First there were cops, then surgeons, then astronauts?
ABC is launching a new series called Defying Gravity, a “sexy, provocative space thriller” featuring eight astronauts, four women and four men, from five countries who undertake a mysterious six-year international space mission that takes them billions upon billions of miles above the earth’s atmosphere.
Coming from the producer of fellow ABC series Grey’s Anatomy, Defying Gravity had been described as “Grey’s Anatomy in space” with a cast that includes Ron Livingston, best known for playing writer and Carrie Bradshaw on-and-off boyfriend Burger on HBO’s Sex and the City. It also stars Blood Ties’ Christina Cox, Andrew Airlie from Reaper, Zahf Paroo of Battlestar Galactica and Malik Yoba from New York Undercover.
The drama will be set in the near future against a backdrop of the solar system eight billion miles away. Just when the astronauts think that they have their work cut out for them, they soon find out that their real assignment is not at all what they thought. After all, the eyes of the world are upon them since everything they do is monitored.
On the premiere episode, two of the eight novice astronauts onboard mysteriously develop heart ailments a mere hours after leaving Earth’s orbit for Venus aboard the spaceship Antares. Replacing Ajay Sharma (Paroo) and Mission Commander Rollie Crane (Olsson) are experienced astronauts Maddux Donner (Livingston) and Ted Shaw (Malik Yoba). Already we see traces of Grey’s Anatomy, as Donner’s arrival creates friction with the ship’s geologist Zoe Barnes (Harris), who is linked to him by a strange dream and a romantic encounter from their early training days.
Defying Gravity kicks off its 13-episode season with a two-hour pilot on Sunday August 2 at 9pm on NBC.
– Glenn Diaz, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: ABC
(Image courtesy of ABC)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
