# Defying Gravity (2009)

> Eight astronauts on a six-year voyage to Venus discover their lives are being steered by a hidden force far closer than Mission Control.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/7979

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 13
- Episode runtime: 45 min
- Status: Canceled
- Genres: science fiction, drama, mystery
- Created by: James D. Parriott
- Network: ABC, CTV, Space
- Cast: Laura Harris, Ron Livingston, Christina Cox, Peter Howitt, Malik Yoba, Eyal Podell, Maxim Roy, Andrew Airlie
- TMDB rating: 7.3/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1319690/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: none
- Tone: tense, contemplative, paranoid, melancholic

## What critics say

Audiences rated the single season positively, finding its space mission premise intriguing though its mystery and character drama were uneven.

## Synopsis

Defying Gravity is a Canadian-American science fiction drama that follows eight astronauts on a six-year voyage to Venus and beyond in a near future where space travel is routine but its costs are personal. Crewmates bound by long isolation form alliances, rivalries, and romances that strain under the distance from home. Beneath the mission's official purpose hums a paranoid undercurrent: the sense that unseen forces are steering the crew's lives from much closer than Mission Control. Zoe Barnes and Maddux Donner anchor the expedition, while Jen Crane and Ted Shaw carry much of the friction and loyalty that ripples through the ship. The tone is tense and contemplative, weighted with melancholy about confinement, sacrifice, and the human cost of ambition. Episodes braid shipboard routine with personal entanglements, building a serialized mystery around trust and control. The single thirteen-episode season, aired in 2009, ends before its larger story is complete, leaving its questions open. Viewers who enjoy Battlestar Galactica or Lost will recognize the mix of character drama and slow-burning conspiracy, though this is a quieter, more intimate space saga centered on people rather than spectacle.

## Shows like Defying Gravity

- [Away (2020)](https://ember.film/tv/75712)
- [Ascension (2014)](https://ember.film/tv/54194)
- [Debris (2021)](https://ember.film/tv/88727)
- [Missions (2017)](https://ember.film/tv/62788)
- [Odyssey 5 (2002)](https://ember.film/tv/1790)
- [Another Life (2019)](https://ember.film/tv/68177)
- [The Ark (2023)](https://ember.film/tv/42933)
- [The First (2018)](https://ember.film/tv/64483)
- [Travelers (2016)](https://ember.film/tv/59502)
- [Reverie (2018)](https://ember.film/tv/62587)

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