Like Mr. Robot, also a nerd-oriented NBC/Universal project, the Thomas Jane-starring adaptation of Leviathan Wakes "The Expanse" is streaming the pilot a few weeks ahead of the actual airdate, i.e. now.
http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/syfy...it-1201632393/

Trailer:


Pilot:


The source material here is a 5+ book series by James S. A. Corey, which is a penname for a two man writing team that includes George RR Martin's former assistant, and in the books at least there's a real echo of the pacing of the earlier GRRM books in terms of cliffhanger/plot expansion/cliffhanger and one chapter per viewpoint.

You can see some of the same ideas in the casting of their respective shows, too.

1) One lead cast with an actual star.

2) Important supporting character is a guy from The Wire, in this case Chad Coleman.

3) Rest of cast mostly unknowns

4) Nudity

5) Way too many characters

Spoiler free impressions of the first episode are that it was very good, obviously right at the cutting edge of their budget. The casting is... very different than the books but I think it works well enough in the show.

Gonna need 2 threads

The pilot was very good

Love the books

Wow! I will watch this later tonight...can't wait. The books are my favorite sci-fi series of the last 20 years.

[x] hard as **** mike

will give it a go

Liked the books, look is much different from what I've imagined but since the story is good, should still be good TV, too.

I liked the pilot. Definitely in for this.

Loved the (audio)books but unfortunately couldn't get through the last one as they got in a new narrator, who was truly awful.

It's a damn shame that there are no other media the book is available in so you can finish the story.

It seems that I'm one of the few people that was kindof dissapointed by the first episode, but that is probably because I had insanely high expectations of it.

Turned it off after 30 minutes.

Like a poor Minority Report (TV series version) and that is saying something.

Really excited for this. I finished Leviathan Wakes and enjoyed the story quite a bit despite all of its flaws... which I'm hoping the show improves on.

Surprised to hear that there's "too many characters" because I thought Leviathan Wakes didn't have nearly enough.

There is an important character introduced in this episode who did not appear in Leviathan Wakes, but just generally books are a lot easier to keep track of as a reader than it is for a show watcher, and I don't think the show did a great job with it. Caveat, though, apparently they are going back-to-back like Better Call Saul so true TV watchers will get the first and second episodes together without a week in between to forget ****, so that should help.


But just watching it and pretending I never read the books, I think the opening scene was very poorly done. I don't think a cold viewer has any idea what was going on with that scene or what happened at the end of it.

This seems right up my alley, should I be reading the books first though?

If you're asking if the books are worth reading, then deefinitely - the first is really strong. If you're asking about being spoiled, can't help you on that: not touching this series until it's released enough episodes to binge... If you are a scifi fan, it's worth picking up.

Yeah was wondering if the books were worth reading, not really worried about being spoiled for the series.

Great premier episode! Sets up the main characters nicely. I was a little concerned that the the actor playing Holden was too young and good-looking, but he seems to be okay. Fantastic production design - the zero gravity looks great.

And for those of you haven't read the books, do so. Seriously great space opera. Well-written, too.

I'm really looking forward to this.

I have also added the books onto my reading list which just keeps increasing. I think I will push a few back and go with this series as it is completely different.

This has Firefly vibes all over it.

This

and this
have me very excited.

I loved the books, but for whatever reason was extremely sceptical of this project. I'm going to try and keep my expectations low, but hope that this can turn out great.

Never got round to reading the books.

Finally made time and watched the pilot and it was pretty awesome. I have no real criticism whatsoever. I wouldn't claim to have a strong idea wtf is happening but I didn't really expect to at this point. However they are doing a strong job introducing the various parts of this intricate complex world and it's associated history in a way most shows completely miss.

If I had to stretch to criticism I don't really see what the smaller introductions added to the pilot, the UN torturing a guy is a cool twist but it maybe too away time from the space station and the ice ship which maybe needed it more, but it's basically a tiny nitpick.

Love sci fi that doesn't leave behind the sci. So that turn and burn scene was ****ing awesome and the little touches about low grav in the station are great. The bird was especially good in the show, just a tiny little touch the show didn't need but it added so much value to just getting what is going on. Also for the space ship zero grav if that was wire work and cgi and not a super expensive vomit comet it was really well done. The cgi in general was movie quality, the level of detail on the ice ship was huge.

Haha. Im a fan of scifi audiobooks to wind down at night and can highly recommend the Expanse ones. The narrator Jeffeson Mays is really good with different voices and pace. The 4th is unspeakably bad. This is partly because all the characters sound totally different to the previous 30 hours listening and partly because hes just so slow and monotonous its impossible to get into.

http://www.audible.co.uk/series?asin=B00PBA7AG6

I didnt even know the 5th book was out till I searched audible just now, and looks like they got JM back in to do it. I will actually have to read the 4th with my eyes now.

That's one thing the books do very well - the hard science. Usually, you get sci-fi that's either great story and characters and weak on science (Star Wars), or the other way around (some Asimov). The Expanse books are both.

Lockstep has been on my to read list since its release because of its hard science and for concept alone deserves a look if you're into that.

The author managed to imagine a civilisation that has an empire with the span of star trek covering tens of thousands of world's with no faster than light travel or sub space communication or anything fuzzy like that. Basically using stasis to put everyone, literally everyone on all these world's, to sleep for thirty years, then wake for a month, then another sleep cycle and so on. A real time thousand year round journey in a ship in real time will take less than three years due to the lockstep.

It's ****ing genius.