The Expense is comprised of 10 episodes of around 40 mins each. It takes place in space, in a future where space colonization is possible. As a result, humans are living not only on Mars, but also on Ceres, a dwarf planet in the Asteroid Belt. However, what this causes are tensions between the three places, with Earth and Mars locked in a cold war. Ceres, which is the third faction, is powerless against the others as it is primarily a mining station, with its population known as the Belters, and they are reliant on Earth and Mars sending them the crucial necessities such as air and water.
The show follows three main viewpoints whose stories will eventually intertwine with each other. Before that happens, in the beginning of the season, the pacing is extremely slow and it is tough to see where the plot going. It first starts off on Ceres, when a rich person goes missing and Detective Miller is assigned to find her. His viewpoint shows off the situation on Ceres and how tough life can be on there, and also how fragile the whole system is.
Then we have the spaceship Canterbury with its crew, who are ice haulers tasked with transporting ice (and thus water) back to Ceres. A typical trip ends up being far from normal and they stumble upon an alarming situation that has significant consequences of the tensions between Earth and Mars. Finally, it follows a high ranking official on Earth as she investigates the apparent terrorism from Belters. Since she is of a high rank, we get to be privy of how the politicians react, although the show tends to focus more of her when she is alone and with family.
The crew of Canterbury is not the most likable. Several crew members perform some annoying actions, and every single one of them is hiding something. It’s hard to tell who can be trusted and what their role is. Although they are central to the plot in pitting Earth against Mars to create an all-out war. The hostility between each of the factions mirrors reality in terms of the hostility between countries. It does use its space setting to good use from time to time, although it feels a bit too easy for people to throw others out of airlock to die out in space. The political games between the three factions have some interesting tactics but they are far and few in between.
The situation starts to become clear in the second half of the season. It took a long time and the pay-off doesn’t feel quite worthwhile. We also learn of terrorists that have instigated several of these events. You would hope that the pacing would increase but that does not happen. Granted, the various viewpoints finally converge, and we get to the bottom of one of the mysteries. There are bigger things at play; it’s just that the show is very slow at showing it.
There are a lot of impossible moments that the cast survives through that makes you skeptical. The ending is intriguing, and it leads to a cliffhanger ending to the season as you’d expect. The sad fact is that it feels like the second season shows a lot more promise than this first season, but the lead up puts you off. Overall, The Expanse is average. It started off with promise but its sluggish pace, even at its most climactic part of the final episode, lets it down. It makes it hard to keep being invested in the characters, especially when they’re not that likable to begin with.
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