SANCTUARY: Sanctuary for All

This series began as a web show, the most expensive web show ever made. The creators soon found out that they couldn’t survive solely on the web and keep the quality at the level they wanted for the show. So, now we find the series moving to SCIFI Channel, the perfect place for a show of this kind. Take one part Sin City, another part Island of Dr. Meraux, and a pinch of Dark Angel, stir vigorously and you get pretty close to what Sanctuary is. The show is the first to be shot almost entirely on green screen with the highly advanced RED hi def cameras.

Amanda Tapping (Stargate SG-1) stars as Dr. Helen Magnus, a scientist dedicated to offering sanctuary to the abnormals, various monsters and people with a little something different about them that exist in this alternate version of our world. Magnus ( a great name, sort of a super hero thing) helps these abnormals because she believes they are the true evolution of mankind and may be key in the future of humanity.

The season premiere feels like two episodes stitched together. The first part of the episode involves the introduction of a new member of to Magnus’ team. He’s a forensic investigator that Magnus has been aware of for a very long time. This leads to my first hiccup with a show that for the most part I liked. When he investigates crime scenes an effect happens that makes it appear that he has some sort of special ability to see what has happened. Directly after the effect though he is able to explain everything that happened at the scene with practical evidence. Most likely this effect is just used because it looks cool but in a world where there are beings with all sorts of special abilities the creators have to be careful to define characters as who or what they are unless they purposefully want the character to be more mysterious.

Magnus speaks with an English accent. The reasons for this are revealed within the episode and for the purpose of deepening the character the accent makes sense. With that said it appears that Tapping has a bit of trouble with it. The accent comes and goes with her level of emotion in the scene. Tapping makes up for the questionable accent with unending charisma and acting chops though. She’s extremely engaging and is easily able to carry the weight of this series on her shoulders. It appears that other characters will get more to do in future episodes but in this premiere it’s mostly a three character situation.

Complaints aside though, the art direction is fantastic, the special effects are solid, and again Amanda Tapping is engaging, accent or not. The show appears to have a monster of the week plus a mystery. The mystery involves Magnus’ past and the father of her daughter. He appears in the episode as a villain and is fairly easily fooled - a bit too easily actually. There’s a lot more to learn about her and her team of monster hunters. The pilot has some issues making it less than perfect but the concept is sound and worth sticking with to see where it goes. If we’d given up on BSG after the terrible mini series where would we all be? Missing a great show that’s where.

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