TV, eh?

From Todd VanDerWerff at the AV Club:

• Defying Gravity – “Pilot”/”Natural Selection”
  “There’s a pretty good, quite interesting show buried somewhere within Defying Gravity, whose two first episodes debut tonight, but the producers, chief among them James Parriott, haven’t managed to find it.” Read more.

(more…)

From Chris Lackner of Canwest News Service:

• To boldly go where no soap opera has gone before
  “Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the spaceship Antares. Its ongoing mission, to boldly go where no soap opera has gone before. Part Grey’s Anatomy, part Isaac Asimov, part Captain Kirk’s ultimate dream come true, Defying Gravity is a new series about a small crew of young, libido-driven beautiful women and men exploring space.” Read more.
• Crew shenanigans spark most gravity-defying events on Antares
  Laura Harris: “It’s almost impossible to discuss about 90 per cent of what happens — which is cool, because the 10 per cent is enough in a way, the relationships, going into space, what that might look like.” Read more.

(more…)

From me at Blogcritics:

• Interview: Andrew Airlie of Defying Gravity
  “I don’t think they went into it with the idea, ‘OK, let’s find something that will satisfy the sci-fi and the Grey’s crowd,”’ Airlie explained, pointing out the inspiration for the show was the BBC pseudo-documentary Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets. “They found the source material interesting on its own, and they dramatized it and boosted the production value.’” Read more.

From Tom Shales of the Washington Post:

• In Space, No One Can Hear You Scram
  “‘In space, there’s simply no room for error,’ barks a mid-21st-century astronaut stomping around his spaceship in ABC’s new sci-fi series, Defying Gravity. In television, of course, there is plenty of room for error; sometimes it seems like one big errormobile. Unfortunately, Defying Gravity will have to be listed as one of its well-intentioned mistakes, another of the many peculiar oddities churned out by broadcast and cable every year, every week, every moment of our earthbound little lives.” Read more.

From Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times:

• Inner-Space Problems in Outer Space
  “But it’s not sex that distinguishes this series. Most of the best science-fiction shows, from Star Trek to Battlestar Galactica and The Sarah Connor Chronicles, find drama in personality conflicts and the complicated relationships between men and women. But girl talk, romance and sexual tension are the centerpiece of Defying Gravity.” Read more.

From Steve Hammons of American Chronicle:

• New TV series ‘Defying Gravity’ explores space, human beings
  “Although some reviews of the series have made fun of the romantic relationships on the spacecraft Antares, the fact is that human relationships are legitimate and important aspects of the field of space psychology. In future years, when space missions may involve months and years, human behavior and relationships will continue to play a large role in space travel and activities.” Read more.

From the Futon Critic:

• THE FUTON’S FIRST LOOK: “DEFYING GRAVITY”

From Alan Sepinwall of the New Jersey Star-Ledger:

• ‘Defying Gravity’ review – Sepinwall on TV
  “Stop me if you’ve heard this one before — and if you’ve been watching ABC for the last few years, you have — but ABC’s Defying Gravity is about a group of young professionals being trained in a dangerous specialty with a high wash-out rate, where the main character has an infirm parent and frames each episode with metaphor-laden narration, and where the male lead (an authority figure) and the female lead (one of his students) have a drunken one-night stand the day they meet. Yes, Defying Gravity is more or less Grey’s Anatomy in space (or, as my friend Dan Fienberg has dubbed it, Grey’s Astronomy), with a splash of Lost and a cast of familiar faces from recent ABC dramas. But the game of Spot the Similarities (which also extends to Virtuality, the unsold pilot that Fox aired earlier this summer) is by far the most interesting thing about it.” Read more.

From Mandi Bierly of Entertainment Weekly:

• Defying Gravity star Ron Livingston: Space sex and the EW pop culture personality test
  “So what can Livingston, who stars as flight engineer/tragic hero/ladies man Maddux Donner, tell us about the series from former executive producers of Grey’s Anatomy and Desperate Housewives? There will be space sex. ‘The idea was, what’s a really cool workplace environment that we haven’t seen before,’ he says, burying the lead. ‘The astronaut corp halfway to Venus seemed like a cool place to go to work. Then a lot of stories follow from what needs to be done day-to-day. It also keeps the men and women cooped up in a confined enough space that the other half of the mystery from week-to-week is who’s gonna end up sleeping with who.’” Read more.

From Cassandra Szklarski of the Canadian Press:

• ‘Defying Gravity’ space series tackles love triangles, otherworldly forces
  “The romantic sci-fi series Defying Gravity, a new U.S.-Canada co-production, melds sexy love triangles with other-worldly mystery as it launches this weekend. U.S. star Ron Livingston leads an ensemble cast as a veteran astronaut on a six-year mission to explore the solar system and acknowledges there’s good reason the series has already earned the nickname Grey’s Astronomy.” Read more.

From Robert Lloyd of the LA Times:

• Review: ‘Defying Gravity’ on ABC
  “Ron Livingston, from “Office Space” and “Band of Brothers,” leaves Earth this weekend in “Defying Gravity,” a sci-fi series premiering Sunday on ABC. I will not be the only observer to remark on its coincidental superficial resemblance to “Virtuality,” the pilot by Ronald D. Moore and Michael Taylor (“Battlestar Galactica”) that Fox recently ran as a one-off TV movie. Each is set around a near-future space mission that confines its characters — some with prior issues and entanglements — in a relatively small space; in each, a mysterious force guides events; and each uses TV broadcasts back home as a narrative device.” Read more.

(more…)

From Brian Lowry of Variety:

• Defying Gravity
  “Defying Gravity” telegraphs its aspirations in terms of commercial longevity — a six-year (God willing) space mission — but otherwise holds its cards close to its spacesuit. Frequently flashing back to build a soap opera around its sci-fi skeleton, this international co-production proves mildly intriguing and looks reasonably handsome but divulges only vague hints regarding its ultimate destination during the two-hour premiere. As a consequence, the storytelling needs to pick up momentum quickly if the show expects an audience to tag along on its planned journey to Venus and beyond.” Read more.

From Gary Strauss of USA Today:

• With ‘Defying Gravity,’ Ron Livingston is walking on air
  “Gravity focuses on eight astronauts on a six-year mission to explore the solar system, circa 2052. Though its space-travel premise skews toward sci-fi, Defying Gravity’s interplanetary setting serves as a backdrop for character-driven back stories, sexy romantic triangles and a mysterious plotline — or The Right Stuff mixed with Grey’s Anatomy and a bit of Lost.” Read more.

From Heather Havrilesky of Salon (contains spoilers):

• What if you set “Grey’s Anatomy” in outer space?
  “But bending the laws of physics on a space soap is where I draw the line. While I can understand why Parriott and Co. might be tempted to simply swap out the high-pressure hospital setting with a high-pressure intergalactic setting, the stupidity of Defying Gravity really knows no bounds.” Read more.

From Verne Gay of Newsday:

• ‘Defying Gravity’ on ABC is hard to praise
  “REASON TO WATCH Rare prime-time series set in space, plus chance to catch up with journeymen actors Ron Livingston (“Office Space”) and Malik Yoba (“New York Undercover”). But otherwise …” Read more.

From Bill Harris of Sun Media:

• Livingston living the dream
  “Ron Livingston’s character in Defying Gravity gets to live the Canadian dream: He punches out his boss and still goes on the space mission.” Read more.

From Jennifer Thomas of the Pioneer Local (Illinois):

• Review: ABC’s ‘Defying Gravity’ launches soap in space
  “The first two episodes of ABC’s upcoming show, “Defying Gravity,” were both better than I expected but not as good as they could be. Sold as sort of a “Grey’s Anatomy” in space, it has potential, but it also has an usual mixture of sci-fi and soap. Mainly, I could do without the pop-rock montages and the philosophical voiceovers from lead character Maddux Donner (the always likable Ron Livingston). Those kind of voiceovers work when done by Meredith Grey, but they don’t work as well here. “Defying Gravity,” though, is very likable — especially when leads Laura Harris or Livingston are on camera.” Read more.

From Randy Shore of the Vancouver Sun:

• Genre-twisting space adventure, Defying Gravity, blasts off
  “Defying Gravity boldly goes where no relationship drama has gone before. When flight engineer Maddux Donner is suddenly added to a deep-space mission departing for a tour of the solar system with an eight-member crew, including his current lover and a former girlfriend with a torch for him, things are going to be awkward.” Read more.
• Interview: Defying Gravity is science FACTion
  “If human beings want to visit the other planets in the solar system, what would the ship look like? What technologies would be required? Executive producers Jim Parriott and Michael Edelstein asked these questions of themselves and NASA to create the environment for the space travel drama Defying Gravity.” Read more.

From Andrew Airlie at his North Bo blog (which has other Defying Gravity tidbits):

• Defying Gravity trailer (unaired)

From Amy Chozick of the Wall Street Journal:

• Desperate Astronauts
  “Days after the 40th anniversary of the first moon walk, ABC launches Defying Gravity, a Sunday-night space thriller that mixes the romantic storylines of shows like Grey’s Anatomy with the sci-fi settings of Star Trek.” Read more.

From a media release:

Sex and Secrets in Space: New CTV Series DEFYING GRAVITY Lifts Off August 2

• Two-Hour Premiere to air in Super-Simulcast on CTV, A and ABC
• Vancouver-based series created by GREY’S ANATOMY’s James Parriott and executive produced by DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES’ Michael Edelstein
• International ensemble cast led by Ron Livingston (SEX AND THE CITY) and Canadian Laura Harris (24)
• Award-winning visual effects team behind GREY’S ANATOMY, HEROES and UGLY BETTY partner with set designer for THE OUTER LIMITS to create stunning visual backdrops
• New episodes available post-broadcast on CTV.ca

As Canadian astronaut Julie Payette preps for the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour tomorrow morning to join fellow Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk on the International Space Station, CTV is also preparing to defy gravity. The new CTV/SPACE drama series DEFYING GRAVITY debuts Sunday, August 2 at 9 p.m. ET in a special two-hour super-simulast premiere on CTV, /A\ and ABC. CTV’s fourth cross-border scripted series continues August 9 in its regular timeslot, Sundays at 10 p.m. on CTV (visit CTV.ca to confirm local broadcast times). Created by GREY’S ANATOMY’s James Parriott and executive produced by DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES’ Michael Edelstein DEFYING GRAVITY is a sexy, provocative space thriller set in the very near future, following eight astronauts – from five countries including Canada – on a mysterious mission through the solar system.

(more…)

From the Futon Critic (and a media release):

• ASTRONAUTS EMBARK ON PROVOCATIVE SPACE THRILLER IN “DEFYING GRAVITY,” A NEW SERIES STARRING RON LIVINGSTON AND LAURA HARRIS, BEGINING WITH A SPECIAL TWO-HOUR PREMIERE SUNDAY, AUGUST 2 ON THE ABC TELEVISION NETWORK
  “From executive producers James Parriott and Michael Edelstein comes “Defying Gravity,” a sexy, provocative space thriller set in the very near future against the background of our solar system, in which eight astronauts from five countries (four women and four men) undertake a mysterious six-year international space mission covering eight billion miles. The adventure begins on SUNDAY, AUGUST 2 with a two-hour premiere from 9:00-11:00 p.m. The series will air regularly from 10:00-11:00 p.m., starting Sun, August 9 on the ABC Television Network.” Read more.

From Cassandra Szklarski of the Canadian Press:

• Summer season offers bright future for new scripted-TV shows
  “Still, a summer slot is a great way for a show to distinguish itself from established fare and get a leg up in an increasingly tough landscape, says “Flashpoint” co-creator Mark Ellis, whose Toronto-based cop drama was a ratings hit when it debuted last summer on CTV and CBS.” Read more.

From Hello Magazine Canada, who seem to think the series has aired here already – and they loved it:

• Vancouver beauty Laura Harris’ sexy space drama gets US lift-off
  “With its zero-gravity slap fights and ‘love gone sour’ shenanigans, Defying Gravity was one of the most gripping sci-fi series to hit TV in years. Now US viewers will also have the chance to see the CTV drama starring BC native Laura Harris and American small-screen favourite Ron Livingston after it was picked up by ABC.” Read more.