I don't hear #Defiance talked about much, but it was a solid TV show. May not have broken ground on this, but it's one of the only TV shows I know to go into any depth on the syncretic culture and politics that could develop among multiple sentient species on earth. Star Trek is my closest parallel, but it differs in that most species characteristics were depicted through individual differences on an interpersonal level, and generally there was the framing of some mission or conflict which deemphasized cultural aspects. Maybe Babylon 5 has some of the aspects I see in Defiance, but the scale there is a bit too grand to focus in on control of the local mine or the mayoral election.

also, there were some really memorable characters in there. Datak Tarr stands out to me: he was a scoundrel, a crook, and a murderer, but damn if he wasn't compelling-- just the will to survive, even when there was only the slimmest hope, kinda made me respect the jerk.

Then there was the bond between Nolan and Irisa: although they weren't individually that interesting to me, the ways that dynamic shifted over the series as we learned about Nolan's past and Irisa's destiny really gave me something to think about between episodes.