'The Expanse' Season 5 Review: Slow and thorough, sci-fi drama centers around characters' sins of the past
This review is spoiler-free
'The Expanse' might have released its penultimate season, but has pulled out all stops in the three episodes that are being reviewed. The 10-part season will drop with three episodes on December 16, 2020, and follows it up by releasing an episode each week running up to February 3, 2021. For those familiar with the books, the series draws heavily from books 5 and 6 titled the 'Nemesis Games' and 'Babylon's Ashes' respectively.
The books see the crew of the Rocinante struggle as ships around them start vanishing, while private armies are being created in secret. The sixth book follows the events after a horde of belters in black market military ships had dented Earth and have opened the floodgates to a ravaging violent campaign among outer surrounding planets. Picking up right where it ended, Season 5 follows the crew's different missions and more along the lines of how the members are facing the after-effects of the sins from their past.
It's a lot to take as each episode clocking close to an hour weaves in multiple plotlines. The season opener sees Naomi Nagata (Dominique Tipper) following an important lead to connect with an estranged son, Felip Inaros (Jasai Chase Owens) after he and his henchmen kill a science ship crew orbiting around Venus. However, this is a job she needs to do alone as she bluntly refuses Holden's (Steven Strait) help to find Felip. Speaking of Holden, his past with unshackling the protomolecule confronts him.
Bobbie Draper (Frankie Adams) has a mission of her own and helping her is Alex Kamal (Cas Anvar), but not before he tries repairing his relationship with wife Talissa (Supinder Wraich) and his son. Amos Burton, with his real name now revealed, is in Baltimore to take care of some unfinished business. The team has had its work cut out. Holden attempts to convince Fred Johnson (Chad L Coleman) to destroy the last piece of protomolecule while Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo) is strongly convinced that Marco Inaros (Keon Alexander) was behind the science ship attack and is bent on finding him.
For 'The Expanse' ardent fans, these three episodes set the tone for a season that will see a heavy dose of drama, perhaps splintered relationships and casualties. The series has always prided itself on ensuring attention to detail and a thorough narrative, and it maintains the same template chugging at a moderate pace. Much of these episodes serve as a buildup to changing the lives of the characters. While there are promos of the episodes that have led to speculations and multiple theories, these opening episodes put them to rest with a solid backstory that was given in piecemeal so far.
Quite simply, the return of 'The Expanse' means looking forward to a space drama that has built a niche for itself as a show that clubs hard science and mankind's psyche in the near future, which at some point sounds like, "This could actually be true." With one more season to go, the sci-fi series slowly, but steadily preparing to go all out to lay the groundwork for an explosive sixth season.
'The Expanse' Season 5 premieres with three episodes on December 16 on Amazon Prime Video.
