Axed: Defiance
Sci-fi series starring Grant Bowler has ended after three seasons.
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Futuristic US drama Defiance has been cancelled after three seasons.
The drama, starring NZ-born Grant Bowler and Julie Benz, ended its third season with 1.17 million US viewers. At the time of its debut, Defiance was Syfy’s second-largest series premiere in network history.
The news follows Syfy axing Dominion last week.
Syfy and parent company NBCUniversal made a historic $100 million gamble when it debuted in 2013 as the first TV series and video game to launch in tandem.
“Defiance was a truly groundbreaking series, delivering an immersive, cross-platform experience that transcended the television screen in a way that viewers had never seen before,” the network said in a statement. “We are incredibly proud of the work of the extraordinary cast, writers, artists and designers — and especially showrunner Kevin Murphy — who together brought the rich world of Defiance to life over its three season arc.”
Earlier this year Grant Bowler told TV Tonight, the show was a sci-fi melting pot.
“It’s meant to be about disparate cultures, and it seems to work really well,” he said.
“It gives you a bit of license to explore those greater themes, and it also allows you to bend some rules in terms of gender politics, race and a number of other areas. Science fiction gives you a lot of grace.”
Source: Hollywood Reporter
9 Responses
The game hasn’t been fairing better either from what I can gather.
Although the game developers are the IP holders and they aren’t going to close that soon.
I gave the first series a go, but it didn’t seem to be going anywhere and felt more like a futuristic western than a sci-fi show.
Yes, that’s what I thought, too. Not that a futuristic western is necessarily a bad thing but I watched 6 or 7 eps and couldn’t make my self care enough. It had way too many stock characters and sci-fi tropes.
You’re right, it wasn’t _that_ good – stock characters & tropes galore – but it was a damned sight better than a sci-fi show tie-in to an online game had a right to be, & somehow that was enough to lift it above the usual dreck. It did go downhill after the first season though.
At least it was better written than Dominion, more sci-fi than Falling Skies, and not as dumb as Under The Dome. On the whole I think I’m going to miss “Constable Patterson and the Zombies from Space” (as we knew it in this household).
I love Grant Bowler and gave this a red hot go, but I simply lost interest halfway through the first season.
I enjoyed that show it was interesting something of which there is a distinct lack of these days
That’s a shame – this was one of the most interesting and experimental Sci-Fi series I had seen in quite a while.
I was trying to find this show on Netflix/Stan/Presto it doesn’t appear to be on any of them.
🙁