"Defiance" Topic

Watched it on HULU this morning-liked it a lot. Reminded me of Fallout and Gamma World.

Well, my initial impression was that it was a heck of a lot better than Revolution.

I watched it last night and thought it was pretty good.

It wasn't bad. I'll have to see more of it before I make up my mind.

Same old crap world almost ends Humans and aliens decide to live together despite rampant tensions between the species
inter species love (ala romeo and juliet) bad guy becomes sheriff then saves town .
I'm not a big fan of being dropped in the middle of a story with no background on who what where and why ….wookies ,albinos,clingon/Cardashians,intergens what,
terminator guys with great weapons but could not be bothered to wear body armour and use tactics that even a monopoly player would laugh at ,,lets pile into a natural choke point so we can get zapped by the power ball or Dick Clark ball or whatever it was..good thing the Mayor is a hot chick the only true Nerdfoo displayed by the creator(Recreator) so far……Mikey

I'm with Mikey…same old crap.

My reaction was just the opposite – I thought it was generally very well done, with decent dialogue (SF dialogue usually seems to have been written by people who don't talk, ever). I had no problem with entering the story – I don't want a lot of intrusive backstory in this sort of thing.

I had no problem with familiar aspects of the story, in the same way that I regard Indiana Jones. It's a nod to the conventions of the genre.

I didn't think the battle was very convincing, but I seldom find battle scenes very convincing. I don't know why anyone thinks a handful of bikers shooting from the saddle will do anything except make a bit of noise.

The cast is very good, which again is unusual for anything on Syfy and – indeed – for SF in general.

I give it a strong-but-conditional thumbs up.

I'm a bit with Whoa Mohammed on this as well. While watching it, I kept thinking of what matches what on TVTropes.com. And I WOULD have liked a bit more background, like why the aliens are here and what happened (I don't think it's a big secret). I usually find first eps a little weak, so I'm going to give it a chance.

BTW, good call on the tactics thing. The town won because the bad guys were stupid. Also the last part could have done a bit better with pacing and build up. I think there was just too much going on here, too many characters, and estabilishing too many plotlines…

Damon.

I believe in the brief back story they missed some things that would have made a few things more clearer.

Second, the issue with the battle scene is that we are spoiled by what they spend on special effects for movies while limited for what they can spend to a TV series.

I did find some things predictable, but then again given amount the visual media, TV, movies, etc, how much new stuff can you expect before figuring out what is what.

In general, I enjoyed the show. The main character is really no different than Mel in Firefly. A war hero that has become disillusion with society, and yet cares about those that are in trouble.

I liked some aspects of it but agree the "outsider becomes Lawman" trope is being used too often. The battle scene was crap. Very few TV writers seem to have heard of the concept of tactics based on weapon function. I will keep watching until my wife threatens divorce.

I will keep watching until my wife threatens divorce.

SEE, there is a BRIGHT SIDE!

Okay I watched it, I note the same faults as before, didn't blow much subway air up my skirt,. I'm in the same boat as the Mexican Guy named Jack who is squinting, but I have a foot closer to the gunwale.

However…

The coming attractions seem to show that they will flesh out the backstory as time goes by, so…I will give it a chance, let's say three more eps.

If I'm still in Firely did it better mode by then, I'll let it pass from beyond view.

They sure are pushing a new format though, it seems, but a lot of the shows are not until late summer, next TV season and even next year, so…might be a bit of a stretch to see if the cavalry arrives in time to save the channel, especially if Defiance falls on its face.

BTW, Fionulla Flanagan, of "How the West was Won" fame, is still an attractive woman, but in case you missed it, worth tracking down a one person movie she did in the 80's. Let's just say that her charms were fully on display and she was a damn good looking woman underneath all those schule marm clothes she wore for General Sheridan. (Forget the name of the movie though).

There's quite a bit of background info on the Defiance website. I was reading up on it while I watched. Didn't fill in all the cracks, but it certainly helped.

So much of the back story has been laid out in many other formats (behind the scenes show, crossover show, tv ads for the last 9 months plus, viral ads over the internet, etc) that I had a pretty good grasp of the setting before even getting the brief intro at the start of the show.

There is nothing really original story wise here, but not really a terrible mash up either. It's pretty predictable, but then so are all the old episodes of "classic TV" I watch on Netflix and Encore Westerns.

Not the best show on TV right now, but certainly better then 95% of the junk that is on. I will give it a couple weeks to see if it hooks me or not.

I do have to mention though that the car chase scene had the staple bad CGI that SyFy is so infamous for. Why they couldn't just film the real car instead… it was a bit jarring compared to the earlier CGI scenes.

I thought it was decent.

It's sci-fi. It's got "story" (to one degree or another). It's got writers.

It DOESN'T have "Pawn Shops," or "Storage Lockers," or "Hillbillies/Swamp People," or "Real" Housewives, or "Bachelors" or "Bachelorettes" or any other "Reality" Show cr@p!

On that basis ALONE, I'll gladly give it a chance!
(and it does kinda~sorta feel like Firefly)

timeline:
link

First half of the show was OK, second half was pretty weak.

The battle would have been so much better if it had been a large gang of wasteland marauders attacking instead of a high tech army.

Lack of tactics and armor would have been more believable if it was just a mass of hoodlums expecting to steamroll a bunch of miners and merchants.

I was really hoping more for Farscape quality with Rockne S. O'Bannon involved.

Edit:
@Mr Canuck, don't forget all the @#$ $%*&!? ghosts.

I find it entertaining enough and will give it a chance. I am bored with Revolution already.

OK for a pilot. Kinda dumb premise that of all the Carl Sagenesque "billions and billions" of stars, they have to land on Earth. What they couldn't terraform Mars? Ceta Alpha V?

Funny how when the motorcycles reached the top of the cliff earlier in the show, there was a power armor scout that blasted the three away. What happened to scouts before the high tech column wound its way through the canyon? How about a drone with cameras? Anything?

On the other hand, the baddies seemed to be marching along OK until their PowerBall number came up, motorcycles or no motorcycles.

I don't mind as much the stereotypes: Romeo and Juliet, bad boy becomes good sheriff, madame with heart of gold, and so on. Gotta start somewhere. So, we'll see.

Russ

It was a mildly entertaining pile of trope. Which is pretty good for Sy Fy.

Remember, if the quality raises too high, they'll have to cancel it.

I too thought it was well done. I am and old geizer with a long history of watching SciFi and not horror. So I am hard to please. yes there were some initial concenrs as with most new series it will be worked out with plot and character growth.

This morning I did look up the Wikipedia site on the show to find out more about the races and background. It was a very usefull effort. I am ready for the next episode.

It was good for a SciFi series. Sort of like "He is fast for a catcher."

John kelly

I enjoyed it until the end and then it felt like they gave to much of the story line away. It would have held my interest more if they had not revealed who was trying to wipe out the town.

You know what really made me smile? At the beginning of the show when the two of them started singing along to a certain song, and doing a half way decent job. They looked and sounded like two souls that had been together through thick and thin for a long time. I used to do that with my daughter.

I like to think that the high tech baddies had been steam rolling over local poorly armed town folk for so many years that they really didn't expect it to be any different. Plus they had inside help who told them that the townsfolk had bugged out after the shield went down.

I had read reviews that it took 4 shows or so before it really takes off and gets going.

My one complaint is that I wished the Aliens were more alien. Tired of human shaped aliens. I know that the current thinking is that most intelligent aliens will be bipedal and have at least two extremities to manipulate objects, but must they be legs like ours or hands like ours?

My one complaint is that I wished the Aliens were more alien. Tired of human shaped aliens. I know that the current thinking is that most intelligent aliens will be bipedal and have at least two extremities to manipulate objects, but must they be legs like ours or hands like ours?

For the most part I agree. I understand the limitations of TV, but some of the aliens (I can't recall the name, but I've named them the Space Elfs…you know which ones I'm talking about!) it looks like they didn't even try.

But it would be a bit much to hope for some Jophur-like aliens… :)

Damon.

Best use of Johnny Cash in a sci-fi series since Space: Above and Beyond.

It was okay. Yes, I kept comparing it to all that came before be it Eureka, Fallout, Avatar, Firefly and even Babylon 5. I enjoyed the character of Doc Yewell, the Indogene with the cranky attitude. Sort of an alien Leonard McCoy.

And a fairly impressive cast! Good to see Graham Greene employed.

Looking back on the first seasons of Star Trek: TNG and Babylon 5, I'm inclined to wait and see what develops.

Better than most syfy movies, anyway (THERE's damning with faint praise)--not bad but not Firefly. I'll give it a few more episodes if nothing else sci fi shows up.

As for tactics, at least the townspeople set up an L-shaped ambush, so compared to most TV combat this was the equivalent of Sun Tzu.

Rob

Though not normally a fan of Syfy, with their really bad movies, I will admit I enjoyed this one a lot more than I expected to.
Im with Doug Redshirt in that I liked the father/daughter bit in the beginning(yes, I know she isn't his real daughter), it seemed believable and made me like both chars from the get go.
OK, so the big battle was fakey, that's true of almost all TV and movie battles.
It kept my interest enough that I will watch the future eps unless it really goes downhill.

Just for the record, Nathan's character on Firefly was Mal, not Mel. Somebody needs their geek card revoked.

I liked it.
Took my atention that in a town of 5 or 10 thousand people there were only one sheriff with a deputy and any militia.

Let's see.

Amicalement
Armand

I liked the fence thingy. But the writers seemed to forget about vertical envelopment, you know, death from above. The Air Cav could teach the TV aliens a thing or two about insertion. The place needs a better fence. Good fence makes good neighbors.

The tub scene was semi nice. Is it not unusual for folks to enter a topped up bath tub with clothes on? The woman's bathing attire was cute. Or was the bath tub scene some odd alien behavior. One wonders.

What the heck was the Madam thinking? The guy got a freebee? for WHAT? What were the writers thinking about the woman's business acumen?

The single most interesting moment occurred when the Madam revealed her sister was The Mayor. Then what?

Previews showed helicopters or hover craft being used in the next few episodes.

It was much better than I was expecting.
Not great, but I'm going to give it a chance.
Full of flaws and cliches, but then, so are half-billion-dollar movies.
-Kle.

Thought it was a good start, the main character for me is closer to Han Solo (heresy I know) he was even leaving with his reward as the rest were gearing up for the showdown. Time will tell, as for the tactics it was either stupidity to walk up to the front door, or over confidence, as the ending kinda implied everyone should've legged it.

Honestly I wish they wouldn't even try to depict battle scenes in TV shows. They are so rarely plausible.

Small gunfights/brawls, OK but the climactic battle is a waste of screen time.

I also question the need for the TV-MA approach. Matt Dillon and Miss Kitty seem to be the precedent for Nolan and Whats-her-name. If they had kept it PG my ten year old would have LOVED the battle scene.

Maybe they need to hone in on their market better.

Still its got Julie Benz who seems a nice girl that carved out her own little niche of Geekdom and that is always a plus.

The fence cracked me up. The tower was clearly visible above the wall. They had to do all that funny stuff to get the tower blown up when you could do it with one of those walking cannons from half way down the valley.

I'm going to watch every single episode. Mostly for the same reason I watch Revolution. Not so much hopping it gets better but more like supporting my genre in hopes it gets better.

Scifi does have a thing with people suddenly getting offered sheriff jobs..

I did see a lot of potential and I've even seen some reports online that scifi sees it as well. They know they spend a ton of cash and hopefully they support it a bit more and help push it along. Something Fox could learn a lesson from.

I am a bit frustrated with both revolution and defiance. The main guy in defiance and the girl from revolution could be a lot deeper and either the writers or the actors are not pulling it off. Of course, Not everyone is a Fillion or Harrison.

Cliched and silly. But nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be or had heard. Will keep watching, but i'm not setting the bar very high with this one. Father daughter relationship will keep my attention for a bit.

Not too bad.
Though I was annoyed by the CGI truck (`roller` iirc) bits, why do that when they had an actual truck.

The voltons? reminded me of Locust from Gears of War but with worse graphics than on my Xbox.

Mostly much salt was needed to be used with pinching.

Pilots do tend to suck though, lets be honest the Firefly pilot was very bad, but the series was a 10/10 overall.

Only time will tell, give it a chance.

I liked it.

It had high moments and it had other moments.

The American Western as a template has been used and in some case misused in the past, I can live with the use this time.

With this many aliens introduced, this many characters presented, so much story structure taken for granted…that is a lot to take in…I will wait it out.

Hopefully the crew, writers, etc. will find their stride sooner than later.

:)

that of all the Carl Sagenesque "billions and billions" of stars, they have to land on Earth. What they couldn't terraform Mars? Ceta Alpha V?

The story is that when they set out for Earth there were no humans here. They were unpleasantly surprised when they arrived.

I'm on the fence, having watched the first two episodes.

I want to like it, and the acting, and characters are good.

We'll have to see how it goes.

I like the alien's wife. She seems to be really good at plotting, and manipulation (aren't they all?), so that may prove interesting.

I watched the first 20 minutes and turned it off as I saw a set of stereotypes in ex-Star Trek make-up.
However, the next day I had an hour to kill so put it back on to see how bad it got. I then sat and watched the various stereotypes get key scenes that gave their characters some real depth, the young deputy being a good example.
So, I'm not yet convinced but I'm glad I gave it another shot and I'll try a few more episodes.