The SciFi show The Expanse has been saved! Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos made the announcement Friday night at the International Space Development Conference in the presence of the show’s cast, that Amazon will pick up the 4th and future seasons of the highly acclaimed television series.
The Syfy Channel had announced earlier this month the cancellation of the show after its 3rd season.
The Cancellation
The cancellation decision by Syfy was said to be linked to the nature of its agreement for the series, which only gives the cable network first-run linear rights in the U.S. That puts an extraordinary amount of emphasis on live, linear viewing, which is inherently challenging for sci-fi/genre series that tend to draw the lion’s share of their audiences from digital/streaming. deadline.com/...
On news of the cancellation earlier this month, fans stormed social media with a campaign to try and save the critically-acclaimed series. Fans even sent an airplane bearing a message pleading for the series’ renewal to be flown over Amazon Studios once it was rumored Amazon was in talks to save the show.
The Expanse
The Expanse television show is based on The Expanse series of novels by James S. A. Corey. The series is set in a future where humanity has colonized the Solar System.
Hundreds of years in the future, humans have colonized the solar system. The U.N. controls Earth. Mars is an independent military power. The planets rely on the resources of the Asteroid Belt, where air and water are more precious than gold. For decades, tensions have been rising between these three places. Earth, Mars and the Belt are now on the brink of war. And all it will take is a single spark.
Season 3’s nine episodes started airing on April 11, Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET, on the SyFy channel; the season finale will be aired on June 6. Here is The Expanse season 3 trailer -
Here is a look behind the scenes with the cast, crew, and NASA planetary scientist Jim Green -
Seasons 1 and 2 are included in Amazon Prime, season 3 is not free.
All episodes can be see at www.syfy.com/…, if you have a subscription to a cable or satellite TV service.
Presumably, season 4 will be shown on Amazon Prime.
The Multi-cultural, Multi-racial Vision
See article “How SyFy's The Expanse cast its multiracial future” at www.theverge.com/… for an insightful look into how this show fits into the new genre of multi-racial and multi-cultural TV and big screen shows.
One of the series' primary protagonists is a septuagenarian Indian woman in a crucial executive role in the United Nations. There's no glass ceiling in The Expanse, either for women or for characters of color.
It's also a future where racism and sexism have become obsolete. Without fanfare, the creators behind the show have created one of the most egalitarian futures on television.
… But it does all that while celebrating some of the best parts of human nature: tenacity, loyalty, bravery, and adaptability. And part of that mandate is embracing the diversity of humanity, and celebrating equality without preaching about it. That diversity makes for a stronger and more daring show, and a rarer and more distinctive future.
The Revival
From www.theverge.com/… -
Earlier this week, The Hollywood Reporter said that Amazon was in talks to pick up the show. For its part, Amazon has been working to expand its streaming television options, with CEO Jeff Bezos instructing the studio to find more Game of Thrones-style shows with a global appeal. The Expanse easily fits that description, with a multiracial cast and an emphasis on the destructive nature of societal divisions. It’ll join a number of other adaptations in the works for the studio, including Ringworld, William Gibson’s The Peripheral, Iain M. Banks’ Consider Phlebas, and a little-known fantasy world from J.R.R. Tolkien.
Amazon is under pressure to grow its subscriber base, especially as other streaming services begin to offer their own, high-concept science fiction shows, like Apple’s adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy or Disney’s live-action Star Wars show. Here, Amazon is able to take advantage of not only a longer series of novels to draw from, but also a passionate and vocal fanbase.
The information in these paragraphs is astounding — are Amazon and Apple (and NetFlix) the future of high quality SciFi shows?
Epilogue
I have not watched the show much, but now I am going to now, especially given the long weekend.
What do you think of the show? Have you been watching it? If so, do you recommend it to others? What impresses you about the show? How does it compare to Star Trek?