The Expanse: The Season-Long Procedural Goes to Outer Space The Expanse on SyFy, developed by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, based on a series of novels by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck (writing under the pseudonym James S.A. Corey), is a futuristic thriller. It uses technology as a frame, not the focus of story—so it is important to note the following conditions of the story universe for context: ✴The Solar System has been colonized by Mars and the Kepler Asteroid Belt. Certain moons of Saturn are being mined for Water. Water and Air are commodities that Earth has in bulk. Mars and the Belt must either negotiate with Earth or mine the belt, which is expensive… ✴People on Mars are called Martians. (Mars Independent). People living and working in the Belt are Belters. They live on Ceres—a dwarf moon base in the Belt. (By business proxy, Allied to Earth and the United Nations.) "1 ✴Earth people are called Earthers. (Earth is UN-controlled, under a New World Order.) THE CRIME(S): The show opens on the premise of a missing person (Julie Mao), the daughter of an Earther industrialist. At the same time the Canterbury, an ice mining ship, is attacked and destroyed by what appears to be a Martian warship. THE INVESTIGATORS: Josephus “Joe” Miller (Thomas Jane), a police detective on Ceres, hired to moonlight for the industrialist seeking his daughter, UN official Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo) and Jim Holden (Steven Strait), former XO of the Canterbury and what turns out to be the “A” story of the series. THE SUSPECTS: OPA (The Outer Planets Alliance—a militant Belter group), Mars Republic. HOW THE TRUTH COMES TO LIGHT: During the course of the first season we are led to believe that Julie Mao died a gruesome death. By the end we discover that she is part of a larger conspiracy to create a proto-bio creature/ "2 weapon. The pivot to Season 2 leads to further tensions between Mars and Earth with the Belters stuck in between. OPEN or CLOSED MYSTERY: It’s closed in a big way—“The Expanse” is a great title. As each mystery is semi-closed, it onion skins to a deeper layer of the Master Plot. THE SEASON-TO-SEASON PIVOT: There is an unseen power at work which is gaining strength. The proto-bio creature/weapon is slowly revealed and it uses humans as its foundation. The Expanse could be termed as a Dark Space Opera. Life is cheap in this universe; the show kills second-tier characters fairly easily if needed for the story. The setting is entirely plausible from a technological, social and political standpoint. The basic rules of the universe are grounded in reality. The bones of the political system are organic in evolution from present political structures as to be quickly identifiable to us. The macro-meta political thriller thread of this show is its strength. At its heart, this is a whodunit procedural: Who is behind the sci-fi horror creature and other shenanigans—and what are they getting out of this? The show offers just enough to keep us hooked. As writers, building "3 such an intricate, layered universe makes for satisfying viewing for the audience —there are always new and unexpected tangents to explore and discover. This is a grand political thriller, which happens to be set in space. "4.