I said it in a Tweet earlier this week, and I’ll say it again now: The Expanse, adapted from the book series of the same name written by James S.A. Corey – a nom de plume shared by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck – is an incredible show and if you’re not watching it, you should be. (Check out our interview with the authors here.)

Saved from extinction after its cancellation on SYFY by the fans and cast, The Expanse found a new home on Amazon Prime, and the season we thought we would never see drops on December 13th.

It’s okay. You may flail.

When last we were with our intrepid crew, they had only just managed to avert a war. The ring gates, artifacts of an ancient, alien civilization, opened and with them, a chance for humanity to travel beyond the Sol system and into uncharted territory. These opportunities are especially important to the inhabitants of the Belt, most of whom grew up in close-quarters space stations or shelters carved out of dead moons, and from whom the “inners” (inhabitants of Earth and Mars) used to harvest valuable resources to keep the Terran infrastructure intact and Mars’s terraforming efforts on schedule.

Of course, Earth and Mars aren’t simply going to give this new source of riches to the Belters. When a UN ship settles into orbit around a planet they’ve dubbed “New Terra,” they find a Belter settlement already established and lithium mining already in progress. Charter in hand, the security force heads down to the surface to stake their claim only to find disaster waiting. When word of the conflict reaches UN Secretary General Chrisjen Avasarala, she “asks” James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante to go to the planet (that the Belters have named Ilus) to see what, exactly, is going on and whether there’s any chance of resolution.

At its heart, The Expanse is a story about people, and that sensibility is fully intact in the first six episodes of Season 4. Despite flashier effects and a bigger budget, the show never loses sight of the individuals driving the saga – of their hopes, their fears, and their conflicts with both others and themselves. The ways in which one person’s actions can ricochet and ripple, altering the fates of entire planets and solar systems. That humanity, as a whole, can’t change until we, as individuals, change.

These episodes remind us that the grand games of empire and politics, of the powerful preying on the rest of the population, are – at a fundamental level – directed by singular human voices from Avasarala to Murtry to the Belters who laid claim to Ilus.

That said, the big stuff – the interior of the Rocinante, the artifacts on Ilus, shock waves and tsunamis – are pretty damn cool. The special effects were good before; now they’re stunning, but the team is careful to make sure they enhance the story rather than take it over. We didn’t get much of a look at Mars during the first three seasons; in Season 4, we spend a fair bit of time there with Bobbie, trying to sort out her post-Marine life.

The sets are constructed to give the viewer a sense of the claustrophobia of living under a dome. The visuals do more to explain why life on Mars is so dependent on everyone doing their share and supporting the collective. The science, from physics to medicine, is carefully researched and completely devoid of handwaving; there’s no hyperspace for these folks.

The characters are, if possible, even more themselves this season. Amazon seems to have given the writers a little more freedom. There’s more humor in the first six episodes than in the past three seasons combined, and it is all spot on for whatever parties are involved. Because the show is on Amazon and not on broadcast television, Avasarala can finally say whatever she damn well pleases, and the writers really leaned in to it.

We see the changes wrought on Holden by his time with the protomolecule. He’s a man still struggling to find his stride as a leader. A gentler Alex. A Naomi who’s simultaneously more troubled and more determined. (Listen to our interview with Dominique Tipper here.) We follow Bobbie through her return to civilian life. We see our cool-under-pressure Gunny cracking a bit at the edges, reaching for purpose and having it pulled away by the culture she was willing to give her life to protect. Amos is… well, he’s Amos, but he’s grown as well, coming to care for people not because it’s what he’s supposed to do but because it’s what he wants to do.

And yes, as Steven indicated in an interview, we definitely do see more of Murder Snuggles than we ever have before. Drummer is being forced to play politician to Ashford’s general, which is an absolutely fascinating dynamic and a huge development for her character, who was previously the warrior. Her scenes are made even more engaging in that, like so many of us, she clearly hates being the reasonable adult but she’ll do it, and anything else she needs to do, to keep her people safe.

I can’t go too much further without going into plot points and moments I’m dying to talk to my fellow #ScreamingFirehawks about, but I don’t want to ruin this experience for anyone, so I’m going to stop now. I can promise you that Season 4 is firmly grounded in, and spirals out of, the story established by Seasons 1-3 and the books.

The dramatic tension in the first six episodes of the new season, however, is more palpable. And the story moving from Earth to Ilus to Mars to Medina and back helps it grow it into something bigger and so much more operatic, yet at the same time so much more personal.

You still have 11 days to catch up, friends; Seasons 1-3 are available to stream on Amazon Prime.

All episodes of Season 4 of The Expanse start streaming December 13th.