Sanctuary

This show hearkens back to a few of the shows from the 90s like "Poltergeist: The Legacy" and even the first six seasons of "The X-Files".

The potential for future story lines is very good, and the acting is decent too, specifically by Amanda Tapping. While her Helen Magnus character retains a little bit of the scientist heart of her Stargate character, there's a much more mysterious and darker side to Magnus. In fact, Magnus is what Samantha Carter could have been in another time and place. It's a refreshing change. The other principles do an okay job. Emilie Ullerup's character starts out as a little too Buffy The Vampire Slayer-ish, with too much of a cautious-less teenage attitude at the beginning -- her character was established as being over 18, which doesn't jive with how she's portrayed -- but she showed a little more maturity at the end of the pilot. Having seen Ullerup in a bit part in Battlestar Galactica, she's more than capable of pushing her character to more grittier areas, which would provide a nice counterpoint to the other characters. Robin Dunne reminds me a little too much of Daniel Radcliffe. I'm half-expecting him to start reciting Hogwart incantations. At the end of the pilot, his character still seems to be a bit 2 dimensional.

The special effects were quite good for work that was done in front of a green screen. But ... I thought that the pilot episode suffered in one particular area: pacing. I'm not sure if it has to do with the editing or directing, or both, but the two hour premiere could have almost been cut down to an hour and a half. Some of the cuts were too slow, lingering on exposition scenes. Tighter pacing and quicker cuts would have made the pilot episode a lot better.

Minor nitpicking... There are two things I wish they would have taken care of. The first was the scene in the train tunnels where Ullerup's character was following the boy. Honestly, if I was wandering through a train tunnel, I'd immediately realize that someone was following me, especially someone with a flashlight. And also, it's kinda weird that two folks could just slip by a crime scene in the same tunnel without even being noticed. (Unless, of course, they used some Jedi mind tricks...) The second was the little side story regarding the police's prime suspect to the murders. For me, this was unresolved and I would have liked to have a resolution to it. I found it disappointing that the main characters would actually let an innocent man take the fall for something that was done by some of the "monsters". Perhaps this was part of the original script? I don't know, but it's unresolved. And considering the task that the main characters are facing, you'd think they'd at least have some sort of moral compass.

Overall, the show has a nice concept, but could benefit from better editing and directing. I'm going to keep watching the show for a few more episodes before I decide if I'm going to be watching this show after Stargate Atlantis.

I too am a Stargate buff & like Amanda Tapping. It is my opinion that the show is worth the watch. On watching the first episode I liked what I saw, then after a few I didn't so much. However, my son had continued to watch it & told me not to give up on it just yet. So I went back to it & got pleasantly surprised. Some episodes were as good as full length movies. I particularly liked Jonathon young's character, Nikola Tesla:) Amanda played an extremely believable lady from England & I thought her accent was just great. It was a complete transformation from Samantha Carter of SG1. This character was a more domineering in control person who knew what she wanted and how to get it. The settings & special effects were pretty darn good I thought. It seemed a fair amount of thought and time went into these areas. Like all TV shows there is going to be an episode or three that doesn't appeal or seems to loose focus to the individual. However, overall I felt good about watching the show.

I cannot seem to figure out what this show is missing. It has a great cast, Amanda Tapping at her best. The premise of the show....excellent, offer sanctuary to those that might be "different" than the "normal" humans. the storyline is great....

Now, the show just seems to be missing something. Maybe, as another reviewer put it, the show needs to pick up the pace a bit. It is certainly thought provoking. I cannot say the show is bad, nor can I say that it is great. I'll close by saying that it is certainly worth a watch, probably need to view a few episodes before making any kind of decision either way.

I just can't get into it for some unknown reason.

What else can a Sci Fi fan ask for? This show has the potential to be one of the best original shows on SciFi channel. I can't wait for the new episodes to start.

I especially enjoy the acting. Amanda Tapping, Christopher Heyerdahl, and Robin Dunne give great performances. I wouldn't be surprised if they were nominated for several acting awards.

Some of the episodes standout more than the others. "Edward", "The Five", "Requiem", and "Revelations" are episodes that capture the soul of the series. The stories are compelling. Besides being well planned and acted, these episodes give important background and pushed the story arch further.

This is a review of the first season on TV, which should really be known as season 1 on IMDb, and the webisodes season 0.

Essentially there are three main characters, all of which believable, even Tapping's accent, and I'm saying that as a Brit. She's great as Magnus, not overdone, but sensitive, slightly badass and played right. She has a daughter, Ashley. She's instantly likable and Emelie Ullerup doesn't fall into the trap of making her the typical blond 'Yeah, uhuh I like totally, like, kick- ass. Isn't that cool!' character. Instead she's much better and thankfully without a teenage crisis. I'll get onto Robin Dunne's excellent Will in a sec.

Sanctuary is more than just the sum of its parts. It has a great grittiness to it, a real world, almost familiar environment. It's slightly dark, but optimistic at the same part. 30 minutes into the pilot and I really liked it. Will was believable, I even liked and sympathised with him. the way it was done felt like a feature, not really like an hour long weekly show. The whole actual Sanctuary concept wasn't done too fantastically. However I felt it wasn't perfect but it's taken me 2 more episodes to think that actually it's worth continuing to watch.

For Brits, its on ITV 4, mondays at 9. Or 8. Pretty sure it's 9, but check. if you don't have ITV 4, it's on their catch up thing on the site. For Americans it's on Hulu and Sci Fi's Rewind.

Have fun getting into it, looking forward to see where it goes.