The Expanse. Series One.
I had not heard about 'The Expanse' until a friend wrote a glowing review about it on Facebook. I generally don't watch television, but if there is something good to watch, then I will invariably have in run on my computer whilst I'm drawing, or building a model. If its good then I gradually lose interest in what I'm doing as my eyes get drawn to the screen. 'The Expanse' was certainly good enough to attract my attention, and last night, I even found myself breaking my diet with a bowl of crisps (thats potato chips for any non UK readers) and a mug of coffee.
In the past, I have not been very impressed by syfy channel productions, but with 'The Expanse' I think they managed to get around their budget constraints admirably. The space craft were quite good, with a lot of nice attention to detail. There were (quite) a few things I thought they got wrong, (dedicated space warships in the 23rd century, Mars being a power comparable to Earth, too many guns firing without reaction in zero-g) but on the whole I liked it a lot, much more than the Battlestar Galactica remake. I hope they make a season two.
When I watch science fiction of this kind, my main interest is the space craft, and how they have been designed. These days, all science fiction entertainment is determined by conceptual artists prior to model making, whether it be physical models or CGI. When you know what to look for, you start to see trends developing amongst the concept artists and this can be both good and bad. In 'The Expanse', the concept artists seem to have been inspired by a certain look that I associate with the old game 'Homeworld', which I used to play on my PC in the days before I started playing 'EVE Online'. I really liked this style of spaceship design as it strikes me as being more realistic than the fighter jet / sports car styles one sees in movies like Star Wars. The only thing I didn't like about the ships on 'The Expanse' were the interiors which despite everything looked like nothing but cheap television studio sets. Thats okay I guess, you can't have everything.