Dept. of Defiance

Tuesday, 7 July 2015 10:35 pm
kaffy_r: Alak and Stahma Tarr from Defiance (Alak and Stahma)
[personal profile] kaffy_r
First Look at Defiance, S03

From a mixed gumbo of Doylist and Watsonian viewpoints on what I think were the first two episodes, which apparently ran as one:

1. I am so glad it's back on; I was afraid they'd cancelled it. We're catching up on it now, since it started airing on SyFy last month.
2. But, wow, they eliminated practically the entirety of one family, and I'm not sure it's a smart move, plot or flow-wise. 
3. I will miss Rafe MacCawley. 
4. Christie MacCawley was extremely brave.
5. Linda Hamilton plays "dangerous crazy" beautifully; understated, cheerful, utterly batshit ruthless.
6. I still enjoy the emotional interplay between Nolan and Irisa, and Stephanie Leonidas' Irisa is still a believable teenager, albeit a teenager who was possessed and had the power of a godlet at one point.
7. I was glad to see the Omec appear - great, scary antagonists, although their initial appearance and actions were a little uneven - and impressed with the continuity of the series, since the showrunners and back story both mentioned a Votan species that had been left behind, as far back as the beginning of the series.
8. Stahma!! Datak!! My favorite badass, and just plain bad, but still weirdly awesome, couple. Stahma's actions were unforgivable, but completely understandable. She'll undoubtedly take vengeance on someone for backing her into that particular corner. She just has to stay alive to do so.
9. Ram Tak, aka The Beast, makes Datak look like Desi Arnez. But his admitted menace pales in comparison to that of the Omec.
10. For some reason, I loved the fact that they were obviously really filming in winter. That must have been a joy. 
11. Doc Yewl, my favorite morally ambivalent character ... I still love her. And right now I want to give her a hug, and take her away from Defiance. Trenna Keating plays all sides of Yewl beautifully, including the "so scared that bystanders should pay attention to what she's scared about" part she played in the first two episodes. It's hard to see our hard-as-nails doctor be that undone by fear. 
11. The set-up, with the advancing Tak forces, the two Omec on the ground, and their ship above, makes certain that Defiance will continue to be extremely high tension.
 

Date: Wednesday, 8 July 2015 08:21 pm (UTC)
muccamukk: Luke Cage laughing brokenly. (Marvel: Laugh or Cry)
From: [personal profile] muccamukk
Did Graham Greene finally win free of that show? I was watching for him for a bit but didn't get into it. He's such a great actor who ends up in so many dubious projects.

Date: Thursday, 9 July 2015 01:31 am (UTC)
muccamukk: Kono hugging a small fluffy dog and looking adorable. (H5-0: Pet cuddles)
From: [personal profile] muccamukk
I really liked Irrisa and Nolen's relationship, and Amanda and Kenya's as well, plus Rafe was the best, but the aliens were like... the Elizabethians, and the totally ripped off from First Nations people, and I wanted them to be more alien. So I was excited about it, and then forgot to watch. Oh well.

Apparently he was in one of those rip off DVD movies that was called, I swear to God, Atlantic Rim. I hope his kids are all through college soon, man.

Though the all male, all First Nations version of As You Like It sounds cool.

Date: Thursday, 9 July 2015 03:58 pm (UTC)
muccamukk: Uhura, in her Mirror Universe uniform, brandishes a knife while leaning suggestively against Mirror!Sulu's shoulder. (ST: Mirror Mirror)
From: [personal profile] muccamukk
I don't know why the aliens bothered me this time, as I'm happy to watch Star Trek and Babylon 5, which have even less alien aliens, and I know they have to afford the make up so they can't get too out there. Cheesy SF is usually my jam.

I'm trying to remember the episodes, as this was three years ago, and I only saw a few, but the one where Irisa gets... something sick? And they have to have an elder cure her via a drum circle in a sweat lodge? I think. It was pretty blatant, from my perspective, and it seemed like they were pinging all of the Mysterious Savage tropes. But of course they probably got more developed if I'd stuck with it.

Ha. Yeah, maybe Japanese. I was just going with "Uber-formal society where women are inferior and everyone is plotting, and also is painted white." Why gender essentialist the same way humans were four hundred years ago? Why not do something actually interesting with gender? Oh well.

Date: Thursday, 9 July 2015 02:48 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com
*Drive-by squishes*

Date: Thursday, 9 July 2015 02:56 am (UTC)
scarfman: (Default)
From: [personal profile] scarfman
I confessed I watched that double opener, tweeted, "I thought you couldn't get Game of Thrones on Hulu," and unsubscribed.

Date: Saturday, 11 July 2015 02:28 am (UTC)
scarfman: (Default)
From: [personal profile] scarfman
I did enjoy Defiance up till now and acknowledge that indifference-quitting at this point isn't necessarily rational, but the ratio of main character deaths to minutes of development of story in this double-part opener was just too high for me.

Profile

kaffy_r: The TARDIS says hello (Default)
kaffy_r

May 2025

S M T W T F S
    12 3
45 6 78910
11 121314151617
181920 2122 23 24
25 262728293031

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Wednesday, 28 May 2025 11:49 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios