Saddle up, pardners and get ready to hit the trail! (or something like that). OK, so syfy’s upcoming show/video game extravaganza DEFIANCE has that whole space western thing going for it, but this is actually a good thing at the end of the day. It should get the show some appeal to those sci-fi fans who prefer their shows a bit tumbleweedy and familiar and cranky old goats like me who have the occasional Bonanza or original Battlestar Galactica flashback (or Battlestar Ponderosa, if I recall what Harlan Ellison rightly called the show back in the day).

Snark aside, I really like what they’ve done with the show so far and will give it a season to do its thing on the parts of my brain that click with the genre. Hopefully, the show and game will do well in this still stupid economy and current ratings format that see shows get axed if viewership only dips a TINY amount after the usually highly watched pilot episode. That’s a stupidly expensive way to do business, particularly with fickle audiences that often come BACK to a show later on in the first season to catch up. As always, we shall see…