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Binged the whole season in two sittings. Not a book reader, but I'm somewhat disappointed. I mean it was great, I enjoyed the whole thing, but not much really happened. One of my favorite things about S1-3 is just how fast paced they are. More happened in the first 2 or 3 episodes of Season 2 than all of Season 4. In the end, not much was resolved and it was very much a slow burn with long stretches of people doing nothing. I did not like the introduction of Naomi's ex, the Super Terrorist with Epic Charisma who wouldn't shut up for like 40 minutes, and now oh joy, it looks like he might gently caress everyone. On the planet, this loser rear end in a top hat Murtry and his endless petty bullshit just wasn't very interesting to me, and all the drama between him and his 20 goons and the 20 or 30 or who knows how many settlers could have been resolved so much quicker. Overall, the stakes appeared to be a lot lower this season. That's fine, everything can't be about the existence of all humanity, but there was also very little character development. Holden, Naomi, etc. are the same folks who came into this, so are Avasarala and Bobbie for the most part. Now we have to wait another year+ to move the story forward. Also Fred Johnson got barely more than a cameo!
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Dec 14, 2019 00:19
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| # ¿ May 5, 2024 10:20 |
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I think I would have been much more satisfied with the season if they had told us what the deal actually is with the drat planet. It's just as mysterious now as it was in the first episode. Instead, we end with asteroids hurtling toward earth from the B-plot.
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Dec 14, 2019 23:16
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I personally binged the other seasons too, except for Season 3, and we already knew about how much earth blows and is an overcrowded, stifling, listless place. A hell of a lot less happens in Season 4! I want to comment on the humans = still assholes point because the direction the show is going is really concerning me. You're right, humans are still assholes of course. There are folks like Jules-Pierre Mao who didn't give a poo poo about the 100,000 people he murdered on Eros. But I'm seeing some people online describe the Expanse as a "grimdark" show. I'd argue that the Expanse is not one. Grimdark is an argument about human nature: human beings are essentially selfish, cruel monsters who are only looking out for themselves and their petty bullshit. Of course some people are. But at its best, the Expanse focuses on moments of humanity and self-sacrifice, and those where people overcome their mutual distrust or even hatred to work together and make painful sacrifices for the greater good. Just off the top of my head, Fred Johnson stole the Nauvoo and hurled it at Eros to try to stop the protomolecule. Millar sacrificed himself to stop Eros from crashing into the earth. The most moving scene in the entire series might have been the evacuation of Ganymede, where instead of scrambling, clawing, and killing each other like grimdark animals and overwhelming a ship with limited oxygen supplies (what the shipowner believed would happen), the evacuees accepted the inevitable so that some of them could survive. In the last season, the final conflict around the ring was between two groups of people, both of which desperately wanted to do the right thing. On the one hand, we had Ashford and the entire fleet demanding to fire the laser in the hopes of destroying the ring and sacrificing themselves. And on the other hand, we had Holden etc. who knew they needed to do what was actually a much more difficult choice: power down the ships and become entirely vulnerable to a terrifying, unpredictable unknown. And they do it. That's as optimistic as loving Star Trek. Humanity is hosed up, but it's redeemable. There's hope. With this new season I'm worried that we're going to dive into grimdark territory. Murtry is a completely unsympathetic rear end in a top hat and he won't loving die or go away. Even worse, some loving asteroid apocalypse looks like it's about to take place because belters refused to execute a monologuing Super Terrorist. If that does happen, and millions die in an asteroid holocaust-9/11, that's really just too far. I don't know if there's hope and humans are redeemable after that. It's grimdark territory. Book readers: please don't let me know what's going to happen!
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Dec 15, 2019 10:08
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Horizon Burning posted:If you use the words 'grimdark' or listen to anyone who does then your brain has been poisoned by online memes. My brain's definitely been poisoned by online memes but grimdark is a real term and has a wikipedia article and everything. Rocksicles posted:I'll let you in on a little secret that isn't a book spoiler. Humanity is hosed, we just haven't accepted it yet Well yeah it sure looks like that don't it
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Dec 15, 2019 10:46
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Nail Rat posted:BSG was loving bad and it has nothing to do with the stupid religious stuff. It has to do with All Along the Watchtower, Starbuck/Poochie, no real examination of the short-sightedness of the Chief's inability to put aside a personal grudge, everyone immediately going along with Lee's stupid idea to fly all of the best technology into the sun, their decision to gently caress primitives (explain to me how this is consensual at all), and a host of other things. You want to get to the ending of "God did it," fine, whatever, but it was done with bad execution. Nobody should watch BSG unless you enjoy sweaty gross people with no chemistry grunting and mashing their mouths on one another for 20-minute PG-13 sex scenes every episode, petty assholes backstabbing and murdering one another at every opportunity unless they happen to have plot armor at that moment (like in GOT), and a completely nonsensical broader plot. Or if you like being blatantly lied to by a tv-show. Each episode begins with the total lie "they have a plan" -- nope it turns out nobody had a plan it was just a bunch of stuff that happened because this is God's dialectic for human history.
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Dec 29, 2019 20:08
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| # ¿ May 5, 2024 10:20 |
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Well that was an ending. ]This episode was a mess and so was the season. I just get the feeling the team never pulled it together 100% since Amazon bought the show. Great stuff on Earth with Amos and the Moon with Avisarala, but everything in space was a mess. Holden did almost absolutely nothing the entire season. I was glad Naomi survived but the hours of Naomi torture were gratuitous and unnecessary. Drummer spent the whole season being sad until finally kicking rear end in the last episode, then sad again. What was the point of all that stuff with Johnson’s old friend? The reporter didn’t need to be in the Rocinante either. What was with the endless complaining about fuel? Fascist space navy got murked by the portal and attacked earth but it wasn’t a surprise — we could have dealt with all that early in the season when we learned they were corrupt. It wasn’t a big reveal. The stakes of the final space battle they watched on TV on the Moon were unclear. Alex dying abruptly because of IRL poo poo was just the icing on the cake! I’m on team pah-wraiths or reapers or whatever the ancient evil is.
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Feb 3, 2021 09:55
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