I've been watching it since the first episode. It's much better than most of the stuff available on the Sci-fi channel. I really appreciated the lack of monsters and then...

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"The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."

I really enjoyed the books. Haven't seen the show yet.

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Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

I've watched the series. I think this week might have been the season 2 ender, but not sure.

Comments from someone who has read the source material, but not all of them.at least the first 3 or 4 books. I can't remember.

• In general, the series is well done for what it is. I’ve wondered how it comes off to someone watching it who does not have the background from the books. I thought it might have been hard to follow only just watching the TV show.
• I have a few problems with the show, but admittedly they are mostly superficial, coming from differences in the casting and what my recollection was from their characters in the book. And is typical stuff that fans of source material have with TV/Movie adaptations. Probably nothing anyone else would notice or take issue with.
• In general, is follows the book story and plot lines, so that is good. It is not a TV adaptation that is “inspired” by the Books.

Casting:
• Chrisjen – absolutely nailed this character. It could only be topped by allowing her to drop all the required F-bombs like she did in the books
• Amos, Alex, Bobbie – all good casting choices
• Col. Johnson – indifferent. OK casting, but he doesn’t pull off the weight of Fred Johnson vs the book. TV guy comes off as a bit of a lightweight.
• Detective Miller – I liked the actor, but didn’t like their version of him vs the book. From the book I imagined him much older..in his 50’s. And they gave him that horrible hair style
• Naomi – messed this one up. As a Belter, she was supposed to be tall and skinny and thought she was a lot darker skin in the book. The TV character is a relative shorter stocky and a bit butch looking and a fuggin ugly ass hair style. Actor is good enough though.
• Holden – here is their major screw up, in a big way. Holden is THE central character in the books that everything revolves around. They mis-cast this guy in every way possible. He’s a lot younger than envisioned in the book has zero charisma or strength of character. Actor is bad. This is a huge deal since so much of the material revolves around his relationships and actions.


Relationships:
• The crew of the Racinante. They were bonded together as a team and Holden a strong leader from the get go. In the TV series, the crew is much more less loyale and doesn’t really trust him all the way through the first season. Amos is openly hateful of him. Just very different than the book. Again go back to casting comment of Holden.
• Naomi and Holden – no chemistry at all. Nada. The TV series just tossed in them hooking up as an afterthought. Their relationship is a major player in the books.
• Bobbie – they wrote her character to be very violent and aggressive against Earthers. Not like that in the books. She was a pretty slow burning and thoughtful marine. They made her to be pretty hateful of Earth and going out of her way to get into fights and battles. Not how it was in books.

Off script:
• In the books, Chrisjen does not even show up until book 2. Most of what happens in Season 1 and a lot of Season 2 on Earth and relating to Earth is made up for TV. I guess they felt the story needed a lot more earth in it to add additional factions and personal drama? Pretty much nothing that happens relating to Earth in S1 is germane to the overall plot arc of the story. It is just filler. I guess they just made shit up for the sole purpose of having a reason to have Chrisjen as a character an in the show from the start. The books have so much rich material to work with, it is really bothersome they made up all this Earth crap that really does not matter. The TV show probably dedicates more than a third of its time to Earth stuff, which is really different than the way the books treat those story lines. It was bothersome. The Bobbie-Chrisjen storyline is the material relationship in the books. All that other political stuff on Earth is mostly embellished material.

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This is pretty spot on, but Detective Miller was a pretty good fit from my picture of him, minus the hairstyle. I also feel Naomi in the TV show seems much more angry and antagonistic than in the books, but maybe she was like that early on. I read them all pretty much right when they came out, so its been a while.

I almost gave up after the first episode because Holden was so bad, but all in all its a good series considering the few good options regarding sci fi.