My Thoughts on Sanctuary Episode One, In Dialogue Form
Posted 8 March 2010 in Television by Catriona
(This, by the way, is Sanctuary, if you haven’t come across it yet.)
ME: Does it have The Cult in the soundtrack?
NICK: I don’t think so.
ME: They had it in the trailer.
NICK: I think they missed a trick in the show.
ME: Oh, CGI city!
NICK: Yes.
ME: Wait, is that part of the episode or a logo?
NICK: I don’t know.
ME: It’s not a good sign when you can’t tell the episode from the logo.
NICK: Does this hospital have an interrogation room?
ME: Maybe the police station has a gurney?
ME: Oh no, it’s Voldemort!
NICK: Yes!
ME: Wait, maybe it’s Peter Garrett.
HERO: Who are you?
NICK (speaking for Amanda Tapping): I’m Batman.
ME: Wait, we’re twenty-five minutes through, and nothing’s happened yet?
NICK: The pacing is a bit flabby.
ME: It’s hard to tell because nothing has happened yet.
NICK: Of course, the humourlessness doesn’t help.
ME: Well, maybe there’ll be some jokes when something happens.
NICK: I don’t think that hat’s doing Amanda Tapping any favours.
ME: I don’t think it would do anyone any favours. I think it’s trying to evoke something, but I don’t know what.
NICK: Vampire Hunter D, maybe?
NICK: Let’s just walk across this completely empty soundstage.
ME: Completely empty soundstage with grand staircases.
NICK: Yeah.
ME: It’s all a bit Skydivers, isn’t it? “Walk, walk, walk: we shall start the scene here.”
HERO: You’re a doctor of what, precisely?
HEROINE: The actual discipline depends on the specific patient.
NICK: What?
ME: What?
HERO (faced with a mermaid): How is this even possible?
NICK: CGI. Lots of CGI.
HERO: What is that?
HEROINE: His exact classification is less important than his actual existence.
NICK: What?
ME: What?
HEROINE: He’s been relatively isolated since I first treated him.
NICK: Oh, the dialogue is so ponderous.
ME: Yeah.
NICK: “Relatively isolated.” It’s so flabby.
ME: And also? Most of it doesn’t make sense.
HEROINE: I’d like to offer you a place here.
HERO: What, helping you catch monsters?
HEROINE: We prefer to call them “abnormals.”
NICK: Oh, yes—because that’s much better.
HEROINE: I need someone who can see the world as it really is.
HERO: I lock up criminals, not monsters.
HEROINE: And you can’t see the irony in that statement?
NICK: No. Because there isn’t any.
HEROINE (talking about a child with a tentacle growing out of his chest): Such abnormal children are often adopted by well-meaning immigrants.
ME: What?
NICK: What?
HEROINE: What frightens you more, Dr Zimmerman? That frightened boy down there . . .
NICK: Or his disgusting tentacle?
HEROINE: What do you see when you look at him?
NICK: Apart from his disgusting tentacle?
ME: Even the end-title music is humourless.
NICK: Yeah, though I don’t mind it.
ME: Why on earth not?
Share your thoughts [3]
1
Heather wrote at Mar 9, 03:55 am
“We prefer to call them Abby….Abby Normal” PLEASE let me come over for this show sometime…it sounds MARVELOUS! Ha!
2
Catriona wrote at Mar 9, 04:42 am
Did you read the follow-up to this post? It’s—well, I’m sorry, Sanctuary, but it’s true—kind of awful.
And it’s not bad in that Vampire Diaries kind of way, chockful full of latent teenage homosexuality, and biting, and vampires actually keeping diaries (genius!) and saying, “Dick move, bro.” Because that’s a good bad, and reminds me that I need to catch up on that show.
It’s just . . . kind of awful. It’s ponderous and a bit humourless. Amanda Tapping’s English accent is all over the place. And she, you know, voluntarily gave birth to Jack the Ripper’s child, despite being able to remove the fertilised embryo from her body and keep it viable for a century.
I think my brain will shut down if I watch any more of this show.
3
Matthew Smith wrote at Mar 30, 11:03 am
Reading between the lines, it seems like you didn’t like it and don’t really recommend it.