Huh, I’m completely opposite of you on this. I just finished Nemesis Games and it may be my favorite of the series (though Caliban’s War is pretty damned awesome).
I mean, the only reason the show wasn’t cancelled was because Jeff Bezos personally liked it so much he had Amazon buy it and show it on prime, so I say they earned the right to keep it.
It got cancelled on a massive cliff hanger though, kinda cruel to get people hooked on it at this point.
I’ve got to disagree. Dark Matter had nowhere near the acting, storytelling, production values and epic sweep of The Expanse. To be honest, it kind of felt like a cheap ‘Firefly’ knockoff, with a plucky band of space criminals fighting a corrupt system.
Don’t get me wrong - I liked the show well enough, but it’s just not in the same league, IMO.
Dark Matter was good, but not on the same level as the Expanse. I was still sad when it got cancelled though.
I’ve begun watching this because of this thread. I’m 1/3 through the second season. Some reactions:
—Great production values for a TV series. It seems like there’s an unending number of physical sets and huge digital creations.
—The cold, desaturated colors are a drag. Jeez, if I was setting up colonies in space I’d make sure they had some full spectrum lights.
—The writing isn’t dumb or cringe-worthy. That’s huge. It puts the show ahead of most series and let’s me watch without swearing at the characters or creators.
—The characters and plot, unfortunately, aren’t very interesting. I’m watching to see what happens, and I generally want the featured characters to win, but nobody is fascinating or charismatic.
Overall, the lack of stupidity makes this bingeable, and it’s got some strong visuals.
I binge-watched series 1-4 in December/early January. I found the political thriller aspect of the first two seasons pretty gripping. By season 4 it started suffering a bit from “Ensemble Cast Syndrome” where you have more and more characters competing for a fixed amount of screen time. I felt particularly bad for the actor playing Alex the pilot. I also felt a little embarrassed for David Strathairn whose job seemed to involve standing around trying not to sound too much like Jar Jar Binks.