Saturday, October 10, 2009

Review - Sanctuary Season 2 Episode 1 End of Nights (Part 1)

Before I get bombarded with comments about how much the acting and writing of Sanctuary sucks, I'll say that I agree - to an extent. Yes, the acting on Sanctuary is average. Yes, the writing contains many inconsistencies, plot holes, and occasional lines of bad dialogue. However, I love the concept of the show and really liked how the first season progressed with the introduction of characters and enemies. Like all other shows, Sanctuary has its share of problems, the long term vision of the writers looks to be going in the right place.

Season 2 starts where the cliffhanger of season 1 ends. Ashley is now working for the Cabal having stolen the vampire blood. Magnus and the rest of the team are still looking for her 6 weeks later without much information until Ashley breaks into a facility and steals some electronic equipment.

There is a new character called Kate Freelander (really) who works for the Cabal. They catch her, but before they get any information from her, Henry makes the deadly mistake of giving her food. Rule #1 in television interrogations not in a interrogation room: don't get close to the other person. She predictably gets away, but now the Cabal needs to get rid of loose ends. She ends up back at the Sanctuary shot. I'll take a shot at how her story progresses this season. She lies, cheats, and steals, and then does a selfless act, redeeming herself completely. Sanctuary is probably the easiest show to predict what will happen, but it's still fun to watch.

Meanwhile, the Cabal is still trying to gain more control over Ashley and do a series of treatments on her. Magnus finds out that the equipment Ashley stole contains information to people with some special DNA. They are going to use these people with the DNA in combination with the vampire blood to create supersoldiers with the same teleporting and vampire abilities as Ashley. Don't ask me how, or why, just accept that it happened.

They track down a Cabal facility which is a convenient trap for Ashley to kill them, but John teleports everyone out. The episode ends with an insanely cheesy scene in which the supersoldiers line up in an orchestrated pattern, and then take a few steps toward the window in sync. It wasn't intended to be a humorous scene, but didn't anyone who worked in the production of the episode point out how ridiculous it was?

Tesla continues to be likable and was in a lot of scenes. Bigfoot still wouldn't take the cure for the Lazarus virus. The Cabal seems to have forgotten about their own virus and are pursuing the supersoldier path to world domination, but if the Lazarus story doesn't came back, it would be a shame to have such a threat just disappear.

Score: 9.1/10

9 comments:

Celticdenefew said...

It was mentioned in the first Tesla scene that he found the cure for the Lazarus Virus and had already disseminated it among the abnormal population. Thus why 6 weeks had passed...
Also, I am actually partial to the acting on Sanctuary. I think it's better than most of the stuff out there right now. I think Amanda Tapping, Ryan Robbins, Chris Heyerdahl are fantastic every episode, with Emilie Ullerup really showing her talent with End of Nights 1. Just my opinion...

TV Obsessed said...

I was thinking that the Cabal could modify their virus so there would be no cure. It seems like a cop out that after so much of the season finale was dedicated to it that the virus would be a non-factor so soon.

Danielle said...

So you think it is worth the watch? I watched all last season (I love Amanda Tapping), but I hated where they took Will's character. Plus, they brought in Peter Wingfield only to kill him, and that was sad too.
So if I give it another shot, will I be satisfied?

TV Obsessed said...

I think you will be satisfied. For all the problems with Sanctuary, the premise remains as promising as ever, and story continues to be engaging.

Anonymous said...

I don't think the Lazurus virus was ever meant to be a continued threat. As Watson mentioned, it was too easy, and they were missing something... It was a ploy by the Cabal to trick the five into getting the source blood, so that the Cabal could steal it from them - only the skills of the five could retrieve the blood from its hiding place.

Unknown said...

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Anonymoose said...

It's truly unfortunate. The first season showed promise, and even though it had a cheap look to it (barely passable CG sets, etc) it had some interesting concepts. The second season seemed to jack it up even further with the takeover of one of the main characters and the Cabal's plans, and then the writers just pulled the plug. The Cabal ends with a whimper and Ashley's dead - tune in again next week for a completely retooled show. If the actress decided to leave right in the middle of the story arc I guess there was no other choice, otherwise it's just writers making some of the most basic mistakes in the craft. Don't expect a third season.

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