Television series

The Expanse

Name: The Expanse
Genre: Science Fiction, Thriller, Mystery
Released: 2015
Cast: Steven Strait, Dominique Tipper, Wes Chatham, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Cas Anvar

Nine seasons compressed into six, The Expanse is what happens when someone takes orbital mechanics as seriously as they take political betrayal. It starts as a noir mystery about a missing woman and widens into a genuinely epic story about scarcity, colonialism, and a solar system on the edge of war. Dense, patient, occasionally brutal — for people who want their space opera to show its homework.

TVMaze rating

8.7

If you liked this

Battlestar Galactica2003

The same DNA: a fractured human civilisation, morally compromised leaders, and a slow-burn conspiracy that rewards patience. If you liked watching politics matter as much as physics, start here.

But Heavier on theology and existential dread than The Expanse ever gets — it can feel bleaker and more claustrophobic.

Babylon 51993

A five-year arc of factional politics, alien empires, and a station caught in the middle — the granddaddy of serialised space opera that plans ten steps ahead.

But Nineties effects and pacing; the first season is a slog before the payoff arrives.

Firefly2002

Swap the Rocinante's crew for the Serenity's and you'll feel right at home — blue-collar spacers, found family, and a government you shouldn't trust.

But Cancelled after one season, so the scale never matches what Expanse eventually builds toward.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Chinatown1974

Miller's arc is basically Jake Gittes in a vacuum suit: noir detective drawn into a missing-woman case that's really about who controls water. Chinatown wrote that structure decades before Ceres Station existed.

A weary detective pulls one thread — a missing person — and unravels a conspiracy about who controls a resource everyone needs to survive. Sound familiar?

But No spaceships, no future — just dry Los Angeles heat and a slow, devastating unraveling.

For All Mankind2019

Alternate-history space race that treats orbital mechanics and geopolitics with the same care Expanse does — grounded, human-scaled, and quietly devastating.

But No aliens, no conspiracy — this is about the slow grind of ambition and grief, not thrillers.

Foundation2021

Same appetite for civilisational-scale stakes and factions playing chess across centuries and star systems, with the visual scope Expanse's budget couldn't always afford.

But More abstract and philosophical, less about characters you bond with than ideas you chew on.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine1993

The Star Trek that grew teeth — a static outpost caught between empires, a long war, and moral compromises that stick. Expanse's spiritual older cousin.

But Early seasons are episodic Trek-of-the-week before the serialized war arc kicks in.

Altered Carbon2018no page yet

Noir bones under a science-fiction skin, same as Expanse's early seasons — a detective story about class, bodies, and power dressed up in future tech.

But Style over substance at times, and the plotting is messier than Expanse's careful architecture.

The 1002014no page yet

Starts as YA survival drama and hardens into factional warfare and impossible moral calculus — surprisingly close kin once it finds its legs.

But Rough first season, teen-drama trappings some viewers can't get past.

Killjoys2015no page yet

Scrappy bounty hunters, corporate exploitation, a solar system full of grudges — smaller-budget cousin with a similar blue-collar-crew-against-the-system heart.

But Leans pulpier and campier; nowhere near Expanse's scientific rigor or tonal seriousness.

Cowboy Bebop1998

Same blue-collar-crew-in-a-ramshackle-ship engine as the Rocinante, but recast as loose, melancholy, genre-hopping anime instead of hard-science thriller — proof the format can bend without breaking.

A scruffy crew of bounty hunters drifting between planets, carrying old grief and better banter than they let on — jazz-scored, episodic, endlessly cool.

But Anime and episodic rather than serialized; if you want Expanse's tight plotting, this wanders on purpose.

Chernobyl2019

Swap the protomolecule and Eros for radiation and bureaucratic denial: both are stories about catastrophe made worse by systems more interested in covering themselves than saving lives. Chernobyl just insists you sit with the real version.

A disaster caused by institutions protecting themselves instead of the people paying the price — told with a rigor and grief that never once looks away.

But Nothing speculative here, and nothing comforting either — this is about real people who really died.