So we've heard plenty of thoughts on the Defiance video game and for the most part seems pretty underwhelming. Anyone have any thoughts on the television show? Been awhile since I've gotten into a really hardcore SyFy television series since the cancellation of Stargate: Universe. Do the first few episodes hold up and is it a show worth investing in or not?

Not in my opinion. But I don't like shows like Stargate or Battlestar either...or the entire SyFy channel.

It's aiight. It's got BSG's kinda shaky cam/documentary style with the CGI and Bear is doing the music so that's good too. I get a Eureka vibe just from the basic plotline (Town needs a new sheriff after a dude with skills comes to town and oh look he's gonna stay and be sheriff)

I'm not sure if you've actually ever seen Battlestar Galactica, but it's nothing like Stargate or Star Trek or any sci-fi show you may think it may be like.

Anyway if Defiance is anything like BSG, then count me in.

I saw it on TV once...it looked corny as hell.

It has potential. The ending of episode 2 was actually pretty good.

The CG is truly horrendous for something released in 2013, and the makeup isn't all that convincing either, but there are some pretty decent characters in there and they could do interesting stuff with the setting.

It's pretty good, actually. Has potential.

I still think the game looks fun and am eager to try it. And while I loved the concept surrounding the tie-in and was optimistic going in, I couldn't have been more disappointed by the 2 hour premiere.

Here are my thoughts I typed out immediately following the 2 hour sitting, sorry if they seem ragey but I still stand by the overall sentiment:

...(The series premiere of "Defiance") was abysmal. It may have had a slightly larger budget and more interesting designs thanks to the video game tie-in, but as far as writing and execution it was typical SyFy crap.

Every situation and conversation in the premiere has been done somewhere else better, it was painful to see such common cliches executed so poorly. Just nonstop eye-roll inducing moments and a screaming desire to turn it off, but I was too excited by the concept to look away. The only semi-positives were the main guy, Han Solo basically, did a good job--but that mostly just highlighted the fact that no one else in the show did (okay his alien daughter with the anime eyes and the hot prostitute were alright too, but no one else!). Julie Benz was especially terrible, so terrible it was embarrassing to watch. She's clearly had no exposure to anything sci-fi before and her attempt to wing it was awful. I liked her in Dexter, she's been fairly bad in everything else and now I think she should be banned from acting.

And the only other positive was the robot war. Yes, there's a robot war in the premiere, so how could it not be awesome, right? Well, it comes pretty much out of nowhere after an hour & forty minutes of boring introductions and dumb crime solving, and it plays out exactly like an orc battle from Lord Of The Rings, if there was no physical contact because the bad guys were completely CG. It works because here they have guns but it was still really obvious that these 2 armies did not occupy the same physical space. It was a neat little scene regardless though, and a good commercial for the game. It's just ashame that the rest sucked so much.

I also read that the game & show won't actually effect events in one another as promised until they do a 2nd season of the show (which has not yet been greenlit), since they have to establish everything first. So that pretty much voids the entire reason I watched to begin with. I still think the game seems decent, but everyone who said the crossover experiment would fail is probably right. I also think the concept could still be really awesome if executed properly from the start, so hopefully someone who doesn't suck takes the idea and runs with it, using this one as an example of what not to do. I'd like to think there's a chance Defiance could come together eventually, but with something like this the writing is the most important aspect and so far it's an utter failure in that department, relying solely on visuals. And the visuals are probably the best a Syfy original's ever had but they're so full of cheap CG they're laughable by any other standards. So yeah, it's bad.

The show starts off with a genocidal attack on the human race. Billions die via a nuclear attack within the first hour or so of the show. The remainder of series concentrates on the surviving humans attempt to find a new planet to colonise. And the fucked-upness doesn't end there. Terrorism, torture, rape. It's no Game of Thrones but it ain't corny.

Like some above mentioned, it's got plenty of cliches in it. But for what it's worth, I'm enjoying it so far.

If you're the kind of person that can endure some corniness for the sake of enjoying science-fiction, you might have an alright time with the show.

I didn't like the first episode and I haven't seen more yet. I didn't like Stargåte, but I liked Battlestar.

Its not bad, so theres that.

only two episodes in, and it seems alright, i'll keep watching.

Not to mention that the first major reveal is that the Cylons (the robots that wipe out humanity) in fact look identical to humans, meaning throughout the show there's always the threat that someone could actually be a robot.

The things about BSG that will always stay with me are how fucking grim it is, every episode starts with the total number of survivors remaining, and how good some of the characters are (saul, Cdr. Adama, gaius to name a few.)

I'm not a fan of it.

That doesn't make a show not-corny. BSG is a pretty good show but a few things about it did come across as corny. Like "frack", for instance. Either say it or don't fucking say it.

I watched the Pilot yesterday, and all things considered, it actually seems to be a pretty good show. I thought it looked real bad from the previews, but I figured I'd give it a chance anyway since I'm running out of shows to watch, and I ended up enjoying it. It definitely has it's moments of camp, but overall it's not nearly as cheesy as I had anticipated. The special effects are piss poor, though they do a decent job at hiding it in spots. It sets up a potentially interesting sci-fi world with some cool, if not entirely cliched things. I'll stick with it for awhile to see what comes of it. I may even check out the game if I can find it for cheap one of these days.

Saw it & overall from the look of the first two shows it's got some promising stuff to it but it's a rough start. Then again after the first two shows it seems like there's at least 4 new alien types in the show that I'd rather find out more about their species/history. If it's anything like other sci-fi/fantasy shows, it'll take a season or two to get it's footing but hopefully it won't be prematurely axed like Firefly. Definitely going to rent the game now to just get a better look at some of the world as the first few shows is stuck more in character history versus anything else though might have to watch them again to see what I'm missing.

I kinda enjoyed the first episode, but I dunno if it's something I will continue to watch. It seems really similar to a bunch of other shows.

I liked the show ok, but I wouldn't be watching it if I didn't like the game so much. But I usualy steer clear of SyFy (and most TV in general to be honest).

The set up has promise, and the actors are generally appealing. The writing just needs to improve.

I liked the first 70-80% of the first episode kind of a lot, but the end sort of petered out. Curious to see the second episode and see what they do with it. I actually kind of like the characters more than I expected to. Main guy has a dumb face but turned out to be plenty likeable and the concept of his relationship with his adopted daughter is kind of cool. We'll see if the show really turns into anything or not though.

God damn do they need a bigger effects budget though. There were times I was wondering why the fuck they were doing CG shots like with the buggy just driving along, would have been easier to just film it for real considering they have the damn thing built.

I saw the pilot episode and was actively trying not to laugh for most of it, and not in the good way. The lead character is an awful Mal Reynolds/Han Solo clone with twice the smirk and none of the charm. Plus some of the plot twists were pretty ludicrous. Anyone notice that the girl gets shot by the bad guys in the beginning of the episode, then somehow manages to get them to risk their lives for no real reason at the end just because they're the same race?

@rorie said:

Like most people, I suspect you are taking the series wayyyyy too seriously. It's campy Sci-fi. None of it's "flaws" are any different than Angel or Buffy, and not everything can be without flaw like Firefly.

Hell, if people liked the modern Battlestar, there's no way this can't be good too. That shit was terrible. At least people can act in Defiance

It's not great, but I think it manages to be entertaining. Which is what it's going for so I'll just ignore the rest. If you start dissecting stuff like this and Eureka, things get messy. But you can generally enjoy them if you just sit back and let it all go. Except that last season of Eureka which was dreadful.

@rorie:I thought it was 'OK'.

But yeah, Grant Bowler is neither a particularly compelling or charamastic lead. But I do have a soft spot for some low-rent-ish SyFy jank. (so I'll probably continue watching it...sigh)

Edit - I also bought the MMO, but dropped it like a stone in a little over a week.

it's ok so far

It's not complete shit, but it's a waste of time either. It's genuinely dumb in the worst way possible far too often, but it manages not to suck enough that I can confidently say there are plenty of worse ways to spend an hour. If you don't mind your entertainment covered in cheese, I say it's definitely worth a watch.

That said, if anyone, and I mean fucking anyone, outside of that TV show tries to turn “shtako” into an actual thing: fuck you. Fuck you. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck you.

Not to mention that the plot of Battlestar completely flamed out with their pseudo-religious bullshit.

I like my "syfy" dramas to be in space or other planets, not on (our) earth.

Being on earth just makes it Desperate Housewives with lasers.

Defiance seems alright so far. Nothing spectacular but it has potential.

@rorie:

Hey, dude had a top hat! A goddamn motherfucking top hat! What more could you want? As to your complaints, it's a sci fi show to some extent it's just "hey this is not horrible and is visually interesting"

@i_stay_puft: It's solid from a visual perspective, almost enough to the point that you could mute the entire show and just watch and still enjoy it (competent CGI, fantastic art direction); decent supporting characters/actors and generally weak main cast except the protagonist who's alright.

@mordeaniisChaos "Hell, if people liked the modern Battlestar, there's no way this can't be good too. That shit was terrible. At least people can act in Defiance

"

Are you frakking high? BSG had some of the finest acting performances around and was one of the best TV shows period

Shut up fool and watch it

Are you high? First of all, any time anyone said "frakking" it sounded even more forced than whatever stupid fake "shit" Defiance has, so using "frak" in a sentence isn't really helping your case. Second of all, maybe there are a few decent parts eventually. I wouldn't know. I got half way through the first season and literally could not stand the shitty soap opera acting that plagued the show. It wasn't even good soap opera acting, it was just bad soap opera acting. I already wanted to just kill all of the characters except the admiral guy. And even he was kind of annoying.

Just watched the second episode, which was kind of "meh" throughout until the last 4 minutes which were awesome thanks to a "Come as you are" cover and Godfather-ish scene; show still has a lot of potential though it looks like it'll just have great moments from time to time. Unlike Cobain this guy's voice was actually intelligible though, which I can't decide if I like or not.

lol @battlestar being corny, smh, Some people just have bad taste i guess. I haven't gotten through the first episode of defiance so far, first half seemed ok. Shitacos is the worst scfi word i've ever heard though

@mordeaniischaos: Clearly BSG wasn't for you.

I've yet to give Defiance but I'll watch it eventually due to the lack of alternatives.

Mmm, shit tacos.

Ugh, I hated that cover. The original would have A) been better and B) fit the show a lot more. Cobain had fuckin' soul and feeling. That just sounded cold and distant and not in an intentional or creative way.

It's not bad but it's not good either. If you're looking for a show to fill your monday night, you can do worse.

@mordeaniischaos: I'm assuming Nirvana isn't public domain; cover seemed fine. While I have nostalgia for Nirvana I don't think Cobain is some super mysterious wunderkind except for the unplugged session, but that's more Clapton anyway. Still like the riff though; in fact I heavily dislike the entirety of Cobain's lyrics in the song as they drown out the riff, and that's really the only reason I'm listening.

@fredchuckdave: Eh, it sounded like a mediocre kind of emo-ish version of the song, not a fan. Cobain's voice was interesting, which is why I'm such a fan of Nirvana.

Probably some of my distaste for the cover was because I've heard Cobain so many times, something that different really jarred me. I still don't think I'd have liked it though.

@mordeaniischaos: Cobain invented emo, so what's wrong with an emo imitation of the emo God? I've listened to a fair amount of Nirvana as well though not recently.