Laura Harris & Ron Livingston star in Defying Gravity/ABC
ABC's own tantalizing description of Defying Gravity, the new sci-fi drama debuting tonight at 9/8c reads more like the description on the back of a porno movie than that of anything that should be taken seriously. Here's an excerpt, "Four women and four men hurtle through space with nothing to do for six years and eight billion miles, except maybe solve a powerful and awesome mystery. Maybe, just maybe, some of them will even hook up. How cool is that?" Really, isn't it bad enough that ABC counts among its most popular shows Grey's Anatomy, the estrogen-heavy rip-off of classically quirky St. Elsewhere and the even more pathetically acted spinoff, Private Practice?
ABC can't be entirely to blame though. After all, who wouldn't greenlight a new series from the creative team of Emmy winner Michael Edlestein and James Parriott? Take into consideration, it was Edlestein, who along with Marc Cherry and Tom Spezialy co-executive produced the hugely popular and admittedly campy Desperate Housewives. Parriott, whose credits include early writing gigs for The Invisible Man, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman (my personal favorite) and The Incredible Hulk, all now considered classic 70s camp sci-fi; has most recently helmed ABC's mega-hits, Ugly Betty and yes, Grey's Anatomy.
The two-hour pilot revolves around renegade flight engineer Maddux Donner (Ron Livingston, best known for a hysterically funny turn in the film Office Space and Carrie Bradshaw's season six boyfriend Berger in Sex and the City), who finds himself, against all probability, parachuted at the last minute into the eight-member crew, which already includes his girlfriend, German pilot Nadia Schilling (actually played by German actress Florentine Lahme) and his former lover, zoologist Zoe Barnes (Laura Harris of Women's Murder Club and Dead Like Me), who obviously still has feelings for him.
The pilot episode also reveals yet another unlikely last-minute replacement, Ted Shaw (Malik Yoba, most remembered for his role in the series New York Undercover), is the husband of one of the mission's earthbound controllers, who are apparently concealing the true purpose of the venture and are operating under the perhaps malevolent agenda of someone – or something – else, referred to only as Beta.
Despite the heavy soap opera setup, the pilot packs in quite a lot of mystery and uncertainty and quite frankly seems a bit heady and thinks much more of itself than its acting or writing merits. Perhaps in an attempt to be taken more seriously then some of their other work, Edlestein, Parriott and their team tackle much larger issues than most TV today, with storylines exploring philosophy, race, religion, gender, sex, morality, not to mention the addition of complex scientific jargon and seemingly complex situations.
So complex in fact that series producers are likening it to yet another ABC hit, Lost.
With a huge cast manning the space station, much like the ever-increasing inhabitants of the mysterious island on Lost, and promises of character-developing flashbacks, "By taking on a huge mystery that questions the very meaning of human life in the universe, and packing the story with a big cast of characters with secret baggage of their mysteries piled on mysteries," Laura Harris, who plays Zoe Barnes said in during a recent promotion tour.
The origin of Defying Gravity holds the key to its complex scientific slant, as the new series draws inspiration from the 2003 BBC/Discovery Channel dramatized documentary Voyage to the Planets. Voyage came from the same production company that brought us Walking With The Dinosaurs. Edlestein optioned the show in 2004. Too bad he didn't just option the rights to the original, which is now available on DVD and is actually quite entertaining and educational.
While the pilot episode reveals the crew is on a six year mission, after a sneak peek at the two-hour unintentional laugh-fest, it's not likely to remain on air through the summer. Keep in mind, in the opening voice-over of the original Star Trek series, we were reminded weekly that they were on a five-year mission. Star Trek was unceremoniously cancelled after only three seasons. One can only hope that Defying Gravity will float, rather than be sucked into the black hole of cancellation.
Can wait until tonight? Check out the Defying Gravity Trailer
Voyage to the Planets promo
Comments
Who are you? And what is St. Elsewhere?
I just watched the pilot. It was terrible.
Your review sucks.
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