Sanctuary

Just curious to hear opinions on what people think of this show. Would you say it's cheesy or dramatic or action-packed? Is it well-written and acted? What would you compare it to in terms of quality?

Kzach said:

Just curious to hear opinions on what people think of this show. Would you say it's cheesy or dramatic or action-packed? Is it well-written and acted? What would you compare it to in terms of quality?

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Yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes. Stargate SG-1 (so, the quality varies a lot).

I watched the first two episodes and decided that it very much wasn't for me. On the advice of multiple friends, though, I went back and started watching through them again.

Now I'm hooked, and almost always enjoy it.

Sadly, it's rather inconsistent in tone and quality, and it runs the gamut from being (or attempting to be) dramatic, humorous, suspenseful, creepy, action-packed, and fun. Sometimes it's effective and engaging. Sometimes it's painfully cheesy. And sometimes it's strangely "why the hell am I even watching this?" boring.

The first season was easily the best, because they managed to balance all the aforementioned elements of drama, humor, suspense, atmosphere, action and fun. The second season...I don't know what the hell happened - as near as I can tell, it was still mostly written/directed by the same core people - but it really slumped in quality. Hard. The majority of the episodes were just...dull. Several episodes had intriguing ideas, and should have been great, or at least interesting, but they seemed to lack the same vitality as the first season. Truth be told, I had to push myself to keep watching, because there were very few episodes that made me excited to see what came next. (Plus, and maybe it's just me, but the whole 24-style multi-window/comic book panel thing got seriously annoying. Like, they only just got this new technology and they had to use it multiple times for every episode, because someone thought it'd create tension and drama when, in fact, it had the exact opposite effect.) The third season got better, particularly toward the end where most of the episodes were following the same story thread, which was compelling enough to make me eager for the 4th season. But I still don't think the show is living up to its potential. Which is disappointing and more than a little frustrating.

As for what I'd compare it to in terms of quality... Same ballpark as Stargate or Torchwood, maybe? In other words, you never know what you'll get from episode to episode. When it's good, it's really good; when it's bad, it's truly just awful.

Kzach said:

Just curious to hear opinions on what people think of this show. Would you say it's cheesy or dramatic or action-packed? Is it well-written and acted? What would you compare it to in terms of quality?

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I'd say it's both cheesy and dramatic. Certainly the monster ("abnormal") plots are gratuitously bizarre, but there are some interesting characters.

It's a little like Farscape in some ways; not the same level of humor or cleverness, but it is the sort of show that is very aggressive in terms of new plot developments. Characters appear with no introduction and change suddenly, and each episode usually takes a while to figure out where it's going. It is intellectually challenging.

They do use the opportunity of being in virtual environments in all kinds of ways. The cast is pretty much like most SyFy shows, a bunch of Canadians you've never heard of who are pretty good.

On the whole, it's the sort of show I catch on Hulu; not great but fun.

Ahnehnois said:

not great but fun.

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Yes, exactly. Far from great, though with the occasional great moment, but almost always fun.

I think the show "jumped the shark" after the lesbian kissing scene. It seemed so out of place at the end of that episode. My wife and I looked at each other and said WTF!. Is the main actress a lesbian and trying to come out of the closet on the show? Does the show get a lot of lesbian viewers?

Ebonyr said:

I think the show "jumped the shark" after the lesbian kissing scene. It seemed so out of place at the end of that episode. My wife and I looked at each other and said WTF!. Is the main actress a lesbian and trying to come out of the closet on the show? Does the show get a lot of lesbian viewers?

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I think it's become a common trope among long-lived people in sci-fi. Something to the effect that people that have been around hundreds of years have literally tried everything. And the show doesn't need lesbian viewers as the target for that scene. There are plenty of guys who enjoy watching just that, i.e. a subset of the existing target audience.

The show's fun enough for me to get over my pet peeve about the bad CGI/greenscreen effects. It pulls me out of the show when I can easily see that the backdrop is entirely greenscreen. I prefer the old "man in a rubber suit" effects of old Dr. Who episodes over bad CGI.

Ebonyr said:

I think the show "jumped the shark" after the lesbian kissing scene. It seemed so out of place at the end of that episode. My wife and I looked at each other and said WTF!. Is the main actress a lesbian and trying to come out of the closet on the show? Does the show get a lot of lesbian viewers?

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I think the scene was suitably shocking that it kinda worked. She wasn't expecting it either.


I am kinda annoyed that they keep removing hot chicks from the cast. First her daughter then Kate.

Edit: If ya hadn't noticed they removed Kate from the opening intro. She might come back for an episode for two, but at least this season she's not in the main cast.

I usually watch just about anything sci-fi. Usually because there's not that much on that I can afford to keep up with lesser quality shows.

I watched about half of Sanctuary's 1st season when it came out and gave up on it. It's another monster of the week show. The characters were meh. The pacing was meh.

I didn't care for Warehouse 13. Which seemed like wierd artifact of the week.

My wife still watches both.