[KaiserJeep]

I'm going to go out on a limb here, amongst all you oh-so-serious Doomies here at PO.com, and recommend a work of pure entertainment that might just teach you about the nature of Kudzu Ape in the 23rd century. The Expanse is based upon the book series of the same name by James S. A. Corey - although I much prefer the video to the prose version. Watch if reading is not your thing (this free link includes a commercial before the main video)(preview video is approx. 20 minutes):

https://youtu.be/p8vR2FB1PGM

IMHO The Expanse is the best thing the SyFy channel has produced in the last few years. I like it better than any of the Treks, Battlestar Galactica, or any of the "quality" efforts that SyFy occasionally airs among much really dreadful low-budget dreck. Season 2 of The Expanse begins broadcast on February 8, 2017, which gives you time to get caught up with Season 1 before then.

Season 1, ten "hour-long" (less commercials) episodes of The Expanse is available in Blu-Ray ($22.48US) or DVD ($18.99US) or streaming (Free with Amazon Prime membership, otherwise assorted prices from other sources). HD streaming quality is excellent and available in 1080p video format.

Just sit back and enjoy. I'd be happy to discuss the series in this thread.

The Books:



The video series 1:

[ROCKMAN]

KJ - I also enjoyed the first season. Especially some of the aspects of what resources would be the truly valuable. Kept the fantasy tech to a minimum IMHO.

[KaiserJeep]

I agree with you - except the "fantasy" tech is really hard science tech - more credible than the new fuelless EM "electric space drive". There's a real difference between science fiction and fantasy. Star Wars was always fantasy, Game of Thrones never pretended to be anything else, and the Treks were somewhere in the middle. But The Expanse is "hard SF", my favorite sub-genre.

[Cog]

I will check it out. Right now I'm watching Incorporated. A dystopian future where corporations control everything. Also on Sci Fi channel.

[dissident]

Oh no, something good on SyFy, cancel it quick!

SyFy is the dreck channel.

[KaiserJeep]

Pete, you have no idea how much your comment pains me. Sardines are only good for bait IMHO. Along with anchovies and all forms of squid.

[ROCKMAN]

Cog - "A dystopian future where corporations control everything" That wasn't on the SciFi channel...that was the evening news on CNN.

[Zarquon]

I saw a few episodes from other ScyFy productions and decided that nothing they'd ever do would be worth a minute of my life. But The Expanse got extremely got ratings, so I checked it out. No artificial gravity, plus good acting, and that in a space opera? Impressive. You get space opera, politics, the Big Conspiracy, and the fun of watching a private eye, transplanted directly from 1940's LA, on a space station (or asteroid?). Can't wait for the next season.

It has a few (as in: not many) similarities with Fortitude, although the latter is about sinister goings-on in a small town at the Arctic Circle:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3498622/?re ... lmg_act_14

Is there anything else like it?

[KaiserJeep]

Most people would probably call this series "dystopian", but upon a second viewing and some thought I don't agree. Consider these things I gleaned from watching Season 1 a second time:

1. The overcrowded Earth has 30 Billion humans on it. The UN is now the supreme government on the planet, and member states have little power and what they have is derived from the UN, which has the only armed forces.

2. Global Warming has happened. When you see a shot of the UN buildings, they are surrounded by a ten meter high wall holding back the ocean. The Statue of Liberty looks shorter behind such a wall. There is casual mention of the "Yukon Archipelago" and one visualizes the mountains poking out of the former tundra areas, now flooded by temperate oceans. Antarctica is now inhabited soil.

3. There is some sort of mandatory birth control in place. Public service and paid taxes are sources of social credit, every citizen must earn a "birthright" before they can reproduce. The citizens of Earth who could not abide this restriction have colonized the Moon (under UN jurisdiction), Mars (independent) and the asteroids (independent). Meanwhile, the eight parents of our main character have figured out a creative way to reproduce, as each had earned one eighth of a birthright and understood that they would die before they had a whole birthright. So four men and four women married each other and created a child from the genes of all eight parents. Then they sued the UN to allow their child to inherit their Montana ranch versus having it default to the government upon their deaths.

The second viewing was very enjoyable, and allowed me to pick out the background details above - which were kind of obscured by the kickass action and the intricate plot and the spectacular special effects during the first viewing.

[Zarquon]

The first two episodes of season 2 now available.

[Plantagenet]

Breaking the glass ceiling?

[ROCKMAN]

KJ - "...which were kind of obscured by the kickass action and the intricate plot and the spectacular special effects during the first viewing." The firsdt episode this season certainly pushed those aspects to a higher level. Going to have to rewatch this weekend.

[KaiserJeep]

For those of you with Ultra HD (3840X2160 screen resolution) displays, watching streaming content from Amazon Prime, here is a little 3-step trick that will get you to a well hidden UHD version of Season 1 of The Expanse:

1) Make sure that you have an UHD capable device registered to your Amazon Prime account. If in doubt, here is a guide to enabling UHD in Amazon Prime: https://www.amazon.com/4K-UHD-TV-Resource-Guide/b?ie=UTF8&node=10195182011
....I use an inexpensive 55" Vizio UHD Smart TV I bought at Costco for less than $800 in 2015, newer and better models are even cheaper now, around $600.

2) Using an Internet Browser from a PC or an Android mobile device, login to your Amazon Prime account. Then go to the following URL:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N0SMDTT/?tag=vs-avsforum-convert-20
You should see the title "The Expanse [Ultra HD]". Now click the button "Add Season to Watchlist".

3) On your UHD Smart TV, start your Amazon Prime app. You should see the UHD version of The Expanse at the top of your Watchlist, and it should now play for you, provided you have the slightly higher bandwidth needed for UHD streaming. The video resolution will be 3840X2160, aka "4K" or "2160p" and the sound is in Dolby Digital 5.1 format. 4K or UHD streams use advanced Codecs, mine streams just fine over my AT&T ISDN router, at the basic rate with no bandwidth upgrades. YMMV depending upon your ISP and connection and playback device Codec.

Note that the above 4K version of The Expanse is not searchable in the Amazon Prime index, either from a browser or from the device app itself, it is simply not part of the index, if you search you will connect to the 1080p resolution files every time, you have to know the location of the UHD version to stream in 4K.

The first two Season 2 episodes of The Expanse are available in Amazon Prime at the present time in 1080p, behind a paywall. The episodes are $2.99 each or $29.99 for all 13 episodes of Season 2. The live broadcast versions on SyFy are in 1080i format with commercials, which is how I am watching them on my DirecTiVo DVR.

We are looking for the UHD version of Season 2, no news yet.

[KaiserJeep]

It just keeps getting better and better:
http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2017/03/28/521748974/the-expanse-how-great-science-fiction-preps-us-for-the-future

[Zarquon]

Hmmm... I think the second season is slowing down somewhat. No hard-boiled detective stuff, too many sideshows. It's still better than most shows, but it's losing focus IMO.

[ROCKMAN]

Z - "...too many sideshows". You mean similar to the sideshows we're experiencing with our energy and environmental predicaments? Hell, tonight the even tossed in an "illegal alien" component...a Martian marine that got to see an earth ocean with the help of a drug smuggler of sorts. LOL.

[KaiserJeep]

Well, yesterday's episode advanced the plot significantly. What a grand story arc is developing.

[ROCKMAN]

KJ - Yep: bioengineering a SEAL Team 6. Gotta get even bloodier now. High noon on the Ganymede moon. LOL.

[sparky]

.
@ kaiserjeep , you are so WRONG ,
sardines grilled on a BBQ are some of the finest food ...like ever
baby octopus with balsamic vinegar and a touch of lemon make one weep with delight
come man food is life , the more life... the more food ,
ten millions fishes can't be wrong ....sardines is good eating

P.S. Australia can't watch "the expanse" , only on Netflix