f13.net

Since there's already a thread for the game and nothing for the show, I figured I'd start one.

Syfy (god, I hate that stupid simplification) has the first 14 minutes of the pilot (http://www.defiance.com/en/series/video/2634770) up on their site right now. I hope for the best, but expect the worst with this one. You've got Farscape and BSG creators in the mix, as well as some pretty decent acting talent. None of these things has stopped shows from sucking in the past, but I'm willing to watch the first few episodes to see what happens.

I'm with you.

The only thing that has me leery is all the product endorsement in the show; seriously Dodge?  It's an immersion-killer for me to the nth order.
edit: But Bear McCreary makes everything better.   :grin:

I liked the 1st 15mins btw.  So far so good. 

Meh. The effects looked decent, but the lead (Grant Bowler) has been in two things I've hated. He was Richard Burton in that Elizabeth Taylor series with Lindsay Lohan and the lead in Atlas Shrugged. He's pretty terrible.

Well, think of this as the sequel to Atlas Shrugged. The Randians took over and the world went to shit. His penance is to help clean up and raise scary alien chicks as his own.

I never paid attention to the game thread so this is the first I've seen of this.  The background looks interesting but the big question is will the writers be able to pull off some good, interesting stories.  Should at least be better than Falling Skies, but that's not exactly a high bar.

Yah, the reason I said I liked the 1st 15mins was the writing wasn't half bad.  Remember this is Farscape, Alien Nation (which I thought was pretty well written for an alien cop show) and so forth level of writing.  Not shitty, but not the greatest either.  Definitely should be better than Falling Skies.

The make or break will be how they portray the Votans.  It'll either be badass or total cheese-factor.  Science-Fantasy is tricky business.   Maybe if it survives the 1st season Haemish can send in a script.   :grin:   I cant write sci-fantasy worth a shit.

The Votans are definitely going to be interesting, as it's a coalition of seven different races. Not all of whom exactly get along with each other.

One would think that would have given them some skill in negotiating with hostile alien species.

So wait, the Votans are a conglomeration?  I thought they were the pasty-white elven types of the show.  Guess I was wrong (I'm not fanboised up on this yet; trying not to).   Got them confused with Castithans (theyre the 'elves.')  It has Mayan meaning btw:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Votan

So the premise is the Votans essentially came back to earth after having aided the Mayan civilization, built Atlantis, started Mormonism, etc.   Should be a future tie-in with the show I'm sure.

The Indogenes are my fav. race per the bios so far.  Quiet.  Logical.  Non-religious.  Cybernetic.  Please let SyFy not fuck this up.  Please.

(http://en.defiance-wiki.com/wiki/images/thumb/8/83/Defiance_ecard_indo_02A.jpg/428px-Defiance_ecard_indo_02A.jpg)
(http://en.defiance-wiki.com/wiki/images/thumb/d/d7/Defiance_ecard_indo_01B.jpg/428px-Defiance_ecard_indo_01B.jpg)
(http://en.defiance-wiki.com/wiki/images/thumb/9/9d/Defiance_ecard_indo_01C.jpg/428px-Defiance_ecard_indo_01C.jpg)

edit:

I'm most interested in how they portray

Bumped for tonite.   :popcorn:

I'm wishing you hadn't. Not impressed so far.

I'm not seeing how they are going to make this a series to last.

I loved how the sheriff got shot death and nobody gave a single fuck.

It wasnt bad (definitely better than something like Terra Nova, Revolution, or Falling Skies), but too much angst, darkness, and sexytimes for my liking.    My main beefs though were:

-The cinematography sucked ass most of the time; when they had awesome opportunity at art, they failed to deliver.  And it did indeed have too much of a soap opera HD camera appearance most of the time.
-Too much foreshadowing in the commercials; actually, worst foreshadowing I've ever seen.  You could watch the commercials only and get the entire scope of the episode.  It's a huge spoiler.
-The Indogene weren't mechanical enough in their verbeage, but entertaining nonetheless.
-The script was most times way too 'simple,' especially seeing as how Irisa rarely speaks.  Unfortunately the best moments in the show were when they werent talking much or when Nolan was cracking a joke.

Something in me thought the show should be on Starz, not SyFy.  It just has that kind of feel too it, like it needed to be set completely free of inhibition.  There definitely was a Spartacus vibe to the Castithan bunch, and the violent nature of many of the cast, to the point of blatant ripoff... even in the way they spoke.  I'd say they should probably run with that motif as much as possible.

Julie Benz (the mayor) was the biggest weakness of the show.  Terribad.  2nd most important character really and they completely fucked the casting and her script.  Everything that came out of her mouth was a cliche or pained attempt at being witty - just like a politician I guess.

I'll be watching the show, but hopefully it improves by accentuating its strengths and staying away from the shite parts.


Me too actually.  No sarcasm here though.

I watched it and quite enjoyed it. There were a few slow parts but nothing horrible. For a pilot episode it wasn't half bad even if there were several events I knew would happen before time because, well, that's the cliche. Still, it was good enough for a pilot and it neatly set up what is likely to be the conflict for the first season. I'd say its biggest issue is going to be how much money it costs. For that SyFy will likely expect high numbers (for them.)

We'll see how it goes. It's already been renewed for Season 2 but if it gets SGU numbers in the first few episodes we'll see a burn off, quite quickly too. I'd put it somewhere above SGU and Alphas for entertainment value but that isn't saying much.

I think the show has potential if they keep it sci-fi and don't just turn it into a "small town cop show" where the different aliens replace the usual stereotype groups.

Next week's show is essentially "small town cop show."   :oh_i_see:
This is why I preferred they kept to being ArkHunters rather than townspeople (Irisa sums it up in the conclusion of the episode).  Same crap happened during DS9; show only got cool when they left the cozy confines of the station.

Yeah, but with the way it ended, we're being set up for shit that goes beyond that. Let's hope they're up to the task.

I liked the pilot really depends how they grow it as time goes on though. Some of the CGI was not that great but the makeups up close were all pretty darn good. One interesting thing is the town square is pretty much fully built on a set which is really nice I was kinda expecting a CGI overload like warehouse 13 or scantuary still get a bit of that but the town stuff all looks pretty good.

Pretty good pilot.  Like others said, makeup very good, some CGI not so good.  I'm hoping for some Game of Thrones type story lines where Earth Republic and other factions try to influence/control Defiance.  Not a cop show.  Please god no. 

It did seem like the creators put some thought into what happened and the various alien species.  If they keep making an effort to create good stories then I'll make an effort to watch.

I'm in 100%. It's not great art, but definitely worth watching. Or maybe they just had me at Bear McCreary, even if I think most of the pilot music was recycled from BSG.

IMDB tells me that Mia Kirshner is only in the pilot and thank god. I loathed her character in the L-Word and typecasting is a terrible thing, but every time I saw her on screen I just saw Jenny Schechter. (OMG she's screwing a guy?! And he's not a super early transition FTM? LOL)

I'm sort of crushing on virtually everyone in the Tarr family.

Well, HG Wells has been a smoking hottie forever, so I'm with you there.

Van Gogh? Not so much, double for reverse bleach-boy. The former because no matter how much he tries to go legit, he's full of shit and he knows it. The latter because of the whole reverse emo thang.

Irissa's hot though.

I enjoyed it. Five minutes in I was really worried we'd have a long drawn out Romeo and Juliet plot, but they skipped right on through most of that in the Pilot. It was cheezy in spots and you could certainly see the Farscape influences in some of the design, but it can work.

Interesting cast, trying to figure out who Datak Tar was and finding out he was Vincent in Dr. Who was kind of odd. Grahame Greene back on tv again.
I'll admit to being disappointed at no Mia Kirshner after the pilot, but I've had a thing for her since Exotica (and I didn't watch the L word). I'm guessing it has to be filmed up here considering the number of Canadian actors.

Ok, mid post edit - appears Grahame Greene isn't in it past the pilot either. Guess they could only afford known Canadian actors for one episode?
And even further editing... Datak's son doesn't even appear to be in the series. What's the point of setting up plotlines in the Pilot if they all get chucked? Maybe IMDB just has a really bad report on the cast?

Irisa might be the first alien character with no eyebrows that still managed to be attractive to me.

Now I'm wondering a little if I actually enjoyed the show, or just the quotient of attractive actresses in it... I'll give it a chance. At least it appears to be legit scifi.

I thought Datak's son actually did a very good job; unlike the entire McCauley clan.  They better keep him on the show. 
As for the attractive actresses, it's pretty obvious they're gonna ride the Jaime Murray quasi-Spartacus train till someone comes along and smashes her skull into tiny fragments.

This show is horrible.

So, it seems one fateful night Firefly picked up a drunken Eureka at a bar and took advantage of her. Now the poor child is born and tries to emulate its father but the awesomeness got somehow lost in the recollections of a drunken night.

Perhaps, but if one was to rate it on the scale of tv scifi along with such luminarchs as Terra Nova or Revolution - this show looks pretty good!

Are we really so starved and desperate  for science fiction programming that we are really willing to make excuses to watch stuff this poorly done? At least the game deserves the show it got considering the quality level is about equal.

You believe it is horrible. You are not, however, the final arbitrator of what other people enjoy. I like it. It's not the best sci-fi ever but it's fun and enjoyable.

Look, even taking the awful characters and bad writing away :  This is really Shot poorly.  Shaky and blurry and wiggly and awful.

Now let's talk about the awful characters and bad writing ....

I didn't view the writing or the characters as awful or bad. It had some rough edges sure but it's also a pilot episode. Some shows that went on to be great had really rough pilot episodes. See almost any Star Trek series ever for an example. Oddly I am extremely sensitive to shaky cam or whatever and this show didn't bother me. It was roughly on par with how BSG used to do it, if not actually better IMO.

Alright dude, you win it is just our imagination that this show is a steaming pile of poop.

It's your opinion. It's not objective reality. That was my only point.

I enjoyed it, it was a big mix of a lot of things. Its just to early to tell, could go one way or the other.

Hell, I'm not going to berate anyone else for the enjoyment they enjoy.  More power to you.


....


But this wasn't good.

Why is Zod such a smart ass? Also, please don't change your avatar after Man of Steel. I like glaring Terrence Stamp.

Nah, seriously, whatever you enjoy, whatever that is, especially in the comfort of your living room is fuck all to do with me.  There are tons of shows you chaps watch that I don't.  Hell, there are probably tons you don't even get and vice versa.  It's no biggie.

As to Zod, Zod never changes. 

This show is like star wars if the main character was Han Solo. I dont hate it, I mean the dialogue and acting is rather on the bad side but if your a real scifi on tv fan you've swallowed hockier. Like Fallimg Skies this show just needs to be enjoyable, which so far its managing.

Just watched the pilot.  Good enough to get me to watch the next one, but not enough to sell me long term right away.  Just about every trope possible was packed into that first episode which was unfortunate because it gave little indication of what will be unique or interesting about the show (if anything). 



None of it was bad enough to turn me off to it completely, or good enough to make me feel like this could be the "next big thing" (at least insofar as such a thing can be on "Syfy")

The lack of sophistication is part of the attraction for me. I don't need another serious tense thoughtful show. I need a nice go to adventure show that i can enjoy without having my intelligence completely insulted (Revolution). We'll see though, it could go down hill quickly or develop.

I agree with you Numtini. I love me some serious sci-fi (though it often disappoints me in the end, see BSG) but I also like some light hearted adventure sci-fi and so far Defiance appears to fall into the second category.


I more or less agree with you though on the archetype characters it could be argued that that is fairly common and a good way to get the audience to immediately go "oh he's that guy, cool, I like that guy.

On a couple of other points

Thought it was really bad.  I felt embarrassed for the actors having to wear that horrible makeup and blurt out the dialogue.  But it's pure unadulterated sci-fi which is kind of rare in a post-Lost world.  So I might keep watching despite how cringe inducing the show is.

This is really bad.  But just because people like it doesn't mean they're wrong or anything.  There's a lot of people who like bad things.  There is no correlation that just because they like bad things that they are inherently bad people.  Just because most of them are bad people doesn't mean anything.  It's perfectly possible that some person who likes bad things is an all around decent person.  I'm willing to keep my mind open on that score.  But this show is horrible.  Objectively so.

But it's not objectively horrible. It's definitely a bit of a shitshow, but fuck that objectively bad bullshit.

You only say that because you are inherently a bad person.

I'm a horrible person. You're still wrong.

Objectively bad, these days, means relatively good.  So I guess we'll all keep watching - for a while.

Guess I was wrong about the cast (stupid IMDB).

A few things stand out:

1.  None of the characters are likable.  Everyone is either inherently bad, aloof/stupid, or the reluctant good guy.

2.  White alien tits, every episode.

3.  There's too many races in play.

4.  How did the city get buried underground, but the arch stands?

It's not a terrible show, but it isn't really likable either.  They need to get the price of the game down to $20 or f2p, maybe that will help my enjoyment of the series.

I enjoyed the second episode.  There are a few irritating things, but the buried city was cool.  But Hawk is right, not a lot of like-able characters yet.

I like a couple of the characters - mind you I went in to this expecting something Farscapey, a show that had next to no "likable" characters. Must admit the arch issue didn't occur to me.

It did?

Yeah, minor plot point from ep2.  Apparently the terraforming buried the city, as it did all cities.  St Louis was an anomaly because it was encapsulated into a cavern instead of being outright buried.  There's like riverboats down there, the remains of the Mississippi, skyscrapers... you name it.  Yet the arch is still above ground. 

I'm not bashing; I kinda want to like this show in a SGU/Firefly way.  However, it's missing some real parts to make it likable.

Judging by the last epi., I guess we've got a serial sci-fi cop show on our hands guys.   :heartbreak:  Not sure I'm gonna keep watching.  Maybe I'll make that hour guitar-practice or book-reading time or something.
What's next on the sci-fi TV radar btw?  Anything?   :uhrr:

I can't fathom how much this show is parallel with Terra Nova mixed with Eureka.

It keeps making me wince though.

I read somewhere that somehow the Arch got pushed up out of the ground and survived mostly intact making it become a symbol of hope or something. I'll track it down and post a link.

You all have it wrong! It's just a very grungy version of Babylon 5.

Last nights episode read completely like an re-written episode of Babylon 5. Main storyline pursuing some sinister alien plot, secondary plot "well meaning Earth authority figure interfering with Alien cultural issues - kills Alien instead".

PS: Maybe DS9 but I preferred Babylon 5.

I want to like this show but it seems pretty mediocre so far. I think it might have been alot more interesting if the miner family had been alien like the crime boss (though a different race) so that the Romeo&Julia stuff would have been between 2 alien cultures with the human sheriff etc trying to keep the peace while not familiar with either side's customs etc. With one side being human it seems to make it pretty predictable and it loses alot of the potential for storytelling (imho).

I did not like the episode. I thought the pilot had some good ideas and this episode seemed to pick up none of them.

I had the same thought about B5. My specific thought after watching it was "wow, this plot line was innovative and edgy for tv 20 years ago and now it seems really simplistic and overdone." It was definitely B5 because if it was Trek we'd have had the Lawkeeper apologizing to the mayor and her giving him a good scolding for daring to think that something wasn't completely morally relative.

Yes, I loathed 90s trek. Yes I did.

I agree about the likeability. Grant Bowler has no presence whatsoever. The only thing that worked for that character ever was the sexual tension in the pilot between him and Irisa and that was probably unintentional as she's his daughter not his girlfriend. Let's do another B5 and bring in a new commander.

I thought there was a general dumbing down of the characters. Irisa had an outspoken wisecracking quality and is now just the annoying gothgirl listening to The Cure in her parents basement and the crime family were little more than moustache twirling villains rather than the extremely pale Sopranos that were hinted at in the pilot.

Having said all that, I can't wait for the next episode.

I kinda like the series.  Not anywhere near as much as Firefly and I didn't like any of the Star Treks.  I enjoyed the pilot a fair bit more than this last episode, though.  And I didn't get the "sexual tension" feeling.  I saw it more like the jealousy and anger I used to feel when my father was trying to pick up women.  And this main character in the series seems to make goo goo eyes at everyone with boobies, although I'm certain there's going to be some sort of "thing" with him and the sisters.  I'm with Numtini on the main character, however I liked him in True Blood.  I'd be good with finding a new guy for that role unless he learns to stop reading his lines off the palm of his hand.

I just finished the game last night and it's a bit of a spoiler for the show, but kinda cool.  Basically, near the end of the game you figure out why Nolan won't talk specifically about certain parts of his past (related to the Defiant Few). 

The father of the mining family is the only character in the series I can vaguely root for. With him seeming to be a tyrant of a father and kind of a racist that doesn't speak for everyone else in Defiance. Maybe its the fact that his racism is mainly directed at a family who deserves everything they get.

Also, I want a roleplaying game where I can discover the ruins under Defiance instead of that shooter.

It's definitely a series that hints at cool shit outside or underground, but locks itself in that shitty little town of bad actors.

Yeah it is kind of cool how the game clues you into background stuff like that. I definitely like that aspect of it.

That Nim fight is still a pain in the ass though.

Heh, no it's not.  I beat it the 1st try.  LMGw/effect+BMG.  I died one time in the entire scenario, and that's because of keybind screwups.  A nice AR with BMG would work too.

Is it me or is the 400 damage SAW a little on the overpowered side?

Especially when you've got a 130round clip, accuracy, and ammo that regenerates when your secondary weapon is active.   :drill:

So we are talking about the game now? This thread is confusing me... *see title.

Best weapon by far I think.

Tonight's episode was so far the best.  Not too much serial creep aside from character development (tonite was Irathient - and now I like em a lot), so this is good.  A bit more episodic.
I'm disappointed it's a cop show (definitely feeling the Alien Nation vibe here), but like Alien Nation it's pretty well written and explores a lot of philosophies from different angles.  I expect Irissa to be bangin the black deputy in season 2.   :awesome_for_real:

That said, someone needs to stick a muzzle on the mouth of the mayor.  Seriously, she's cheesetastic.

I quite enjoyed the Irathient character development. I'm glad Rafe (probably) didn't have anything to do with what happened to that family. I find Irisa is continuing to be my favorite character and I enjoy Nolan far more when he is around her. I also found myself a bit surprised they're already injecting some tension into that relationship.

The not a lightsaber sword was cool. I liked that.

The "Calamari" scene was extremely original too.  Gotta give credit for that one.  But, once again, Defiance wants to be on Starz.

I agree with this and would also add that I'm disappointed it's a cop show, but the cases might be interesting.  Also, why does Irisa get a badge?  Is Nolan that comfortable with his daughter suddenly becoming the town deputy? 

Good to see Moktok (whatever, the white dude) kick some ass.  Gives him more gravity and his wife went  :drillf:.

I really enjoyed that one, it was the kind of followup I was looking for after the pilot and didn't get with the first episode.

I don't know that I like the mysticism shit.  There is plenty going on as it is, with alien races we still know pretty much nothing about and they go adding magic in now too?

Apparently renewed for a second season, which is really smart for the IP.  I actually enjoyed the last episode, though in a "there's not better to watch" kind of way.

I chatted with a local Gamestop guy today and he said the game has sold extremely well for them and only recently have they actually had copies to sell. 

Well if it just has to be a cop show, they could do worse than the last episode. We saw some political machinations as well as backstory for the mayor.  Cutting down the characters really helped streamline the show and I liked the sci-fi plot
It's the first episode where I wasn't drumming my fingers.  Even the main hero grew on me a bit. 

They had a big initial investment so I'm not surprised it was renewed. I really enjoy the series though, in a casual game sort of way.

I've been enjoying this show.  It's not on par with Eureka or Warehouse 13, but with the lack of sci-fi shows in general it's a good way to waste time.

Last night's epi. was the best so far in a dramatic sense.  Not much sci-fi crunch in there but definitely a good story.

I'm enjoying it a lot, but someone on the writing team has a huge B5 thing going on.

It's essentially B5+Alien Nation.  Exactly.  Oh, tonite's epi?  Another good one.  I was actually surprised.  Huge twists.

Yup and they seem willing to wack seemingly important characters that had been built up so far this season. I have to say this show is getting stronger and stronger as it goes I hope they can keep it up.

I was a bit disinterested (oooh a murder investigation!) until they killed that character off.  Nice.  This show continues to improve.

Yeah I mistake of not watching this show for a few weeks and now that I came back? This better be renewed for another season.

I like much of the show, but I wish they'd drop all the fucked up forehead people and albinos down the mine shaft.  Also the love parallelogram.

I like the background of the show and some of the characters, but I don't really like the plots that much.  Romeo and Juliet can diaf, especially Romeo.  And take the hooker with the heart of gold with them, I'm so sick of that stereotype.

It was renewed for a 2nd season about a month ago I believe.

The one thing I don't entirely thrilled about in defiance is how human all the aliens are. Only the cat people are genuinely "different" and not just a product of upbringing and culture. I mean I guess it works in the show really well, but its always been my pet peeve in sci-fi.

They may be a bit "human" but that's on purpose. You can't really read expression from big rubber prosthetics.

What I like is that they seem to be stretching more than other shows have in showing the cultural differences in different aliens. 

Indogenes only "look" human-ish, when they want to.  There's an energy race we haven't seen yet.  The Volge??  Might as well be Covenant.  Sensoth?  Giant chewbakka lookin things that kicks ass.  I mean, what the hell more do you want from a show based around a single shit-eating town in the middle of a desert on Earth?

To be real though, DS9 had similar issues when it first came out.  Same old vanilla Trek humanoid races stuck on a space station, but that changed later on.

The problem is they're not concentrating much on the cool aspects of the show; they still defer to latent human drama.  I'd rather see dirtfights with Biomen, Liberata black market trade negotiation, and Sensoth who are oddly intelligent.  And how convenient they can't fly due to some mysterious radiation.   :oh_i_see:

An alien race also has to be sympathetic to some extent in order to be a main character because the audience has to connect with them in some way. A really alien race would be like the Horta on Trek TOS.

Plus there's the built in excuse that they've been on earth for 20 years and presumably also represented the more adaptable ones or they wouldn't have left or been chosen to leave their home planets.

I'm with you.  I think they are trying to build a mythos and I really appreciate all of these alien practices and beliefs they show.

Keep in mind, its been 15 years that they have been stranded on earth.

I can give them a pass for assimilating a lot of human culture because you have what for all intents and purposes was a refugee fleet who had their worlds die mashed together in one giant fleet which already broke down a lot of their cultural ties now you put them on an alien world mixing with a large population with a more or less cohesive if damaged cultural identity of the humans. Not to surprising a lot of the aliens start assimilating with humans culture since they pretty much live in the ruins of it.

Something about the shamanistic ways of the Irathients rubs me wrong though... they seem way too close in parallel to Native American culture after being on space craft and traveling the stars. Just seems a bit silly. I can deal with it, but just doesn't seem right.

Keep in mind that most (if not all) of them were in stasis or hibernation of some kind during the trip through space.

It also appears that the races involved had a pretty broad range of tech capability prior to their exodus. From the sounds of it the irathients were not super high tech before they fled almost all of their tech was from the castithans and the indogens. The volge were also a high tech race but they do not appear to be friendly with anybody which must have made then buckets of fun in the refugee fleet.

Ah just double checked the official lore on the syfy site apparetly NOBODY likes the volge and they were in fact left to die by the votan collective. Nobody is quite sure how they wound up on earth if they came on their own ships or were smuggled on one factions arc ships.

I have to agree.  If they're looking to make something different, they're failing on these points.  As far as I'm concerned, they can toss the new mayor into the same tub where they dumped Dexter's wife, too.  I really like Lenny/Vincent Van Gogh guy and the strange looking law maker girl, though.  Unfortunately, I don't much care for the main actor, either. 

I wish I could remember real names but you guys know who I mean, right?  :(

Lenny? huh?

From "This Life".  I mean the Scottish guy who plays the lead albino alien.  The one who's always cranky.

I'm just totally loving this, but I have this deep feeling Bear McCready could score anything and I'd eat it up. The guy really is the John Williams of tv.

You mean Bear McCreary?  And yes, you're right.

The joy of tapping out a message on an ipad. And yes.

What amazes me is sometimes he obviously doesn't have rights to a song and can put together something often with lyrics more appropriate to the actual scene, that totally captures the emotion of the song he's riffing on.

This last episode was really good.

Season finale last night:

Overall I think the show adequately exhibits potential mostly due to creative concepts and plothooks, but falls flat in production.  They're going to have to put forth a bit more effort in sea. 2.

This is the best show on SyFy since Battlestar Galactica.  I'm stunned by how good it is compared to their other offerings and that it's actually scifi on their wrasslin' channel. 

I think Eureka and Warehouse 13 deserve a nod.

Eh I don't know.  They got the right mix of revealing enough stuff to be rewarding, but keeping enough secret to justify another season.  But the whole episode seemed to be about people behaving stupidly.

Warehouse 13 I'd say yes for the most part.

Eureka - not so much, as the cutesy bits that they like inserting got very much annoying.

I thought the annoying part was the way they rebooted the timeline every single season.  "We've written ourselves into a corner?  TIME TRAVEL!!!"

--Dave

I like this show, but man that last episode was painful. How many are they dead or not cliffhangers can we have!!?! Should we attempt to explain a damn thing about the McGuffin we've been chasing all season? Naw, we only got five minutes left - she runs in the cave, special effects and stuff happen, and um, love saves the day!

That combat scene near the end with Nolan and Irisa looked like something we filmed with a handycam in Highschool. Five minute sequence of single bad guys running in to the scene to stand there for five seconds before getting shot.

I still like the show though.

They explained the macguffin an episode back.  They're the control units for a hidden votan warship that crashed on earth way back in time, which is what rose up out of the pit at the end there.

And magically brought someone back to life through the power of Votan love?

To be fair, if the Votan tech/magic can make a dead alien sit up and hop out of an acid bath, reviving a freshly dead human isn't really a stretch.

--Dave

NANOGENES!!

Quick question:

I watched the first few episodes and was not impressed.  After the third episode I didn't care about any of the characters, the cultures or the storyline.  Do you folks think that there is anything in the later episodes that would turn me around and make me care?

It got better as it went along but it didn't become a "must see"-show. Forcing yourself to watch something for many episodes just because it might get better at some distant point is rarely worth it.

Tis what I thought. The description of the show made me think it had potential, but it fell far short of that potential in the first 3 episodes.  It just felt... blah.

I'd say the weakness is character identification. I don't really like or care for anyone in the show. I enjoy it, but that element is really missing.

I liked Irissa. But that was about it.

Season 2 started last week. Tonight is the second episode. The second season starts 9 months after the first one. Most every character is doing something else instead of what they were doing before. In the first episode they travelled to LA and Chicago, but it's all going to back to St. Louis in the next one.

Two cool callbacks in the first episode of this season to the first episode of the first season:

1. Hellbugs attacking someone in the forest.
2. Dad and daughter singing in the truck.

Maybe that means I'll finally stop seeing the "Tick. Tick. Tick." ad.

Bad guy trying to get a handy from the doctor was fucking hilarious.

"You want me to check you for lumps?"

Despite almost deleting the episodes unwatched, I finally got around to the first one and really enjoyed it. I know it's not great art, but it'll do.

"You've got your hot wookiee, all you need to do is call that hand cannon a "blaster" and the fantasy is complete."

Spectacular line from hot E-Rep chick.

Grant Bowler, whom I thought was a bit boring in the last season, has become rather more animated and I'm enjoying his part a lot more.  He was good in that Kiwi series with the bloke from Banshee, but it was a different sort of acting.  Mean white H.G. Wells doesn't do an awful job going from soft to hard, but I wish she'd do her flirty submissive bits without moving her face around so much.  She makes me nervous.  She's good at playing baddies.  How come those white people aren't more wrinkly?  They spend way to much time in the bath.

I'm still not inspired to pick up the game again, though. 

TV show is better than the game is why.   :awesome_for_real:

New season is going good so far.  Nice to see a bit more of the world and I agree, Grant Bowler is doing better.  The 'handy' scenes were funny and I liked the scene were the poor girl is in the bath with her mother in law!  It's pretty good all around, the E-Rep's are solid additons.  I like how they do these little slice of life scenes, like where ERep girl is making a propaganda film.  I guess I'm a bit put off by the ex-major now the cathouse owner (and sexual release provider?).  Seems really out of character for her.  Plus Julie Benz will be mine all mine someday!  :drill:

So season 2 ended with on ok story that actually had some scifi in it. No word yet on whether there's going to be season 3 but atleast it hasn't been cancelled yet. All in all I'd rather it did get a new season (especially considering the current offering on scifi tv-series front)

Defiance renewed for season 3. (http://seriable.com/defiance-renewed-season-3-syfy/)  :| :lol:

Was time to clean out the DVR so finally got around to watching season 2 recently. Actually liked it better then season 1. Glad it's been renewed for season 3.

Did anyone else watch season 3? It was the best one yet by far, but the ending felt like a series finale.

I enjoyed it. It was a bit uneven in some parts but overall pretty enjoyable. I think they were not confident of getting a season 4 and so decided to give it a good finale and if that is the last episode this show gets I think they can all hold their heads pretty high it went out on a good note with some really nice special effects.

I liked that everybody was sad about nolan but irisa who realized her dad was living out his dream he had since he was a little kid. That would make a hell of a spin off nolan and yuel to infinity and beyond.

I liked it for the most part even though the Omec turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. The ending itself was ok even if there is never anything more in the particular "universe".

Syfy picked up Killjoys and Dark Matter today but have no decision on this show yet... I gave up during season 1 when it seemed like it was trying to be a modern CW version of Babylon 5.

I would think that both of those are alot cheaper to produce since they have a smaller cast by far.

Defiance is much, much better than Dark Matter or Killjoys.  Dark Matter is inexplicably boring despite having an interesting premise.  It's like someone decided to make Farscape without the aliens or fun.  Killjoys is just terrible.

Dark Matter has too much stuff as any of the main (6) characters' backstory could be a show in itself so cramming them all into a 13 episode season (in addition to the whole memory loss plot) is just too much.

Defiance is a mess of a show with the characters changing personalites to fit the current episode. Each one is mind controled/mind altered every episode as well.  The mayor is tough as nails one episode, the next and she's a 'mewling quim'.  The Olmec keep saying they eat Castafans, bitch go ahead and eat Stama stop talking to your food!  I've tried and tried to watch this show but kind of quit halfway through season two, I didn't realize it came back on and only saw a handful of season three. 

Killjoys is Downton Abby in comparison. The characters are better written and consistent and they do attempt a lot of world building.  Yeah, it's kind of lame in some aspects, but hey, bounty hunters in space!  If I see another 'strangers on a mysterious starship' I think I'll puke.  Dark Matter doesn't matter.  I quickly tired of sterotypical asian martial artist and other nonsense. 

I've bitched Syfy doesn't have scifi on it so now that it does I'll at least watch Killjoys, worse ways to spend an hour.

I think Killjoys is just awful, too.  If I had to pick between Killjoys and Dark Matter, Dark Matter would win.  Slightly.  I do, however, enjoy Defiance.  Probably because of those daffy white people.

I like all three. =P

Ditto, defiance was the best one though.

Just saw that this was cancelled.  While not a great show, I still think it was better than Dark Matter or Killjoys.  It had some good world building but poor storytelling, in my opinion.  They could have gone with a Deadwood-esque theme with aliens but instead it just kind of wandered around aimlessly, plot-wise.

I guess they might call it a cancellation, but we got a series finale type episode so I'm fine with this.  Honestly i have no idea what they could have done for another season anyways.

sad to see it cancelled but clearly they thought that was in the air and gave it a perfectly servicable series finale so I am okay with this.

It might be that the MMO for Defiance wasn't doing much (anymore) for the show nor did the MMO benefit from the show so continuing a (in all honesty mediocre) show wasn't viable.
Glad to see it end on a high note with some of the plot actually resolved instead of a big cliffhanger (like Almost Human etc single season shows).

Yup ending up with defiance safe and pretty secure and with Nathan getting to live out his childhood dream of exploring the universe in a space ship. Pretty good solid ending there with some room if they did get reupped but overall went out on a pretty strong finish.

I think I saw a note today that the MMO will continue.