Well, for something extraterrestrial that has been sent to our system billions of years ago by an advanced civilization that cannot really be understood by humans, I guess artistic license is okay. The human stuff still works with mostly realistic physics (with the Epstein drive the main exception, which is needed to actually enable the world).

Protomolecule stuff, though a key to about 1/3 of the plot points, is pretty much the only "out there" stuff in the show. So sure, it seems to break a few laws of physics, but the whole story is about humans using realistic technology confronted with the unknown and the impossible.

Beyond that, the books are pretty hard. The only one physics-bending technology used by humans is the Epstein drive, and as a drive it doesn't really violate any laws of physics (it's a fusion drive) - the unrealistic part is its absurdly good fuel efficiency.

Force fields are plausible, but FTL (including telepathy and stargates) are what ruins it. However, it's one big exception that almost all space-based sci-fi allows.