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Apparently we're living in the Year of the Vampire. In the upcoming Twilight film and HBO's series True Blood, vampires live among us. But in the universe of Sci-Fi's Sanctuary, we find out in Episode 7 ("The Five") that they were all killed out before the Middle Ages. Vampires were the race of the Pharaohs and the Caesars, intelligent and powerful, enslaving humans until they were killed off by they church. But they also play a large part in how Dr. Helen Mangus (Amanda Tapping) has lived to be 157 years old. She injected a syrum from preserved vampire blood, along with four others, including her former lover-turned-sociopath John Druitt and Serbian scientist Nikola Tesla.
Each of the five scientists developed different abilities from the
syrum, but Tesla's transformation involved an awakening of dormant
vampire genes. Mangus helped Tesla fake his death in 1943, but he's
back to try to recruit her help develop a new vampire
army. She refuses, of course, and it takes a surprising appearance by a
kindler, gentler Jack to save her.
The producers of Sanctuary rely heavily on CGI to create both the
massive corriders of the Sanctuary and the catacombs in Rome where most
of the action takes place. It's a neat short-cut to give the show a
bigger-budget feel, but it's undermined by the lack of extras. The
emptiness of the Sanctuary in particular is starting to feel wrong—that a
huge facility holding hundreds of creatures would have a staff of five
seems really odd. And with the limited characters, the dynamics don't
really allow for much development. The only interesting relationship is
between mysterious mother and her ninja warrior daughter. Even Sanctuary's
vampires are just brainless bodies. For complex and nuanced vampires in real environments dealing with real humans and all the garbage that comes with real life, head to HBO instead.
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I completely disagree.
I think the emptiness of the Sanctuary is actually quite striking and almost a tongue-in-cheek aspect of the show. Here you have this massive 'set', but the vastness of it is emphasized by its emptiness. If it were brimming with people and creatures, it wouldn't feel quite the same. We've gotten glimpses of the creatures being allowed to roam free in several episodes, including the pilot and more recently, Nubbins. Frankly, the show has only seen a few episodes aired so far, so give them time to uncover more of the people within the Sanctuary.
As for main characters go, Helen, Ashley, Will, Henry, John, and Bigfoo--I'd say that's a pretty compelling cast. We see dynamics between even the least of those, Henry and Bigfoot, and the struggle with Will trying to fit in and finding his place. We've seen even unresolved sexual tension brought on by the Nubbins between both Helen and Will and Ashley and Will, a very interesting subject that I think creates wonderful character dynamic. And then you have the empowering relationship of mother and daughter, father and daughter, and the angsty tale of two lovers who have been reunited in a sense. I'd say all of the main characters have some sort of interesting depth and dynamic, personally.
If you're going to call Sanctuary on its lack of originality for doing a vampire show, what about alternately applauding them for their unique, historical background of the creatures? And really, vampire stories have been done for ages. How is Sanctuary not fair game when there's hundreds of tale post-Dracula to be picked apart?
The show is new and doing fantastic in my opinion. Just my two cents, of course, but I usually can recognize good television when I see it.
Nice comment Justine - totally agree with you - I think this show is going from strength to strength and I think the character dynamic is excellent with much still to be explored.