First a disclaimer: I have no desire to be a movie critic, and I auto-avoid 'user' reviews made by wannabe critics who like to drop impressive words to show of their knowledge of the dictionary. So, I won't.
Now, here's a secondary disclaimer. I *ENJOYED* the movie 'Legion', and I had resigned myself to not getting a sequel made. A TV series? Better. Much, much better. TV gives an idea room to breathe and evolve over time.
This series took me by surprise, as I hadn't heard about it before. As soon as I finished watching the pilot, I immediately dug out Legion and watched that again. The series is entirely a continuation of the movie, set some years after. The plot makes sense, and the densely packed pilot served to set the scene very well. Then again, I watch for entertainment and don't go looking for errors, so your mileage may vary.
The set, costumes and props are all of a high standard, and there wasn't anything that caught your eye as being out of place or of poor quality. The CGI was very good, with the exception of one high-speed death scene near the beginning which flits by so fast many of you won't notice it.
There is a lot of implied sensuality, though (so far) nothing pornographic other than one costume. I feel they found a good balance there, without being crass for the sake of it.
Now, the acting. I've seen a number of shows featuring Anthony Head (David Whele), and this is his crowning achievement, I believe. In one episode, he gets you to hate him, sympathize with him, pity him... twice I flipped, from rooting against him to siding with him and back again. All this was achieved in a relatively low number of scenes. He isn't the soft touch we've become used to seeing him portray. The love interest, Claire (Roxanne McKee) has shown better abilities than Alex the lead (Christopher Egan) though I think it won't be long before he finds his place once his 'role' in the story is more firm. Casting there was an excellent choice - she even looks like her on-screen father, Alan Dale.
So far, after one episode, this has killed Defiance as it is truly Fantasy/SF, instead of just a Western with SF bits stapled on. Also, it's not a formulaic, monster-of-the-week or crime-of-the-week show... you'll have to follow to keep up.
That makes it expensive, though, and a risk for the studio.
Now. This is SyFy. Call me jaded, but the odds of this not getting canned after one or two seasons aren't great.
