Syfy cancels Defiance

In a surprise twist Syfy has cancelled Rockne O’Bannon’s futuristic series. Defiance has only completed its third season this summer, but the steadily dropping ratings were cause for Syfy to cancel it entirely. Defiance first aired in 2013 and was an experiment at a transmedia franchise. At the time of the TV-series launch a Massive Multiplayer Online game set in the same universe was released by Trion Worlds. The MMO game continuous and last year became free-to-play using micro transactions for revenue. Defiance starred Jaime Murray, Grant Bowler, Julie Benz, Tony Curran and Stephanie Leonidas.

Reasons

In a statement released by the network, executive producer Kevin Murphy said of the cancellation, “I got to collaborate with a group of stunning artists operating at the top of their game, and together we built a world. Because of that, there is no room for anything other than joy in my heart.”

Syfy added: “Defiance was a truly groundbreaking series, delivering an immersive, cross-platform experience that transcended the television screen in a way that viewers had never seen before. We are incredibly proud of the work of the extraordinary cast, writers, artists and designers – and especially showrunner Kevin Murphy – who together brought the rich world of Defiance to life over its three season arc.”

The cancellation comes at a sensitive moment for Syfy as it tries to revamp its reputation. Only recently did it announce that Dominion would also stop. Continuum saw it last episode air a week ago after 4 season while Haven has just started it second half of season 5, which will also be its last. While I can understand the cancellation of Dominion and Haven (one was a stupid show while the other had a plot that was going nowhere) the cancellation of Continuum and Defiance will be hard felt. Syfy has been for some years trying to rebuild it reputation as a hard-core science fiction TV channel after pursuing what was said to be more lucrative markets (wrestling and reality ghost-hunting). That said, Continuum had been in the danger zone for a while. Defiance meanwhile had also seen steadily dropping ratings. My feeling was that season 3 was repeating too much from the first two seasons. It may also have been a bad idea to launch two new shows: Dark Matter and Killjoys at the same time. I enjoyed the latter two for their originality, something I hadn’t felt since the first season of Defiance. The good news is that it will free-up Jaime Murray for other projects. Her depiction of Stahma Tarr was one of the best things on the show.

Syfy fans should not worry about this setback, but Syfy should take the warning signs to heart. Meanwhile new science fiction shows such as The Expanse based on the works of novelists James S.A. Corey will début on December 14th. Other shows include David Goyer’s Krypton, Steven Spielberg’s Brave New World and Ridley Scott’s version of Arthur C. Clarke’s 3001: The Final Odyssey. Meanwhile Killjoys, Dark Matter, 12 monkeys and Face Off will all get more episodes in the new year.

Defiance will be missed. Rockne O’Bannon’s talent deserve to be used on another show. Certainly Defiance did manage to create a small cult-following just like Farscape. The word shtako is certainly uttered a lot on Twitch channel. Below I have posted two trailers of what Syfy has to offer for 2016 as a small consolation. This was Syfy cancels Defiance. I hope you’re not feeling too down!

12 Monkeys season 2

The Expanse

Source; http://www.blastr.com/2015-10-16/defiance-canceled-after-3-seasons

Syfy cancels Defiance – After 3 seasons fans will have to switch to Dark Matter, Killjoys and The Expanse