I **** love this show. It's not perfect, but it's pretty damn close. As a huge fan of the Mass Effect series, this show spiritually feels like as close as I'll ever get to a live action Mass Effect show.
Season 1: I think this is a perfect world building season while also giving us Miller's noir murder mystery until our story takes a page out of a Johnny Gossamer novel and both cases are tied together. I love the contentious universe this series takes place in and the measures taken to add a significant level of realism. Thomas Jane is a complete scene stealer while Errinwright has the most punchable face.
Season 2: Loved the addition of Bobbie and giving us a Martian perspective on the universe, which continues to expand as we're introduced to places like Ganymede. Shohreh Aghdashloo carries a ton of weight in political scenes.
Season 3: Lots of shitty people finally get their due in this season, while the obvious transition between books felt a little wonky to me. Drummer grew into a favorite while David Strathairn was a hell of an addition to the cast. So glad this wasn't the end of the series.
Season 4: At times S2 and S3 felt like they could be an episode or two shorter, while I wish this season was an episode or two longer. Obvious budget upgrade from Amazon, but probably my least favorite season. While we get glimpses of the greater universe with Avasarala, Drummer/Ashford, and Bobbie playing black market with some actors getting paid scale, I thought too much time was spent on Ilus. For the first time in this show the universe felt small, which was weird since they were on a new planet in a different system. Loved the expanded, and still not answered, mystery of what the hell is going on with the protomolecule and whatever tried to destroy it and Murtry was a great antagonist.
Season 5: At the outset of this season I was a little perturbed by our crew being split up, and while it sucked that we'll never truly see them together again, I thought it worked well for the story and made the universe feel expansive again. Since S1 Amos quickly became my favorite crew member and it was great to learn more about him and watch him and Peaches play out their own version of The Road. Alex (second favorite crew member) and Bobbie was a great pairing and I loved them working together. The attack on Earth was fantastic and the surprise attack on Tycho Station was a complete surprise to me. I didn't think Holden had a ton to do this season but was okay with that. I thought Marco Inaros was a fantastic villain and his teenage kid is an annoying ****, so mission accomplished. I could have done with a bit less captive Naomi and the broken family, but thought her post escape struggles were fantastically done. Drummer is awesome.
I can't believe S4 is the last time getting to see Alex do cool **** with the Roci. I really liked the character and thought they handled his re-written death as good as could be expected given the situation. The character went out heroically trying to save a member of his family. Cas Anvar can **** off for his actions. Monica was less annoying that when she was being a documentary minx in S3 and I grew to really like Peaches and look forward to seeing her with the crew (Amos "convincing" Holden to bring her on was hilarious). I'm super excited for S6 but also can't believe the end is near and wonder how they're going to fit everything into what will likely be a 10 episode season again. Marco Inaros needs to be dealt with, the Laconians are out there waiting to cause trouble, and lots of protomolecule stuff still needs explained.
Season rankings: 1, 5, 3, 2, 4
Random musing: The guest casting on this show cracks me up at times. Thomas Jane was **** awesome and I'm glad he made appearances post-protomolecule obliteration. Same goes for David Strathairn and Burn Gorman. On the flip side, they paid decently well known actor Jay Hernandez to show up for half of S1 and do nothing. Elizabeth Mitchell's character could have been played by anyone and it wouldn't have made a difference. Jared Harris is in the show for like 30 seconds. Tim DeKay did nothing but die. Weird stuff.
