Larcenous Designs

Seeing the second episode has given me more of a read on the show.

The basic premise is still potentially interesting. Ancient, pseudo-scientifically-genetically-magically modified monster hunters who put themselves slightly above the law and hunt or save creatures based on their own gut feelings at the time. The graphics are generally very pretty, but an inordinate amount of them are CG; they're good for TV effects, but they're still visibly computer generated. I don't really understand why so much of the intro is CG, considering that it could be shots of a real old mansion or even just a real dusty library, but...eh. It's not terrible. The CG-ified shot of a highway and cars on it is a bit much, though.

The music is also really quite good, so that gets a few points. Nice combination of sound effects and instrument tones.The acting and writing of dialogue could use some work, though. A lot of work. Especially the gun fighting; it's like watching a bunch of high school students doing a stiff-armed, too-slow Matrix mimicry.

Wait a second. That premise, plus good graphics and visual design, plus great music, plus poor character movement and often-bad dialogue backed up by often-bad delivery of same? We seem to have stumbled onto The Witcher, the TV show, minus the lead character. That would explain things somewhat.

Still not impressed, though slightly amused. I'll edit this post to add a bit more once I have some thoughts on the plot.

EDIT: OMG, I found the good actor. The computer tech/repair guy of the bunch, Henry, is both well written and well acted. Of course, he only shows up for about 30 seconds.

Henry, after an explosion: "You know how when stuff blows up, and I say, "Man, this is gonna cost you," and you say, "Henry, stop being so dramatic?"
Woman: "Henry..."
Henry: "This is gonna cost you."
Woman from Stargate in bad English Accent: "What was affected?"
Henry: "Well, central lab mostly---diagnostics, MRIs are gonzo... Oh, and I think the internet is down.
Woman from Stargate in bad English accent: "What about security protocals?"
Henry: "Well, redundancies kicked in, so nothing mean and ugly got out, which is good, but the perimeter alarm systems are fried, which is bad."
Woman from Stargate: "Focus on restoring the external defenses. Leave the lab for later."
Henry: "Why? We expecting more trouble?" Beat. Shakes his head. "No, that was a stupid question. Never mind, I'm outside..."

Other good quotes: "These guys are one James Bond film away from global domination!"

and

"I'm fine---did you get them out?"
"Yeah---if they can read Googlemaps, they should be well on their way."

Which leads to a plot commentary: There is some interesting possibility of global-monster-hunting conspiracy, but the terrible dialogue is terrible. I'm pretty sure this is yet another fantasy show on SciFi that is going to die off JUST before the writers figure it out, and we'll see yet another good concept go bye-bye.

Blessed be,
~Nathan

Well, the first episode of Sanctuary has failed to dazzle me, but has some promise. The basically interesting premise seems to suffer from an attempt to include too much.

My overall impression, as drawn from non-spoilery parts, is that they spent the first episode (a 2-hour special) trying to:
1) Sever Amanda Tapping's ties to Stargate and Samantha Carter by changing her hair and eye coloring to the point where it looks artificial.
2) Set up the audience to see her character's organization as a cross between Special Unit 2, the MiBs and the group from the Hellboy series.
3) Establish the 'relatively normal' main character as a cross between Adrian Monk from Monk and Shawn Spencer from Psych.

It just feels, on my first viewing, like they took a bunch of ideas, crammed them together, and didn't spend a lot of time smoothing over the rough spots. However, I'll have to watch it again before I pass final judgement on whether or not I actually liked it. The level of camp may simply be too much, but I want to believe that SciFi can have a good fantasy series for once, and I may be willing to wait for improvement in the near future.

In terms of writing...well, there was a lot of overdone exposition, but that's not a surprise in a first episode. As far as the graphics go, I'd say they vary across the spectrum of modern TV special effects from so-so to pretty good. I think I caught a few that broke from realistic motion, but that could just be that I was watching from a bad angle.

Blessed be,
~Nathan