No Respect for DEFIANCE
Episode 104 “A Well Respected Man”
[photos by Ben Mark Holzberg/Syfy]
So, after only four episodes of a somewhat mediocre show, Syfy has announced that Defiance will get a second season. Which really isn’t such a surprise, given that they’ve spent so much money to make the show one really big high-falutin’ advertisement for the video game.
I find myself putting off recaps for this show because I just don’t have it in me to go over it again after watching it. Because I have yet to care about anyone on this show. They’re all one-dimensional stereotypes living in a stereotypical post-apocalyptic city wearing stereotypical clothes and falling into the same stereotypical traps that we’ve seen over and over again (and done better in other places).
But, OK. … here we go.
This week, we find out Mayor Amanda (who’s apparently not really mayor but we’ll get to that in a minute) raised her sister Kenya after Mom got killed in the war. Even though we don’t see a body, it’s accepted as fact that Mom’s dead. Amanda gave Kenya a St. Christopher off a dead soldier, calling it a “Saint Finnegan” because that was the soldier’s name.
Kenya, meantime, has stumbled across a drug operation while trying to straighten out one of her girls, who’s been stealing from the clients. Kenya and Tirra get snagged by the Bioman — who gets the name Ulysses in this episode — who takes them to the drug farm run by Meeko. Meeko is not pleased to have Kenya in his company, as she’s someone who would actually be missed. You know, since she runs the local bar & brothel. Ulysses is suddenly the sad puppy dog creature, and as a result loses any interesting qualities as a character. I liked the Fezzik version better. And when he was just “the BioMan” who pummeled people, he was more of a credible threat. Now he’s just the misunderstood Frankenstein’s Monster.
Tired. I’m ready for Longmire to come back.
Sheriff Carter Nolan makes a big gun-running bust, makes it very difficult for Datak to make his gun-running operation to stay operating, which makes the town council hopping mad because they made a deal under the table to get guns now that the big shiny defense screen is kaput. Only nobody thought to inform the Not-Really-Mayor Amanda. Why? Because she’s the young kid in the group, because she’s appointed. And the show swerves into another tired trope.
Random Observations:
- I hate the Axe spots. hate them hate them hate them hate them. This does not teach people to have respect for our space program.
- Melodrama doesn” make a good story in and of itself.
- hailer, scrip, shtako, adreno — I think this show creates words just to make it seem like Firefly
- I’m really tired of seeing post-apocalyptic science fiction. Really.
- This show feels like it was written for the 14-year-olds who play the game. Or at least, Syfy thinks 14-year-olds play the game, so they’re writing for that group. O’Bannon knows better than this, doesn’t he? This is the same guy who did Farscape, isn’t it?
- Oh, crap. Another montage with music.
- I’m still waiting for Deputy Anthony to die.
[Official site on Syfy] [Previous Recap: “The Devil in the Dark”]
One thing I don’t like about Defiance is that they keep trying to use sex appeal to draw viewers, like a lot of cable and network TV shows. That part really turns me off.
Defiance, why do you need an average of two sex scenes per show to try to get ratings?
Like you, I’m also waiting for the show to develop into something decent.