Take note, I've only gotten about 40 minutes through the pilot so take that in to consideration when reading my opinion. I will probably watch the rest of it, and the next two episodes, but I have to say, 40 minutes in and NOTHING is happening.
They've spent so long establishing the world and the characters that they have forgotten to drive everything forward with an actual plot. As an audience we need a sense we're getting somewhere, but it's all been aimless wandering so far. I'm constantly asking myself - what is the point? For example, it took me a while to warm to the Walking Dead but at least I knew the show was about survival. And for the first episode I could just focus on the struggle of one man's survival in a new world. That knowledge helped me sit through the set-up until the real plot kicked in and more characters were introduced.
The Defiance pilot was written like it was meant to play to audience of fans of a book series it was based off (it's not). They seem to have not realized that a general audience would not yet be so enamored with their characters and world as they seem to be - we need a story as well. Defiance spends a good two minutes - in the opening of the episode no less - with two characters singing! What does this establish? They are together and have history. There is no way two minutes of screen time is needed to make a point that becomes apparent in seconds through later dialog. Then it meanders along over more and more set up, all the while going nowhere in particular, and not hinting to the audience that it is going to any time soon.
So I stopped at 40 minutes because I was falling asleep. Most TV shows will hit you with their hook within 5 minutes or less. I'll go back to it tomorrow. And I'm hoping it does improve. I wasn't completely 'out' while watching it, but I most definitely wasn't 'in'.
