Defying Gravity

If you're a fan of Sunshine, Moon, 2001 or even the new Solaris, you're gonna like this - it's just too bad that this got cancelled, naturally!

It's year 2052 and a group of astronauts/scientists are making a "grand tour" across the solar system. We follow them from the start of the flight and take the usual trips backwards on how they got there. The flight is the most ambitious and expensive effort of mankind and it's being documented "live" back to earth. At some point however the crew start to hallucinate and share dreams.

Of all the cancelled shows, this is prolly my favourite. Carnivale, Pushing Daisies, Wonderfalls... this is scifi. Maybe a bit too HC at that, as there ain't cool lasers or sleekly designed ships. Seemingly, it's just a bunch of people going through some shit in space. "The series was pitched to networks as Grey's Anatomy in space"... after having seen not a single episode of Grey's Anatomy, I'm not sure how accurate this is.

I really liked this show and naturally stuff just started happening when it was cut off. The cast isn't that bad and the main plot was one of the most interesting things in a long while: think about 2001's monolith with few twists and you have it. I didn't however get a feeling that we'd be in the year 2052. Everything looked like it is now - except for some personal computer pads and other gizmos like that, but beyond that to me this show was set in the now. The music somewhat reminded me of the most excellent soundtrack of the new Solaris, made by Cliff Martinez. The CGI wasn't that bad, but didn't really strike me as impressive or realistic. The picture tone was definitely sterile with a degree of bloom effect layered, and this brought an interesting look to the show - almost a bit dreamy.

Anyways, it's worth checking out even if it got cancelled. I'd much rather watch a half season of good scifi than a season of crap.

a bad trailer

I watch 2/3rds of an episode last night and quite enjoyed it. It felt like the West Wing in space. I personally thought the cast were great. However I automatically assumed it was cancelled when I realised it was a sci-fi show!

And I was right !

I quite liked this show. I liked their attempt (Frequently failed, but noteable anyway) of confining themselves to "Real Science," I liked the modified Lostback device that featured prominently in every episode, I loved loved loved the sets. It was never exactly great, but it was unlike anything else on, and I really looked forward to it.

The show will return in the summer, to burn off the final episodes, so at least you'll get some closure to the first chapter (And having seen the unaired episodes, most of 'em are pretty dang good).

My site has done complete detailed reviews of every episode, including the unaired ones, and we've even got some information as to where the show would have gone, had it survived for a second season. If you're interested, you can check 'em out here http://www.republibot.com/category/tags/defying-gravity There's also a lot of discussion as to the science behind the show, where they got things right, and where they went kind of off the rails.

Didn't realize that there are un-aired episodes. Good stuff, maybe this gets picked up even!

After the first eight episodes, it continued to air in Canada and maybe other countries, even though ABC in the U.S. shelved it. I think Canada still showed the remaining five episodes but cancelled it nonetheless. I read somewhere online that the sets have already been destroyed, and the show will not return. It's sad. The show had potential.