Notes on Sci Fi's Sanctuary
14/07/09 05:01
When a friend told me premise behind Sci Fi’s new show Sanctuary I was very interested in seeing it. Overall I think I like the show, but there are some things that really take me out of the moment and they seem to happen with alarming regularity.
Most of these problems revolve around the character of Dr. Will Zimmerman. The character who looked alarming identical to Harry Potter (until partway through when he gets himself some contact lenses) is an ex “Agency” man who finds himself working as a police profiler. Will looks like a man in his Early 20’s so I don’t really know how he had time to accomplish all of this but let’s give him that. Here is a man that worked for the Agency which in most cases indicates CIA or FBI and was on a police force and yet he is completely inept with firearms, and appears unable to make a fist to save his life. I can only assume that the writers and producers of the show wanted to boost ratings among women by having the only fully human male character on the team play the role of supreme pussy. Basically any time you see Will in a situation where brute force is required or any kind of physically challenging task is to be performed you can more or less assume he will fail, and then somehow get a second chance to think his way out of the situation. I fail to see why he would have been chosen to be part of a team of “Monster Hunters” when the other characters have to keep rescuing him from dangerous situations sometimes more than once per episode. This character is in serious need of testosterone and fast. I am not saying he’s got to be a jock, but he could throw a punch every now and again. It also wouldn’t hurt if he didn’t ask so many really stupid questions. In short the Zimmerman character doesn’t make any sense.
Next let us discuss the character of Henry Foss, the team’s techie. Henry is in charge of the security of an enormous facility that houses a huge diversity of abnormal species. Pretty much every time Henry is asked to do anything his equipment malfunctions in the process. My guess is that this is supposed to be the comic relief. It’s not funny, it is predictable and happens in nearly every episode. It reminds me a little of Star Trek Voyager’s shuttle craft. Every time the crew are in shuttles they either crash, take fire or something else bad happens. I am hoping that his new found abilities make his character more formidable and a more worthy member of the team.
Now let’s look at the toughest member of the team. Ashley Magnus is pretty much the only character who can really hold her own in a fight. Since the show employs green screen and wire work for many of the stunts there’s a tendency to go overboard. Some of the early episodes feature 120 - 140LB Ashley throwing monsters around that would appear to be at least twice her weight and size. Perhaps it might be better for her to use speed and agility (and hey how about some knives?) to defeat her foes. It would be more realistic to have her defeat the enemies with her superior skills because it flat out looks silly to see her throwing people around like rag dolls.
The other issues with the show are largely technical and as they seemed to improve with every show I will reserve commenting on them until I look at the second season. Most of these were about the CGI shots looking too obvious.
In short, ramp up Ashley’s Kung Fu, Give Henry some cooler toys to play with that actually work and inject Will with something that causes him to grow some balls!
That’s my take, for what it’s worth.
Most of these problems revolve around the character of Dr. Will Zimmerman. The character who looked alarming identical to Harry Potter (until partway through when he gets himself some contact lenses) is an ex “Agency” man who finds himself working as a police profiler. Will looks like a man in his Early 20’s so I don’t really know how he had time to accomplish all of this but let’s give him that. Here is a man that worked for the Agency which in most cases indicates CIA or FBI and was on a police force and yet he is completely inept with firearms, and appears unable to make a fist to save his life. I can only assume that the writers and producers of the show wanted to boost ratings among women by having the only fully human male character on the team play the role of supreme pussy. Basically any time you see Will in a situation where brute force is required or any kind of physically challenging task is to be performed you can more or less assume he will fail, and then somehow get a second chance to think his way out of the situation. I fail to see why he would have been chosen to be part of a team of “Monster Hunters” when the other characters have to keep rescuing him from dangerous situations sometimes more than once per episode. This character is in serious need of testosterone and fast. I am not saying he’s got to be a jock, but he could throw a punch every now and again. It also wouldn’t hurt if he didn’t ask so many really stupid questions. In short the Zimmerman character doesn’t make any sense.
Next let us discuss the character of Henry Foss, the team’s techie. Henry is in charge of the security of an enormous facility that houses a huge diversity of abnormal species. Pretty much every time Henry is asked to do anything his equipment malfunctions in the process. My guess is that this is supposed to be the comic relief. It’s not funny, it is predictable and happens in nearly every episode. It reminds me a little of Star Trek Voyager’s shuttle craft. Every time the crew are in shuttles they either crash, take fire or something else bad happens. I am hoping that his new found abilities make his character more formidable and a more worthy member of the team.
Now let’s look at the toughest member of the team. Ashley Magnus is pretty much the only character who can really hold her own in a fight. Since the show employs green screen and wire work for many of the stunts there’s a tendency to go overboard. Some of the early episodes feature 120 - 140LB Ashley throwing monsters around that would appear to be at least twice her weight and size. Perhaps it might be better for her to use speed and agility (and hey how about some knives?) to defeat her foes. It would be more realistic to have her defeat the enemies with her superior skills because it flat out looks silly to see her throwing people around like rag dolls.
The other issues with the show are largely technical and as they seemed to improve with every show I will reserve commenting on them until I look at the second season. Most of these were about the CGI shots looking too obvious.
In short, ramp up Ashley’s Kung Fu, Give Henry some cooler toys to play with that actually work and inject Will with something that causes him to grow some balls!
That’s my take, for what it’s worth.