Defiance Review (TV Series)

Farscape mixed with a little bit of Firefly without all the great things that made those Sci-Fi series iconic.

As I attempted to calm my excitement for a new Sci-Fi series called Defiance and settle down to listen intently to the introduction narration I couldn’t help but become even more excited for the forth coming adventures.

Defiance commences by narration of the past war which has lead us to the not too distant future where aliens known as Voltans and humans live upon a single post-apocalyptic Earth. This wasn’t always the case. The Voltans came to Earth, seeking a new home. Upon being refused the land which they were promised the Voltans declared war upon Earth and the humans. Decades pass before a ceasefire was put in place. Now, humans and Voltans life together under constant tension. The beginning of a new order, a new world resides within the walls of an area known as Defiance.

We follow the lead character known as Jeb. Jeb is, well as complex and as layered as his name suggests. He has an adopted daughter who is a Voltan and they roam lands fending for themselves as, I can only assume, they are anti all forms of government.

Series like these are built upon quite a solid premise but once you have sat you view them, small things become apparent and you soon realise that there is nothing special or unique about this series.

When searching for a good series conveying human and alien relations living together in harmony, tension and turmoil you can simply reference the TV series Farscape. Farscape portrayed this element particularly well. The series gave each character depth, character through characteristics which were developed upon their well thought out back stories, race and believes and moral.

Defiance simply seemed to lob together a bunch of aliens, give a brief narration in the beginning which is meant to develop the story and then gave the characters no developing characteristics.

It seems to me, and where a lot of production value is lost, is that a lot of writers these days attempt to write dialogue which they use as a print for all their characters which is built upon the stereotyped tough guy with an attitude problem coupled with mediocre wit.

Firefly did this perfectly. Each characters dialogue was unique to this character’s characteristics. Tough guy antics and dialogue weaved with attitude and sarcasm on occasion never felt forced or miss placed.

One thing I did notice is that the actors who portrayed these aliens delivered their lines and acted their scenes as awkward as some as the aliens looked. Directorial wise, nothing seemed to flow seamlessly together. Scenes just seemed liked events stuck together all following the same thread of – Fighting followed by tough guy dialogue then mixed up with some more scenes of trouble leading to some average acting and dull story development.

Defiance, episode 1 season 1. 51 minutes in. That was enough for me.