Defiance [SyFy - US] [** Spoilers **]

I can only echo the generally positive sentiments here - I loved it. It feels like a long, long time since I tuned into a new series that offered unpretentious fun, adventure and the wonder of an unknown frontier (I'm sure it won't be that exciting every week of course, but it was still good to watch a show trying to be cinematic & generally succeed). In an attempt to copy the 'Lost' format, too many series - particularly genre TV - have lost the run of themselves with overly-contrived mysteries that can't be sustained (Flash Forward, the Event), or else spend so much time forging their principle gimmick that the characters & plots suffer (Falling Skies, Terra Nova). Defiance appears to be happy with a classic format, held together with energy from the cast & their characters.

Some of the criticisms point to stereotyped characters, but what else can be expected from a pilot? Very few first episodes - if any - throw audiences in at the deep end, and with a world so complicated and explicitly alien as this one, it makes sense to keep things to broad strokes; establish the characters, chart their basic motivations & relationships, then introduce the initial threat & future arc(s). No fuss, no muss; I guarantee we'll see the subtleties creep in across the coming weeks but for now it's best to keep things simple so we can deal with this strange new world.

It's nice to think TV is now held in such high regard that we demand to be challenged at every turn, but there's a lot to be said for an old-fashioned format with an uncomplicated yet interesting narrative. This clearly isn't aiming to be the next Battlestar Galactica, Mad Men or The Wire, so it shouldn't be held up to those standards in comparison.

Sure, Nolan is clearly channelling Han Solo by way of Mal Reynolds, but that's scarcely a criticism in my book. Grant Bowler brought just the right amount of charm & roguishness to sell the role (compare that with a pretty similar set-up for Terra Nova, where its lead male character was dull & utterly charmless). Irisa nicely straddled the line between surly & obnoxious, but with an obvious underlying warm relationship with Nolan. In trying to get the audience up to speed, some of the dialogue bordered on the clumsy infodump yes, but it got the job done and otherwise I think the characters were interesting & interactions fun. Again, things like the Doctor with an awful bedside manner are hardly groundbreaking, but it was done with enough brio that it worked.

As for comments about the SFX - I think people are being overly harsh here. It's a smaller cable channel whose budgets are generally pretty low. For what they had to convey I think they knocked it out of the park; even if some of the execution was a little rough in places, the effort was commendable. The landscapes and environmental effects were consistently gorgeous - the Bear McCreary score definitely helped on that front (even if some of his work strayed way too close to his BSG work - not a bad thing to say mind you)

Will definitely be tuning into Episode 2 & hope the show kicks on from here.

Another strong episode, although I tend to bristle a little whenever earthy-mysticism creeps into my Sci-Fi. It's very easy to stray into the realms of contrived silliness when people talk of visions and "the one", so hope it doesn't become a major strand in the show.

I haven't played the associated game, but I'm guessing those hellbugs are quite prominent in it; they seem quite ... 'gamey'

silverharp wrote: »

Quick question, are they being vague about the background to the whole story for reason or have I missed a whole episode? or am I just supposed to google it?

Yes & no; there were a couple of passing remarks in the first episode, but generally there have been no detailed explanations or infodumps where the narrative stopped & we got a potted history of the arrival of all the aliens.

Basically, the Arcs arrived in orbit with the aliens looking for a new home, war broke out, then an eventual truce but the Arcs had lost power and started plummeting to earth & have been over a period of years; the material scattered from these crashes is the cause for the earth being so alien.

I think there's more detailed background information to be gleaned from the game, but I run a mile from MMOs so haven't gone near any of it.