemon posted:

https://giant.gfycat.com/FelineExcellentHorseshoebat.mp4
https://fat.gfycat.com/FaintGreatBluetickcoonhound.mp4
https://zippy.gfycat.com/FatRadiantGilamonster.mp4
https://giant.gfycat.com/SmoggyBestColt.mp4
https://giant.gfycat.com/JubilantSoulfulDamselfly.mp4
https://giant.gfycat.com/SizzlingBronzeCrocodileskink.mp4
https://fat.gfycat.com/CircularArcticHuman.mp4

While watching, I felt like there weren�t as many jiffable scenes as previous episodes, but there turned out to be plenty.

Ha sperm egg metaphor

# ¿ Feb 24, 2017 03:16

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 09:57

gohmak: Feb 12, 2004; cookies need love

Eiba posted:

People have been pretty good about tagging stuff, and that's great.

I'm not actually proposing we ban booktalk or anything, though I do think we'd probably be better off if more people used the book thread, I was just pointing out that you were wrong in basic ways about the book thread.

People can do what they want and there's a lot of ways to be considerate, but discouraging people from using the book thread is dumb.

Not going to happen so give it up. The more you push the more assholes will push back to spoil like the GOT thread.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2017 03:34

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > The Expanse, Season 2: Stay away from the agua.

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