The Defiance Thread - News about the Show and Game

Plus, remember, that the dad is heavily involved in vice, gambling, prize-fighting, etc. And is apparently a frequent customer at the local bordello . . . so it's not like they're easily scandalized.

 

This week's was something of a low point. It's basically a bunch of tropes. An old war friend of Nolan's shows up in town. Everyone suspects he has a shady agenda, but Nolan defends him, with the usual old "when you've been through hell with a guy, you know him" routine. Turns out this guy is a bounty hunter after an infamous war criminal who seems to know some dark secrets about various alien character on the show. Knowing this war criminal is in town, a suave douchebag with the E-Rep who apparentally has history with Amanda shows up to make some grandiose threats. In the end, it's discovered E-Rep actually wants the war criminal to help them win the coming war, so Nolan kills him. His friend says he can collect quite a bounty on turning Nolan in, but instead takes the fall and allows himself to be arrested. And meanwhile, Irisa and Tommy's relationship deterioriates into Tommy awkwardly trying to set-up a second date but Irisa's just not interested anymore.

I can definitely see where this show is channeling Firefly this week. Nolan and Kenya's relationship is starting to take on a Mal/Inara vibe, and the E-Rep seems to be filling the same role the Alliance served on Firefly.

The stuff with the mysterious relic seems kind of interesting and I was surprised the shady guy with the glasses who works with the fomer mayor was actually killed.

 

^Yeah -- we've already had enough instances of people coming into town who just coincidentally happen to be linked to one of the townsfolk, but this week everyone was. The bounty hunter was Nolan's old friend, his quarry knew Doc Yewll from the wars (at least by reputation), and the E-Rep emissary was Amanda's old flame. I know Earth's population is considerably lower post-Arkfall, but this is ridiculous.

And if you want to talk about overused tropes, what about Quentin now having a Harvey/Caprica Six hallucination of his dead brother living in his head?

The portrayal of Kenya and her efforts to balance her career and relationships is the only thing I'm finding fresh or interesting here. Sure, there's some similarity to Inara, but we didn't see Inara plying her wares as much as Kenya does, and her love interest wasn't one of her clients, nor did he accept her profession the way Nolan does. So this isn't a character dynamic I've seen before.

 

Yes, Kenya and Inara are different characters despite both being professional prostitutes. I just meant this week, she really seemed to be channelling Inara, in that she ditches Nolan's friend due to her feelings for Nolan, which in the end leads her to end things with Nolan, the whole don't mix work with pleasure thing.

 

Yeah, that was a bit of an eye-roller for me, too, especially since the brothers didn't even seem that close. I'm assuming this has something to do with the Shiny Object having some influence on him.

 

I was actually getting a Gollum/Smeagol vibe considering the whole artifact thing.

 

Best episode yet, I might yet fall for this show...

 

It's may be interesting to note that one of the non-player characters in the game owns an arc-core that visually looks different from Quentin's artifact but generally has the size and shape. This arc-core caused the character to have visions and in one instance even behaved like he was momentarily being "controlled" by some external force.

 

I've really enjoyed the last couple of episodes, seems like the show is hitting its stride.

 

Ohh, and don't forget "Explosions and Car Chase®" tape loop - sheesh. This is getting rotten-er & rottener...

jeff
ten pounds of trope ina 5 pound bag....

 

It was full of tropes yes, but I did not expect Nolan to shot him in cold blood without a trial.
Not to mention Datak Tarr having a tube stuck up his ass in the end and Doc smirking all the while...

What I really liked was Doc getting a hint of some backstory, I really like her and I want to see more of her. She's an awesome mix between Doc Cottle and Voyager's Doctor, and her snarky humour is out of this world...

 

So who did break the war criminal out of his cell: the doctor or the bounty hunter?

 

Admittedly, I didn't see that coming, though the whole thing does kind of seem in line with the Han Solo/Malcom Reynolds type of character Nolan came off as in the pilot. Since then he's distanced himself and become his own character, though this week reminded me of that aspect again. Mind you, shooting a prisoner in cold blood seems more Malcolm Reynolds than it does Han Solo.

Yeah, she is probably one of my favourites on the show too. Of course, sarcastic jack ass doctors is a common enough trope in science fiction (like Doc Cottle, the EMH, Dr. McCoy) and outside as well (House). But in this case, I don't care, I like like sarcastic jackasses.

I assumed it was the bounty hunter. It's implied those explosive patches are something he created given Nolan immediately went after him, and indeed we see he's got one of his own at the end. But then, there didn't seem to be much of a plan, he let's the war cirminal out of jail, then has to search for him again.

 

Yeah, the last scene showed the bounty hunter pulling out one of those explosive pouches, which was telling us that Nolan had been right all along, that he'd helped Pol escape so he could recapture him and take him in.

By the way, is anyone else getting sick of the modern convention of ending every episode of a show with a music-video montage? It's just so formulaic, and it often seems like a waste of time, a couple of minutes spent on slow shots of characters just sitting around and looking contemplative or sad or whatever. I'd rather see them talking or doing something! I think in this case I wouldn't mind so much if they used more of the sort of original source music that we heard in the pilot -- songs written for the show in "futuristic" or "alien" styles, with lyrics reflecting the show's backstory and status quo. Then it would actually be worldbuilding instead of product placement for pop albums.

 

^I did like the use of The Cure the other week.

 

The Cure improves everything and having The Cure as the background soundtrack for the entire series would bring a lot of charm.

 

You know, it'd be cool if they went for more of a "Northern Exposure" type of vibe for the show instead of all these troped story lines.

 

That takes fine writers.

 

They were pretty open about the prostitute in Men in trees, and half the school seemed to work at the One Eyed jack's brothel a touch norther of the border, but who was the whore in Northern Exposure?

 

Well Shelly was living with that old guy..