The first season was excellent, and then in the 2nd season they did ruin lots of the story lines with just lame choices, and then the ending went completely downhill for me. It pissed me off, just like GoT.
There was this other series called Murderbot which had some similarities in the setting of the story. It was not that great compared to the 1st season of Raised by Wolves, but it was consistent throughout the whole series (so far) in quality, and it is much more satisfying.
Anyways if you like scifi and haven't checked out The Expanse yet, that is a masterpiece.
The murder bot books are a bit silly from the get go, so the show leaned into the campy vibe to sell the comedic aspect.
As someone who loves the book, I think the show is a 10/10 for capturing the feeling. Though if you where expecting as more serious scifi I can see why you think it's of inferior quality.
TBH, The Expanse also suffers from a major drop in quality after season 3. It is so hard for series to maintain quality over time I now prefer miniseries as the quality is more uniform from the start to the end in my experience.
The books really shift tone between books 3 and 4 and 6 and 7. I felt the show did really well with the tone shift, however, I do understand how people might not enjoy the results as much as I do.
The expanse drop was entirely due to budget cuts from amazon, who were going to cancel it but didn't because Jeff Bezos liked the show. They did get a budget cut and had to make some decisions about how to execute the story with more limited resources. They still did a pretty good job imho, but would love to have seen what they could have done with full budget.
The first book/season is such a banger because it's pretty great horror sci-fi at that point.
Eventually the whole protomolecule thing settles down, and afterwards you have essentially politics and genocide in space, which can be good but almost feels like a different genre.
Right - the first season's gradual zooming out (expanse) from a very focused murder mystery into a solar system-spanning event was amazing. It did feel like that event then got sidelined, as you say, in favour of politics.
The first season of The Expanse was great. Then it got progressively more meh with each season.
(obviously my personal opinion eh?)
For a really nerdy-oriented SF series try Three Body i.e. the 2023 Tencent version of The Three Body Problem. Again in my opinion the 2024 Netflix version, was one of the boringest things I've ever watched. I'm pretty sure if that had been my introduction to the Rememberance of Earth Past series I would have been left distinctly unimpressed.
For an example of what I mean by "nerdy-oriented", avoiding spoilers there's a scene where some of the characters are observing a certain celestial phenomenon. In the Netflix series they are sitting outside looking at something that should not be visible by naked eye. In the Tencent series they're sitting in a proper scientific station, i.e. a big room lined with PC workstations and side-rooms with bigger machines and printers, and they're starting endlessly at a single red line on a monitor while munching on junk food.
Another thing: a certain Chinese army base in the 1960's is decorated with picture-perfect, period hardware, big mainframes that a character is shown physically disassembling to service. In the Netflix series... honestly, I don't even remember. The attention to detail that only a proper nerd would notice is, to me, something genuinely new, like I've never see anyone go to all that trouble before to make sure a certain demographic won't scrunch up their face and go "that's not how computers looked in the '60s".
I should also say that there is certainly quite a bit of overacting (or over-directing) in the early episodes but they get over it later.
I watched the Tencent version after reading the books, and it's the first time I've been able to get properly engaged while reading subtitles.
My goto for showing the difference between the Netflix and Tencent shows is the Shi speech about bugs. It's an important moment, but the Tencent version does a much better job of conveying that.
I watched and read the entire series. Much of it is boring and poorly written both from a style perspective as well as character development. It’s famous but doesn’t live up to many scifi masterpieces imo.
Strong disagree. There are very few space operas which get both world building and character building so right. They usually are either great epic stories or amazing character introspectives but rarely both.
I liked it. It was strangely hypnotic viewing. Travis Himmel looked like he was stoned in it (his acting style?) and the plain weirdness of it reminded me of old Heavy Metal comics of the seventies. The nearest I have had to that was reading the Prophet series. Themes of religion and general human weirdness https://imagecomics.com/comics/series/prophet
"Ridley Scott directed the first two episodes of the series, and using his name as part of the marketing is a fair move (even if it was created by Aaron Guzikowski, who wrote Prisoners.)"
Interesting observation made by Nick on www.rogerebert.com
Cool show, weird plot, but what totally ruined for me was... Travis Fimmel. IMO this guy has zero range. Always the same lazy, drunk-ish style since, I don't know, Vikings. Ragnar in Kattegat, Ragnar in Azeroth, Ragnar in space, Ragnar in Dune.
It's "new" IP in the sense there has been no previous tv show or movie and that is not attached to a large existing franchise. It's not marvel or Star Wars.
I loved it, it was so weird and different to anything else I was watching at the time. I was sad-but-not-shocked to see it get cancelled. Would love to see it finished via a book.
I'm still pissed off about this one. People call it a mystery box but that's a bit unfair, the story, motivations and worldbuilding do make sense it's just extremely weird.
This is the best show I’ve seen since Game of Thrones. It’s so unique and mind expanding.
The problem with the modern data driven approach to TV production is that it optimizes for the shows that are just good enough to get people to keep their subscriptions, and the truly visionary stuff gets cancelled.
The best shows always take a while to build up popularity because they’re so new that people aren’t willing to give them a chance at first. Breaking Bad and Mad Men didn’t become popular until season 2 or 3. TV execs have no vision anymore, it’s all run by hill climbing algorithms that look for the nearest maximum now.
The golden age of TV is behind us now. It’s just yet another example of enshittification.
I have only one problem w/ the S1: the creators just not have the guts to kill Mother or Father. Don't get me wrong, I like them but it could make the whole series more distant and cold.
I remember when the pilot had Ridley Scott’s name attached to it in some way and I couldn’t help but wonder: What is it with that man and pregnancy in space?
2001: A Space Odyssey. He’s cited it as being profoundly influential on his thinking and film making. The Star Child is the dream, Scott creates the nightmares.
I beg HBO Max to show me any sci fi it has and it has never shown me this once and I’ve never even heard of the show. Guess HN had to save the day this time. I don’t see it available to stream anywhere? I’m opposed to pirating on moral grounds, what are my options now?
What I wanted from "Raised by Wolves" was out there, big concept Sci-Fi
What I would have settled for was a decent Space opera.
What I got was a Shaggy God Story, a wild hallucinated fever dream, a wooly, baggy technicolour Biblical riff, that promised a lot but made little actual sense. I slogged through season 1, and then gave it up.
Really? it was dumb as a brick imo.. Also they did that slimy practice of having a busy and intriguing 1st episode, then a whole season of bland filler, concluding in an action packed final episode.
I honestly felt scammed after watching S1 of that.
The first season was excellent, and then in the 2nd season they did ruin lots of the story lines with just lame choices, and then the ending went completely downhill for me. It pissed me off, just like GoT.
There was this other series called Murderbot which had some similarities in the setting of the story. It was not that great compared to the 1st season of Raised by Wolves, but it was consistent throughout the whole series (so far) in quality, and it is much more satisfying.
Anyways if you like scifi and haven't checked out The Expanse yet, that is a masterpiece.
The murder bot books are a bit silly from the get go, so the show leaned into the campy vibe to sell the comedic aspect.
As someone who loves the book, I think the show is a 10/10 for capturing the feeling. Though if you where expecting as more serious scifi I can see why you think it's of inferior quality.
TBH, The Expanse also suffers from a major drop in quality after season 3. It is so hard for series to maintain quality over time I now prefer miniseries as the quality is more uniform from the start to the end in my experience.
The books really shift tone between books 3 and 4 and 6 and 7. I felt the show did really well with the tone shift, however, I do understand how people might not enjoy the results as much as I do.
The expanse drop was entirely due to budget cuts from amazon, who were going to cancel it but didn't because Jeff Bezos liked the show. They did get a budget cut and had to make some decisions about how to execute the story with more limited resources. They still did a pretty good job imho, but would love to have seen what they could have done with full budget.
If this is true, why couldn't Bezos bankroll the show to maintain its quality?
Because billionaires can't love anything more than they love money.
The first book/season is such a banger because it's pretty great horror sci-fi at that point.
Eventually the whole protomolecule thing settles down, and afterwards you have essentially politics and genocide in space, which can be good but almost feels like a different genre.
Right - the first season's gradual zooming out (expanse) from a very focused murder mystery into a solar system-spanning event was amazing. It did feel like that event then got sidelined, as you say, in favour of politics.
I found it pretty consistent! The improved CG in later seasons also clearly shows.
The first season of The Expanse was great. Then it got progressively more meh with each season.
(obviously my personal opinion eh?)
For a really nerdy-oriented SF series try Three Body i.e. the 2023 Tencent version of The Three Body Problem. Again in my opinion the 2024 Netflix version, was one of the boringest things I've ever watched. I'm pretty sure if that had been my introduction to the Rememberance of Earth Past series I would have been left distinctly unimpressed.
For an example of what I mean by "nerdy-oriented", avoiding spoilers there's a scene where some of the characters are observing a certain celestial phenomenon. In the Netflix series they are sitting outside looking at something that should not be visible by naked eye. In the Tencent series they're sitting in a proper scientific station, i.e. a big room lined with PC workstations and side-rooms with bigger machines and printers, and they're starting endlessly at a single red line on a monitor while munching on junk food.
Another thing: a certain Chinese army base in the 1960's is decorated with picture-perfect, period hardware, big mainframes that a character is shown physically disassembling to service. In the Netflix series... honestly, I don't even remember. The attention to detail that only a proper nerd would notice is, to me, something genuinely new, like I've never see anyone go to all that trouble before to make sure a certain demographic won't scrunch up their face and go "that's not how computers looked in the '60s".
I should also say that there is certainly quite a bit of overacting (or over-directing) in the early episodes but they get over it later.
Have you compared the 26-episode (Director's Cut / Anniversary Edition) and 30-episode versions of the Tencent series?
There's also a 6h fan edit, https://disembiggened.com.
Which one would you recommend? I loved the first book but hated the Netflix series.
I watched the Tencent version after reading the books, and it's the first time I've been able to get properly engaged while reading subtitles.
My goto for showing the difference between the Netflix and Tencent shows is the Shi speech about bugs. It's an important moment, but the Tencent version does a much better job of conveying that.
> the ending went completely downhill for me
The series was cancelled after 2 seasons, so many plot lines were left unresolved.
I’ve been listening to the audiobooks of the expanse via our local library. Absolutely fantastic series — you are spot on!
Also, remember to support your local library.
I watched and read the entire series. Much of it is boring and poorly written both from a style perspective as well as character development. It’s famous but doesn’t live up to many scifi masterpieces imo.
Strong disagree. There are very few space operas which get both world building and character building so right. They usually are either great epic stories or amazing character introspectives but rarely both.
What would you recommend?
Scifi series:
Dune (the first 3 books) Vinge’s Deepness series Dark Forest (3 Body Problem…)
I liked it. It was strangely hypnotic viewing. Travis Himmel looked like he was stoned in it (his acting style?) and the plain weirdness of it reminded me of old Heavy Metal comics of the seventies. The nearest I have had to that was reading the Prophet series. Themes of religion and general human weirdness https://imagecomics.com/comics/series/prophet
[dead]
"Ridley Scott directed the first two episodes of the series, and using his name as part of the marketing is a fair move (even if it was created by Aaron Guzikowski, who wrote Prisoners.)"
Interesting observation made by Nick on www.rogerebert.com
Cool show, weird plot, but what totally ruined for me was... Travis Fimmel. IMO this guy has zero range. Always the same lazy, drunk-ish style since, I don't know, Vikings. Ragnar in Kattegat, Ragnar in Azeroth, Ragnar in space, Ragnar in Dune.
https://ragnantmedia.com/heartfelt-farewell-travis-fimmel-bi...
I liked it a ton. Its nice to see hollywood take a chance on new IP. Not exactly the same comparison but The Silo series by Apple also comes to mind.
The Silo is a book adaptation, not a new IP.
It's "new" IP in the sense there has been no previous tv show or movie and that is not attached to a large existing franchise. It's not marvel or Star Wars.
I loved it, it was so weird and different to anything else I was watching at the time. I was sad-but-not-shocked to see it get cancelled. Would love to see it finished via a book.
I'm still pissed off about this one. People call it a mystery box but that's a bit unfair, the story, motivations and worldbuilding do make sense it's just extremely weird.
Did end on a hell of a cliffhanger though.
I never thought I would weep for a psychotic, hallucinatory, pregnant weapon of mass destruction. Yet here I am.
It was so weird and visceral. Wish they didn’t cancel it.
Distribution sucked. Wouldn’t be surprised if 80%+ of their audience pirated it.
It's on iTunes now.
This is the best show I’ve seen since Game of Thrones. It’s so unique and mind expanding.
The problem with the modern data driven approach to TV production is that it optimizes for the shows that are just good enough to get people to keep their subscriptions, and the truly visionary stuff gets cancelled.
The best shows always take a while to build up popularity because they’re so new that people aren’t willing to give them a chance at first. Breaking Bad and Mad Men didn’t become popular until season 2 or 3. TV execs have no vision anymore, it’s all run by hill climbing algorithms that look for the nearest maximum now.
The golden age of TV is behind us now. It’s just yet another example of enshittification.
I have only one problem w/ the S1: the creators just not have the guts to kill Mother or Father. Don't get me wrong, I like them but it could make the whole series more distant and cold.
on S2: a total disaster.
No love for “Lost in Space” (2018–2021)?
Absolutely love the title sequence of this show. Maybe my favourite part about it. :/
It was pretty poetic and enigmatic, wasn't it?.
As for the show, I have mixed feelings. They just kept jumping the shark time and time again so at some point it got sort of normalized.
I believe it was an ancient AI trapped on a planet, sending signals into space in hopes someone would come and set it free.
I remember when the pilot had Ridley Scott’s name attached to it in some way and I couldn’t help but wonder: What is it with that man and pregnancy in space?
2001: A Space Odyssey. He’s cited it as being profoundly influential on his thinking and film making. The Star Child is the dream, Scott creates the nightmares.
Excellent title sequence too (both visually and the music).
I beg HBO Max to show me any sci fi it has and it has never shown me this once and I’ve never even heard of the show. Guess HN had to save the day this time. I don’t see it available to stream anywhere? I’m opposed to pirating on moral grounds, what are my options now?
https://www.reddit.com/r/raisedbywolves/comments/18510kf/whe...
Look it up on justwatch.
I did, it’s just blank. Don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.
https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/raised-by-wolves-2020
Very good show, got cancelled sadly.
This is one I really didn't like. It's just too weird for me. It thrns my stomach to even think about it. Really dusgusting somehow.
I say this as a big fan of horror and sci-fi and Alien* in particular.
Why? Is it the androids raising children or something else?
What I wanted from "Raised by Wolves" was out there, big concept Sci-Fi
What I would have settled for was a decent Space opera.
What I got was a Shaggy God Story, a wild hallucinated fever dream, a wooly, baggy technicolour Biblical riff, that promised a lot but made little actual sense. I slogged through season 1, and then gave it up.
Really? it was dumb as a brick imo.. Also they did that slimy practice of having a busy and intriguing 1st episode, then a whole season of bland filler, concluding in an action packed final episode. I honestly felt scammed after watching S1 of that.