Weekend Reads (Jan 22): An “Expanse” Extravaganza, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” Weird Al, Wordle
Recommended weekend reading material for January 22, 2022.
Every week, I compile a list of interesting and thought-provoking articles to offer you some enjoyable weekend reading material.
The Expanse wrapped up this past week, bringing to an end six seasons of some of the best sci-fi TV that I’ve ever watched. The show had all you could possibly want — colorful characters, detailed world-building, complex politics, thrilling space battles — and we’re definitely going to miss it. So to celebrate/mourn The Expanse’s conclusion, I’m dedicating the first half of this week’s newsletter to it.
Cheryl Eddy compiles everything that was great about the show’s final season (and a few things that weren’t so great about it). For example, the excellent performances, and especially Cara Gee as Camina Drummer:
My pick for season-six MVP is Cara Gee as Drummer — even while battling immense personal loss and a major existential crisis, she’s as fierce on the battlefield as she is at the negotiating table. But overall, everyone was excellent (from the subtle work of Steven Strait as Holden to the over-the-top swagger of Keon Alexander as Marco) — and the chemistry, especially between the veteran cast members, has never been better.
Michael Ahr lists some Easter eggs that pop up in The Expanse’s final episodes.
The inclusion of these great protagonists from science fiction classics feels somehow appropriate for a series finale, even though many of the soldiers who carry their names don’t make it. It’s as though The Expanse has rallied the best of the best to defeat the final villain of the series in spectacular, sacrificial fashion. As this beloved show joins the pantheon of space greats, the heroes of the past welcome our favorite Earthers, Martians, and Belters into the hall of fame. They will be gone but certainly not forgotten!
Given that the season was a measly six episodes long, and that there are still three books that remain unadapted, The Expanse left a lot of questions unanswered.
While they may instill a sense of dissatisfaction for some, The Expanse’s open-ended threads are entirely intentional, as the TV series adapted only six of its source material’s nine novels. With so much more story to tell, The Expanse’s finale more fittingly serves as a pause in the narrative than a definitive closure.
However, argues Ryan Britt, don’t expect a seventh season any time soon.
At a glance, The Expanse series finale gives the tumultuous series — sometimes labeled “Game of Thrones in space” — what appears to be a happy ending. Since the beginning, it was unclear how the show would manage to adapt the majority of the books, and after the series was canceled by the SyFy Channel following Season 3, it felt like there was no waythat the show would continue at all. After Amazon picked up the series for Season 4, the show gained a second life, and now with the conclusion of Season 6, it gives longtime fans a pretty clear and conclusive ending with very few strings dangling.
I’ve shared this before a couple of times, but allow me to reiterate my heartfelt belief that The Expanse remains one of TV’s best sci-fi series.
The Expanse never forgets to remind us that humans don’t really belong in space. Or rather, that we must take great precautions should we plan to venture out among the stars and planets. Precautions not only in terms of utilizing the proper equipment and vehicles necessary to survive and travel in a completely hostile environment, but also, in recognizing that the vastness of space contains wonders and dangers that can either help us thrive or spell our species’ doom.
In The Expanse, outer space is more than just an excuse to show off cool-looking spaceships locked in fiery battle. It ultimately becomes a mirror of human nature, of both our inventiveness and ambition, our compassion and prejudice, and our sense of wonder and sense of entitlement.
Click here to see all of my Expanse-related posts on Opus.
Another show that we recently bid farewell to here at Opus HQ was Brooklyn Nine-Nine, though our reaction to its final season was considerably more cool. Given the current dialog in our nation concerning police brutality, the show had no choice but to retool itself — but in the process, it might have lost something.
The uneven final season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine continues this week with two episodes that feel like by-the-numbers installments that do little to dramatically improve the feeling that Season 8 has been a disappointment. By trying to serve two masters — responsibly telling stories about policing in a post-George Floyd world while also telling silly detective stories — Brooklyn Nine-Nine has given viewers tonal whiplash.
That being said, the series finale — which we finally watched earlier this week — did recapture some of the zany, manic energy that often felt missing (and understandably so) from the final season.
Back in December, I posted my picks for the movies that I’m most excited to see in 2022. However, a new movie has just shot to the top of that list: a Weird Al biopic starring Daniel Radcliffe.
According to The Roku Channel, the streaming service has made a deal with Funny Or Die and Tango for a biopic titled “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.” The film, as the title suggests, is expected to follow the life and career of the comedian/musician as he rose to prominence in the ‘80s and, well, never really went away. The film will star Daniel Radcliffe as Weird Al and will be written and directed by Eric Appel, a veteran TV director who also helmed the Funny or Die short that inspired this film.
Polygon continues with their 2022 pop culture forecast with a list of their picks for 2022’s biggest action movies from around the world. There’s a lot to be excited about, but I’m particularly eager to see Everything Everywhere All at Once, Kowloon Walled City, and The Northman.
Related: The aforementioned Polygon article was written by Alex Rallo, whose @HeadExposure Twitter account is a goldmine for action movie fans. He’s constantly posting incredible clips from modern blockbusters as well as decades-old classics (including a lot of gems from Hong Kong’s glory days).
In a huge announcement for the video game industry, Microsoft is purchasing Activision Blizzard for nearly $70 billion.
Announced on Xbox Wire, the deal means Xbox will soon own the likes of Call of Duty, Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, and much more. CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer announced that all Activision Blizzard companies would report to him after the deal is closed.
Activision Blizzard has been embroiled in controversy over the last few months, stemming from a lawsuit over sexual harassment that resulted in employee walkouts and numerous firings — and it’s still not over yet.
Speaking of video games, your social media newsfeeds are probably dominated by people posting their Wordle scores. K. B. Hoyle explains why she’s become obsessed (in a good way) with the game.
It’s a rare thing to be able to share something like this with all these strangers on the other side of my screen, strangers who are also somehow my friends. And what makes Wordle unique as a shared experience is that we are all sharing the same thing together every day—the same puzzle, the same word, the same exact game play.
Related: John Gruber covers the various Wordle clones that have popped up in the App store, and the difference between remixes and rip-offs.
From the Blog
One movie that’s been in my queue for awhile was 2025: The World Enslaved by a Virus, a pandemic-themed thriller about German Christians being persecuted by a one-world government. I finally watched it this past week, and it was exactly what I expected.
I can’t really slag 2025: The World Enslaved by a Virus as much as you might think, or as much as others have. Make no mistake: 2025 is not a good movie. Setting aside the movie’s entire concept, it’s poorly made and filled with thinly drawn characters, awkward performances, stilted dialog, and incoherent editing. If you told me that Joshua and Simon Wesely shot 2025 in a single weekend with friends, significant others, and family members as their cast and crew, and just made everything up as they went along, that would not surprise me. At all.
Believe it or not, though, 2025: The World Enslaved by a Virus was not the worst movie that I watched this week. That particular “honor” goes to Max Reload and the Nether Blasters.
I’m not sure what I was expecting from a movie titled Max Reload and the Nether Blasters, to be honest. Probably something along the lines of a lower budget Stranger Things, what with the ’80s pop culture nostalgia. Or maybe a scrappy low-budget gem like Turbo Kid, where its corny premise and production limitations turn out to be charming strengths. In any case, I was not expecting a movie that I finished solely out of sheer spite, lest it could claim that it had defeated me.
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