Parents' Guide to

Defiance

By Joyce Slaton, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 15+

Smart sci-fi with its own video game, ethical messages.

TV Syfy Science Fiction 2013
Defiance Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this TV show.

Community Reviews

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age 18+

Based on 5 parent reviews

AK2ME
AK2ME Parent of 11 and 13-year-old
June 4, 2020
age 18+

Could have been good, but dirty

This is not appropriate for children or teens. They never show private parts but multiple, multiple simulated. Multiple times where someone gives a hand job and it dirty situations. There is multiple lesbian love scenes. A women simulates masturbating in a bath. I don't know how this got TV 14. After writing this, in actually wondering how my husband and pushed there it. We had to fast forward a lot. I wouldn't recommend this show to people. The plot has times of interesting, but there throw really lame sexually twists and issues into the plot that take away from what could be good.

This title has:

Too much sex
Honestparentof5
Honestparentof5 Parent
March 9, 2017
age 18+

Parents should review first

The TV-14 rating is a little misleading to me on this show. The sci-fi nature and concept is interesting, my husband used the word "weird" to describe it and he's more of a sci-fi fan than me, but definitely for fans of that genre. Soft porn is accurate in describing what viewers are presented. One main character often appears almost nude, or has a nude appearance in her dress that will show up at random times, leaving little to the imagination. A reoccurring setting of the show, especially in the first season, is in the setting of a bar/brothel, where a handful of times sexual scenes are depicted taking place with partial nudity, sexual language, and thrusting shown. Sexual violence and rough sex is depicted and a few scenes associated violence with sex and pleasure. One of the main characters is an abusive nymphomaniac who seeks fulfillment from the prostitutes and other women, which his wife is portrayed to seem supportive of. A lesbian aspect is briefly thrown in during season 2 (or 3?). General violence is moderately graphic. One scene in season 3 shows a man being cut open to have his innards eaten out by an alien like being...the cutting is shown. All and all...too much for me to enjoy and more than I'd allow even my teens to view. As a parent, I'd recommend viewing prior to children to determine age appropriateness.

This title has:

Too much violence
Too much sex
See all 5 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Ambitious sci-fi drama DEFIANCE begins 35 years ago when Joshua Nolan (Grant Bowler) was a young boy on a picnic with his parents. They spotted a giant spacecraft looming overhead. That craft was full of Votans, the name for a number of alien species, fleeing their solar system after it was destroyed. Chaos and war followed in the wake of the Votans' arrival, followed by environmental catastrophe, when a number of Votan space ships exploded in the Earth's atmosphere, accidentally releasing the Votan terraforming technology. What was planned to be a slow, careful colonizing quickly mushroomed into a disaster, making many areas of the Earth uninhabitable and beset with dangerous new plant and animal species, forcing humans and Votans to work together to survive. Now, many decades after the Votans first arrived, Nolan becomes a law enforcement agent in his hometown, the former St. Louis now border town Defiance, working with mayor Amanda Rosewater (Julie Benz) and his adopted alien daughter, Irisa Nyira, to navigate the strange new world in which humans must live.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (5):
Kids say (4):

Defiance has Battlestar Galactica's DNA all over it. If you liked that smart, subversive, thoughtful series, you will probably also like this one. Defiance's backstory, which involves many alliances and conflicts between various alien races, is immersively twisty and well-thought-out, and there are many directions the drama could go. Plus, the showrunners have cast interesting actors, particularly young Stephanie Leonidas as the mysterious alien former foundling child Irisa, and zesty Fionnula Flanagan as an entirely believable former mayor of Defiance, who acts as a mentor for Julie Benz's Amanda Rosewater.

The special effects and makeup are a little rinky-dink (bad wigs ahoy!) and the hints of generic-Canadian-city backgrounds that seep through the sci-fi stage dressing are a little disconcerting. But if one lets that go, this is catnip for the sci fi fan: smart and otherworldly goings on anchored by fine human emotion.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the show's messages. In what ways did humankind bring on its own destruction in Defiance? Are the makers of the show trying to make points about the way people react to new ideas? What do you think the show is trying to say about humans and the environment?

  • Can you tell where Defiance was shot? Do you think it was really shot in St. Louis? How can you tell?

  • How do the special effects and makeup in Defiance rate against those of similarly themed shows or movies? Does the quality of the special effects take away from the story of Defiance?

TV Details

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