I was enjoying The Expanse until the Marco Inaros arc started. From that point onwards the show felt rushed, mostly repeating the formula of so many other shows, and sidestepped all the alien bits that could have been interesting.

I much preferred BSG, even though it had plenty of boring "west wing in space" episodes.

> boring "west wing in space" episodes.

I thought the political episodes were some of the most interesting ones. I love how Apollo grew up to challenge the attempted coup and ultimately became President as the series wound down. Also loved Richard Hatch's Tom Zarek character and the religious cult formed around Gaius Baltar.

All in all, I really enjoy all the moral greys in the series.

It’s unfortunate since it all ties together at the end and hints at more, which you can read about in the books.

BSG could’ve easily been two seasons, the filler was mediocre and IIRC the part on the planet was just bad. I’ve enjoyed it all in all, though.

One major problem with The Expanse is that none of the alien influences were investigated in any detail. They really just served as plot devices.

That is rather of of how I think the books as well. Alien space magic exists. Every once and a while a researcher discovers some mini Cthulhu, how do the humans respond?

It is a book about human drama. If you lean too heavily on space magic, the human component becomes uninteresting because there can always be some unknowable deus ex machina that flips the world on its head.

The last three books provide exactly that. We'll probably never see them on the screen, but the source material is there.

"The Grandmothers?"

The plot just falls apart.

You can argue it never made sense in the first place before the big reveal.

That didn't stop me from enjoying it.

I imagine this is how contact with abandoned alien technology would play out. Chances are it’s totally incomprehensible to humans and if you are unlucky enough to turn it on, it’ll bite you in unpredictable ways.

Think Dave Bowman activating Big Brother.

They aren't in competition, both the expanse and the new Battlestar were excellent sci fi shows. I wish they would make more shows like this.