The Expanse Review: The Politics Are Personal (Season 5 Episodes 1-3)
Like the Rocinante crew coming back from the brink of annihilation, The Expanse Season 5 accomplishes the seemingly impossible on the first three episodes: it improves upon perfection.
It is just the gravity-defying storytelling we have come to expect from the saved-by-Amazon series.
I could write a thousand-page dissertation on The Expanse Season 5 Episode 1, “Exodus,” Episode 2, “Churn,” and Episode 3, “Mother.” But, no one wants all that!
I have managed to narrow this review down to the three stand-out aspects of the first three episodes, the dialogue, the politics, and the visuals.
Dialogue
Space travel shows aren’t typically known for their dialogue. “A little less conversation, a little more action,” seems to be the ordinary adage.
The Expanse, is extraordinary, though.
Showrunner Naren Shankar and his writing team deliver stunning and effective dialogue for all of the characters.
It never feels crowded or rushed.
In fact, because there is so much action and suspense going on in the universe of The Expanse, the drama doesn’t come from the dialogue. The conversations explore, dig deeper into, and clothe the identities and relationships on the show.
Even though there are not any big reveals in the dialogue, it feels surprising. That is a testament to the richness and specificity to which these characters have been drawn.
I am a sucker for hardened characters finding their soft, so both Amos’s and Drummer’s arcs really hit to spot for me on “Churn,” and “Mother.”
LYDIA to TIMOTHY/YOUNG AMOS: I love you Timothy, but I am not righteous. I can’t teach you to be that. Maybe you and I can imagine a version of me that is good, and kind, and wise. I’ll pretend to be her. You can pretend to love me enough to listen. Maybe that’s enough for people like us.
This bit of dialogue helps us understand so intimately how Timothy came to be Amos, the most loyal man in the worlds.
It is laced with an understanding that to get to this conversation, our beloved Amos had to go through unimaginable pain. And yet, we are comforted too because we learn that he got the love he needed to survive with his dignity and humanity intact.
The same doesn’t seem to be true of Marco Inaros.
The perfectly acted scenes of Amos’s trip to Baltimore also unearth in me a rather fervent need for Amos to find love again. This kid deserves to have someone in his life for whom Amos is the ultimate, the number one, the OTP.
Frankly, I am on board the Chrissy ship, but we’ll just have to see how that turns out.
Cara Gee’s performance as Camina Drummer also brings me to tears on “Mother.”
DRUMMER: I wanted to set my own path.
OKSANA: And you did. But, now you’re grieving your lost friend. And your pain is bringing you back to who you were before: hard, looking for violence. But, there are better ways to grieve.
DRUMMER: Stay with me.
OKSANA: I will.
The beauty of finally finding a safe place to be vulnerable is just as epic as a last-minute rescue of an investigative reporter.
These moments in the script stand out to me, but all of the dialogue on the three episodes is deliciously fulfilling. It makes me proud to be a fan.
Personal Politics
The political conflicts between Mars, The Belt, and Earth on The Expanse, are high-octane and complex. But, warring political drama is expected from shows in this genre.
What sets The Expanse, apart from its peers is how it makes the politics personal.
Don’t confuse this with personal politics; the stakes for the choices of the characters impact the entire solar system.
On the first three episodes, the show doesn’t present the prisoner’s dilemma, it more accurately present the executioner’s dilemma. The blood on your hands makes a difference.
Naomi’s quest to find Filip and face her deep guilt for abandoning him is intertwined in the radicalism that pushes Marco forward and entraps Filip.
So, when Marco declares his political ideology, it doesn’t just matter to the worlds involved, it matters for Naomi and Holden.
MARCO: When you are weak, you can be surprising.
The personalization of the politics, without dimming or dumbing down the conflicts, creates very powerful story telling that reaches our hearts and minds with equal velocity.
One of the coolest things about scifi is that it allows us to lean in to metaphors and derive our own meaning from the works.
Drummer has a compelling political arc on the episodes. And, for me, her story reaches beyond the world of The Expanse and into the real world.
On, “Mother,” after Drummer watches the video of Ashford’s murder we see her sitting at the communal table. She stares forward, arms crossed, fury apparent all over her face.
It is a stunning shot.
Cara Gee who plays Camina Drummer is an Objiwe indigenous woman. Part of her heritage is a history of colonization and oppression.
In the real world, Indigenous women aren’t really allowed to show their anger. It is not welcomed or accepted,
Here, The Expanse gives us a character who has used her life to fight against colonizers and oppressors. She has devoted herself to making her own path.
When Drummer is given the space to feel her rage, to show it, and then, importantly, when she is given the space to grieve her loss, it symbolizes the need for people in the real world to have that space too.
Politically, she is at odds with people who have also been colonized and demeaned.
Yes, Inaros is a murderer, but his violence grows from the same roots as Drummer’s rage.
So, the message is that people like Drummer, especially Indigenous women, deserve their fury. And we can imagine a world where people like Drummer can express that anger and be accepted into a safe family, too.
They don’t have to minimize it or justify it because those who hurt them have suffered from the same history.
This is just my interpretation, but the show deserves the highest praise for casting people from marginalized groups and then taking their characters on complex emotional journeys.
That an episode of television can mean so much with such a short couple scenes is absolutely remarkable.
The Visuals
Season 5 outdoes itself again with its visual storytelling.
A hallmark of The Expanse is how it respects the physics of space and tries as much as possible to stay within those bounds.
On Season 5 Episodes 1-3 we get to see floating coffee cups, playing catch in space, and asteroid trajectories on our screens. Even the more brief and minor effects amaze.
Additionally, Season 5 is full of stunning landscapes and lush shots of cityscapes. The cinematography is absolutely top-notch.
One of the most visually compelling moments on the episodes is when Holden shares with what he experiences as he passes through the ring with Fred Johnson. The swirling orbs of protomolecule juice are jaw-dropping.
The framing of shots always increases the dramatic impact while showing us something new about the characters.
Of course, this review would not be complete without some giddy screams about the costuming. Even though she’s out of office, Chrisjen Avasarala is clearly not out of the closet!
Those sleeves inspire soliloquies.
“Mother,” leaves us in a state of anticipation. Amos is heading back to Chrissy, right when she needs support, Naomi is held captive and forced to embark on some fugitive co-parenting, Holden is in hot pursuit of the leak in the operation, and we can’t wait to see what happens next!
Stray Asteroids
- What is the rest of the “walks into a bar” joke!? I MUST know.
- I am all over the hinted ship between Chrisjen and Amos. She even seems to be making a break from her husband. So……
- I miss Miller, but it makes me feel better knowing Thomas Jane directed one of the episodes.
- Holden looks all refreshed when Naomi is there and the second she leaves, boom, the bags under his eyes are back!
- I hope the entire season isn’t most of our leads on separate journeys. Let’s get everyone aboard the same ship, shall we?
- Drummer’s new family is all kinds of sexy.
- The season opening with two women of color talking about ship repair is A+ decision-making. A+.
What did you think of this episode of The Expanse? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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The Expanse airs Wednesdays on Prime Video.
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Janelle Ureta
Janelle Ureta is equal parts Veronica Mars, Raven Reyes, and Rebecca Bunch, but she aspires to add some Tammy Taylor to the mix. An attorney turned teacher, Janelle believes in the power of a well-told story. She is currently exploring how to tell short stories, 140 characters or less, on twitter. She loves to talk about TV, and right now she can't shut up about Timeless, Dear White People, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, The 100, or Younger.
3 comments
Uggh, I can’t understand this season being popular. Is it fan-hypnosis? Fan-momentum? Fan-fantasy? This is garbage entertainment, barely at the level of the 100. The first four seasons were amazing because of their scope, the great chemistry between the leads and the rich, well-imagined and deliciously rendered worlds.
The new season forgoes all that, and does what I despise most in a long-running series – splitting up the team and sending them on respective missions of supposed discovery. In this case they are all so awfully acted, so blandly written, so meagerly staged that I debated turning off 10 minutes into every episode this season.
It’s like the Walking Dead, once people are paired off the show ground to a halt. Same here, except there is no occasional relief from walkers – just a tepid revelation or mumsy hug to make you feel all warm and cappucinoey.
Where’s the ring rush? Where’s the rebuild of shattered stations ? Where’s the fallout from the bad boys trying to take the protomolecule? The biggest impact of the devastating impacts on Earth was about as emotional as a box of shreddies shaken at dawn. Think of all the stories that could have been told in an hour about lost lives. In Battlestar, we deeply deeply feel the pain of the nuclear assault on Earth, in Expanse 5 nada, zip, zilch – just a pointless hour of Amos Burton wandering like Bella in the forest looking for inner light.
Even worse, what happened to our favorite villian/heroine Chrisjen Avasarala – she looks like she is on lithium and has more make-up than Betty Davis.
The only saving grace on the acting front was that super cool chick who betrays the team on Tyco – “too bad, so sad” haha she has more balls and moxie than the rest of the soapbox cast put together.
It’s so sad when the writers devolve to this boring story line – was it budget? Social distancing? What? So many wasted opportunities. Call me I’ll help the next season out.
The opposite of the Expanse is confined space and that’s exactly what this season is – confined space.
Booo…..
I do agree that the show suffers from the Roci crew being split up. But, this season is setting up all the different disparate stories so intentionally and carefully — I completely trust the payoff.
As far as I can tell, we are still in the midst of learning the stories of the devastation on Earth and Mars. But, I take your points! Hopefully, it heads in a direction you like in the coming episodes.
Unfortunately I think the rest of the episodes flopped. I hope this was due to covid or budget and not an indicator of where the series is headed.
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