BLOG Sanctuary at last

It started in the US last week, and it just aired on ITV4 in the UK tonight. “End of Nights (Part 1)” kicks off the second season, and blogger Laura McConnell shares her thoughts on Sanctuary’s return:

Sanctuary At Last!

Alright, it’s confession time again. I must admit that I am a bit of latecomer to Sanctuary, despite my love of Amanda Tapping on both Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis. I have to confess that I watched the show only sporadically when it first came on television and I did not see the webisodes until long after they originally aired. I have liked Sanctuary from the beginning, but at first I wasn’t in love with it, mostly because it was on at an inconvenient time for me and I just missed too many episodes to fall for it.

Then, one Friday night, one of my sporadic viewings changed everything. I randomly watched the last episode of the first series. It intrigued me – a lot. While I’d enjoyed the Sanctuary characters before this, suddenly I wanted to know everything about them. I was interested in their history. I wanted to know why the “guy who invented radio” would “diss Jack the Ripper.” I wanted to understand the mythology of this universe. I wanted to know who was behind the evil cabal intent on ruining everyone’s fun. Overnight, because of the chemistry of the actors and their characters in that episode, I became a Sanctuary fan. As Sanctuary truly got down to the meat and bones of fleshing out its characters and its myth arc, I developed quite an appetite for what it was serving.

I caught up quickly with most everything I’d missed, and thus prepared I sat down tonight with bated breath, anxiously awaiting the series two premiere. After the cliffhanger of last series, I simply had to know what was going to happen next! But as always with me, I was a bit worried that the premiere might disappoint. Well, I’m happy to report that my fears were unfounded. I loved it!

I loved it for many reasons. I was tickled that Sanctuary continues to have a theme song, first and foremost. I happen to like theme songs, and I hate it when they get thrown out. I got a kick out of ninja Ashley and badass Magnus and John. I continued to love Tesla, with his morally ambiguous ways. I giggled at pop culture references such as “have fun storming the castle” and the fact that one of the persons of interest in the show was named Martin Wood (Stargate fans should know who I’m talking about here).

And while I’m not entirely sure about the new filming/editing style, with its multiple scenes on the screen at once, like Ang Lee’s The Hulk (the only film I’ve ever not finished – ugh), I think it works here and I’m willing to forgive it because I’m completely caught up in the very X-Files feel of the whole conspiracy thing going on right now.

Besides, nearly anything could be forgiven as long as I get more John Druitt, Nikola Tesla, and Helen Magnus. The other characters are fine, but these three really get the job done for me. John has been my favourite from the get-go, and his “murderous tendencies” greatly entice me to watch for more of them. When will John lose it? When will his powers become too much for him? When will he no longer be able to hold it together? Will his mixed feelings for his daughter and for Magnus keep him sane or will he lose it again? He seemed to be the clearest thinker of the bunch in tonight’s episode, but that doesn’t mean much with him. That can always change. And speaking of unstable individuals, what about Tesla? Whose side is he really on? What’s his real motivation in all this? Is it the great Helen Magnus herself, who finally blew a gasket tonight and thus proved that she is not the perfect being she so tries to make herself out to be? (Oh, that was lovely to see. Seriously, bad guys, you should not mess with that woman’s child! Not. Cool.)

If there’s one thing that will keep me watching a show, it’s not knowing where the characters are going and actually caring about what their destination might be. On Sanctuary, that’s what interests me. Right now, John – mass murderer that he was (is?) – is showing that he’s not all bad, Tesla is a creep who is somehow siding with the good guys, and Helen Magnus has finally cracked her armour open a bit and shown us that not only is she human, she has a bit of a dark side, too. But just like John, we don’t know where we stand with her. We don’t know how deep that darkness runs or how much she will let it consume her. And with dear daughter Ashley currently working for the bad guys, I personally think anything’s fair game.

Huh. Sounds like fun to me! Check me into the Sanctuary, please!

This is a personal article by Laura McConnell, one of our site contributors. Did you watch tonight’s episode? Your thoughts welcome on Sanctuary…