Everyone wants to know which show will be the next Game of Thrones. Sci-fi drama The Expanse, originally of the SyFy channel and now of Amazon (its fifth season dropped last week), is not that. But, on first glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking so.
Like Game of Thrones, the show is based on a book series that’s really about politics and power. But unlike Game of Thrones, the authors, writing under the pen-name James SA Corey, have a plan for the story they’re telling, with a rough end date. They’re on the last book, set to be published next year.
By contrast George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, which the show is based on, has no rough end date. It’s been about three decades since the first A Song of Fire book was published. All eight of The Expanse books have been published in less than a decade.
But anyone who likes Game of Thrones is likely to enjoy The Expanse, and not just because one of the Expanse authors worked as an assistant to Martin. At the core, both series are stories about power and ambition wrapped in larger tales about personal and societal strife. In Game of Thrones, magic – the defining mystical aspect of most fantasy stories – is hard. It’s hard to attain and hard to use.
Space in The Expanse is also hard. Really hard. This isn’t a universe where folks can just warp across the galaxy or shoot phasers at evil aliens, unlike in the majority of mainstream sci-fi. Gravity, air, fuel, food and, most importantly, safety are all rare commodities in a volatile solar system ruled by three human factions: humans from Earth who have united around the UN, a new nation who have colonized Mars, and “Belters”, people who have lived on the edge of survival in space stations and the outer rim of the colonized solar system. They are resentful of “inners” – earthlings and Martians who enjoy basic luxuries like unlimited air and easily accessible water.
Space travel is also hard and painful. In the Expanse universe humans are subject to the same rules that we all are. Ships don’t rush through space with passengers casually looking out the window – they’re strapped into a chair praying the rocket’s hard burn will end soon.
There are familiar tropes within the series, some of which might make it more accessible to new viewers. The first season follows the first book closely which is essentially a noir mystery starring a fedora-wearing Humphrey Bogart-esque detective (played by Thomas Jane) trying to solve a murder investigation he becomes obsessed with. Elsewhere there’s a familiar male protagonist, James Holden (played by Steven Strait), who’s self righteous and capable and motivated to do good in a universe full of wrongdoers.
It’s hard not to gravitate to Strait’s version of Holden, who is less preachy and more disoriented by the enormity of what he’s thrown into. But the bigger stars are the supporting characters of the show: Wes Chatham as the brawling Amos Burton and Shohreh Aghdashloo as the foul-mouthed political mastermind Chrisjen Avasarala. Holden himself is a pretty run-of-the-mill space hero but it’s his friends and allies who showcase the book’s unique appeal. The most interesting characters are the morally ambivalent ones, like the enigmatic Belter leader Fred Johnson (played by Chad L Coleman). When the real enemies throughout the series emerge, such as Marcos Inaros in season five (played by Keon Alexander), they are not the rubber-mask-wearing two-dimensional antagonists sci-fi viewers might be used to. The most dangerous and monstrous people in this universe are oftentimes the smoothest talkers with pretty faces and plenty of money.
What ultimately distinguishes the book and the series, and what partially drove Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to resuscitate the show after SyFy decided not to renew it, is that it’s a story about an in-between period in the course of human history. James SA Corey drew from major turning points in human history in writing these books. There are allusions to the rise and fall of empires and the ripple effects of major technological advances. Those changes involved growing pains for mankind and that’s the central theme of The Expanse universe.
What’s alluring about The Expanse is not watching spacefarers discover the alien. It’s the opposite. It’s about seeing what stays the same when humans get closer to becoming alien.
