I Saw This!! What I Have Been Watching: 2020 Edition: Pt C

I Saw This (double exclamation point) is our feature wherein Kent(!) or Toasty(¡) attempt to write about a bunch of stuff they watched some time ago and meant to write about but just never got around to doing so. But every time I try not to write, bad things happen, very bad things. Somewhere. To someone.

What I Have Been (or Am) Watching is the admitted state of me spending too much time in front of the TV. And despite what I said above, I have been avoiding telling you about what I have been watching. Not that you care. But at least I am not telling you about my character

Pt A is here. Pt B is here.


And They're Back !!

The Expanse S4, 2019, Amazon

This is my show. I watch it by myself (as opposed to Marmy next to me and if she IS next to me, she's on Reddit), few others I know watch it and Kent is not enamoured with it. My brain is somewhat enthralled with the idea of small space opera, where the entire universe is contained within the single solar system. I have been faithfully watching since the first season, and actually racing the story by picking up the novels in the meantime.

As I expected, from my notes in the first season, the show did end up becoming majorly about the politics, especially when the three powers of the universe (Earth, Mars and the Outer Planets) had to deal with the incursion of an alien molecule wanted only to alter and destroy humanity. That storyline culminated with the "defeated" protomolecule creating massive Stargate-style rings in/through which people found gateways to a thousand other worlds. Suddenly the small solar system, where resources were tight and land, real earthy land, scarce, was cracked opened massively.

Season 4 picks up in a small story on a single Earth-like planet that was discovered, and immediately colonized by folks displaced by the wars in the first three seasons. But an Earth corporation legally laid claim to  the planet, and sent a security detail to deal with the squatters. The powers at be, send the main characters, the crew of the small, liberated, Martian ship Rocinante. Captain Holden is (barely) trusted  by all three governments (having been the whistleblower on the horrors of the protomolecule) and is asked to help mediate peaceful negotiation between the two groups. Meanwhile, political turmoil has expanded in the main system as a splinter group of the Outer Planets Alliance is causing chaos.

This the first Expanse season that takes place primarily on the ground, but it also absorbs the key plots from a separate book, to lay the plans for the next season. So much is going on here, as we pick at the threads of so many plots & character storylines. Are the squatters criminals "stealing" a lucrative planet (valuable mineral everywhere), or just plucky underdogs finally getting somewhere? What's up with the planet itself, and all the ruins of ancient technology? After generations of terraforming their planet, Martians are losing their definition of self, as they can now just hop in a ship and find a brand new, empty planet already fit for habitation. Bobbie Draper, recently discharged Martian Marine (she sided with Earthlings against the protomolecule) is dealing with her own loss of identity & becoming a civilian. And the OPA (Outer Planets Alliance) having only recently been recognized as a proper government (instead of just protectorates of Mars and Earth) is dealing with internal strife over OPA identity. Everything that defined them -- making lives for themselves on asteroids and in space stations -- is in jeopardy when there are so many more planets to colonize. They fear becoming, as a people (Belters), only historical notes and one man  (Inaros) is not willing to give up his hatred of the Inner Planets, and sets the OPA on a course to war.

Amazon saved the show from extinction (cancelled by SyFy) and it returned with the next arc in the series. The universe is no longer a single system, but it still focuses around the small crew of the small ship, and all the people that satellite around them. There aren't a whole lot of differences that appear with the change of Motherships, and they are smart to keep what fans want -- a whole lot of focus on their favourite characters.

Jack Ryan S2, 2019, Amazon

Jack has had a lot of faces: Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck and Chris Pine. There is enough there to establish the character -- the CIA analyst who ends up in the field. At first blush, John Krasinski is the perfect choice, as he is slightly nerdy (i.e. Analyst) looking but also equally buff (i.e. ex-Marine) and fills out the role very well.

Season 1 re-introduced the character, not bothering to recreate the wheel, but I found it strange that we are here, 30 years since the first cinematic viewing & original novels, just expecting the audience to get who he is. So, not an origin story but an updated continuance, skipping past the novels where Republican Ryan ends up as the President.

Season 2 tenuously uses his skillset and character to portray a general political upset in Venezuela and how a few Americans, if not the country at large, fly in to save the day. But, propagandic leanings aside, it was a decent, tense, well produced spy thriller season. As a whole, it is entirely unsatisfying, dancing about in tone and intent, with little care for the characters or story. But the high production values overshadow it enough to make acceptable entertainment value.

Lost in Space S2, 2018, Netflix

That last sentence pretty much defines how I feel about THIS show as well. The first season's post was lost to the hiatus mind, and while it left me entirely unsatisfied, there was a enough of the enjoyment of Shows Set in Space that had me come back. Besides, the leads are charming and charismatic enough, that I enjoy watching them act.

So, the Robinsons from the first season, are a family of smart people chosen to leave a dying Earth (we never really understand the dying, from ... what??) along with all kinds of other families, and head to a distant world to begin a colony. I never understood if this was abandonment or early setup, but considering the amount of free space in these colony ships, it all felt a little ... elitist. Anywayz, while on said journey, alien robots attack, the ship the Robinson family is on (each family gets their own ship!) crashes on a planet and is ... lost !

Turns out they were not the only ship lost in this particular system, and eventually a bunch of them get back together, both in space (in the space station cum mothership) and on another planet in the system. While I was not a big fan of the original series, its key premise always seemed to be that he Robinsons (as in Caruso) were alone, lost in space. These Robinsons keep on getting lost, and then almost immediately found, and then lost again.

The haphazard style of the first season is back, aaaaaaand I am beginning the think this is particular to the Netflix was of doing things. There is no real tone to the show, and it dances around a lot. I guess that lends itself to binging, allowing the easily bored (myself included) to find something they like, somewhere, bringing them back for another season. The Netflix Producers are less concerned with finely tuned quality, and more concerned with just enough effort to recoup costs. I guess how the obviously, clearly styled Marvel shows lost more and more viewers as time went by, while terrible, yet less rigidly designed shows keep viewers coming back, says something for what Netflix wants to make.

And yes, posting about this show is less about the show, and more about how I am pretty much in a pattern of watching shows that leave me mostly unsatisfied, but with a modicum of entertainment, enough so to keep me coming back, hoping for .... more? I could blame it on life stresses and the need to be easily entertained, but that's the cheap way out.

I need to start being more discerning. Just because something is a Space Show, and I like some of the characters, doesn't mean I have to watch it.