I've recently discovered Sanctuary on scifi reruns and netflix. Everytime I expect lameness - I get enjoyable character development and gradios (albiet a tad-too cgi) landscapes and sets. The writing is solid, cast is great, and the stories are worthy. Is there no love for the show in the forums? Any fans out there? I mean... it's Amanda Tapping for crying out loud! Plus a fairly regular stream of SG1 alumni.
It's one of those out of sight out of mind situations... I love the show and when it comes back on I'm sure I'll be discussing it...
I expected it to be great, I really liked the first episode and the visuals were great, I liked the theme music and the atmosphere... and then the rest was rather underwhelming. The stories weren't bad, but were just average for the most part.
A while back I did a poll to determine which would be the next new paranormal sci-fi series I would pick up. It was a 3-way race between Fringe, Primeval, & Sanctuary. Fringe won handily. Sanctuary was barely a blip on the radar screen.
I love Sanctuary and am looking forward to the new Season (I'm not sure when it begins). The concept of them saving the Abnormals rather than fighting or killing them grabbed me from the beginning-- it's a great antidote to all the adolescent D&G nonsense that's infecting everything. I also love the retro, Steampunk ambiance they have (same with Warehouse 13).
Yet another mediocre sci fi show. There's way too many of those lately. I root for them to get cancelled. Sure, they'll probably be replaced by wrestling or a cooking show, so it's no improvement, but every so often we get a Caprica.
^ I shouldn't say this, but The fake accent is a bit jarring after hearing her as Carter for so long.
Sanctuary's world and its plots are ludicrous. They barely utter a word to rationalize all this nonsense, so it is a very, very soft form of scifi. It's hard SF edge wouldn't cut meringue. The thing is, the people making this show know the cardinal rule for scifi: If your science is ridiculous, don't do solemn and pompous. Sanctuary doesn't camp it up, they play it straight, especially the characters. Said characters are pleasant visitors to your living room (much nicer than the Warehouse 13 people.) These nice people have adventures, much more exciting ones than on Eureka. The adventures have no limits on their premises, taking done stuff, strapping it to a rocket and taking off. It's like Farscape that way, although they don't rewrite characters the way Farscape did. At least not yet. The smart guy was Dr. Watson, not Sherlock Holmes? Done, thank you, Ben Kingsley. But when Sanctuary does it, smart Dr. Watson is still alive and he's a cyborg! Nikola Tesla invented incredible technology? Done, thank you, David Bowie. But when Sanctuary does it, Tesla is not only still alive but he's evil because he's a freaking vampire! Cute little varmints that breed like crazy? This is a Trek bbs, half of us wish tribbles were real. They turn out to be carnivorous? We've seen the box for Critters at the video store, and we've actually seen Gremlins. But when Sanctuary does it, it's carnivorous LUV tribbles that make our characters horny! The show is not entirely without emo. The handyman, who is also an electronics genius, has werewolf angst. Merely combining lycanthropy and hacking is probably the most restrained this show has been. The mayor had batwings. Shame he was assassinated. The characters live in a ginormous mediaeval monastery, no doubt built by the Cistercian tribe of American Indians. The city they live in has a broken suspension bridge. They must like it that way. One character is named Big Bertha. She turns out to be a gigantic sea spider who is telepathically influenced by a Bollywood dance routine. Obviously, people who like serialization, or who like people having melodramatic confrontations over their love lives and/or discussing their relationships, or who like their nonsense pompous and solemn, or who identify with sociopaths, will not like this show. What doesn't make any sense is thinking it's average.
I find Sanctuary mediocre to downright cringeworthy. Hubby watches it, simply because it's SciFi, but I can barely tolerate it most episodes. I think the only thing that really interests me about this generally mediocre show is Christopher Heyerdahl as Druitt (but it pains me to see him be the caveman character. Gimme strength!)---and he ends up getting very little to do. I mean, just look at the season finale. They had the male lead break into a Bollywood-style dance number, for Christ's sake. I was embarrassed FOR the actor while watching it. If it was just silly, I could handle it, but they throw in all these serious moments where everything is over-acted, over-played and oh-so-sanctimonious. The Amanda Tapping character is oh-so-perfect and brave, and the woman tht all the men far immediately in love with--Will, John, Tesla, etc. Bah. This is not the show for me. I'm ready for it be cancelled now.
The problem with not going over the top, then playing it straight, is that the Abnormals premise is already silly. It's very much like SG1 that way. It's just not possible to start with such nonsense then pretend it's all serious. For my part, Sanctuary realizes this, goes over the top to entertain us, the audience, while the characters take it seriously. For the characters to show their tongues in their cheeks, well, you can't speak clearly while you're making a face.
I watched the two hour pilot, but I was nearly bored to tears. I've seen worse shows, but never ones so unbearably dull before. I tried watching the third episode to see if the show improves, but I couldn't make it through 10 minutes. Awful, awful show.
Sanctuary suffers from an inability to maintain interesting story-lines for the long haul. The occasional plot-line does amazingly well and then is left to die. At its highest point, I thought this show would become another of my favorite shows, but it quickly deteriorated back into boredom for long periods.