ashley awesome

Sanctuary, Season One
c. 2008

Despite the lovely icon resting to your left, there is a disturbing lack of Richard Dean Anderson in the first season of Sanctuary, the first television show to ever be developed from a hit web-series and simultaneously be mostly shot on green screen with CGI effects. (Honestly, I just picked that icon because aren’t they just so CUTE?) There is also a disturbing lack of almost everything else in Sanctuary. I’m very disappointed; I was expecting more.

My bad.

One of the reasons that Sanctuary worked so well as a high definition web-series is because it was like nothing to ever be produced for that medium. This is also the reason that it doesn’t work as well for the screen. With the exception of the special effects, green screen work, and CGI — so, we’re talking about the stories and the characters here — it’s all been done before, and done better. It’s a shame, really, because the premise is certainly original. Dr. Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping) is a 157 year old scientist who makes it her business to care for and shelter (and contain when necessary) the world’s abnormals, what we would call monsters. She and her daughter, Ashley (Emilie Ullerup) with a limited staff which includes the likes of Bigfoot (Christopher Heyerdahl), run the Sanctuary, a large fortified castle like structure in the middle of a large metropolitan city, most likely New York. The series begins with the recruitment of Dr. Will Zimmerman (Robin Dunne) into their services. Soon the new team are forced to fend off Magnus’s old friend turned enemy, John Truitt (also played by Christopher Heyerdahl), whose teleportation abilities turned him once upon a time into Jack the Ripper. And that’s where the interesting stuff stops for about five episodes. It’s not that the show is necessarily painful to watch, it’s just isn’t worth your time until the episode where they rip off Star Trek: TOS’s “The Trouble With Tribbles.” Except Sanctuary calls them Nubbins.

I will admit that the show gets better with every episode, as they work out the kinks. A large part of the problem is that team responsible for this show’s creation have largely wet their sails with Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis. New forms of storytelling are going to take a while to etch themselves into their little brains. Monster of the Weeks aren’t interesting if they’ve been done before, at least, not without some great character action and plotting and stuff which this show just isn’t good at (yet). Another problem is that the show isn’t sure if it’s a comedy or a drama; the tone is all wobbly and all over the place. Tapping as Magnus has a strong presence, but none of the other characters or actors seem to have a grip on what the point of the whole thing is. Although I will say it isn’t all bad. Amanda Tapping just glows when she’s on screen (she’s the only reason I kept watching), and her lab assistant Henry is kind of enjoyable. Towards the end of the first thirteen episodes, the characters all did begin to grow on me.

There are three things all successful pilots need to do, and they need to do at least two out the three of those in order to successfully hold my attention and respect, and they are as follows: 1) Have a creative, well-though out concept; 2) Have interesting characters that have the potential for interaction with each other and for development of their own arcs; and 3) Execute concepts and characters in intelligent and interesting ways (including humor, camaraderie, motifs, other interesting story stuff, etc.) that are true to themselves. Sanctuary has number one in spades, but it was lacking both the character interactment and development that would have made up for its lackluster plotlines and themes. Hopefully, in the coming season (which I will be watching, optimistically) one or both of those last two items will get more under the control of the creators. Otherwise, despite my love for the luminous Amanda Tapping (who left Stargate Atlantis and her character of twelve years, Samantha Carter, for this job) unless that happens soon, I won’t be watching for long.