There is a lot - I mean a LOT - bad SF out there. Some of it is so cheesy it can be watched again with some entertainment value. This is not the case for Defying Gravity.This is a thirteen episodes long attack on the viewer's suspension of disbelief, and you have to know absolutely nothing about basic science, current (means pre-2009-current) technological development or how the human body works to be able to enjoy the show. It doesn't even count as fantasy because in fantasy you would have a magic system with some internal coherent logic. There is NO internal logic in this series. I only can detest the writer's/filmmaker's utter disregard for their viewers. "Hey, we need some drama. What can we do? Let us have a car accident." - Of course. We can fly to Venus, but our shitty cars are still lacking any sensible accident prevention system. Sounds legit. "Hey, she is too long on Venus surface and is burnt at the whole body. But of course, she needs to be still pretty so the least protected and most vulnerable part of her body her face will show not a single blister."Are you kidding me? These are just two examples for throwing in senseless drama with a visionary horizon up to 2010 but not a year more. This is not SF; this is not fantasy, this is not ER and not Grey's Anatomy where the medical background at least is believable and not utterly and totally bonkers. This is just a waste of time and money.And I am so angry because I like the basic idea and I'm loathing what they did to it. I like some of the actors a great deal, and they did a pretty good job. I hope they got paid well. Compensation.

My first impressions of this show are very conflicted. On the one hand, it's a real joy to be watching a near-future space exploration show with mostly realistic hardware. Seriously: Antares is maybe one of the best thought-out deep-space exploration vessels depicted on film or TV. On the other hand, the two episodes I watched were more about the tawdry personal lives of the astronauts than about space exploration.There's a long tradition of hard sci-fi being used as a backdrop for psychological exploration, and although there's a faint note of that in this show too, it's no "2001" or "Solaris". However, some time is devoted to astronauts dwelling on and having to come to terms with past decisions.Against all that, I was interested to learn that the show had been pitched as "Gray's Anatomy in Space", because that's more or less how it plays out. I really, really didn't care who was bedding whom though, I just wanted to see how the mission played out.As a final hook, it becomes evident very early on that there's something aboard the Antares that mission control on earth knows about and the crew do not. I can't wait to find out more! :)

First off....this show is not a Sci-Fi flick. This was one of the best shows to come along in years. It was told in such an intriguing way. It was about the human condition, the not so distant future of space travel and the human quest for seeking answers to what we do not know. It was just a joy to look forward to every episode and the show was laid out so it could have went for 5 seasons at least. The storyline was fantastic. The scripts well written, and the actors chosen were all fabulous and the cast meshed so realistically. I feel this was a missed opportunity by ABC. If you are going to have such a complex and wonderful show, you should give it at least two seasons because the Nielson's have never been correct. Look at franchise like Star Trek. Cancelled due to rating yet became on of the most popular shows of all time. I have tried for twenty years to become a Nielson household for ratings without success. I see so many bad shows that go for years while innovative works of art such as Defying Gravity get canceled after one season. Non the less, even though there is only one season you should watch this show and then write ABC and complain about canceling such an excellent series which wasn't allowed to come to fruition.

What made the show a failure is exactly what made it worth watching. The character development was complex, but many viewers are tired of shallow characters going through the same motions in new shows and plots.The show had a lot of flashbacks. While this is annoying on most shows with the way it was done on Defying Gravity it seemed to continuously add character depth. I myself watching the first few episodes was Waiting for it to get going. What should be considered is that this is what would make a show worth watching long term. This is the very thing that gave the show somewhere to go unlike many shows that have worn out their plot before the first season is over.I thought the development of the interpersonal relationships between the astronauts and their support team on earth was very well done. While I admit this took quite a few shows to establish it ultimately gave you a group of richly developed characters you cared about. These were believable characters who had sacrificed everything to be in the space program and to be selected. The characters were developed as dedicated professional astronauts that were tough enough to make it through the selection process while still being fallible humans. There was no glossing over them to make them perfect role models. There was none of the childish outbreaks I noticed on another show. Rather than people vying for attention on camera I thought the show did quite well coming much closer to what you would expect among real astronauts.Defying gravity held to it's name. There were moments when you had to love the characters for overcoming unbelievable sorrow and personal pain or weakness. The worst part about the show, is that it was canceled when it was just reaching a point where it could have been an epic landmark for science fiction on Television offering real depth and character development. The flashbacks were there to show you the relationships, and how they developed over the course of years leading up to the mission during training. They re-enforced concepts in real life such as the ground staff being an emotional lifeline as well as a technical lifeline as people who had spent years training with each other and working together.So many space shows have been about politics, military, and war. This show lacked laser battles, cursing, violence, or shooting aliens, it was about the wonder of discovery, it addressed real issues such as having to keep incidents secret and away from the press (right or wrong it's real life).So many shows were about the final frontier and facing the enemy in battle, but this show was more about a real life space program. Not the end of the world, not an epic space battle, but the reality of space flight oddities and how people react together (with the bit about alien life forms thrown in to add mystery and awe).Not everything was perfect in character choices or development. There were a few items I'm sure the NASA P.R. staff noticing how close it was to real life took issue with. At the same time that made it just messy enough to give it conflict.If theater is the willing suspension of disbelief I think Defying Gravity as a space jaunt came closer to present day believability in matching a space mission than anything else to date while still being interesting. It did so with real life issues, without killing people, stranding people improbably, or blowing up planets. The believable space setting was there but unlike most space shows deep character development and interaction was the value of the show, without the cheap tricks used in much sci-fi to keep you on the edge of your seat watching even when you aren't interested.The story itself was worthwhile, the acting was believable if you had a feel for the characters, and the quality of the presentation was good enough to make it worthy mainstream space science fiction. I only hope they pick it back up and finish the story somehow rather than wait a decade or two for someone else to pick up the idea and re-work the story (which is realistically a goldmine).Intelligent television will become popular again and with the cheap plot devices and tricks the science fiction TV genre uses to annoy viewers winning audiences back would be as easy as breathing with any commitment.If you are with a network reading this consider one more thing: If you want to know which shows are really impressing people stop demanding they watch it the very minute you air the show people have busy lives, pay attention to how many watch it, and how many buy it. People buy shows that are well done enough to watch repeatedly which Defying Gravity is. You keep viewers by worrying about what they want, instead of how you think you can keep them on the edge of their seat under your control. Years from now you might care a bit less about a few ratings points, and more about what projects you were attached to.