Posts Tagged ‘Defiance’
This week in sci-fi, we’ve got a surprising lack of franchise stuff for once. Original stories? Awesome! Also, Harrison Ford scared everyone by crashing a small plane on a golf course, but he seems to be doing okay now.
It’s not uncommon, especially in sci-fi shows, to see the same actors cropping up from program to program. Many of the shows are shot in the same area, often at the same time in different parts of the city (usually Vancouver), so it’s not terribly uncommon to see actors from one show with small roles on another. This goes double for actors from shows that have ended, and that tends to lead to some odd trends emerging. Here are four strange casting situations that arose from all these shows and movies drawing from the same actor pool.
Watching TV can be a very enjoyable experience, but have you ever considered what it would be like to live a life like your favorite character’s? While we tend to look up to our heroes and hope to emulate them, if most people really thought about it very few would want to be them. The kind of world that TV protagonists live in is often an awful one full of crime, corruption, enormous alien threats and facing death on a daily basis. Take Agent Coulson, for example–he got stabbed by a Norse god and forcibly brought back to life, forever changing who he is. The organization he dedicated his life to is in shambles, and now all the responsibility for trying to rebuild it is on him, including the lives of both the people under his command and of the innocents caught up in the crossfire. But it wouldn’t just suck to be Coulson, or part of SHIELD; imagine being an ordinary Joe in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, left powerless while gods and supersoldiers do battle for the fate of the planet. It’s downright horrifying, when you think about it.
And while there are some exceptions (I think we all want to live in the Star Trek Federation. Replicators and holodecks, anyone?) TV is littered with these kinds of unpleasant worlds. So here are 4 of the worst universes to live in that have ever been shot on camera.
Season 2 concept art, shared on twitter.
I know I don’t usually do news, but with as much focus as this site’s start had on Defiance, it felt important to get the news out there. As reported here and confirmed on Twitter, Defiance was successfully renewed for Season 3. I gotta say I’m rather relieved; as irritating as the show can be at times, I’m still pretty invested in it, even if I don’t (yet) love the characters as much as the crew of the Enterprise-D or the gang aboard Moya. I’m only so harsh because I care, really! The show has so much potential and I want to see it through, however it develops. And now, no more will we have to worry about the last hanging plotlines being resolved in game, for those of us who don’t play the MMO.
But just reporting the news that it’s returned isn’t very exciting. What can we expect from Season 3 of Defiance, then? Here are some plot teasers that Kevin Murphy, Defiance‘s showrunner (who will indeed be returning, according to the article), said he’d like to see next season:
That’s all I’ve been able to dig up as far as season 3 related tweets go. Obviously the show would pick up with some of the running plot lines, like Pilar and Quentin, and presumably they’ll have to dig Nolan and Irisa (and Sukar!) up somehow. And keep in mind these are just tweets, speculating about possibilities; that doesn’t necessarily mean all these things will happen. But it gives us an idea of what might lie ahead, and had the show gotten canceled I’d probably have used these to make a “What Could Have Been” post for Defiance. I’m glad I don’t have to, though.
So, we’ve discussed the history of the webisode, and looked at some of the earlier examples. But as I said at the end of that piece, those early webisodes are quite different from how this medium is utilized today. If webisodes aren’t usually spinoffs, then what are they? And why should anyone care to look them up?
As we’ve already established, webisodes have been linked with sci-fi for a long time. You occasionally see them for sitcoms (Scrubs: Interns comes to mind), but more often than not, the invented world of a sci-fi show provides the kind of room for exploration needed to create interesting web content. One of the biggest shows to utilize the webisode format has been Doctor Who. As an early adopter to the idea, Doctor Who has experimented a lot trying to figure out what makes for a successful webisode. Naturally, then, I’m going to be using it as an example frequently throughout for the different varieties out there. Without further ado, let’s explore the concept and what value it has in a storytelling capacity. Read more
The second season of Syfy’s Defiance has ended, with a pretty good two episode finale. While I tend to focus on small moments in my reviews of each episode, I’d like to stop and look back now at the season as a whole. I feel this is the best way to gauge the quality of it, as things that didn’t really seem to contribute much before may have more to offer in hindsight. So, let’s take a look at some of the running storylines of the season and the new things that were added to try to see what worked and what didn’t.
Needless to say, this is 100% spoilers. Proceed only if you’ve finished the season!
The second half finale hits big, but what it really has in spades is a bunch of snappy lines from everyone across the board. Oh, and we open with a level of destruction that is amazing for TV and par for the course for an online video game. See how having those two related kinda robs it of its punch? Read more
A slow build to the finale begins, some unfortunate truths come to light, and the Tarrs steal the show, as always. But you already expected that, right? How about kidnappings? They’re what’s trendy this week, so read on for more.
Picking up almost immediately from where the previous episode left off, the Kaziri plot revs up big time for next week’s finale, and some things finally start to make sense as some previously nonsensical plot developments lead to interesting character growth in unexpected directions.
More returning characters, some brutal surprises, and the first time appearance of a woman we’ve heard quite a bit about all show up for the first of this week’s two episodes. The push towards the finale begins! But first, here’s an attempt at redemption.
