“Defiance” Series Premiere: It’s a Start

When I sat down to watch the pilot episode of Defiance I was joined by my lovely friend, and kindred-spirit in pop culture nerdom, Heather. Together we sorted through what can only be described as the ultimate 2013 sci-fi pastiche plus some. Not that we terribly minded – though it was certainly helpful to have a partner in crime to enjoy it with.

Julie Benz’s Amanda Rosewater – the new mayor of the town of Defiance – holds the show together for the moment as she struggles with her new responsibilities in a town that is consistently facing external and internal threats in the post-invasion Wild West. As usual in science fiction – the problems faced by the inhabitants of the other world are very similar to those in our own. There are race and class conflicts and a story involving the requisite “annoying teens” that has a strong resemblance to the classic Romeo & Juliet tale.

Early in the episode Nolan and Irisa start singing along to country music on the radio. Don’t get me wrong – who doesn’t love a good old fashioned Johnny Cash/O Brother Where Art Though sing-along in their sci-fi? This scene was actually incredibly sweet and probably caught the right balance of their strange relationship. All that being said, this drawn out musical interlude is a perfect example of the tonal imbalance that this pilot suffered from – it’s also an example of the kind of character moments that will have me sticking around for more.

The show at times felt like it was too many things at once. There was the main idea of a space-western with aliens (borrowing from many of our favourite sci-fi series), but the “annoying teen romance” scenes felt lifted out of a very different show that might be found on the CW. These tonal shifts were distracting but I’m optimistic that this will be sorted out as the series settles in.

After viewing we considered the challenges involved in creating a pilot that involving heavy lifting in both the world building and character introduction departments. Defiance has the task of introducing an environment that is very different than the one we live in, populated with several different alien races that require some sort of introduction, and a brief history lesson on how we got here from our present Earth. We are also dealing with an ensemble cast – who all require introduction. We gave the episode a B grade – if it had been a regular episode it would have scored something closer to a C. We decided that despite some unevenness we will be watching again next week.

A few other favourite bits:

• Love Tommy and Irisa together – they seem to bring out the opposites in each other. I hope to see a lot more of this pair as the series continues
• Doc Yewll is another sassy smart character that we have our eyes on – “Good Human” pats on the head.
• The graphics were pretty impressive – this series seems to be following through on its ambitious promises

Watch the series premiere of Defiance tonight at 10pm on Showcase and Syfy – then let me know what you think!