MovieChat Forums > Defying Gravity (2009) Discussion > Weird relationships and characters

Weird relationships and characters

posted 11 years ago by bluefox01
4 replies | jump to latest

After watching the first five episodes:
I appreciate the idea, to show an expedition through the whole solar system. Nobody has done that before. But the relationships between these people are weird. Some of them react so far off, so insensible, that it is no fun to watch. The whole group is so dysfunctional, that I get the feeling, this expedition is doomed. For instance there are recurring situations, where two of them start arguing about emotional things, while they try to solve an important technical problem with the ship. Such a thing can only go wrong... Some people might like this kind of tension, but I think, it's just bad writing (and/or directing).
The actors are fine* and the special effects are fine, but I don't like the reactions of these characters.

*For instance I liked to see Christina Cox and Ty Olsson in major roles. Both of them were so often in other series for just one episode or a small role in a movie. I remember Stargate, Andromeda, The Crow - Stairway to Heaven, Earth: Final Conflict, The Chronicles of Riddick, X-Men 2...

[–] bruce-129 10 years ago

Yeah, I agree, the characters are pretty flat, and the constant droning narration from the man while male lead astronaut was weird, because he was kind of a jerk in the show ... so why are we listening to him again?

I watched the pilot on Amazon Instant video and kind of got hooked because the spaceship reminded me of 2001's Discovery.

The show was watchable to me, but nothing really special, though I admit I was disappointed when it ended.

What was supposed to happen here ... and why do all these networks keep doing this over and over again with their Science Fiction shows ... just cutting them off and dumping them in the middle?

[–] Ithilfaen 9 years ago

What was supposed to happen here ... and why do all these networks keep doing this over and over again with their Science Fiction shows ... just cutting them off and dumping them in the middle?

Scifi on tv is a tough sell. Scifi audiences are very demanding and just from a budget standpoint, they either are on the cheap so they fail, or are very expensive and that makes then 20 times more likely to get canceled if they don't perform extraordinarily well.

In this case though, it was all on the network promoting as "Grey's Anatomy in Space". They thought they'd get better numbers by appealing to their core audience. Unfortunately that doomed the show because it was too complex and out of this world for the Grey's Anatomy viewers who were looking for uncomplicated soap, and too soapy for the scifi viewers who were bored to death by all the relationship BS filler in between scifi scenes that really could have made a good mini.

For every lie I unlearn I learn something new - Ani Difranco

[–] tom1138 8 years ago

None of crew would pass the psychology tests for astronauts: Every single one of them has huge mental issues/unresolved emotional issues/etc that endanger the mission. They're not qualified, they're not the Right Stuff, regardless of their background and degrees. This bothers me more than the gravity, lack of radiation shielding, anachronisms with tech, techno babble, stereotypes, and general lack of (hard) sci-fi themes.

[–] Harvest-R 7 years ago

It actually gets worse in the later episodes. Up to a degree where it becomes unwatchable, because of too much emotional drama and "flashbacks" caused by the "alien thing" (can't remember its name anymore).