‘The Expanse’ Disperses Its Protagonists In A Season 5 That Continues To Consecrate The Amazon Series As An Essential Title
‘ The Expanse ‘ returns to Amazon Prime with the first three episodes of season 5 (and penultimate). On this occasion, the platform has decided to make a weekly premiere, so the superb science fiction series will accompany us every Wednesday until February 2021, completing the ten episodes that make up this batch.
Some new episodes that begin with the “band of the Rocinante” dispersed, each one by his side. A conscious decision that gives us an idea of how expansive this new stage proposes to be. On the one hand, with the previous threat neutralized, it is time to be more reflective, to go deeper into the material and personal consequences of everything we have experienced up to now. And, yes, it is also time to “relax”, as Holden (Steven Strait) well put it at one point.
It is not that they have forgotten the above, in ‘Cibola Burn’ (4×10) we saw the great plan of Marco Inaros (Keon Alexander) to direct asteroids towards Earth as bullets of mass destruction , but you know that the scriptwriters they like more to put those plots in the background, to explore other elements before the situation ends up exploding. Which he will, of course but I don’t want to get into spoilers right now.
Universal And Personal Ramifications
And from that moment on, that plot will cease to be somewhat in the background but will continue to be one of the half dozen that are being managed by the team of scriptwriters led by Daniel Abraham, Ty Franck and Naren Shankar (the first two, authors of the books) in his effort to do a work of universal scope and ramifications, literally.
Thus the season begins in a time of rest . While the Roci is in deep repair, a laid-back Holden enjoys a break at the Tycho when Monica (Anna Hopkins), the journalist we saw in season 3, informs him that she is researching the protomolecule and has evidence. that there are those who are looking for it.
The rest of the crew is on their own journey, as internal as it is literal , of reconciliation and work on past and unfinished business. Naomi (Dominique Tipper), meanwhile, has left Tycho determined to find (and reconcile) with her estranged son; Alex (Cas Anvar) is also trying to resume the relationship with the family heading to Mars and Amos (Wes Chatham) lands on Earth for the same.
Of these three plots, it is perhaps Alex’s the one that may interest us the most when Bobbie Draper (Frankie Adams), who investigates a network of illegal trafficking of Martian weapons and technology that seems to involve the highest levels of power, breaks into it. Investigation sponsored, by the way, by an Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo), who tries to make a new life after losing re-election in season 4.
A Lucky Diaspora
One of the milestones of this season 5 is the ability of the writers to keep the protagonists away, each with their “shit to solve” and make one not feel that any of these plots is more loose or over. Yes it is true that there is always one less relevant than another. Here it looks like Amos has that role but being practically the “proxy” of the viewer, interest does not suffer.
This is so because, in at least the five episodes that I have been able to see, it provides a great astronomical insight (literally) of what is happening . It is true that this beginning can be a bit disorienting because between the fact that so many things happen in each season and that a year has passed since the previous one, as long as you do not have it refreshed through the typical previously or summary of several minutes.
But once in business, the series is a space drug of the highest level. The good filming of fiction is noticeable at this point and once that first introductory episode is over, interplanetary intrigues take us by the hand and, without knowing how, we devour the series . This weekly broadcast will be worth it if I hadn’t assured you that it was marathon meat.
Beyond the geopolitical fabric, what makes this season special is its interest in exploring the characters further. The apparent chicha calm that reigns in the solar system (and beyond) is used to work more on them. The work in balancing this with the general plot of the series is commendable, achieving a season that continues to establish the series as an essential of the genre .
