If you’ve stumbled across The Expanse on Netflix or by someone’s recommendation, so happy for you! But before you dive into the binge, there’s a great deal you need to know to get up to speed.

So what makes The Expanse on SyFy so good that there is palpable hype for the premiere of season 3? Let me “In a nutshell” it for you:

The sci-fi series is the perfect combo of an exciting story, grounded political maneuvers and loads of outer space action. Well-written characters with almost perfect casting that can only be trumped by its special effects. The Expanse is a Sci-Fi series that ends up feeling less and less like one and more like it’s the damn near future.