Defiance

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Did anyone see the Defiance pilot on SyFy? I thought it was pretty good, despite being shock full of clichés and predictable tropes. But it holds promise, which I hope they won't squander like what happened to Terra Nova.

And am I weird for finding that red-haired alien chick oddly appealing...?

[Distracted]

I like her, too. She's cute. I hope they can keep up the quality of the show's special effects without breaking the bank.

[Cogito]

I've only seen the first twenty minutes so far, but it's a promising start.

[Cogito]

I got to see the rest of the first episode this evening. The special effects look interesting, although I think they overstretched themselves on the bigger scenes. I did wonder at the logic of those creatures walking around in plate armor that didn't protect them from small arms fire, and it felt as if I was watching a rerun of the imperial stormtroopers being beaten up by little teddy bears with clubs. My lasting impression afterwards is that it feels like a clone of Eureka set in a slightly different world. It will be interesting to see how it develops. The more successful SciFi there is on the small screen the better, right?

[Distracted]

You betcha. And there's a MMP game, too!

Not that I have any free time to play it, but still...

[Cogito]

Free time? Oh yes, I remember that ...

[Lt. Zoe Jebkanto]

Free? Time? What is it? Something you don't need to pay for? I don't have SyFy, but I do have Netflix, so I usually do catch up eventually. So, if I seem to be in culture lag, now you know why.

[Alelou]

Finally caught the pilot of this. Yes, it's much better than Terra Nova, if only because it's clearly not designed to be a kiddy show.

Of course I found myself thinking if they could pull that off WHY THE HELL not do a fifth season of Enterprise?

Watching it on demand was a bit like torture, though, because they ran the same awful Axe commercial every break -- and for some reason it wasn't just one commercial, but that commercial plus a shorter version of it squished together. As if they secretly want to get even with Axe for sponsoring them by making every viewer develop a deep hatred for the product, even more profound than they might have after smelling it.

We finally got DVR (along with nearly halving our cable bill) when I told them I was leaving for DirecTV, but we have yet to figure out how to use it. Must. Learn. Now.

[Distracted]

Now we're getting into pseudo-native shamanism/paranormal mumbo jumbo. I'm not sure I like it. I prefer at least a pseudoscientific explanation for extra-sensory abilities. Bloodletting rituals, smoking some hallucinogens, and then doing a little chanting in an invented language to trigger "visions" just doesn't do it for me. I don't why I can believe in telepathy but not in shamanism. I guess it's all the SF I've read. I think of mind reading as a legitimate potential alien ability, whereas this vision business is more fantasy in my mind.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

^ I kind of agree, even though it is interesting that Irisa gets a little background.

[Cogito]

I've got the same view, but so far I've been able to rationalise this newly revealed ability without resorting to the supernatural. It feels a bit like the Star Trek holodeck, though. What, a small town full of aliens who barely tolerate each other isn't interesting enough on its own, so you have to resort to this sort of mumbo-jumbo?

I still get the feeling that the special effects budget has been stretched past its limit, though - quite a few of the more complicated-looking scenes feel as if they're getting cut short.

[Jamieson]

Finally got a chance to check this out. I've just finished the third episode, where this "mumbo-jumbo" comes in

I find it interesting, but I wrote my Master's thesis on shamanism in the archaeological record, so I have a particular interest in the topic and the cultural significance it holds. To be fair, it isn't shamanism in the traditional sense, but then again they're aliens, and most writers/producers get it wrong anyhow, so it's to be expected. Despite my interest in the subject matter, though, I agree that it's probably not necessary for this show at this particular juncture - there's already a lot for them to develop and expand/explain so early on, they don't need to over-complicate it.

So far I like it, though, despite the fact that it's not quite what I was expecting. Rockne O'Bannon is one of the executive producers, though, and he brought us Farscape, so there's that

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Good news...

'Defiance' Season 2 ordered by Syfy - 13 new episodes on the way

[Alelou]

Yay.

I didn't mind the funky visions stuff. She's alien and they can't have her doing mind melds, but throwing in some cool alien mojo is not a bad idea -- even more interesting that it obviously has costs. I'm sure it will continue to come in useful.

Conveniently shorting-out yet easily-repaired elevators I have less patience for.

I'm sure this sounds stupid, but I think what I liked best about this episode was the reverence our murder victim had for his sneakers. It was just so funny and yet so much an indication of what their world has come down to.

[Alelou]

Anyone else still watching this? Any idea what the hell was going on with those metal disks in the last episode (which I finally watched last night)?

I thought whitey Lady MacBeth might be showing signs of sweetening up, but judging from this episode she's as much the evil schemer as ever. (Yeah, I still can't remember most of their names.)

Judging from the number of commercials even on demand, the show is doing pretty well. Yay, because I am well hooked.