Piloting - Graceland

Just another police procedural?

Graceland have a few things that sets it apart from the mold, like several agencies working together and--more importantly--living together in their housing named Graceland, but overall this was a pilot with a lot more disappointment than intrigue. They take on too many of the Graceland residents in the same episode, and paint all of them with cliched simplicity.

It's no secret police procedurals of different kinds are my bread and butter, or my guilty pleasures as it might well be better known as. The technologies and sidekicks change, but the platform stays the same. While they do rock the platform here, it's hard to be enthusiastic about it all when it's done so lifeless as here. None of the agents pitched in the pilot are of any interest to me, and then they've actually managed to make a show in this genre that not even I have any interest to check out further.

1.01 ★☆☆☆☆ Overall pilot score

Piloting - Defiance

SyFy returns to its roots with Defiance, but how well does it stack up on its own?

I'm honestly not sure. One thing is certain. Defiance manages to take on quite a few cliches and much spent stereotypes in its two-hour pilot-episode. If you managed to get through it without once thinking about Firefly, Romeo and Juliet and half a dozen other well known shows, stories and movies, you're a better person than me.

But just because it indulges itself in cliches and well spent formulas in its opening, doesn't really prove its going to be one thing or another. The real test comes with the next 3-4 episodes, and the direction it takes then. For a pilot, these plot-devices works well to establishes outer perimeters for all characters we're introduced to. It's how they let their characters develop that matters in the long run, and by doing it this way they did at least not lose their audience in very complex new world. It's pretty easy to get a general feel for what's in store, and thus not to complicated to have certain characters different set of audiences will leech onto.

Our center of gravity is without a doubt Nolan and Irisa, the two strangers arriving in Defiance. A human father-character and an alien adopted daughter, both well equipped to take on danger. Personally I found Nolan a bit too typical for the kind of center protagonists of these kind of shows, but Irisa's got potential. I just fear--from the little we saw in the pilot--that she's gonna be spent wrong. Then again, I'm a sucker for strong female fighting-spirits characters...


The pilot got its share introduction, politic family feud, action in both war and brawl, drama and a slight bit procedural lawkeeper. Some of it worked, some of it was intriguing and some of it left me feeling like I've seen it all before. I'm far from convinced we've got a hit on our hand, but for a pilot it got me invested enough I'll certainly tune back in for a few weeks.. That's not nothing.

1.01 ★★★☆☆ Overall pilot score