Rafy/Syfy
One of our favorite things about the vastness is the way that – unlike many other epic TV shows – the plot is not unnecessarily aligned. Season two is coming to an end and business continues. On Earth, Gunny Draper has issues with her higher Martians, and the feeling is probably mutual after the way Private Travis was offered as a scapegoat for the battle of Ganymede. But she wants to see the ocean before they send her home in disgrace; she escapes from the Mars embassy and discovers that life for the dispossessed masses of Earth isn’t as hip as she’d like to believe.
She’s not the only one in trouble. Errinwright takes his part in Jules-Pierre Mao’s rogue protomolecule experiments when he realized that Mao can now be in cahoots with Mars.
Ganymede is in serious trouble. Three of the farming domes are gone, and while searching for his missing daughter, Prax notices that the artificial environment on the colony is dying. The problem is too little biodiversity; once a path is damaged, there are not enough others to compensate. Or, as he explained to Amos, “the station is already dead, they just don’t know it yet.”
And we’re finally getting some zero G action! When we spoke to Naren Shankar a few weeks ago, it was suggested that Alex was floating around and shooting cans of beer at the float, and it didn’t disappoint.
In this week’s podcast, I’m joined by my colleague Cyrus Farivar. We talk about the show, where we are in the plot and lots of other things. We also have an interview with Frankie Adams, who plays Bobby Draper.
I’m going to analyse, debate and dissect the vastness each week with a different guest, and throughout the season we post the podcast on Fridays. New episodes air on Wednesdays in the US, so you have time to watch before we get into major spoilers. the vastness season 2 will air in the UK on Netflix, although possibly not for another month or two.
Listen:
decoded is Ars Technica’s weekly podcast about the TV that obsesses us. We are currently dissecting the vastness. Listen or subscribe as you wish above and let us know what you think — ideas, questions, and so on — via the comments section, on iTunes, or via email.