Sanctuary premiere review
This post contains spoilers for Sanctuary
When I heard from the trades that Sanctuary was picked up by the SCIFI Channel for a series run I was really excited because like a lot of science fiction fans, Amanda Tapping fans and monster fans, the Sanctuary webseries was very enjoyable. The chance for a series run with hour long episodes (really 42 minutes) is a great chance to create more character development and story development. The webseries were 15 to 20 minute episodes.
For me it's been a pretty busy television season with the returning shows and new shows but that isn't a bad thing because I live off of entertainment. Sanctuary premiered this past Friday in a 2 hour pilot episode re-introducing the characters. They started from scratch instead of continuing the story from the webisodes. The webseries more than likely didn't see the amount of viewers that a television show would and there wasn't that many episodes shown before the series was picked up. Nobody complained about doing a restart. During production many said that the first episode was going to be reshot entirely but it was going to basically be the same story. The pilot Sanctuary for All was, I'd say, 60% the same except reshot scene for scene. The other 40% was new twists and turns for the characters overall creating a better pilot than the webseries. The series is already getting a bad rap for pacing. I've read a bunch of reviews and comments (which I never do before I write my review) that complained that Sanctuary is boring, that there isn't enough action, that there's no character development and so on. I don't see it that way at all. In short I really like Sanctuary. I really like that the focus is on the characters. It's a TV series, which means there's plenty of time for action. If your looking for brainless action with no story go watch Knight Rider. Focus on characters is always something that pulls me in. If it wasn't for the The Sarah Connor Chronicles being a character driven show, I would have stopped watching a long time ago, especially since I hated the pilot. I've always said that a premiere should always start with a bang to get people going and interested right away. I agree that there wasn't a big bang of action in the pilot but what it lacked in action, it made up in a great character driven story.
Likes:
- It's not the most important item but it still needs to be mentioned; With a bigger budget for a TV series, the CGI is much better than the webseries. If you didn't know or realize, the surroundings of Sanctuary is nearly all CGI. Every set, city scape and whatever. Some of it is apparent and you can easily tell it's not real and some of it goes unnoticed. Nothing is perfect when it comes to CGI (except Transformers) so I'm not going to complain about it. It does the job that it has been set out to do and it all look just fine to me.
- Out of all the characters the best performance comes from Christopher Heyerdahl who plays John Druitt; revealed to be a Jack the Ripper suspect. Having a cool villain is always important for either a movie or a TV show and Heyerdahl pulls it off. He has this Liam Neeson/Ras Al Ghul/Sabastian (Babylon 5) thing going on that I find really damn cool. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more of his character.
- Robin Dunne who plays Dr. Will Zimmerman has a more meatier character than he did in the webseries. His character is also a little different; a little stronger and serious than it was in the series. He's sort of like us as the audience. Coming into a new world of creatures and so forth, not know what to make of all of it. Just like him we're being introduced to all of this. What he sees for the first time, we see for the first time and I like that as we can relate to that character.
- Emilie Ullerup who's Helen Magnus's daughter Ashley is seriously hot. Hot in leather and those of you who've been here a while know that I like monster slayers who wear leather. I like her character just fine but she definitely needs to be fleshed out more. It's early however so I'm not worried.
- Amanda Tapping is hot as Helen Magnus. What more can be said. She's British if anyone wants to know. So if people complain about her accent know that her family is from England and she was born there. I know people say that American accented people can't speak with a British accent but I think hers is fine.
- The creatures for this pilot are different than the webpilot. I'm referring to the "gallery" of creatures in the Sanctuary. The mermaid is awesome, the fire elemental is sick, but the two faced guy is stupid. Seeing the mermaid actually gave me the feeling that this series is in a world that forgot about myth and legend.
Dislikes:
- I honestly don't have all that much to add to this section except maybe, yeah there wasn't enough action for a premiere but I can live without that since the character story made up for it.
- When it comes to pacing, I will say this much. I might not be that critical about it as others but I can see where people have problems with it. They need to cut down on a little dialog and just move along the story. With this series, I don't mind a lot of talking but when it's unneeded dialog l think it should be shortened or cut. For example, the scene with Will and apparently his ex girlfriend who eventually became an officer on the Battlestar Galactica... didn't need to be there. I didn't see the point in it. Sure it might be character development for him but at the same time... who cares.
If you can't tell; I love Sanctuary. I think it's a fantastic show and I'm excited to see it week after week. I don't know if I can recommend it to everyone but since I love Amanda Tapping, I love monsters and mythical creatures and all that stuff, Sanctuary fits my needs for an entertaining television show. I can even add more Likes to that section but I listed what I think is important. I don't doubt people would disagree with me but these are my thoughts and I'll stick to them. Next week we'll be able to have a decent Friday night with Sanctuary and Stargate Atlantis. Shows like this makes me wish for Hellboy to become a TV series. That probably won't ever happen. Until next Friday here's a couple of behind the scenes videos with cast and crew talking about the series. Emilie is so hot... take a look at this.
-Phil
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Okay, so two hot chicks. The guys have some eye candy. ZERO hot guys, so gals like me need a bit more action and better dialogue if we’re gonna stay on board. And more critters. Will ain’t hot, sorry. And neither is Ripper-boy.
Primeval sucks, but at least they have hot fellas to keep one’s eyes interested while boredom sets in.
; )
Honestly though, I fell asleep during the Friday premiere, and I didn’t manage to stay put all the way through on the repeat Sunday. I kept losing interest and would go off, check email, come back, see what was happening, etc. The pacing IS problematical. And if a lot of SF lovers are saying the same thing, the producers and writers and director(s) need to really ramp up the depth/action/twists/dialog.
Hot chicks is not enough. Certainly not for the straight women viewers, like moi.
Mir
I’ve heard a lot of people say the pacing is too slow. I guess I’m just easy to please. Thanks for your thoughts Mir! I’m interested to hear from other viewers. I’m going to bet I’m in a minority.
I adore Amanda Tapping and I loved the webisodes. The move to SciFi did not disappoint me at all. I liked the premiere very much although my husband did comment about Robin Dunne’s resemblence to Michael Shanks.
Emilie Ullerup’s character in the webisodes got on my nerves so I was glad to see they had toned her down a notch or 2.
I agree with Mir though, where is the “Hot” male lead?
Kevan Smith perhaps? I would not mind seeing him as a regular cast member.
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