Sanctuary - 4 episodes in

Thank you Sci Fi channel for showing the entire first series over one weekend, and thank you Sky+ for allowing me to record it so I don't have to marathon too much.

Four episodes into the first season and I'm quite enjoying it. I saw the first lot of webisodes, 1-4 I think, that the first two parter was based on, and I sort of saw the episode when it was on ITV4 too, but I had a really bad tv signal then and I missed most of it. I do remember preferring the webisodes though. For a start, David Hewlett was in them, and secondly they didn't have that weird zooming in on clues thing. Not keen on that. Now I'm properly watching it, I'm appreciating the TV format a lot more. I think more was revealed about John Druit in the web series, but clearly you can't give too much away at the beginning in the real series.

The idea of monster hunting almost puts it in the list of the other recent X Files inspired series; Warehouse 13 and Fringe. Obviously the idea of the Sanctuary itself is very different though. Well, kind of like Warehouse 13, only living creatures instead of stuff. It is a good idea, although I think sometimes the idea of being out to help them all is kind of lost when they're just locking creatures up. I guess it'll develope further as it goes on though.

John Druitt is definitely the best character to be introduced so far. Christopher Heyerdahl is always great to watch, and he has an awesome voice. Zimmerman is a bit of a stereotype. Overwhelmed new guy. Enthusiastic, always wants to do the right thing, but obvious newbie. There's nothing wrong with him, but he's not really exciting yet. Ashley is a decent character, but again maybe a bit predictable. She's about kicking ass and doing the muscle work. Usually a male role, but she plays it the same anyway. Science and morals is someone else's job. She bags and her mum tags. She'll probably be something more later on though. The "Big Guy" monster man is interesting, because he rarely talks. You feel like he'll say something really interesting one day. Also, he sounds like Todd the Wraith, because he's Christopher Heyerdahl doing almost the same voice as he does for Todd the Wraith. Only reason I recognised it was him in the suit.

And Dr Magnus...I can't decide what I think of Amanda Tapping in this. I've said in other blog posts that bad accents annoy me. Hers isn't that bad really. Few slip ups. Maybe the same subtle slip ups as James Marsters as Spike in Buffy. It just doesn't suit her. It's like doing the accent is really unnatural to her, which doesn't make sense because I believe she has an English background and was either born here or lived here or something. It just seems like a strain, and it's almost as though her acting suffers slightly because it does seem so unnatural to her. All her speech sounds more formal than even a posh received pronunciation accent should be. The character is alright though, but she'll be a lot more interesting when the story gets going a bit more. You can see that she's a bit distant and mysterious, but that'll all change if John Druitt comes back.

Yep, John Druitt still the best character to be in it. Heyerdahl's accent is flawless, and doesn't seem unnatural at all. He plays a half crazed killer pretty darn well, and you just know he'll influence loads of stories in the future.

I'm sure it won't be long until I have more to say on Sanctuary, since I have several more season 1 episodes to go and I intend to get them watched in the next week or so. Good show.