Town Drunk
Longest serving ASFN lurker
I thought it was a good finale. A little slow here and there, but overall pretty good. Definitely sets up the final season.
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The Expanse (SyFy)
- Thread starter Stout
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yeah... i haven’t been back to it.
did you ever watch the new Battlestar from the mid 2000s? I think you’d love that... until the end when it just can’t quite stick the landing.
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For sci-fi I'd take X Files or Doctor Who (my preference) over either of these shows. Expanse bores me, Battlestar was very good until the last 1.5 seasons or so and then it was a waste until the final 2 episodes (as I recall).
Chaplin
Better off silent
Yeah this show does finales really well.
Appropriate that the rings become important since they’ve been missing the entire season.[\spoiler]
OP
OP
Stout
Hold onto the ball, Murray!
Oof, Doctor Who (modern) always had crappy writers but a concept and acting that bailed them out. Until it really, really didn't. For me, that was many years ago.
Town Drunk
Longest serving ASFN lurker
Yep.
My guess is they’re going to have Marcos and Earth/Mars join forces to fight the ring aliens and play on that tension for the next season.
Modern Who is good up until about the 50th anniversary special. Then the writing starts to kill it during the Capaldi seasons. They stuck with the Clara arc way too long. Now it's completely off the rails. Last season, especially the finale, really went off a cliff. Chibnall's getting a special place in hell. They really need to find a way to retcon and decanonize it.
This show is one of the best sci-fi shows out there.
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The show still has plenty of solid episodes after The Day of The Doctor although I agree it drops off quite a bit when Capaldi enters the picture. I liked Clara quite a bit but IMO she shouldn't have made the transition to Capaldi companion. And I haven't yet seen season 12 so maybe it will drive me away as it has others?
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OP
Stout
Hold onto the ball, Murray!
Disagree. I think it was bad long before that. The writers wrote themselves into a corner: "Time is broken and the Doctor has to die or everything ends." Their cop-out? They build a fake robot Doctor to die and time is somehow fooled. I mean, WTF? Gimme a break.
It was always fluffy and silly, which is cool and fun, but it only had a handful of good years, for me.
OP
OP
Stout
Hold onto the ball, Murray!
I thought the finale was good but not great. Nice setup. A knuckleheaded decision that was explained in the news surrounding the show. Unfortunately, more of the boring instead of just getting on with resolving the boring. Ended about where I thought it would. Overall, an excellent season where the first half of it was far better than the second half.
This show from what I understand is pretty expensive. I think there are what four books to go?!? My fear of this show as much as I like it is that they will only get another season or two max and try and cram the books that are left plus the new one coming this year all into a handful of episodes.
Next season is the last. They already announced it. Season five only covered like have of book five too. The expectation is that next season will cover the rest of it and book 6.
There's like a 30 year time jump in the books between 6 and 7 so they're probably going to use that as the break point. The people behind the show have also said that they're not thinking of S6 as the end but a hiatus. They want to bring it back in a few years as either a few more seasons or do a couple movies to finish off the books.
Good to know. I have not read the books. Was waiting for the series to wrap up like I did GOT. Man, still seems like much to wrap up.
Yeah, I haven't read them either but a couple people I know read them. They're wondering how they're going to do the rest of book 5 and then 6 with how much there is to wrap up too. They really dragged out and added some stuff to this season that they really didn't need to. I guess the Naomi on her ship stuff is only like a chapter in the books, not 3 episodes. I don't know why they killed so much time with it.
For GoT, I'm still waiting on George to finish the books! I've read the current ones already but I'm starting to get into the camp that he's never going to finish them. I've already decided to not read Winds of Winter, if it comes out, until there's hope that A Dream of Spring is going to be finished.
Town Drunk
Longest serving ASFN lurker
Just read an article that said Alex was killed off because the actor was accused of sexual harassing several women. An independent firm was hired to verify the allegations and apparently they did just that.
Chaplin
Better off silent
That is correct. I was surprised when I read about it.
Town Drunk
Longest serving ASFN lurker
Same.
I guess my wife and I are in the minority here, because we thought Season 5 was absolutely awful. And that's coming off, what we both thought was the best season, Season 4. Season 5 was plagued with horrible writing, characters behaving stupid, a bad guy who came across overwritten, obnoxious characters getting too much screen time, and awesome characters nearly non existent.
I seriously want someone to count Naomi's screen time and figure out at what percent of it was spent crying or whining or complaining. Is it like 70%? 80%. I'm serious. It drove my wife and I nuts. We muted half of the show to save our sanity.
Naomi has always been one of the weakest characters in the show, literally and figuratively, but the writers only made her worse this season. And giving her an exorbitant amount of time over the likes of Amos just drove me further batty.
The greatest aspect of the show ISN'T the strength of each individual character, but the sum of their parts. Having them split for a whole season was painfully reminiscent of Arrested Development Season 4. There was zero relationship growth... well, except for Alex and Bobbi which turns out was a waste of time.
Allegations aside, Alex's death scene was horribly designed and executed. Worse yet, not a single character seemed to care he was dead. They are supposedly family and no one spends an ounce of time mourning his death. Except Naomi... who was crying again. At least have him race time to save Naomi and push too hard on the "juice" causing the stroke... or something. At least give us some kind of sign, ANY sign, that this might be coming. It was so random and dumb I literally yelled at the TV. My wife was less calm.
Season 4 boasted one of the best bad guys (Burn Gorman) in one of the best "how much worse can it get" plots since Das Boot. Season 5 felt like they were force feeding us a bad guy rather then letting the art take form. I found him uncharismatic, robotic and far more irritating than terrifying. It didn't help that I was completely detached as an audience member from the millions of deaths on Earth. They killed one person I knew from the story. And that barely. (I seriously think Avasarala was more relieved her husband died than sad.)
I'm pretty sure Holden did literally nothing for a whole season. He didn't get the protomolecule. Didn't save Fred. Didn't save Naomi. Didn't catch Marco. Only made one cup of coffee. And I'm not sure he even destoyed one of the vessels in the last battle (I honestly couldn't tell what the hell was going on in that scene. I think Drummer's crew took out Marco's ships). A total waste of a season for him... except for the cup of coffee.
Once again, Bobbi gets garbage time story lines. I mean, she literally sat in a chair for a WHOLE SEASON. Most underused character for 2 seasons. She's better than they are writing her.
One positive: Amos is the best thing about the show. His side story was great. Loved how they worked Peaches back in the fold. Amos's sell job on Holden at the end to make her a crew member was priceless. His entire story was the one thing I think the writers got right (and maybe Drummer's story). They should have switched his screen time amount for Naomi's.
I would have to give the season a solid F from front to back. My wife thought it was worse than that.
Naomi has always been one of the weakest characters in the show, literally and figuratively, but the writers only made her worse this season. And giving her an exorbitant amount of time over the likes of Amos just drove me further batty.
The greatest aspect of the show ISN'T the strength of each individual character, but the sum of their parts. Having them split for a whole season was painfully reminiscent of Arrested Development Season 4. There was zero relationship growth... well, except for Alex and Bobbi which turns out was a waste of time.
Allegations aside, Alex's death scene was horribly designed and executed. Worse yet, not a single character seemed to care he was dead. They are supposedly family and no one spends an ounce of time mourning his death. Except Naomi... who was crying again. At least have him race time to save Naomi and push too hard on the "juice" causing the stroke... or something. At least give us some kind of sign, ANY sign, that this might be coming. It was so random and dumb I literally yelled at the TV. My wife was less calm.
Season 4 boasted one of the best bad guys (Burn Gorman) in one of the best "how much worse can it get" plots since Das Boot. Season 5 felt like they were force feeding us a bad guy rather then letting the art take form. I found him uncharismatic, robotic and far more irritating than terrifying. It didn't help that I was completely detached as an audience member from the millions of deaths on Earth. They killed one person I knew from the story. And that barely. (I seriously think Avasarala was more relieved her husband died than sad.)
I'm pretty sure Holden did literally nothing for a whole season. He didn't get the protomolecule. Didn't save Fred. Didn't save Naomi. Didn't catch Marco. Only made one cup of coffee. And I'm not sure he even destoyed one of the vessels in the last battle (I honestly couldn't tell what the hell was going on in that scene. I think Drummer's crew took out Marco's ships). A total waste of a season for him... except for the cup of coffee.
Once again, Bobbi gets garbage time story lines. I mean, she literally sat in a chair for a WHOLE SEASON. Most underused character for 2 seasons. She's better than they are writing her.
One positive: Amos is the best thing about the show. His side story was great. Loved how they worked Peaches back in the fold. Amos's sell job on Holden at the end to make her a crew member was priceless. His entire story was the one thing I think the writers got right (and maybe Drummer's story). They should have switched his screen time amount for Naomi's.
I would have to give the season a solid F from front to back. My wife thought it was worse than that.
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You're not alone but you might be a little more extreme. Most of the fan stuff I've seen on S5, including myself, have the first few episodes being good with the events on Earth and then having it fall off a cliff.
I've seen most people complaining about Holden, Alex, and Bobbi sidelines for most of the season so that Naomi's story and the poly family drama could be dragged out. It's like they got CW writers for the 2nd half of the season. The latter story line isn't even in the books but they had to force it in for some reason instead of giving us our main characters.
I agree on Alex's death. That was a poor execution of it. They must have really wanted him out of there and sent him packing right away. It really looks like they took a still and added in some CGI blood. The character deserved better. Even if they didn't want to bring Cas in for a reshoot they could have made it look better.
I agree on Alex's death. That was a poor execution of it. They must have really wanted him out of there and sent him packing right away. It really looks like they took a still and added in some CGI blood. The character deserved better. Even if they didn't want to bring Cas in for a reshoot they could have made it look better.
OP
OP
Stout
Hold onto the ball, Murray!
Yeah, the time jump just didn't really work in the book, so yeah, it's a likely breaking point.
JerkFace
(Formerly offset) i have a special purpose
For those complaining about Alex’s death, I heard that they had completed all the filming on season 5 when the allegations came out so they kind of had to throw together some reshoots and try to crowbar it in
Town Drunk
Longest serving ASFN lurker
Yep, there’s a photo of him sitting next to Amos at the final bar scene. It almost looks like they used a still photo of him for the death scene and just CGI’d some blood in.
Chaplin
Better off silent
The guy is a bad actor and pretty much a scumbag in real life, so I’m not losing any sleep over it. I’m more upset with their use of Bobbi this season.
Town Drunk
Longest serving ASFN lurker
Yeah, her character has been absolutely wasted in my opinion.
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