1 out of 5

Creator: Rockne S. O’Bannon (developed by)

Aliens landed on Earth yadda yadda no resources blah blah humans are the lower race, there are different species living together speaking unique languages that are fully designed blar de blar and now let’s fight battles for an energy source or something.  Our lead character is your male rough n’ tumble archetype, don’t need nothin’, cares for his adopted tough-as-nails-alien-species daughter while doing bounty-huntin’ or shaggin’ the ladies.  Also he’s like ex Special Forces or whatever so watch out ’cause he knows how to turn threatening machines off with a punch.

Defiance wasn’t all that bad, and all the gloss I just glossed all glossy on is what’s expected of sci-fi worlds, and if anything, the ‘arrived in full’ sense of Defiance shows a level of commitment that not all series get… but I lose some respect for that when reading that the show is being ‘designed’ along with an MMORPG, so I kept half-feeling like the forced introduction to different species was just an adult version of Yugi-Oh.  Indeed, the show carries a ‘developed by’ tag.  There’s no spear-heading idea man that wants this show out there, it’s just a pitch from somewhere in the field that got a writer and director.  The lead father / daughter roles are well acted and not so over-hammishly written, I mean its standard TV fare but at least not standard shitty TV fare, and on the whole the pilot was clearly shot and paced well enough to keep you in plot and action for appropriate periods of time.  But for all the dollars spent on set dressing, it was just so incredibly ho-hum… which I’m attributing in part to writer Rockne S. O’Bannon, who lately I’m recognizing as a for-hire type name.  Even though, yes, he’s been attached as creator to some notable series, he seems – to me – to exist in the knock-off fringes, totally interested in the sci-fi world, undoubtedly, but lightbulbs only going off when they’re powered by energy from better shows.

The pilot stumbles through our leads falling into a human-led town and then gaining their trust by helping them thwart a bad guy invasion.  Throughout are incredibly obvious subplot seeds.  I’d be more forgiving of something like this if it just popped up on the fringes, but all the push for a show so incredibly average makes it’s lack of any unique character types or plot ideas that much more damning.  Not every quality sci-fi series has to be a thoughtful space captain leading a crew through space, but I hate ‘big idea’ TV shows that spend no time trying to build our interest and instead just hit us with flash and expect us to be on board.