'The Expanse' Season 4

More to be revealed this week at San Diego Comic-Con 2019.

(IGN website is blocked by DL so I can't link to the exclusive directly, sorry.)

Aargh I was kinda hoping Meathead would trim that shit a little. But now Holdy is entering the lice farming business, too. For why, Jesus? For? Why?

Comic-Con season 4 preview. Premieres December 13th. Come through, Canadian quarries!

[quote]“The look of the show is going to pop because one of the beautiful things about Amazon is now we can make it and stream it in 4K and HDR. We were made for HDR, and so I think that if you’re watching it a few years from now on your awesome 4K/HDR set, you’ll notice the difference.” - showrunner Naren Shankar

The show itself better have 500% more Steven Strait naked ass, though.

Damn straight. I bet them laptop cooling pads they used in the set design would really pop in 4K. aha

Straight is the least convincing leading man in the history of leading men. He looks so frail, his eyes are so puppy dog-like, his posture so bad....all in all, he looks like a guy who'd be at best your hairdresser in a nice salon in Kansas City.

Also weird about this show is that until the third season, when they had one lesbian couple, they make it clear that the solar system is totally straight. No gays anywhere. And, they name one of the space crafts after Guy Molinari, who was the extremely homophobic republican from Staten Island.

Just a weirdly homophobic show with a leading man who looks like he's afraid of his shadow.

It does have, however, amazing CGI. Amazingly imaginative and creative. That must be where all the money went because it certainly didn't go to the writers, whose dialog is composed of "Oh my, we must leave now," or "We are about to be blown up. What shall we do, captain?"

[quote]He looks so frail, his eyes are so puppy dog-like, his posture so bad....

And now the puny beard!

[quote]That must be where all the money went because it certainly didn't go to the writers, whose dialog is composed of "Oh my, we must leave now," or "We are about to be blown up. What shall we do, captain?"

But that's exactly how ordinary people in their position would talk like, wouldn't you agree?

Oh, and I agree that the show is weirdly homophobic, by the way. At least when it comes to guys. It's just super dated in that regard.

Wasn't there an older gay couple who were Avasarala's close friends in season 1? She ended up doing something bad for them, if I remember correctly.

r8 Yes, very early on. And conveniently killed off soon after being introduced.

Renewed for season 5. Phew!

Now in Amazon, I hope they develop more gay characters.

Official trailer. Less than a month away now!

Amos will be naked in this season. I think someone shows some interest in him too. I'm hoping its a guy

They always tease us in every season about his backstory as a prostitute, wearing high heels, maybe even sleeping with both women and men etc. but they never show. Give us some flashbacks already, ugh!

r13 Do you work on the show or has someone who has seen the screeners told you that?

There is a novella that discusses Amos' career being prostituted primarily to men by a motherly figure he deeply loved as a protector in his youth.

It's out, it's out, it's out! All ten episodes! 🤩

It's so good. Early Christmas present.

Yes, so, so good - I'm on the fifth episode right now and it's so much sharper story-wise than some of the previous seasons have been. And oh my god it feel amazing as a binge instead of that torturous weekly wait. This show was made for bingeing. Avasarala's outfits are also on another level this season, I think.

Bonus colour-corrected shot of Strait's lean torso just as he was having a little stretch. 😏

Just watched the premier episode of season 4. Holy shit, it's so good.

And yet, they've changed SO MUCH from the books. But it's all working for me.

And as for gay characters... Holden has like 13 parents, including gay dads. He grew up in a non-traditional family, to say the least.

No joke, I'm having BSG flashbacks because I had to force myself to go to the toilet just now. This shit is worse than crack. 😩

How much Steven Strait do we get? Is he in every episode?

He is a central character, so yeah.

Yes, he's in every other scene. Looking great, although some caffeine for the under-eye area couldn't hurt him. 👀

Mmmm. Oh, I just can’t get enough of him.

I need more black people in space! I need a Mae Jemison biopic! I need a black female President. I need it to be like 5th element.

I love how Avasarala is looking more and more like a Persian queen with each new episode.

Though her emphysema is sounding worse than ever. 😐

Keon Alexander, who plays Naomi's ex Marco Inaros, is so fucking beautiful, omg. And he looks even hotter on the show with the beard and some sweat. Delectable.

Though this show has always featured hot Canadians in secondary roles, so this isn't surprising.

Wes... the guy who plays Amos... is so fucking HOT in that brief sex scene. What a chest!

For those who never read the books, one of the biggest changes from the books this season is the fact that Naomi never went down to the planet in the book. That's all invented.

Also, the Roci was always able to land, but it lands horizontally. All the walls and floors are designed to work in both orientations (90 degrees apart). Obviously they didn't want to do that for budget/design reasons.

The book also made a much bigger deal about how Mars is a culture dying, because why stick around and work so hard to terraform a planet when there are 1300 ready-made planets to live on. It changed the entire culture, and the mars exodus became a real problem... with a huge schism between mars factions that want to abandon it and who still believe in terraforming.

That part about Mars is interesting. I don't want to spoil anything because let's have another day or so before we start discussing spoilers (most here will watch this over the weekend, no doubt), but there has been a throwaway line that seemed to imply Mars might be done with terraforming for exactly that reason.

I have two more episodes left and I can't stop!

I've been watching non-stop since getting home from work. Holy crap it's good, and a total "page-turner".

Episode five done. Goddammit, if I don't stop soon, I'll be up until all hours! AUGH!

They are really going at lightning speed. Never a dull moment.

And yet they're leaving so much out... some out of necessity (both for the medium and for the budget), but they're really doing a good job of focusing on the core. Even with all the changes. There's literally nothing for me to complain about here. This is just an excellent adaptation so far.

Still have half the season to go though.

SO glad Amazon picked this up!

Just noticed there's a spoiler in the opening credits montage.

They're doing a great job building to the huge event that's coming. My stomach is in knots knowing what's coming.

From the books, I don't remember the ruins being "down" like that, with them having to rappel down. Anyone else remember? It's been years since I read this book and my memory isn't what it used to be.

Seems like an odd choice, because a tsunami would fill that. In the book I swear they were heading to high ground.

I notice that other than the initial swarm, they're ignoring the local "wildlife" from the books. Probably for the best.

I'm more than half done, and I'll be done by tonight, and I'm going to be very sad it'll be more than a year's wait until season 5. Goddammit.

This show is so good. I want MORE of it!

"Do not put your dick in it. It’s fucked enough."

[SPOILERS for the full season]

Finished it! Gosh, such a good, tight season. Naomi's son is quite handsome, but also has a case of backpfeifengesicht because he looks like he's pouting all the time. Marco Inaros remains beautiful. I never much cared for Klaes Ashford, but he's grown on me this season and so I'll miss him.

Wondering what Avasarala is going to do now. Take Bobbie on the road and solve crimes? Am I seriously going to have to wait a full year to see those asteroids hitting Earth?! 😩

Most disappointing thing about this season: too few shirtless scenes (was seriously expecting more titillation now that it's on streaming) and – once again, four seasons in – no homosexual stuff whatsoever. Has homosexuality been eradicated amongst the Belters, or something? Really, no one is fucking gay on this show? Can Filip Inaros please be one?

I still need to watch Season 3. I love Shoreh and have forever. She’s a great Avasarala.

Filip Inaros and his father Marcos are among the worst villains in the history of humanity. We don't want either of them to be gay.

Well, DL is proof that we're not all angels, so...

I wouldn't mind a badass villain homo, personally. As long as he takes his kit off, shows us the goods, and fucks a dude or two or ten before he gets spaced, it's a nice tradeoff.

Well, it's not going to happen because it's not in the story (the books).

There are gay people, but they're mostly in the background. We've already seen some, and there's homosexuality in Amos's backstory (prostitution), so it's not like homosexuality doesn't exist in this universe.

If you want gay porn, this isn't the show for you.

But it's top-notch sci-fi, and it's not like it ignores gay people. Some of Holden's parents are gay (male and female).

I wish I had a friend like Amos.

46 replies and not a single picture of Strait's assets? You bitches are slipping.

I quit watching after Season One because I hate the premise of falling in love with a photograph of someone. That made me despise the Thomas Jane character (whom I already disliked because of his hairstyle).

In the first season, the Iranian diva had a queeny mixed-race gay couple as her friends but the white one killed himself.

'Dominion' had a fair gay presence initially but got rid of the hot gay guy before the second season.

[quote]If you want gay porn, this isn't the show for you.

How ridiculous. I simply want to see what Amos and that chick had this season and what everyone around them seemed to have They could have made one of those couples gay, that's all. It's not like being a breeder is integral to the larger arc, anyway. Except for maybe in Naomi's case, seeing how her son will be important.

[quote]Well, it's not going to happen because it's not in the story (the books).

Well, the writer has a blindspot, then, which ought to have been corrected when translating to another medium. There's no excuse for this and I'm glad people elsewhere are pointing this out. Sad there are detractors on DL of all places, though nothing about this place surprises me anymore.

r47 I'm usually the dedicated screencapper, but like I said earlier, this season was so low on shirtless scenes and the two (three?) that happened were quick and nothing special, so I didn't bother. Even Strait's abs didn't look that great in his shirtless scene, which is quite an achievement. I really, truly was convinced there would be Strait ass in every other scene now that it's not on SyFy anymore. Such a waste of perfect tautness.

I love The Expanse, but its not like its perfect for everyone.

I'm fast at the point where I want to see gay heroes. Flat-out, unapologetic, charismatic gay heroes. With few to no strings attached. No, they don't die by the end of the season. No, they don't have secret disturbing darkness. No, they're not into audience-shocking violent sex.

There are downright good (depicted, and as confirming to general senses of ethics whether correctly or not) gay character possibilities and it isn't happening yet. It can. More people either want it or are accepting of it than so many would think. We're at the point where many are having to actively avoid just going for it instead of feeling oppressed into not doing it. They're more and more self-censoring instead of being, say, studio/publisher censored.

We're ~5-10% tops of the population (barring more 'fluidity' arguments). We're not going to be everywhere. But there's plenty more potential for gay protagonists, heroes, and role models than is being served to us. There's too many cases of gay characters introduced when shuffled off (at best) instead of grown into the prominent places that stories demand them to be. There's too many cases of twisting gay characters into oh-so-twisted positions instead of a welcome part of the cast. There's too much 'we're-so-progressive' self-congratulation for 5 seconds of unknown filler characters hugging after tens, hundreds of hours of next to zero gay content. Its downright stupid. Despite what the moneycounters think, China etc can and will sit down when they see that industries are stridently, consistently supportive of LGBT+ (and I include T, it only wasn't the exact subject here; screw off drop-Ters).

Aren't all of those cosplay geeks "fluid" and shit like that?

Yes it's fucked up there aren't true gay heroes in mainstream tv shows and movies. However singling out The Expanse seems odd. I remember someone raising the issue here last year and possibly even before that. Well, tough luck, there aren't central gay figures in the show so you just have to deal with it. If you have a need to see central gay characters then you have to start watching gay cinema. Thankfully there's quite a lot to see.

The reality is that it's the straight nerd boys who are most into sci-fi, and unfortunately not many of them care to see male gay characters as their heroes. Can't say I blame them since it's not like I want to watch shows or movies with main characters I can't identify with or whom I don't want to fuck... and yes I'm obviously exaggerating but not much.

It would be awesome to have a loveable gay man as a central figure, someone who steals the hearts of both boys and girls without there necessarily being anything sexual about it. It will happen, and I guess they've already tried to do it in shows like Da Vinci's Demons, although obviously that ended up being quite a mess when some people from the gay community started attacking David S. Goyer for Leonardo being only vaguely bi in the show. Well, ok, I get why he was criticized but at least it was a step into right direction.

Good lord, of all the things to complain about...

R54 is the No Gays R Us Apologist - I know, shocker.

Just for info: Sci-fi show Killjoys was pretty good considering. In the first season the gay character's sexuality (played by an out gay actor) was mainly inferred but by the final season he was happily married and had a pretty developed back history as well.

Added interest is gay actor Luke MacFarlane playing one of the straight leads.

R56, good to hear, I tried watching Killjoys but I found it lacking in too many ways to get into it. However do we really want to demand showmakers to include main gay characters in their shows, or demand authors to write their protagonists gay, even though they don't want to for whatever reasons they have? Because it seems that is what some people in this thread are demanding from them.

Can you put aside your agenda for even sixty minutes to just enjoy a great show? God, so much pointless whining. It isn't in the source material, and it fucking doesn't matter that much at this point.

I enjoy the aspie-ness of Amos.

Amos is brilliant. The actor is brilliant. My favorite parts of the show are the scenes he's in.

I'm not the poster some of you are bagging out here, and I agree with him. Watching this new season, I was very disappointed when they paired off Amos with a woman. They did give some hints Amos might be gay in previous seasons, like the pretty journalist hitting on him and Amos turning her down, and the high heels comment, so wanting him to be in a gay pairing isn't coming from nowhere.

I'm tired of shows being quick to doing the lesbians but never the gays. I want leading man , main storyline gay characters. Even Marvel's Eternals, the promised gay character on that will be a side character, PoC tokenism b.s. Ugh!

Amos is a very damaged man, who was forced into prostitution as a child, and who has been with both men and women, but whose preference has always been women. Wealthy old perverts dressed him in women's clothes for their own amusement. He didn't do it out of his own choices or desires.

He's fiercely loyal to his friends Holden, and especially Naomi. While he'd be willing to seduce and bed a man for a purpose (to gain necessary information to save lives, for example), he is only interested in women when it comes to his own choices, pleasures, recreation, and preferences. He is not homophobic.

That male camera guy hit on him a few times last season, and Amos turned him down. Politely.

Just finished binging, so SPOILERS maybe. Couple of observations, The Belters Jamaican affectations is soooo annoying. And the tattoos, puhleeze. Also Love Bobby, but she is only interesting when she's kicking ass, which she did very little this season. Hope fully she'll kick some serious ass next season.

I have not read the books, but if Amos's back story is about him being a man whore, they better start dealing with it. He's the only main character that they have avoided back story completely. He is the MOST interesting of all of them. His lack of morals and his asperger approach is fascinating. His loyalty is touching as well. Wish they would focus on him more instead of Naomi's ongoing drama. And the martian driver guy, sheesh he is soooo boring. Who gives a fuck about his family? Give us more of Amos's man whore past!

I think it's a good twist that whatshername lost the election. That means the ring will be open for business , so plenty of opportunities for new story lines. Wonder what they will do with the old Broderick Crawford sounding Indian chick now?

Love the technology. That's the main reason I watch. Also I dont think Miller is completely dead yet. (He's too big of a name actor to let go so easily)

Spoiler:

Miller really is dead. The character is no more. And will not be seen or heard from again.

I'm amazed with all the significant changes they've made from the books, none of them really bother me.

That death at the end, for example, actually happened in the previous book (during the battle on the Nauvoo), so we got an extra season of that character and actor. I'm good with that. Every time I wonder how they're going to get to a future beat given the changes they've made... they always manage to do it in a natural and satisfying way. It's great.

They've omitted so much though, that anyone who has seen the series should still read the books, as you'll get so much out of it.

R10 Copy Mass Effect.

I imagine with Thomas Jane and David Strathairn gone it means a lot more money in the budget for future seasons. They probably were the biggest name actors of the show with Stephen Strait and Shohreh Aghdashloo close behind.

I must admit that I am a bit underwhelmed by this season. It was basically a Star Trek episode stretched into ten episodes with all the cowboys in space / new settlement on foreign planet drama. I think it was also a big mistake to release it while The Mandalorian on Disney Plus is still airing new episodes. It pits one show against the other instead of satisfying the demand for (good) sy-fy shows at different times of the year.

Sorry, STEVEN Strait, of course.

R67, that was basically the book though (the book that this season was based on was easily the weakest book in the entire series). They managed to do a very good job of making the TV show compelling, keeping the pacing going (which the book had issues with), and tightening it up and ensuring that all the right beats were hit to head to the rest of the story.

Think of it this way. THe first three seasons were a trilogy. This series/book is the start of a second trilogy. So it was doing a lot of set up that is necessary for what comes next.

[quote]Though her emphysema is sounding worse than ever.

I love her, but insurers should deny her coverage for scenery-chewing.

So, book readers (I'm only on book 1), do the Belter-settlers stay on the 'New Terra' with those clotty alien terraforming things? They look like potential dwellings, but no life forms or plants to eat. Do they leave? Is that planet abandoned in the subsequent storylines?

Yeah, we really don't hear much from Illus again... first of all, in the book, the planet was basically destroyed and no way to go back to it.

Besides, events are about to make everyone forget about Illus anyway.

If they do it justice, next season is going to be the most expensive season of all the ones they're likely to do (six seasons for the first six books)

Amos is barely in the final trilogy, and I can't see them doing the final trilogy in the TV series because there's a 30 year time jump and they'd use up all their budget on aging everyone up.

This show is so, so good. Thank goodness Amazon saved it. I don’t understand SyFy and their programming choices most of the time. So may of their long running shows are low budget Canadian crapfests like Van Helsing, but they pull the plug on cool stuff like Deadly Class and The Expanse.

i've been watching season 4 on a 52" HDTV. damn, does size make a difference!

R75, SyFy didn't have the best deal with the The Expanse production company. It basically only had special rights to first air it on TV and afterwards it became available to streaming services. And since it had fairly terribly ratings SyFy wasn't making much money from advertising. SyFy wasn't much involved in the production since it was produced outside the network, which in the end turned out to be a good thing since Amazon could then pick it up then easily.

It looks sooooo good on Amazon in UHD. Amazing SFX. Jesus, why did this show languish on cheap shit SyFy for three years? It belonged on a streaming service from the beginning.

I know, I kind of which they could go back and re-do the first three seasons. Create "special editions".

Still the best SF show ever.

SyFy didn't pay anything into the budget for the seasons they aired. I believe SyFy paid some money to be allowed to air it (and pocket the ad revenue) but didn't get any cut from the streaming or DVD / Blu Ray Box set sales.

Give the guy who plays Amos a fucking Emmy already. Jesus. He's so good.

He is.

Here is a new video on his insta where he talks about his whole process for Amos. He puts so much into his character, wow.

Can't wait for next season!

I’m in a post-Expanse depression. Shouldn’t have binged it in two days. Now the long wait again.

Promise yourself you'll watch the entire thing, starting from Season 1 episode 1, before season 5 premiers next year.

I started reading the novels after Season 3 and I'm currently reading book 2. I decided not to watch Season 4 yet since I'm afraid it might mess up the experience. It's a bit weird to read the novels since I'm picturing all the characters exactly like they are in the show. That doesn't happen often with films and novels I read but in this case it somehow seems fine.

Haven't watched this season yet. Does Wes show his ass ? He promised as much at Dragon Con this year.

R87, that's because the casting of this show is amazing, in all roles, not just the leads.

r88 No one shows ass. 😞

But there are some nice chests!

thi season is so well done the hour episodes just flies by. and even the villains are hot men!

Yes, they always cast hot guys on this show. I keep pausing and looking them up online to see if they have an Insta.

Great news: the two beautiful actors who play Marco and Felip have been promoted to series regulars for season 5. The charismatic actress playing Melba is also returning and will be a series regular.

Yes, very good. However, they'd have to be because of how the story progresses.

Well, I'm not familiar with the source material, so this is new to me...