“Game Of Thrones” fans who are also open to science fiction series, pay attention: On Amazon Prime Video you can stream one of the best series of recent years. In “The Expanse” you can expect intrigue, great characters and surprising twists.
Anyone who watched and loved “Game Of Thrones” not because of the dragons and ice zombies, but because of the great characters, the political intrigue and the surprising twists, has a problem after the end of the second season of “House Of The Dragon”: it won’t come until 2026 the next season of “HotD” and there is no new series in sight that could fill the Westeros-sized gap that has now arisen. But I have a series tip for you: “The Expanse” on Amazon Prime Video.
Already clear: “The Expanse” is of course a science fiction series and not a fantasy series, but aside from the different genres, “Game Of Thrones” fans will find a lot to excite them here – namely lots of great characters, political intrigues and surprising twists.
“The Expanse” seasons 1-6 on Amazon Prime Video*
This is “The Expanse”
“The Expanse” takes place several centuries in the future in our solar system, which has been colonized by humanity. There are always political tensions between the Terrans from the dramatically overpopulated Earth, the Martians with their highly efficient military and the Belters exploited by Earth and Mars in the asteroid belt and on the moons of Saturn and Jupiter.
In this tense situation, a space freighter named Canterbury and a Martian warship are destroyed by unknown parties, which means that the threat of war is even more in the air (or in the vacuum of space) than usual. The few survivors include some of the Canterbury’s crew: James Holden (Steven Strait) and Amos Burton (Wes Chatham) from Earth, Alex Kamal (Cas Anvar) from Mars and the belter Naomi Nagata (Dominique Tipper).
While the four get to the bottom of the attacks on a salvaged Martian frigate named Rocinante, investigator Joe Miller (Thomas Jane) is assigned to the dwarf planet Ceres to search for the missing daughter of a rich Terran businessman…
This is how the first season begins, but the story continues to develop dramatically over six seasons – but of course I don’t want to give too much away here. But what I can’t emphasize enough is: Although mysterious alien artifacts also play a role later on and foreign planets are explored, the greatest strength of “The Expanse” is the realism of the series.
And that doesn’t just concern the political intrigues, the power games, the exploitation of the poor and weak and the ever-looming threat of an escalation of the Cold War between Earth and Mars. It also explicitly includes the technology and technology of this universe – Rarely have journeys through the emptiness of space felt as realistic and believable as in “The Expanse”!
Based on the book series of the same name by James SA Corey (the authors behind this pseudonym, Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, are heavily involved in the series), “The Expanse” is a series in which the feeling for the vast distances even within our solar system is always tangiblein which the g-forces play an enormously important role in acceleration and deceleration and in which spaceships do not shoot each other with laser cannons and blasters, but with torpedoes from a great distance.
Be sure to watch it in one go!
I recently watched “The Expanse” from start to finish a second time and what particularly surprised me is that how great the series looks across the board. I saw the first three seasons on Netflix many years ago and, despite all the strengths in terms of content, they were clearly recognizable in my memory as a production by the US channel SyFy, known for cheap science fiction series.
But no way! In 4K resolution and on a large television, the first three seasons of “The Expanse” look quite impressive – whether it’s space walks, blue glowing alien technology or space battles staged with unique dynamics. And from season 4 onwards, those responsible for the series around showrunner Naren Shankar were even able to increase the budget considerably – thanks to the money from Amazon, which saved the series from cancellation after season 3.
Amazon The crew of the Rocinante grows together into a real family over the course of the seasons.
Nevertheless, for me “The Expanse” remains a series that lives primarily from the characters and the story – great show values or not. And here too it really paid off for me to watch the entire series in just a few months at a time. Because the first time I watched the individual seasons over several years, it was unfortunately easy to overlook how great the characters are drawn and how skillfully their character development is worked out over the seasons.
For example, I had completely forgotten that the Rocinante crew first has to pull itself together and how much tension there is between the individual members before they finally grow together into a replacement family. Perhaps the most striking example, however, is the friendship between Naomi and her Gürtler colleague Camina Drummer (Cara Gee), which is slowly built up over several seasons and then finally reaches its emotional climax in Season 6.
And speaking of season 6: If there’s a downer at all about The Expanse, it’s that the series was technically canceled before the real ending. As I said, there are six seasons of The Expanse, but nine books by James SA Corey; three volumes were not filmed. Nevertheless, those responsible for the series came up with a great finale that gives you goosebumps in the last season, which satisfactorily concludes most of the open storylines and still leaves the door wide open for a possible revival…
Noticed in “The Expanse” finale? Season 7 is already hinted at in the credits
Note: This is an updated republication of an article that previously appeared on FILMSTARTS.
*The link to the Amazon offer is a so-called affiliate link. If you purchase through this link, we will receive a commission.
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