I'm really pissed off about this. It was a really good show, based on a good series of books. It's very rare to see <i>hard</i> sci-fi in television, much less one appealing to a wide audience. Also the VFX team deserves a shout out here, as they managed to keep almost all visual effects physically accurate, including sneaking in scientific details at points you wouldn't ordinarily notice (like things heating up far behind invisible drive plume, sparks moving correctly on a spinning station or inside a maneuvering ship, etc.).<p>From what I hear, the last hope is for Amazon to pick it up. Netflix apparently is not interested. If this show gets cancelled, this will be a <i>huge</i> blow to both sci-fi on TV, and efforts to keep people interested in realistic space exploration.
Such a shame if it dies. I love the realism of the show - just humans making life hard for other humans.<p>Worth noting the producers are trying to find someone else to pick up the show [0]<p>EDIT: There's quite the effort on the show's subreddit to rally fans to ping major players like Netflix (who've pulled out apparently) and Amazon Studios [1]. Join the fight :)<p>[0] <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/05/syfy-has-canceled-the-expanse-but-its-producers-want-to-find-it-a-new-home/" rel="nofollow">https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/05/syfy-has-canceled-the...</a><p>[1] <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/TheExpanse/comments/8iq1a0/renewal_megathread_earthers_martians_belters_we/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/TheExpanse/comments/8iq1a0/renewal_...</a>
Same news on other site [0] was posted last night but not upvoted (I believe).<p>Most important aspect, which is not discussed by the Hollywood reporter:<p><i>The cancellation decision by Syfy is said to be linked to the nature of its agreement for the series, which only gives the cable network first-run linear rights in the U.S. That puts an extraordinary amount of emphasis on live, linear viewing, which is inherently challenging for sci-fi/genre series that tend to draw the lion’s share of their audiences from digital/streaming</i><p>[0] <a href="http://deadline.com/2018/05/the-expanse-canceled-syfy-after-three-seasons-to-be-shopped-1202388026/" rel="nofollow">http://deadline.com/2018/05/the-expanse-canceled-syfy-after-...</a>
That's why I prefer watching short serials like Band of Brothers or just straight series like Columbo or Star Trek.<p>Nowadays everyone wants to grab your full attention so they produce serials. When you're finally hooked on the story thanks to the neverending thread mill of cliff hangers and further unresolved mysteries they drop the show and leave you hanging. Because numbers ain't right, they show the audience the middle finger. The audience is upset, but not enough to recognize a vicious cycle that hurt them previously many times.<p>That's one of the reasons I don't intend to watch the new Star Trek serial. Or will watch a serial after it is naturally finished.
Hopefully Netflix picks this up - especially when the new series of Lost in Space is just full of idiotic decisions to line up the next absurd episode, and Altered Carbon plods along at a snails pace and uses nudity to gloss over the dull bits.<p>The Expanse is the best sci-fi series on TV by far at the moment, especially due to it having a good plot, a sweary UN woman, and mostly obeys the laws of physics.<p>The Siffy channel is rubbish anyway. Netfix has more sci-fi to watch.
If you check out the show on Rotten Tomatos it has a tomato rating of 90% with an average audience score of 95%.<p>That seems really high to then cancel the show?<p>I'm guessing the problem is it is highly loved by a small group of individuals? But given Sci-Fi in general is a wide enough demographic for many other shows - it seems strange this is not drawing in the ratings?<p>[1] <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_expanse/" rel="nofollow">https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_expanse/</a>
Netflix has worldwide rights except USA. Amazon has US streaming rights. The production is done by Alcon entertainment who should either find another network or convince one of the two streaming giants to foot the bill.
I don't think it's not going to continue.
I like pretty much everything else about The Expanse, but honestly, the crew of the <i>Rocinante</i> are just... unsympathetic. Forgettable. They could basically be killed off and I wouldn't care. Seeing that they're (intentionally) a microcosm of the system at large, with better writing their interactions could meaningfully reflect and comment on the tensions between their homeworlds, while still making me care about them as individuals and, indeed, as a crew.<p>Crisjen Avarasala is pretty much the only interesting main character in the show.
Too bad, I really enjoyed how Shohreh Aghdashloo portrayed Avasarala, she made that character so much more interesting than it was in the books originally.
> Season two, which returned more than a year later with a significant marketing push and a solid lead-in, was down 24 percent among total viewers and averaged 457,000 total viewers. That compares more to similar returns for Syfy's inexpensive co-productions like Dark Matter and Killjoys, than to the cabler's original scripted series like The Magicians and Happy.<p>I'm a huge fan of both The Expanse and The Magicians, but if the above quote is true I can see where they're coming from. The Magicians is a far more accessible show than The Expanse, and if I have to decide where to stick marketing dollars I'm going to go with the show with the larger audience.<p>Also, although I love The Expanse, it is not nearly as compelling as BSG or Firefly. When BSG came out 14 years ago it was really a singular experience in terms of cable TV. I would say something like Westworld follows more in the footsteps of BSG than The Expanse. And Firefly tapped into the same energy as Guardians of the Galaxy but 15 years too early.<p>Overall, very sad but not surprised. At least the TV show got me reading the books...
love this show but it seems the commercial arrangements are a total mess with just about everyone having a small piece of it somewhere such that nobody made any money off it and nobody can give it up either. So nobody gets it after syfy predictably walked away.<p>Infuriating shame.
I'm actually not too cut up about this - I really enjoy the show, but I'm also starting to get tired of series that get run into the ground long after they should have been tied off and finished. If the third season has a decent ending, I'll be happy.
End of season 3 is a key decision point (the expanse in the expanse :)). Stop it there or finance another 6+ seasons. I really hate it, but it is the right point in time.
I have given up on TV shows. I imagine many others have too. I no longer bother to watch them until I know there is a completed story. Nothing worse than watching a show and it just ends on a cliff hanger never to be resolved because the show got canceled. I don't think production companies realize how much they hurt themselves in the long run, because they are too busy looking at short-term figures.
'The Expanse' went from really exciting in the first season to really boring in the second season. I watched the whole first season at once, but couldn't handle a single episode of the second season.
>> That limited the upside for the cable network, making live and linear viewership imperative.<p>I have no idea what all that means. Could someone please translate?
TL;DR: Obsolete distribution methods hamper creators. SyFy can't distribute the series through the Internet directly to viewers for some weird reason, and it prevents them from making a profit.<p>I don't quite get why they had to sign such weird contracts to begin with.