PRO-BAMACARE: Syfy has invested a reported $100 million on the ambitious new dystopian series and accompanying video game. (
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What if the only city left in the whole world worth living in was St. Louis?
OK, maybe some of us New York City snobs wouldn’t want to live anymore, but snobs be warned — put those prejudices aside.
In SyFy’s $100-million, multi-player-game-and-TV-series “Defiance,” St. Louis IS the only city that has withstood the alien invasion. Or the only city we know of so far.
Right off in this classic-mode sci-fi drama, we learn that 33 years earlier an alien race called the Voltans invade Earth and the war that ensued was known as the Pale Wars.
After years of warring, an armistice was finally called. Now humans and Voltans live not-amicably side-by-side in St. Louis, now called the city of Defiance.
The Voltans (which are actually seven different races of aliens) are not especially good or kind — especially a humanoid variety of aliens called the Castithans.
They have brought with them an ability called “terraforma,” which has not only transformed the landscape of Earth, but created endless mutations in animal species resulting in monsters so ugly, so scary and so unstoppable that even the Voltans aren’t safe from them.
The convoluted story revolves around bad-boy Joshua Nolan (Grant Bowler), a salvager and soldier of fortune, and his alien species daughter, Irisa (Stephanie Leonidas), who travel the changed planet searching for bounty.
When the story begins, they have just salvaged some sort of mysterious orb that can control the world, or possibly obliterate it.
Whatever it is, it’s worth billions. Nice score.
But seconds after discovering it, they are set upon by a group of aliens called the Spirit Riders. Think motorcycle gang with outer-space heads.
Left for dead, Joshua and Irisa are picked up by humans from Defiance, where humans and Voltans live side-by-side in disharmony.
It’s a post-apocalyptic, Wild West sort of place with a human mayor (Julie Benz), her brothel-owning sister, Kenya (Mia Kirshner), a Mafia-type Voltan crime boss, Datak Tarr (Tony Curran), his wife Stahma (Jaime Murray) and their son.
The other side of town is ruled by businessman Rafe McCawley, (Graham Greene) and his sons.
Throw in a mix of various alien races: the Irathients, a feral race of warriors; the Indogenes, smarty-pants aliens with quilted faces and cyber bodies; the Sensoths, slow-moving furry guys; the Castithans, the gorgeous, intellectual ones; the Liveratas, small, thick-necked aliens who are not related to Liberace; and finally the Biomen, bio-engineered alien war machines.
“Defiance” is a huge amount of fun with lovable and hate-able characters and aliens that are weirder than any we’ve seen on TV.
The difference here is that players of the online game — which was released last week — will actually help determine the course of the show.
Defiance is not a nice place to visit, but that doesn’t mean you won’t want to stay.