
[Warning: General spoilers ahead.]
A long time ago, in a land not far away (hee), Syfy (then Sci-Fi) was well-known for its December event programming. The gold standard for me on that will always be 2002’s 20-hour mini-series Taken. For a lot of people, it was the Battlestar Galactica reboot miniseries that preceded the relaunch of a traditional series. Last year. Syfy dipped a toe in with Ascension (which had a mega unresolved cliffhanger). This year, they’re throwing down a gauntlet with two events–The Expanse, which is ten hours over nine weeks, and Childhood’s End, which is six hours over three nights. They both kick off Monday night. First up, let’s introduce you to The Expanse. We’ll cover the second series separately.
Here’s what you need to know: The Expanse is set two hundred years in the future, after mankind has colonized the solar system. A hardened detective (Thomas Jane) and a rogue ship’s captain played by Magic City‘s Steven Strait come together for what starts as the case of a missing young woman and evolves into a race across the solar system that will expose the greatest conspiracy in human history. Shohreh Aghdashloo (House of Sand and Fog) portrays Chrisjen Avasarala, a powerful member of a political family dynasty.



Also look for Dominique Tipper (Vampire Academy), Cas Anvar (Olympus), Wes Chatham (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay),  Florence Faivre (The Following), Being Human‘s Kristen Hager, Bitten‘s Greg Bryk, Orphan Black‘s Kevin Hanchard, Covert Affairs‘ Rossif Sutherland and Shawn Doyle (maybe–he mentioned the show in our interview last year but isn’t in the credit list anymore…), Paulo Costanzo (Royal Pains), Jane Moffatt (Alphas), and Jay Hernandez (Suicide Squad) to recur throughout the season.
TV Goodness had the chance to chat with Anvar, who plays Alex Kamal, at the Television Critics Association event last summer. Here’s what he had to say about the role, and the series.
[When] we start the series, Earth and Mars and the Belters, those are the colonies in the Asteroid Belt, are starting to grumble. There’s a lot of tension in there. The Belters [who] live in the Asteroid Belt [are] the most discontented group because they [are] the working class of the solar system. They are the blue collar. They are the people who are out there mining. They don’t have a planet. They don’t ever have gravity. They don’t get atmosphere. They don’t get sunlight. They are lucky if they ever get out of their spacesuits.
They spend their entire life in low-gravity or zero gravity so their bones and their bodies don’t even grow properly. They’re long and skinny, and their muscles can’t even survive on Earth. They’re too weak, their bones is too brittle because gravity is a major part of forming a strong, healthy body. So…they’re disenfranchised.
[Mars] has become this powerful force. Their technology has gone very high. They become an incredible military presence because…their mission was to populate Mars, terraform it, turn it into another habitable planet with an atmosphere and with water. [They] had to focus all of their minds onto one objective, and they all became this unified mindset force so they were [a] very disciplined, organized, selfless kind of population that have become incredibly powerful, and [my character] Alex is a Martian so he comes from that background.
Mars is…like the United States in the sense that they broke away from the main planet, and then they became a powerful super-power unto themselves, and then they wanted to secede and have their independence, and Earth wasn’t really keen on letting them go but it did. It’s kind of like America and Britain.
Earth has become one country in this universe governed by the United Nations, and our wonderful Chrisjen Avasarala…the undersecretary of the United Nations [and] one of the highest-ranking people there. She’s basically our female lead that handles all of the Earth storyline.
Thomas Jane [plays] an old-school film noir kind of gumshoe detective, and he’s on a quest to locate this missing girl. This quest soon becomes kind of a fanatical passion for him because we slowly start to learn that this missing young woman is the…hub of this conspiracy that has seemingly developing trying to start some sort of war, and nobody really knows what it is. So he’s trying to find her.
I’m on a crew on an ice hauler…the future version of the most dangerous catch or an oil rig worker. [We are] a bunch of damaged people who want to make a lot of money and don’t have any families…any lives…just want to go and work their assess off and forget about the world.
We haul ice from the Asteroid Belt to the planets back and forth making money, and we’re an independent contractor, and everyone on that ship has some sort of secret, some sort of mystery, some sort of thing they’re running from and hiding from and that’s why they’re there. So we get caught up in this conspiracy when this war is starting, and we get blamed for it, and then we end up running for our lives, and that’s how the whole show starts is with these three separate storylines that end up converging as the series goes on, and when they get closer and closer to see all of us coming together, that’s when the fun really starts.”
The show intentionally light on the CGI and fantastical elements, and leans toward a more practical representation of technology. Anwar explains:
There is no fantastic kind of conceit in the show. We don’t have artificial gravity. We don’t have fast inter-light travel. It is really what it would be like for Earth to start the trip to colonize space, just like…the whole Mars One mission that’s happening. [There’s no] beaming up. No beaming up, no laser beams. You can’t even shoot guns because it’s like shooting a gun in a submarine. You’re in an airtight container that is solid steel that is pressurized. Any missile you fire A, is going to ricochet and possibly kill you, and B, if you’re in zero-gravity and you fire something, the recoil from that is going to send you shooting into the wall. So there’s all sorts of scientific logistics [to consider]. It’s a very, very realistic show. It’s very-high tech.





The Expanse begins Monday at 10/9c on Syfy. The first hour, “Dulcinea,” sets up all the characters and then unleashes a gotcha that frames the rest of the series. You can watch it online and on VOD now. Episode two airs Tuesday night at 10/9c, and then the series falls into its normal Tuesday timeslot of 10/9c for the remaining eight episodes.
Here’s a sneak peek of what to expect, plus the pilot:
Heather M
Related posts
Classics
Dennis Heaton Talks The Imperfects
Longtime readers at TV Goodness will know that Motive is one of my ride-or-die series, and as such, I am fiercely loyal to its creator, Dennis Heaton. He followed up that fantastic reverse procedural with Netflix’s The Order and is back on our streaming screens with The Imperfects, which dropped…
Kelly McCormack Talks Favorite Moments in A League of Their Own
[Warning: Mild spoilers for season 1.] Now that you’ve had a chance to watch A League of Their Own, here’s the rest of my chat with Kelly McCormack about her favorite moments of the season. Seeing the iconic Peaches uniforms for the first time wasn’t just a goosebump moment for…
John Griffin and Harold Perrineau Talk From on EPIX Season 1 Finale
[Warning: General spoilers ahead.] How are we doing, #FROMily? In case you missed it this morning, the very good news is that that cliffhanger will be followed by a second season, which was gifted this morning ahead of the linear broadcast of the finale. I always legitimately appreciate when we…
Elizabeth Saunders Talks EPIX’s From
[Warning: General spoilers ahead.] One of the things that makes EPIX’s From such a fun ride is the abundance of Canadian cast members. Elizabeth Saunders, who plays Donna, is a favorite from her turn on the third season of Mary Kills People [streaming on Global TV in Canada and Roku…
Corteon Moore Talks From “Broken Windows, Open Doors”
[Warning: Spoilers for tonight’s episode.] Tonight’s episode of From had us all in our feels as we learned through flashbacks about the Sophie’s Choice Boyd had to make to save his son, and back in the present as Boyd said his piece with Ellis before heading into the woods with…
Pegah Ghafoori Talks From “All Good Things…”
[Warning: Spoilers for tonight’s episode] Tonight on From, Fatima’s anniversary celebration turned into a Colony House of horrors when a misguided Kevin let his monster bae in and she promptly killed him and left the window open for her crew. While the party devolved into terror and sent everyone running,…
Shaun Majumder Talks From “Book 74”
[Warning: Spoilers for tonight’s episode.] Tonight on EPIX’s From, Father Khatri made a bold move, kidnapping Sara instead of turning her in, and then recognizing her as a vessel for some big messages. That startling realization speaks to him on multiple levels–as a man of faith, a man trapped in…
Avery Konrad Talks About Sara’s Struggle in From “Silhouettes”
[Warning: Spoilers for tonight’s episode.] Over the course of the season so far on From, we’ve witnessed Sara’s battle against the voices telling her to to do terrible things, and tonight we saw her unravel further, threatening the Matthews and lashing out in a moment of terror with horrifying results….
Hannah Cheramy Talks From “Choosing Day”
[Warning: Spoilers for tonight’s episode.] Tonight, on EPIX’s From, the Matthews participate in the show’s version of the sorting hat, choosing where to call home–the town or Colony House. At the end of the episode, Julie makes the decision to split from her family and instead settle in with Fatima…
Ricky He Talks From “The Way Things Are Now”
[Warning: Spoilers for episode 102 of EPIX’s From.] Epix’s new series From is two episodes in and it’s already laying the groundwork for a seriously spooky season. Tonight’s episode demonstrated the careful balance of relief and horror that the show hits, with our characters’ worst fears realized, just not when…
What They Said: Three Revealing Conversations from Survivor’s Remorse “Closure”
WARNING: Spoilers for Survivor’s Remorse “Closure” The latest episode of Starz’s Survivor’s Remorse featured conversations that showed characters really digging deep into their thoughts, emotions and motivations.
Two Takes: The Catch “The Knock-Off”
Who can you trust? If this episode of The Catch was any indication, the answer is just about nobody. Betrayal was running rampant as Felicity (Shivani Ghai) arose from the dead to seduce-con Margot, Gretchen (Maria Thayer, Gotham, The Mindy Project) played gold-hearted Alice 2.0 before swindling Ethan, Tessa jumped…
What They Said: Top 3 Quotable Moments from Preacher “El Valero”
Both Quincannon and Jesse refuse to give up on what they each think is rightfully theirs. While Jesse is struggling to face the consequences of his actions, Quincannon has laid his past demons to rest and is hellbent on moving forward and putting Annville on the map again. Despite a…
What They Said: Favorite Quotes from Supergirl “Worlds Finest”
Oh, Supergirl. That ending was cold. But I can’t hate on you because the latest episode has quickly become one of my favorites.
What They Said: Top 4 Quotable Moments from Black Sails “XXIII”
The dialogue in “XXIII” is phenomenal. It’s always a fun ride when Black Sails carries its viewers along without giving them the chance to catch their breath. When an episode moves at this unforgiving pace, there is no chance for a breather nor is there a respite from the information…
What Lucifer Said: Favorite quotes from Supernatural “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”
Supernatural episodes are almost always funny but thanks to the dialogue and a certain man speaking said dialogue, I laughed a lot during “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” You know, when I wasn’t busy fearing for Sam’s life or wondering what in the world was going on with Dean and…
What They Said: The Flash, “Legends Of Today” and Arrow, “Legends Of Yesterday”
Two nights of Arrow + The Flash = what more could we ask for?! I don’t know what it is about blending these shows, but I can’t help but feel that every time they come together, they somehow become greater than the sum of their parts. And that’s saying a lot…
What they Said: Top 4 Quotable Moments from Graceland “Little Bo Bleep”
Shoot outs. Fake outs. And long-awaited revelations. “Little Bo Bleep” was a jam-packed episode that wrapped up some loose ends and totally frayed others. Â It finally gave us one Sarkissian in jail and pulled back the curtain on Briggs’ master plan, but it also set up Jakes for a world…
What They Said: Favorite Quotes from Poldark “Part 4”
“What have I told you, I don’t require my wife to crochet and sip tea, but I do require her to remember she’s not a beast of burden.†No, I’m not talking about The Rolling Stones! I have to admit though, just for a second, the lyrics popped into my…
3 Moments of Goodness from Brooklyn Nine-Nine “Johnny and Dora”
The most satisfying part of this season’s finale has to the Jake and Amy kiss. Well, they kiss three times but the last one is the best one — and it means something. The Charles and Rosa dynamic was also great. I love how she’s convinced he doesn’t know anything…