The Expanse Episodes 1-4 Reviews: SyFy's New Space Opera (Season Premiere)

"The Expanse" premiered on the SyFy channel on December 14, 2015. There are 13 episodes total in season one. It has already been renewed for a second season. The show is based on a book series written under the pen name James S. A. Corey (who is actually Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck).

Some two hundred years in the future, our solar system is a very different place. There is a great deal of conflict between the inhabitants of Earth, Mars and the Belt (ie the asteroid belt).

Episode 1 begins with Josephus Miller (Thomas Jane), a corrupt detective on the Ceres station looking for a missing wealthy girl named Julie Mao (Florence Faivre). Her father runs a powerful intergalactic shipping company. Elsewhere the Canterbury (an ice ship) responds to a distress signal from the Scopuli. Disastrous consequences occur. Only XO Holden and a few other officers survive. War is brewing and no one is sure where loyalties lie. Deputy Undersecretary for the United Nations Avasarala (Shoreh Aghdashloo) thinks the OPA (a Belter terrorist group) is behind the latest attacks.

Points To Ponder:

The Belters speak an interesting hodge podge of languages. I'm not sure exactly what it's supposed to be but it's a cool addition.
The zero gravity sex scene was fun to watch.
The struggle for water rights is something we are becoming more and more familiar with on Earth.
Being a Belter is hell on your bones apparently.
I'm interested t see more of Canterbury engineer Naomi Nagata (played by Dominique Tipper). Hopefully she's not a bad guy.
Detective Miller's Fedora is a nice touch.
Where can get some space boots? I need those.
I would gladly watch a whole show of Shoreh Aghdashloo just reading the phone book (if we still had phone books). Her voice is wonderful!

Grade: 4 Monsters (out of 5). The world is immersive and the characters compelling. The set designs are very impressive. Various plots can be hard to follow at times though. Is there enough here to keep me coming back? I'm not sure. Time will tell.