December Talking Meme: The Expanse

dirty_diana requested that I talk about The Expanse.

The Expanse is such an interesting show-watching experience for me because it's got the trappings of things that make me fannish (spaceships, worldbuilding, found families from motley crews, lots of different groups of people who end up crossing paths, etc.) and yet I do not feel fannish about it at all. I admire it greatly; I super, super enjoy watching it; I think it's one of the best shows currently airing; I recommend it to everyone I know who can tolerate scifi. But it does not inspire the fannish squeal of delight in my soul that many lesser, messier shows do. And I cannot figure out why!

Maybe I feel a bit of a distance from the characters? Again, I appreciate them so much--well, I don't really appreciate Holden, but I do most of the other characters. Chrisjen, in particular, is one of the best TV characters I've ever seen. So why do I have zero desire to read/write fic about any of them? I love watching them onscreen, but they take up little space in my brain when I'm not actively thinking about the show.

Is it so good that it's emotionally alienating to me in some weird way? Am I so busy being pleased with the plotting that I don't have emotions left over? I'm not used to watching a show where I feel like I'm mostly into it for the plotting--most of my favorite shows have been much weaker on plot than they are on character or mood or relationships or whatever.

I don't mean this post to be negative in any way. Like I said, it's a fantastic show and I enjoy watching it so much. But I have never latched onto it on an emotional level, and I remain baffled as to why.



I don't think I'm going to be watching S5 right now. My head is just in another place. I'm absolutely going to watch it at some point, but I think that will as part of a rewatch of the first 4 seasons. The show is so complex and has so much going on that I feel like I'm missing out on a lot by not doing a rewatch right before each season debuts.

That said: I want to support the show, so I will be logging into my dad's Prime account and letting the episodes play on mute while I do other things because I very much want Amazon to keep putting money into it. It's the literal least they can do.


I'm sorry dirty_diana__this was probably not at all what you wanted to read about when you requested this topic!