Note to self: add The Wire, She-Ra, and the Expanse to my to-watch queue asap.
The only reason I wouldn't dive right into the Expanse is that I'd wonder whether I should read the novels first and then the show, or after, or alongside, or if it even matters; I tend to be a purist about these things (I'm probably the only LOTR fan in North America who loves the books and dislikes the Peter Jackson movies) but there are some movies that improve on the source material, or at least enhance it (i.e., the Godfather.)
If it helps, I watched The Expanse first and am now reading the books (finished book 3 recently). Doing it this way around doesn't seem to have hurt my enjoyment of either!
In this case, I think the writers of the books were heavily involved in the show, so there's a synchronicity there which we don't normally get with adaptations.
I saw the Lord of the Rings movies having never read the books (I was very prejudiced against fantasy as a kid, inexplicably). I then read each of the books after seeing each film in the cinema, and that double experience was fantastic. I adore both.
Another example of an adaptation possibly improving on the source material is Fight Club. I think even Chuck Palahniuk has said as much!
Expanse does tweak things around for the TV format, but is a respectful adaptation (aided by the novel's authors heading up the writing team).
It's only stumbling block arguably being the final season spending a lot of time doing the setup phase for one of the novels which wasn't adapted. When Simon gets to that novel on his read through, he'll go, "OH! THAT'S what that was about!"
IMHO, Expanse is the only SF show which may have dethroned B5 as the GOAT, with the only issue being Expanse didn't finish the entire saga. But it hits a good stopping point since *SPOILER* the TV show ends just before the 30 year time jump.
2010: The Year We Make Contact is another rare film I'd argue bests its source material. Clarke was great at concept, shit with character, and 2010 cutting the Chinese to take out Max (who we liked), and adding in the Cold War tensions fleshes out the characters more and adds additional tension to the third act. Now if Hyams had just cast an Indian actor as Dr. Chandra....
Yeah, the setup in that final season was curious. It was well done, but oddly isolated. I did wonder whether they were audaciously setting up a follow-up series, which they'll film in 10-20 years time once the actors have naturally aged. That would be very cool.
Of COURSE Apollo 13 is the high water mark for space realism. It's historical, not sci-fi.
Saw that with a friend who didn't know it was a true story AND overlooked the "based on a book by Jim Lovell" credit at the beginning. Thus, she had no idea how it ended. She was clutching my arm so hard during re-entry I had bruises. There are two shots I want to remove where, in my opinion, Howard went too far into style over storytelling and snapped me out of my suspension of disbelief*. Otherwise, Apollo 13 remains the most perfect movie I've ever seen.
*During the launch all the carefully recreated news footage has me in awe of the power of the Saturn V... Then there's that overhead after it's cleared the pad where the Saturn V goes right by the virtual camera and the exhaust whites out the frame. This breaks the documentary feel for a cool, but impossible shot.
The second is that stupid fast tracking shot over Apollo 13's electronics to the sparking boards just before the blowout. Again, this is an "impossible" shot which breaks the grounded, documentary feel of the rest of the film. For storytelling purposes this could have been static.
I haven't watched it since the 90s. Am trying to convince my son to give it a go, and I'll be really curious to see how well it holds up. I'm expecting it won't have aged at all due to the techniques they used, other than perhaps a couple of shots of the take-off.
I watched it again sometime during the last couple of years, although not with your keen cinematic eye. It remains a gripping film, and perfectly reproduces the era.
Interesting! I read the first book of the Expanse series & didn't like it much but after reading this, I think I might like it better as a TV show. Science!
As for She-Ra, it is really interesting how artists tend to consume "their" medium not just for entertainment but with an eye to structure, innovation & interesting ideas. Something you wouldn't like as a mere reader could be insightful or even fascinating because you're learning something new to apply to your own craft. (I recently tried to read The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I still don't enjoy thrillers in novel form but how/where Brown chooses to communicate information is genius.)
Absolutely - stuff we don't like can be just as informative as stuff we do like. And inspiration can come from unexpected places - such as a TV show ostensibly aimed at kids.
As for The Expanse - I know quite a few people who bounced off it after the first season, or the first book, so it is a bit of an acquired taste, I think. I loved it from the first episode and thought it only improved from there. It might be worth giving it the benefit of the doubt and seeing if it 'clicks' over time.
Note to self: add The Wire, She-Ra, and the Expanse to my to-watch queue asap.
The only reason I wouldn't dive right into the Expanse is that I'd wonder whether I should read the novels first and then the show, or after, or alongside, or if it even matters; I tend to be a purist about these things (I'm probably the only LOTR fan in North America who loves the books and dislikes the Peter Jackson movies) but there are some movies that improve on the source material, or at least enhance it (i.e., the Godfather.)
If it helps, I watched The Expanse first and am now reading the books (finished book 3 recently). Doing it this way around doesn't seem to have hurt my enjoyment of either!
In this case, I think the writers of the books were heavily involved in the show, so there's a synchronicity there which we don't normally get with adaptations.
I saw the Lord of the Rings movies having never read the books (I was very prejudiced against fantasy as a kid, inexplicably). I then read each of the books after seeing each film in the cinema, and that double experience was fantastic. I adore both.
Another example of an adaptation possibly improving on the source material is Fight Club. I think even Chuck Palahniuk has said as much!
Expanse does tweak things around for the TV format, but is a respectful adaptation (aided by the novel's authors heading up the writing team).
It's only stumbling block arguably being the final season spending a lot of time doing the setup phase for one of the novels which wasn't adapted. When Simon gets to that novel on his read through, he'll go, "OH! THAT'S what that was about!"
IMHO, Expanse is the only SF show which may have dethroned B5 as the GOAT, with the only issue being Expanse didn't finish the entire saga. But it hits a good stopping point since *SPOILER* the TV show ends just before the 30 year time jump.
2010: The Year We Make Contact is another rare film I'd argue bests its source material. Clarke was great at concept, shit with character, and 2010 cutting the Chinese to take out Max (who we liked), and adding in the Cold War tensions fleshes out the characters more and adds additional tension to the third act. Now if Hyams had just cast an Indian actor as Dr. Chandra....
Yeah, the setup in that final season was curious. It was well done, but oddly isolated. I did wonder whether they were audaciously setting up a follow-up series, which they'll film in 10-20 years time once the actors have naturally aged. That would be very cool.
Note: watch The Wire and She-Ra.
Of COURSE Apollo 13 is the high water mark for space realism. It's historical, not sci-fi.
Saw that with a friend who didn't know it was a true story AND overlooked the "based on a book by Jim Lovell" credit at the beginning. Thus, she had no idea how it ended. She was clutching my arm so hard during re-entry I had bruises. There are two shots I want to remove where, in my opinion, Howard went too far into style over storytelling and snapped me out of my suspension of disbelief*. Otherwise, Apollo 13 remains the most perfect movie I've ever seen.
*During the launch all the carefully recreated news footage has me in awe of the power of the Saturn V... Then there's that overhead after it's cleared the pad where the Saturn V goes right by the virtual camera and the exhaust whites out the frame. This breaks the documentary feel for a cool, but impossible shot.
The second is that stupid fast tracking shot over Apollo 13's electronics to the sparking boards just before the blowout. Again, this is an "impossible" shot which breaks the grounded, documentary feel of the rest of the film. For storytelling purposes this could have been static.
Both shots CALL ATTENTION to themselves as VFX.
I haven't watched it since the 90s. Am trying to convince my son to give it a go, and I'll be really curious to see how well it holds up. I'm expecting it won't have aged at all due to the techniques they used, other than perhaps a couple of shots of the take-off.
I watched it again sometime during the last couple of years, although not with your keen cinematic eye. It remains a gripping film, and perfectly reproduces the era.
Interesting! I read the first book of the Expanse series & didn't like it much but after reading this, I think I might like it better as a TV show. Science!
As for She-Ra, it is really interesting how artists tend to consume "their" medium not just for entertainment but with an eye to structure, innovation & interesting ideas. Something you wouldn't like as a mere reader could be insightful or even fascinating because you're learning something new to apply to your own craft. (I recently tried to read The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I still don't enjoy thrillers in novel form but how/where Brown chooses to communicate information is genius.)
Absolutely - stuff we don't like can be just as informative as stuff we do like. And inspiration can come from unexpected places - such as a TV show ostensibly aimed at kids.
As for The Expanse - I know quite a few people who bounced off it after the first season, or the first book, so it is a bit of an acquired taste, I think. I loved it from the first episode and thought it only improved from there. It might be worth giving it the benefit of the doubt and seeing if it 'clicks' over time.