Season 5 of The Expanse aired its last episode on February 3rd, 2021, with its most compelling narrative arc so far, which is hardly surprising since it portrayed the events of Nemesis Games, one of the best books in this amazing series. As I was looking for some cast interviews and discussions on the recently concluded season, I stumbled on the information for this podcast, hosted by Ty Franck (who together with Daniel Abraham gave life to the authorial duo of James S.A. Corey) and Wes Chatam (the actor who plays Amos Burton on the screen). The second half of the podcast’s name comes from a remarkable “Amos Moment” in Season 3, the famous line: “I am that guy” – one of my favorite scenes, indeed…
The podcast is a sort of companion to the YouTube aftershow chats that went online once the single episodes aired on Amazon: I still have to watch the after shows, because I want to do a complete re-watch of Season 5, prior to writing my review, but the podcast looks like an interesting way of… filling the corners, so to speak, and learning something more about the genre at large.
In this first episode, the two hosts talk about the way the 1979 movie Alien inspired the creators of The Expanse: it was a fascinating listening experience because of the parallels between the two worlds, certainly, but also because it helped me to look at both The Expanse and Alien from angles I had never considered before. For example, both aboard the Nostromo and in the Belt you can forget the glitzy atmospheres of many SF backgrounds, like Trek’s: Alien’s ship and the Belter settlements are working environments, often cramped, dark, dirty, and the people living in them are not dashing, well-dressed officers doing heroic deeds, but ordinary persons doing their job and working hard for their wages.
While talking about Ridley Scott’s seminal movie, Franck and Chatam explore The Expanse’s themes and characters starting from Season 1, and I was surprised and delighted by the fascinating details that came out of the chat: both of them are fun, charming people and listening to them was a joy. If you are a fan of The Expanse – both the books and the TV series – I can heartily recommend this podcast: it will turn out to be time well spent 🙂
If you are interested, here are the links:
Enjoy!
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