expanse season 5 now out on Amazon

[Joelist]

She had her mouth open so no crushed lungs. That is in perfect harmony with actual science - they even showed the air puff out of her mouth. The injection also bought her the needed time for her to push the airlock button - barely. Note she waited as long as she could before injecting and she had the hypo right in position when she opened the first airlock.

The entire scene took only 65 seconds and included switching focus from her to Filip. So yes her maneuver was plausible - also remember the oxygenation meds in use more than a century from now are probably better than we know today.

 

[Joelist]

Well this week was basically the Naomi show, as she was alone on the tripwired ship trying to figure out a way to tell people it is a trap. She sort of succeeded. And by the way she is in BAD shape from her little trip to board the junk ship. Also, we looked in on Amos and Peaches as they made it to the ruins of Baltimore and started working on a way to get off of Earth.

This week was definitely a piece of setup for the main events, which will involve...

Spoiler

Earth, Mars and the OPA join forces to attack the Free Navy and a brutal struggle happens at Ring Station

 

[YJ02]

She had her mouth open so no crushed lungs. That is in perfect harmony with actual science - they even showed the air puff out of her mouth. The injection also bought her the needed time for her to push the airlock button - barely. Note she waited as long as she could before injecting and she had the hypo right in position when she opened the first airlock.

The entire scene took only 65 seconds and included switching focus from her to Filip. So yes her maneuver was plausible - also remember the oxygenation meds in use more than a century from now are probably better than we know today.

Prove it

... look. the show is still good, good enough that right now, i dont even bother trying to find any other sci fi out there

last i looked at syfy website, the newest sci fi show is something about a alien posing as a human doctor who likes fishing on a mtn lake... <<click>>

it would be great though if TPTBs of EXPANSE could focus on great storytelling without resorting to obvious GENDER SUPERIOR messaging stuff like last years "females save the day..every day" schtick where every man around except for Holden was portrayed as a useless brute, a killer or some other kind of fanatic

have we seen any scene,recently, where a male character does anything as physically or mentally demanding as the things Naomi, Draper, Drummer or Clarissa have done (other than the raging, homicidal maniac prisoner who got them up the elevator shaft and then was "put down")?

 

[Joelist]

Yes, Amos has both in getting Peaches out of the prison and getting them both to Baltimore. And remember Peaches has implants that enhance her and Bobbie is a Martian Marine Gunny with power armor (also that MCRM in a prior episode in S2 were noted to train in 1G and heavier environments so that the low Martian gravity was not a disabling factor).

 

[Joelist]

Nice video about Naomi's spacewalk:

 

[Joelist]

And the final episode for the season dropped today. Overall good episode. It has brought us very neatly to the end of the book Nemesis Games with everyone in essentially the correct places. They also handled the writing out of Alex about as well as was possible given the circumstances.

The episode had a number of nice moments, among them how Amos got Peaches added to the Roci crew and Drummer was front and center. I assume next season is Babylon's Ashes. Also Alcon is apparently already at work trying either to get more Amazon seasons or a deal on another platform.

And, the ending introduced Admiral Winston Duarte and the gate to Laconia so I guess we will get to the Laconian Star Empire,

 

[Joelist]

This is probably the place to evaluate the season overall.

On the bad side it did feel like it could have told its story in fewer episodes. Like for example they could have saved an episode by simply devoting an entire episode to Amos and Peaches and bringing them all the way from prison to Baltimore. Likewise the Naomi in the ship story plus the pursuit by Rocinante and Razorback could have been sped up to take one fewer episode. Then the gained screen time could have been used to tell the finale in more detail and probably show more of Mars and the effect of the asteroids on Earth.

On the good side it was not woke (contrary to some internet opinions). I understand the issues that wokeness has created in a lot of franchises but we can also overreact in the other direction. There are no Mary Sue's in The Expanse and no female characters were elevated by making male characters look bad. Those two elements are the core of woke storytelling. In fact I liked a small plot element where Avarsarala struggles to go on while being torn up by losing her husband especially as right before the attack they had been in a rough patch in their marriage - it showed she truly loved her husband and his letters to her while she was on Luna showed he reciprocated.

I am extremely anti-woke but you can't go to the opposite extreme and throw the "woke" label at anything that has females in a prominent role. That is just not the case.

All this said I did regret not having more screen time for Bobbie and Avarsarala, and also felt like Drummer's story while it gave Cara Gee a chance to truly act (and she is good) was out of character for Drummer. Until the end that is - where she went back to being the Drummer we know and love.

 

[YJ02]

On the bad side it did feel like it could have told its story in fewer episodes. Like for example they could have saved an episode by simply devoting an entire episode to Amos and Peaches and bringing them all the way from prison to Baltimore. Likewise the Naomi in the ship story plus the pursuit by Rocinante and Razorback could have been sped up to take one fewer episode. Then the gained screen time could have been used to tell the finale in more detail and probably show more of Mars and the effect of the asteroids on Earth.

Exactly what I thought .... a whole season in super slow mo

 

[Joelist]

I don't know about whole season - I feel they could have told this story in probably 2 fewer episodes, and used that time to flesh out different areas where they went a little too fast (effect of Asteroids on Earth, more time on Mars).

 

[YJ02]

more time on Mars

yes, it seemed that was a key component of the story.. the people who made the most signif (other than the Belter asteroid attack) impact in the season had the lease back story -or, any story