Over at NJ.com, I have my review of ABC's astronaut soap opera "Defying Gravity," which debuts Sunday night. As you'll tell from the review, I wasn't a fan, and I doubt I'll be blogging on it in the future, but feel free to discuss the premiere here if you watch it.
Friday, July 31, 2009
'Defying Gravity' review - Sepinwall on TV
Over at NJ.com, I have my review of ABC's astronaut soap opera "Defying Gravity," which debuts Sunday night. As you'll tell from the review, I wasn't a fan, and I doubt I'll be blogging on it in the future, but feel free to discuss the premiere here if you watch it.
Does this one look as cheaply produced as Mental?
ReplyDeleteAnd if the show does well enough that they don't yank it, how are they going to air all the episodes when the regular Sunday night shows are coming back soon?
That's too bad - I was hoping it would be good, because I love Ron Livingston.
ReplyDeleteHow could this be greenlighted, but not Virtuality?
ReplyDeleteI also thought of Virtuality upon reading about this show, and I also wish that we could watch Virtuality instead.
ReplyDeleteWhy didn't ABC do that awesome NBC naming-every-new-show-one-word-gimmick? Think about it:
ReplyDeleteMERCY....TRAUMA...COMMUNITY...SPACE!!!
Funny, one word comes to mind to describe these tired, done,stale shows...:)
Was I the only person who said oh, frak off and die the first time I saw this show described as "Grey's Anatomy in space"?
ReplyDeleteIn the short run it's bviously a Virtuality rip-off with some minor changes.
ReplyDeleteIf the show tuned down the relationship edge, removed the voice over by the major character, and stepped up the dialog it would be more enjoyable.
It would be more interesting to see where both shows would have went.
Fox's lost if this catches on and ABC's gain. At least ABC takes chances with shows. Granted Dollhouse was renewed but I'd rather take virtuality over dollhouse.
I feel like more than anything this owes it's existence to Sunshine. The ship design (as well as the secret abortion plot) are both from Sunshine. Even the something secret is really controlling the mission seems like it came from Sunshine.
ReplyDeleteIt's Star Trek in its early days all over again. 2009 is transplated, with NO imagination, 50 years into the future. Actually, that's an exaggeration. In Star Trek, people and design looked different. Defying Gravity is not only using today's haircuts and furniture, but today's jokes and ideas, too. As if YouTube is going to be around in 50 years! As if logging onto porn is going to be the big deal it is today. Nothing futuristic about this show.
ReplyDeleteHm, I dunno, it wasn't as sucky as I was expecting it to be.
ReplyDeleteSure, I don't much care about blonde girl's Abortion Guilt (must we go there?), or whether or not she does Ron Livingston, or the zero-G sex, or the flashbacks.
On the other hand, am still rather creeped out/intrigued about "Beta", and I always like Christina Cox and the actor playing her husband.
Eh, if I'm actually home on a Sunday night again, might watch it.
Yeah, I enjoyed it a bit more than I expected to, though that may have been because of the low expectations.
ReplyDeleteI got a bit tired of Daisy Adair's baby drama, but I thought the characters mostly brought the pretty and were engaging enough. Maybe it's because I don't watch any of ABC's other soaps (hated Grey's, when I watched the pilot), but it seemed like some fun, frothy summer fare.
Just shows that ABC has no brains for picking this up and Fox has no brains for not picking Virtuality up. So badly written that none of the plots which were thrown in to create suspense did anything of the kind. It was very difficult to care what the big secret the crew wasn't let in on was. Actually it was very difficult to keep interested, period. Thankfully the pilot is only 40 odd minutes long. Dumber and far less interesting than Virtuality.
ReplyDeleteIt was probably developed at the same time as Virtuality so a coincidence, not a rip-off.
ReplyDeleteOkay for summer fare. I get so tired of watching reality shows and re-runs.
I think they're going to have to concentrate on the science and dial back on the relationship stuff if they want it to last though. Although goodness knows how Private Practice stays on the air but it does.
What a dog! the science fiction aspect is way too weak for a geek, and the geek factor is enough to scare off the girly girls. Defying Gravity Fails and yes i still miss Firefly...Dong ma?
ReplyDeleteWow... I'm kinda surprised by the comments. I actually quite like the show; TV helps me to meet my guilty pleasures and this falls right into that category: a guilty pleasure. It's a soap in space = fun.
ReplyDeleteI think the characters have been well casted. It's silly, fun, uneducational. That works for me!