Seeking Sanctuary
October 1, 2008 by Cynthia
Sanctuary: A place of refuge or asylum.
That’s what I need right now. I just spent a half hour watching the two-hour pilot of the new SCI FI Channel series Sanctuary and I say thank heavens for the fast forward button.
The show is based on a webseries that was obviously popular enough for SCI FI to take a look. But what worked in small spurts on the Internet, just doesn’t hold up in translation to a full-length TV show. Here’s how SCI FI describes the series:
Sanctuary follows the adventures of the beautiful, enigmatic and always surprising Dr. Helen Magnus (Tapping), a brilliant scientist who holds the secrets of a clandestine population – a group of strange and sometimes terrifying beings that live in hiding among humans. Along with her new recruit, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Will Zimmerman (Robin Dunne), her quirky tech-wiz Henry (Ryan Robbins) and her fearless daughter Ashley (Emilie Ullerup), she seeks to protect this threatened phenomena as well as unlock the mysteries behind their existence. The series also stars Christopher Heyerdahl as the sinister John Druitt.
Beautiful, enigmatic, quirky, sinister, fearless — all of those glorious adjectives should have been a tip-off, this show simply tries too hard.
First off, I had a hard time buying Amanda Tapping with a British accent. Yes, I know she was born in England but it’s not what I’m used to hearing out of her mouth and it sounded so phony, I could barely stand to hear her talk. I love Amanda in Stargate but I don’t think she’s well cast here. Robin Dunne and Ryan Robbins actually do a good job with what they’re given but Heyerdahl is totally overplayed.
The entire story feels like a B-movie version of a Harry Potter story, it’s TOO fantastical, too mysterious and oh my, let’s talk about ‘daughter Ashley.’ Are you familiar with the fan fiction term “Mary Sue?” Ashley is a young, beautiful, monster hunter. She dresses in leather and rides motorcycles and has a teenage hissy fit when her mother says she can’t go meet with an arms dealer to look over his new wares. Seriously, what were they thinking?
On the upside we have Kavan Smith and Kandyse McClure in small roles but they made their scenes bearable. And we have the production design which is pretty amazing but you won’t realize how amazing unless you watch the behind the scenes feature explaining it all.
The whole point of Sanctuary is that it’s the first TV series shot entirely on a green screen. I’d bet you’d never guess that if you didn’t know. The set design is lovely – it has amazing lights and shadows and it’s loaded with rich detail. The whole thing has a Victorian feel to it that is really unusual for TV.
Bottom line, it’s unlikely that I’ll be tuning in ever again, but you should watch the show at least once if only to marvel at the technology, especially if you’re a production design geek like I am.
Sanctuary premieres this Friday, October 3 at 10:00 on SCI FI.
SCI FI Channel Photo: Jeff Weddell
I’m looking forward to the series. I’ve seen the webisodes, and watched the 30 minute sneak peek preview at SciFi.com.
It certainly looks MUCH better than Painkiller Jane, Flash Gordon, and Tremors. And definitely better than the reality programming and lame situation “comedies” on almost every channel.
I think my biggest problem was that I was looking for Torchwood – dark and cool and edgy, but it comes off more Jules Verne – I’m sure it will appeal to a lot of people, I’m just not one of them.
But the daughter character really needs a major rewrite!
I have to say I am a bit puzzled… not sure if I like this one or not. Interesting concept and always nice to see Kavan Smith in a new role but if this is to take the place of Stargate Atlantis I think I will be channel surfing. Interesting, yes… but not what I was hoping for.