Date of airing: August 2, 2009 (ABC)
Nielsen ratings information: 3.83 million viewers, 2.4/4 in Households, 1.1/3 with Adults 18-49, 1.4/4 with Adults 25-54 (2-hour average, together with the next episode that aired after this one)
This is a science-fiction show from the twenty-first century most people have already forgotten about. It aired for a handful-and-a-half of episodes during the summer months of 2009 (where things were still pretty great and the downfall of democracy was in the distant future, albeit closing in quite quickly), and was quickly canceled. Some TV critics didn’t like the notion of having to watch a GREY’S ANATOMY show set in outer space, with doctors replaced by astronauts and all the likes. And in addition to all that, DEFYING GRAVITY tried everything to be the new LOST of the time, before shows like THE EVENT and FLASHFORWARD had the chance to come around to do the same and at least survived for an entire season to make the audience think about how crappy serialized mystery television has become ever since the first LOST clones came to be on ABC in 2005. A science-fiction plot with a mystery element, interrupted by flashback scenes diving into the past of the characters, putting backstory into their lives, so that their mission to cross the solar system and visit one planet after another isn’t just filled with hard science stuff.
When the show premiered 14 years ago, almost everyone was expecting it not to live for long. It premiered in August – a month and a half before the official start of the 2009/2010 television season, which means the show was most likely not even able to see its final few episodes of the season aired no matter what, as it would have collided with the premieres of the network’s highly promoted TV dramas. And then ABC promoted DEFYING GRAVITY as the aforementioned “GREY’S ANATOMY in space,” and some people didn’t seem quite excited about it, including those involved in the writing and production of the show. And because it couldn’t get any worse, potential viewers might have also been scared away, or at least confused, by the initial premise of the show: A team of astronauts touring the solar system – wait a minute, is this a science documentary or something?
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| Everything is in front of you, it all looks good. |
Told in two different timelines that are only distinct from each other when you remember who is in outer space and who isn’t, DEFYING GRAVITY tells the story of eight astronauts on a trip around the solar system. Constantly monitored by cameras (except when you have sex, then the mission control leader may be so friendly to cut the feed) and constantly around hormones and the past and present of loved ones (those you sleep with, not your family and friends), it’s going to be a hard trip for some of them, especially when the preparations for the Venus burn – Venus being the first planet to be visited by the spaceship Antares – puts some incredible dangers into the faces of the astronauts: Some of them have to leave the ship and go back to Earth, and the replacements have to come up. How about that as an emotional trauma right before the burn to your most incredible moment in your and all of humanity’s life?
Behind closed doors though, things aren’t as they seem: There are secrets to be revealed, and the trip through the solar system itself is used for something more sinister. This episode won’t get into any of it at all, because every once in a while we jump back to five years ago, when today’s astronauts were in training to become part of the Antares crew. Constantly monitored by supervisors and NASA personnel and constantly around hormones and the presence of spectacularly attractive people, it’s going to be a hard and busy five years for some of them, especially when it involves one night stands and having to deal with a dark past that involves leaving two people to die on Mars. DEFYING GRAVITY is more than just “GREY’S ANATOMY in space,” it wants to be a light character drama with some hard science… and hot people having sex, as it’s the ABC standard for drama television.
After the first 44 minutes, it can’t be denied that the DEFYING GRAVITY wants to be the “GREY’S ANATOMY in space,” or that ABC didn’t have a chance not to lead their promotional effort for the show with that tagline. Too much focus has been put on the romantic and sexual relationships between the characters, and too much effort has been put into connecting those sexual lives with the lives of the characters as astronauts. GREY’S ANATOMY did the same thing – opening up the show with a sexual encounter, and then dropping them into a 48-hour shift at the hospital because it was still a medical drama. In fact, pretty much every show that premiered after GREY’S ANATOMY and had a workplace/sexual tension premise, the episode had two main characters either hopping into bed for some naughty bedplay or coming out of it after the happy orgasm.
DEFYING GRAVITY executes its premise in the same fashion; it might not have opened up with a sexual encounter, but while the characters focus on their jobs as astronauts in training and space, a lot of focus has also been put on Zoe and Donner’s relationship, as well as Donner and Nadia’s sexual relationship, and then the marriages of two of the couples, leading to a zero-gravity sex scene that was more awkward than weird (also, how is sex in zero-G possible?). One might question why this sex scene was necessary, and if it would have been better to just have Rollie and Jen be distraught about the fact that they will be separated for the next half dozen years. Characters who cry and who lose each other in hugs and emotional breakdowns are less desirable for a narrative than just depicting a sex scene and essentially trying to keep the male audience from not changing the channel.
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| And live from the Antares, it's Wassenfelder hacking the server to get to some porn! |
But at the end of the hour, I couldn’t help myself feeling entertained. Creator and writer James Parriott managed to introduce the setting, at least most of the characters, and got me intrigued about what really is happening on the Antares, even if the mystery surrounding the mission was breakfasted in a fashion that made me roll my eyes to the back of my head: There was merely a mention or two about what’s going on, and all you know after 44 minutes is that something is going on, and at least three people with speaking parts know about it, while Zoe seems to suffer the consequences of not being told what is going on, and how her job might change throughout the season. Although there is a premise of interest here: The astronauts start the show excited to travel the solar system, to do astronaut stuff, to do science. Their job description is about to change drastically, and that usually means conflict material, which is always great for an ensemble drama show.
The large pool of characters has been properly introduced, although I don’t know whether new audiences can remember everyone’s names. I have watched the show multiple times already, so I know who is who and what is going on, but in hindsight, I am impressed by how much information was given to the audience about the characters, and not just who is with whom. Donner’s past has distraught and damaged him, and ten years after the Mars disaster he still has to live with it (although he seems to be more affected by what happened on Mars than Ted and Mike are, who were also present during the ill-fated and yet to be developed Mars mission). Paula gets her status as a documentarian and does a good job with it, essentially being the audience surrogate during the beginning of the show. Wassenfelder is the weird guy, maybe the comic relief, maybe the character to remind us all that not everyone in DEFYING GRAVITY and on the Antares spaceship is an engineering or scientific genius. Jen and Rollie’s character arcs have begun with this episode, as they now have to live without each other, their forced and unexpected separation, and how that might strain their marriage, now that they are literally growing distant from each other.
The same can be said about Ajay, although his story is more serious than Rollie and Jen’s, as Ajay will have to deal with the rejection all by himself. It doesn’t look like he had any friends outside the space program, and it’s not like anyone wants to be friends with a Hindu in this show’s universe (or Mike wouldn’t have asked the question of whether Hindus commit suicide – he doesn’t know Ajay, so they two will never be friends), because television about mostly white people doesn’t care about having them make friends with ethnic characters. And then there is Evram, an alcoholic astronaut about to go on a trip that also functions as forced sobriety. Or who knows, maybe someone hid a ton of alcohol on the big spaceship, there is certainly room for a bar that is tended by Whoopi Goldberg. It would fit the soap opera genre DEFYING GRAVITY wanted to have with all the outer space science stuff.
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| Meeting time! |
To bring all this to a point, DEFYING GRAVITY might be one of the more underappreciated shows on television. Those who couldn’t wait for another twist or answers to their many questions might have already been scared away by the fact that the narrative was repeatedly interrupted by the flashbacks to the ISO story five years ago. At this point, all you need to have is a connection with the characters, and that is usually more difficult to produce between a viewer and a TV show, because what viewers expect to see these days is movement. And because DEFYING GRAVITY is a failed show that was burned in the summer schedule of ABC, not intended to clash with the Fall 2009 programming of premiering and returning shows, there is a sense that DEFYING GRAVITY was almost destined to fail with the American audience.
Only it failed with the British, Canadian, and German audience as well (the networks the show aired on being co-producers), which might mean that DEFYING GRAVITY either came around five years too late (it should have premiered before GREY’S ANATOMY to get out of the way of comparisons with Shonda Rhimes’ medical drama), or five years too early. Maybe the show could have found an audience and an extra season or two on a streaming network (although doubtful, considering Netflix likes to cancel stuff quickly lately). We will never know. And all we will have is this one and only season with thirteen episodes, which at least is thirteen episodes to enjoy the working chemistry between two of my favorite TV actors: Laura Harris and Ron Livingston.
