The Expanse season five kicks off slowly – The Prospector

The Expanse, the hit sci-fi show set in humanitys far future,returnedto Amazon Prime in December 2020, with a new actionpackedstoryline and stunning visuals based onastronautic science.

In thehour-longepisodes, The Expanse deliversjawdropping narrative expanding upon two maincharactersNaomi Nagataplayed by Dominique Tipperand Amos BurtonplayedbyWesChatham,whilst focusingon new tensions and conflicts between planetary governments.

ASyfy channel original for its first three premier seasons, The Expanse has received numerous awards and nominations, such as the Dragon Award and Saturn Award, for its depiction of accurate science inits cinematography. It.Waspicked up by Amazon for its fourth, fifth, andupcomingsixth season.

Im going to analyze this season,so bewareof spoilers.

The seasonreturnstothemain characters split up after theincidentcausedby Belterson the newly colonizedexoplanet.Beltersisagroup of people native to the Asteroid Belt between Earth and Mars.

We join James Holden,played by StevenStraitand Naomi Nagatabeginningtheir lives together when Naomi finds informationaboutthe locationof herlong-lostsonwho wasstolen by her ex-husband, and main antagonist of this season MarcoInaros,played by Keon Alexander.The reunion is promptly interruptedwhenher son turnson herandNaomi is taken. Thistriggers a series of eventsleading James and his crew aiding in a dire rescue mission.This islearningabout asecret group seeking the last remaining amount ofprotomolecule,a bioweapon revealed to be engineered by an ancientspecies thatwent extinct for unknownreasons.

On another storyline,we follow Alex seeking amends with his familythathe leftbehindprior toseason one.He isrejoined withthemartialmarine gunnery sergeant Roberta BobbieDrapper,played by Frankie Adams.Asthe two begin travelingthe solar systemin arepurposedmartialwarship,they investigatewho is supplying the BelterO.P.Aterrorist organization with Martiantechnology.

On Earth,Amos returnsto his hometown of Boston,Massachusetts,to settle a disputeabout an old arrangement made prior to season onethatescalates.Amos fleestheworld withhis acquaintance after a terrorist attack, brought on by antagonist Marco as he flings meteor into the Earths atmosphere, destroying manylarge,populatedcities across the globe.

The season finishes withUnited Nations secretary general playedbyChrisjenAvasarala,played byShohrehAghdashloo,strugglingto keep peace between Earth and Marsasthesnewly formed Belter terrorist organization declarewar.

Therearea lot of great aspects of thisseasontomake up for the dry and slow plotline.This is done byexploring many of the other main characters past lives andhistories andthingsliketheoverwhelming anticipation ofwherea missing asteroid around Venusisand how itwasusedina terrorist attackon the Earth.The politics that go into keeping peacebetweenthree governmentsadd to it too.

However,this seasonlacks pacing.It can lose the audiences attention early on with the first three episodes.While theresthrilling momentslikethebattle between theRocinante,the shows main space vessel,and the Belter armada,it takes over too much of the season making quite a few of the scenes unnecessary to seasons plot.

Another problem surrounds the characterAlex Kamal,played byCas Anvar. There were sexual assault allegationsagainst the actor,as well as multiple womenallegedlyreceivinginappropriate messages and pictures.Theactor was fired from the show because of the allegations, bringinga troubling scene toward the end of the season, where he was killed off. The scene is troubling becausefeels forced rather than necessary or compelling to the plot.It alsobrings concern aboutwhat will happen in season six.

Season fiveof The Expanseis by far more thrilling than itsprecedingseason,which seemed to drag on before the final three episodes, but season five comes with its owncomplications.Thedeath of main character Alex,even the expectation of the asteroid impactfelt anti-climactic compared to other thrilling scenes seen in seasons two and three.

Other than that,season five keepsaudienceslocked in and is must watch for anyone invested.Thedevelopingplotlineseemsto be setting up for something big in season six.Id rate the season3.5picksout of five,as it delivers to the audience compelling drama and thrilling actioncontent,butmay take a bit of watching to get to.

Sven Kline may be reached at[emailprotected]edu.@SvenKline on Twitter.

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The Expanse season five kicks off slowly - The Prospector