Q: Is Syfy's new Defiance, premiering tonight—as if you didn't know, having been beaten over the head with promos for months—a sci-fi drama or a Western serial? A: Yes. ---

Unlike TNT’s Falling Skies, cable’s other aliens-done-wrecked-my-planet sci-fi drama, Syfy’s Defiance presents no less than seven nonhuman races to keep track of—and, even more impressive, a survivor of Liz & Dick (Han Solo-lite leading man Grant Bowler). Defiance is set in 2046, 30 years after an alien rainbow coalition known as the Votans stumbled upon and accidentally terraformed Earth into the ecological wasteland the hippies have always warned us about; tensions are high and resources are scarce, but at least they still listen to Johnny Cash.

Despite the impressive F/X and deep, front-loaded mythology, Defiance is essentially a western about disparate folks fighting for scraps in the New World—right down to the uneasy alliance between the town mayor (Julie Benz) and the local whorehouse proprietor (Mia Kirshner). Saddle up.