I love scifi,Stargate,Star Trek,X-files,etc,difference being they had compelling characters.I'm having a very difficult time relating to any of the characters on Defiance.I'll give it another episode or two though.
This sums it up for me. I'm just not feeling this show mainly due to not connecting with the characters. And the stories, as others alluded to, are plain boring, the same kinds of plot lines you see in every other show, just here, set in a future, the premise for which wasn't ever adequately explained.
I mean, how in the world did all these races, who have long histories of animosity toward one another, ever get it together enough to build these massive Arks to travel across the galaxy. And how did they get destroyed? There have been bits and pieces of info dropped here and there, leaving the viewer to assume a lot, but we still don't have the complete picture. And unlike a show like Lost, where the gradual unveiling of the mystery surrounding the setting is a main plot driver, in Defiance, I just feel left in the dark. It's like the creators are saying, "OK, a bunch of different and extremely diverse races somehow escaped from a dying star system, traveled to our solar system in giant ships, partially terraformed earth making it virtually unrecognizable, their ships were destroyed forcing them to co-habit with humans, and that's all you need to know. Don't worry about the details."
Oh, and did you see how much space there was above the old downtown St. Louis skyscrapers under the terraforming? There's NO WAY the Gateway Arch, unless it was plucked out and placed intact on the new terraformed surface, would still stand that tall if that much of it starts on the same level of old St. Louis.