The Expanse: the most convincing solar system on television

The Expanse is a television series about a solar system that has been settled but not improved. Earth is crowded and comfortable, Mars is a single-minded engineering project, and the Belt is where the water and the ore come from and where the people are treated as equipment. Then something unpleasant is found in a ship’s log, and the three halves of humanity spend six seasons failing to avoid a war.

The idea behind it

Most space opera skips the economics. The Expanse does not. The physics is respected, travel takes weeks, and the political situation follows from who controls the water. That gives the series a foundation that holds up when the plot gets large, and it is why the show’s world feels inhabited rather than designed.

Underneath the politics, it is a first contact story that arrives slowly. The series spends a long time on a mystery, then spends the rest of its run on the consequences of solving it, which is the more interesting half.

The story, spoiler-light

Three threads start separately. A detective on Ceres is looking for a missing woman. The crew of a salvaged ice hauler, the Rocinante, survive an attack by someone they cannot identify. And a United Nations official on Earth is trying to work out why a ship was destroyed without anyone admitting to it. All three are the same story, and the series takes its time proving it.

Two things are worth knowing before you start. The first season is slower and murkier than what follows, and the show improves sharply from the second. And it is a series that rewards attention to names and places, because it does not repeat itself for the benefit of anyone who was not listening.

What makes it science fiction

It is hard science fiction with a working political system attached, which is rarer than either element on its own. Ships burn and flip to decelerate, gravity is either thrust or spin, and the Belters have the physical proportions you would expect from a life spent in low gravity. The series uses those details to make a point about inequality rather than to show off.

It also takes its aliens seriously by keeping them strange. The protomolecule is not a monster and not a villain; it is a technology built by something that has no interest in human beings at all, and the show keeps that indifference intact rather than domesticating it.

Watch on Amazon Prime Video

Who should watch it, and who should skip it

Watch it if you want the best hard science fiction series of the last decade, and if you are willing to give the first season the benefit of the doubt. It is also a genuinely good adaptation: the first four seasons follow the novels closely, and the authors were involved throughout.

Skip it if you want something you can half-watch, or if subtitled Belter creole puts you off. It is dense, the cast is large, and it expects you to keep up.

Where to watch it

It is available on Amazon Prime Video, which also produced the later seasons after the original network cancelled it. All six seasons are there, so it can be watched in one run.

The verdict

The most convincing spacefaring civilisation ever put on television, with a plot that grows honestly out of its politics. Start with the first season and be patient; it repays everything.

Frequently asked questions

How many seasons of The Expanse are there, and where can I watch them?

Six seasons, covering nine novels, with the sixth season ending at a natural stopping point. All six are streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Is it based on books?

Yes, on a series of novels by James S. A. Corey, the pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. The authors were involved in making the show, which is a large part of why it stays close to the source.

Does the first season get better?

The series does. The first season is deliberately slow and the cast takes a few episodes to settle, and most viewers find the second season a substantial step up. It is worth persisting with.

Was it cancelled?

It was cancelled by its original network after three seasons and immediately picked up by Amazon, which made the remaining three. It is an unusual case of a series being rescued by the platform that then benefited from it.

Is the ending satisfying?

The final season resolves the story it is telling and closes at a deliberate pause rather than a full stop, because the novels continue past that point. As a conclusion to six seasons of television, it works.