UNCUT - The Expanse Season 4 Episode 4

I know I'm late to the game, but in case no one answered this question for you yet, the term you were looking for in the intro was "clean-up hitter". I figured since everyone else either defended or took a giant shit on this episode, I'd chime in with the answer to a long-forgotten question 😁

This episode's impression rankings: Josh - Holden: C- Alex - Murtry: C Josh - Naomi: A- Alex - Holden: A

I would be so down for some TA S1 Twin Peaks.

At the end of this TA are saying they want the perspective of somebody who enjoyed this season at this point and who hadn't read the books. Well that isn't me on either count! I loved book four but found this season tough going until the later stuff. ( suspect these guys will have hated that stuff too as it's "too sci-fi".) There are four problems with this season. 1) They didn't stick to the throughline of the book because they had to keep a huge cast of characters on the payroll and so they imported the Avasarala stuff and Bobby stuff from side novellas and book 5 and they brought Marcos in Early to give the belter characters something to do. As a result it's a big disconnected mess too focused on season 5 set up to remember we need a season 4 set of stakes. The stakes at this point in the season seem pityful on Illus. 2) In spite of Amazon money they didn't have the budget to do this planet justice. A quarry doesn't get accross the wild and dangerous alien ecosystem at all. That is part of what leads to the lack of stakes, and the need to do all the extraneous stuff I said above. They should have learned from early trek and done this on sets rather than on location. When they move to the "Star Trek Caves" stuff later it gets better anyway. 3) Here is where they suffer the most for having dumped the idea to cast tall skinny people for all belter roles as in the pilot. Naomi really does not seem believable in her illness and this is compounded by the other belter there being sturdy folk looking totally happy in 1G. Removes all believability and stakes. 4) Last problem. I hate to say it but as well as Naomi being physically miscast I think they really, really needed to do better chemistry testing on her and Holden at the outset. When you give the actor action or urgent dramatic engineering to do she knocks it out of the park but give her a scene with him and it falls flat from both. His fault too. Ironically I think had they cast a tall, skinny and awkward female lead in the belter style this would have helped her become a character the audience could root for. A Karen Gillian type for example could have owned this. Luckily she has her best work ahead of her best Expanse though. So yeah. I read the books but I am with you guys at this point.

Season 4 is the weakest, in my opinion, and the first half particularly, but 5&6 are great and there's still a lot to like to come in Season 4. But I get why you are struggling with it so far.

I figured given how intensely sci-fi and slower paced this season is, it'd be rougher to connect with it. It's one of my personal favorites because of how atmospheric and strange the vibe is.

You guys really need to cut down the time between watches, cause you're confused by stuff that just happened, people seen very recently. Hell, confused by stuff that happened earlier in the same episode, because you're checking out due to not following what is happening. And you keep saying nothing is happening, but a lot is. You just want... what? Non-stop action? Non-stop character moments? Non-stop... something.

To expand on what I said in the comments about the last episode, I think only weekly watching (or binging an entire season in one go) is the way to go for this show. Too many clues and links are missed with TA's batch viewing. The most obvious example is when Alex said he didn't recognise any of the names after the writer and director credits came up on this episode, yet the director was the same person responsible for the previous episode.

The Expanse is one of those shows that is better in hindsight, I think. What I mean is that once you know the whole story arc, you can appreciate the boring bits that built up to it more. that doesn't mean it should get a 'get out of jail free' card for the tedious bits, though.

I do sometimes question the attention span if interconnected plots are boring and "don't care". But I also remember liking season 4 the least in the first watch space. While season 2 holds that spot for me now. Season 5 being my fave now. Season 4 is up there for me now. In my mind, most shows would have rushed the content of seasons 1-3 to get to the 4-6 story. Doing it all in 1 season to open the ring gates. And I do someday hope 7-9 is adapted as it's by far the best of the book series.

Given that you started off hating Amos and Bobby, and now you love both, does this mean you’ll love Inaros by the end of the season? 😉

I really hope the bridge crew picks something different next time, instead of The Expanse season 5, which would be a very predictable choice. Would be nice to get some more ‘V’ariety 😉

I really love the overall vibe of The Expanse, so when I first watched it, I pretty much uncritically accepted whatever they presented me. Even now I have this reflexive "don't shit on my show" reaction when people critique it. But I'm finding it's important to have these reminders that not every episode of a great show is automatically great on its own. It helps remind me how good the truly great episodes were. So, you know, thank you.

Season 4 is my least favorite, the story on Ilus is too much fantasy for me. I loved the real science in the first 3 seasons, but season 4 has too much of a mainstream "scifi" feel, there is nothing to be excited about. Most of the characters on Ilus are boring, the only interesting thing is how our main characters deal with this fantastic situation. Good thing is that season 5 are 6 are very different, it will feel like the culmination of the long storyline that started in the first season. I wish season 4 was skippable, but there is important lore and character growth happening here. The pacing is what it is, it's not BSG or Star Wars, it's not about big actions, it's about the subtle decisions that have far lasting impacts. At this point, the show was released on streaming, meaning they didn't need to make every single episode action packed to make sure the non-fans would come back next week.

Well, I just finished the episode. I’m not disappointed in your reaction. In fact I think it’s kind of justified. The pacing has been dramatically slower. They seem to be trying to rely on their cinematic image more than progressing. The story and that is a fair assessment. They are making heavy lore dumps and making them subtle and so on, but the problem with subtle is it a show that should be keeping your attention you might miss it I had the advantage of reading the books beforehand so I can see the difference in the perception and I appreciate it. It is making me look at it far more critically. It kind of makes me think that they didn’t get test audiences. They got fan audiences for testing.

More Thanksgiving, dessert, and I give thanks for the Target Audience

What are you doing? Since "The Jem'Hada" I feel you just don't like things anymore. You shit on your Patrons! Do you want us to leave on purpose?

As I said, all plots are connected. But I give you that the pacing is … ouf.